Emma's Secret: A Novel (Finding Emma Series)

I was very excited when I read the short description of Emma's Secret. I thought it would be about finding and helping this Emma character get back her life. However, it was hardly about Emma at all. Throughout the entire book we still only know very little about Emma, except for the fact that everyone was affected by Emma's kidnapping and new look at life. We didn't get to really see her progress or anything.

The point of view in the story changed almost every other page. Starting out with Dottie's journal entries, it almost immediately changes into the main character Megan, Emma's mom. Then it continues to change to Jack, Emma's 'kidnapper', and then Megan's husband Peter. The point of view could change up to three times in one chapter, just jumping all over the place. Dottie's journal could have been easily left out, as it seemed to never fit in. Author Steena Holmes seemed to give everyone and their mother a journal to write in, as if the entire town was into it.

Jack's story line was the one I enjoyed the most because it was the only one that seemed to have a point. He showed you his life and what he was doing and thinking. You felt so bad for him because he had lost everything he cared for and was left alone. He helped fill in little details about Emma's life away from the home, but never seemed to provide any unneeded information or wasted words, which everyone else did. Megan's story line was the most boring and frustrating of them all. Her entire character worried over stupid things and had trust issues. Her best friend Laurie, was keeping this 'big huge' secret from her, that made her upset. Her husband, Peter, also was keeping some big secret involving his hot and sexy secretary that I found to be very clichéd. Even if the book is called Emma's Secret, Emma is the only one who doesn't have one! I struggled my way through the book only to be disappointed by these 'secrets.' Once finding out that these disappointing secrets were the highlight of the entire book, I honestly didn't want to continue reading. These secrets were so pointless and had absolutely nothing to do with the plot! The entire book should have concentrated on helping Emma.

This story was jumpy, boring, and overall terrible. Whatever plot the author was trying to establish failed, and there were so many terrible clichéd moments that it made me wonder if Steena Holmes even tried to be creative with the story. I am glad that I won't have to read the book again