Review: Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella

Can You Keep a Secret? By Sophie Kinsella
Release Date: December 31st, 1999
Details: 400 pages, paperback
Genre: Fiction > Contemporary > Chick Lit
Source: eLibrary
Find it: Amazon || Goodreads
Summary:

Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets: Secrets from her boyfriend: I’ve always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken. Secrets from her mother: I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom with Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching Ben-Hur. Secrets she wouldn’t share with anyone in the world: I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is. Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger.…Until Emma comes face-to-face with Jack Harper, the company’s elusive CEO, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her...

After finishing I've Got Your Number I was completely smitten with British Chick Lit but not smitten enough to pay $8 for an ebook of Can You Keep a Secret so when I saw it pop up at my elibrary I quickly added myself to the wait list.

Emma has a lot of fears. And a lot of secrets. Not big ones, just little itty bitty harmless ones (mostly). Whatever, they're her business and no one elses! She doesn't know what she's doing with her life considering she's changed her career like three times and she feels like she's always in competition with her cousin whom she grew up with and I mean how could you not feel like you're in competition with her when she landed herself a business, a steady relationship and her parents act like she's more their daughter than you? So I completely relate to Emma well, with everything.

On her way back from a meeting for her current career the plane she's on (fear #16, planes) hits turbulence and she freaks out (I'm not afraid of planes or flying but I do hate turbulence with a passion) and spills all her secrets/life story to the stranger next to her. Emphasis on stranger. Turns out, the stranger isn't a stranger but the founder of the company she works for. Talk about awkward.

Jack is a pretty secretive person. You don't really learn much about him until he decides to open up to Emma in the end, "before it's too late". And for someone like him... someone who built a company with a good friend who has passed it's not strange that he would keep his distance from people. I don't have much of an opinion of Jack besides that he can be fiercely loyal and very attentive. I think Emma put him on high horse herself and instead of observing that Jack was just a normal person who would appreciate hanging out and having pizza, she instead freaked out.

Emma's boyfriend Connor? Total tool. I couldn't stand him. Why should Emma owe you honesty after she breaks up with you? Was that a spoiler? Sorry, it's chick lit people, what do you expect? lol also considering he started dating someone right after they broke up? Why shouldn't Emma be allowed to go on a date too? Why do people do that?! She owes you nothing Connor! Grow up!

I couldn't stand Emma's roommate Jemima. She was annoying. Annoying in that I'm-always-right stuck up rich girl way. She swore like she knew all of life's freakin answers when she really didn't. She had no respect for Emma's space and privacy and she was so fixated on getting revenge on someone she hardly even knew to "teach them a lesson". Hasn't this girl ever heard of karma? Or messing with the wrong person? I personally could not stand living with someone like that!

While Can You Keep a Secret didn't captivate me like I've Got Your Number did it was still entertaining. I enjoyed trailing behind these characters to see what path's they would choose and it fulfilled my chick lit expectations!

"I'm... someone who tries to be there for Jack," he says.
"You'd take a bullet for him?" I say flippantly.
"I meant... emotionally."