Katy Carter Keeps a Secret (Katy Carter, #2)

by Ruth Saberton

[Leah]

I've waited five years for the Katy Carter sequel, and it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. *sadface* Here's the thing: Back when I read Katy Carter Wants A Hero, I LOVED it. It's one of my favourite books, and it's to me eternal frustration that my copy has gone AWOL, and I've been meaning to get another copy for ages, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. So ever since Ruth announced the sequel I've been excited to read it, because Katy Carter Wants A Hero was amazing, absolutely, truly amazing. Funny, fresh, witty, it even had a freaking lobster named Pinchy, which was not stupid/OTT at all, and fit the story *perfectly*.

Flash forward five years and Katy's in a rut, and in a mess. She's telling secrets left, right and centre, she's worried Ollie's been abducted by hard-working aliens and is having an affair, and it's the same old Chick Lit cliche where a conversation would do wonders for their relationship. That's probably what annoys me most about books nowadays, is that in the vast majority of Chick Lit novels I read, a simple conversation, a few words, could solve a thousand problems and worries, without all the unnecessary to-ing and fro-ing. The 2016 Leah is not so enamoured with secrets that pile up like domino's, when she just KNOWS they're going to come out anyway, so why not just be honest about them in the first place? Why, when Ollie found out about the whole Throb thing, did Katy not just fess up then? When drag it on longer than she needed that she had to write two more books for Throb. But the most important question: in 2016, what the hell does it have to do with St Jude's - or any school - what one of their teacher's girlfriends does as a job? NOTHING. AT ALL. EVER. It's none of their business, at all. It felt like a 1950s throwback, where a woman can't do anything, or was shamed for it.

I wanted to love Katy Carter Keeps A Secret, and there were bits I did like, it still had that warm and witty style, Katy is still pretty endearing and I'd still love to be her friend, I just wish she were more open and honest to Ollie, the man she's been with for five years. Secret keeping is what happens in books where characters are only just starting to date, not when they're in a serious, five-year relationship. This just missed the sparkle from the first book, the conversations Ollie and Katy had, it's hard to have a conversation when you're a) keeping secrets and b) are basically like ships in the night. The best part about Katy Carter Keeps A Secret was Nicky, he was absolutely hilarious, I'm not joking and SPOILER PINCHY IS ALIVE. Seriously, that made my day. Pinchy is my hero.

Overall, it was a quick, cute read, but it could have been so much more.