Monday, 12 February 2018

BLOG TOUR: Our Little Secret by Claudia Carroll




A sparkling story about what happens when you let someone into your life… but they turn out to want more than you’d bargained for!


Sarah Dee has the perfect life. A high-flying job in a law firm, a beautiful daughter and a house to die for. So how does she find herself looking in through the kitchen window while another woman enjoys it all?

When Sarah takes pity on a struggling young graduate who can’t get a job, she thinks she’s doing the right thing. She’s being kind, generous and helpful to others, as she always is. But as Sarah allows the younger woman into her home, her law firm and even her family, is there more to this pretty youngster than meets the eye? And could this be a good deed that goes further than expected?

Claudia Carroll does it again with an incredible new novel about what happens when your life becomes up for grabs…


Excerpt

Sarah

‘You have very good cuticles. Badly neglected though, I’m afraid. They just need a little bit of work,’ my beauty therapist said, her head of thick, glossy dark hair bend low over the nail station, uttered focused on her work.

‘I’m afraid I don’t get a huge amount of time to take care of myself.’ I smiled politely, flicking though that month’s Vanity Fair with my other hand. There was an article about Kate Middleton’s mother that I remember particularly wanting to read, for no other reason than to valet park my brain for the next half-hour. Exactly what I needed after that morning’s conversation/screaming match with Darcy, my teenage daughter. Not to mention the snippy tone my boss had taken with me in a meeting earlier that day to discuss a legal brief I wasn’t quite up to speed on. At least not yet, I wasn’t.

A little half-hour of pampering on a Friday lunchtime before the weekend, that’s all I was after. Something I hadn’t indulged in for years. In fact I think the last time I spent a bit of non-essential cash on myself was long before Darcy hit secondary school.

‘But it’s so important to make time for personal grooming,’ Lauren, my therapist, gently insisted with a sweet smile. ‘These little things matter. My mother always used to say you can tell anything you want about a person just by looking at the state of their nail bed.’

‘Yes, yes, of course,’ I chimed automatically, completely absorbed by the article in front of me.

Jesus, had Carole Middleton really made £30 million by the time she’d turned forty? And all from flogging little party bags? What was wrong with me anyway? Why couldn’t I come up with a home-based cottage industry like that, which would go on to dominate the Forbes index and put an end to all of my money worries?

‘Will you be taking any holidays soon?’ my therapist asked, interrupting my thoughts yet again.

Oh God, I groaned inwardly. Do we really have to have the holiday chat? Couldn’t this one sense I just wanted to pull a Greta Garbo and be left alone to my thoughts?

‘I wish. I can’t remember the last time I took a proper holiday,’ I replied, flashing her a quick smile.

‘Going out tonight, maybe?’

‘No, just back to the office shortly to catch up with a few things I need to sign off on, I’m afraid.’

‘And any plans for the weekend?’

Not unless you count frantically playing catch-up with work, bickering with Darcy and trying my level best to be civil to Tom when he comes over to collect her later on, then no, I thought.


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