The Safety of Secrets is a very interesting look at the friendship between women. It's an exploration of how deep these bonds go and a hard look at the trust between two people. What happens when that trust is betrayed? Can you ever go back to the way things were?

I have to say, I am a little confused as to what genre this book actually is. On one hand, I can't classify it as purely chick lit because it's much more about friendship than anything else. It's not really about a romance or anything like that. On the other hand, it's not really women's fiction either. I settled at contemporary fiction, but it definitely has elements of chick lit and women's fiction, so if you don't like those genres, keep that in mind as you approach this book.

Despite that confusion, I really enjoyed The Safety of Secrets. I've had friends that have been there for me since childhood, and it's easy to underestimate the complexity of these relationships, especially among women. This book tries to dive through the layers of secrets that make up these bonds - secrets between the two of you, but also the secrets you keep from each other. The novel shows how these secrets affect can affect friendships, positively and negatively. I'd definitely recommend this book to any fan of chick lit who wants something a little bit deeper.

Fiona and Patricia have been friends since the First grade. Growing up in Lake Charles, Louisiana they were inseparable. Fiona grew up in a large house with her parents and housekeeper. Far from perfect, Fiona's parents were cold and strict. Patricia lived with her twice-divorced mother and half-brother in an apartment. Patricia's mom was never home and her brother would rather spend his time beating her up than actually speaking to her. In a world that wasn't very kind to either, the girls forged a bond that held the test of time.

Now, both girls are in their 30's and living in Hollywood. Fiona is married, expecting her first child and working as an actress with moderate success. Mostly TV movies and guest appearances in series. Patricia is now the host of a famous reality show and a bigger star than she had ever dreamed possible.

But the main focus of this book is not the careers of each woman, but relationships. The relationship between the two friends; the relationship between the families; but most importantly, the relationships between the woman and their husbands. Because there is a secret between the women that has been held since they were 10 years old....when they swore never to tell. But what happens to all the other relationships if this one secret ever sees the light of day?

I liked this book. Delaune Michel has written a lot of Fiona's inner dialogue in a way that made it a bit confusing to me at first. Then I realized it's written just like I think.....goes a bit in circles! But when I finally settled down, I was very impressed at the deep character study she has put to paper. Fiona is a bit of a fractured soul. As an actress, she has learned to keep a very positive exterior, while holding everything inside. She is rather neurotic, and you can see as Michel takes you into the past for looks at her childhood, the reasons for her self-doubt. Patricia, on the surface, comes off as an insensitive, career-driven user. And in a way, she is. But there is more to her than that.

Drifting between the past and present, The Safety of Secrets is an intense look at how secrets can bind you together....and how they can tear you apart. At first, it's a light book about Hollywood. But when the past comes into play, there is an evolution. And light, it is not. If you are looking for a good book about friendship, relationships, and life, this one might be it. If nothing else, it shows you that the little things a parent does, can affect a child for the rest of her life!! And that itself, is worth the price of admission!

This book looks like literary fiction with the artsy cover and the back-cover description. Don't be fooled, though. This is Chick Lit. Those of you who enjoy Chick Lit will probably like this book (see the positive reviews), but since I'm not a fan of the genre, I didn't enjoy it.

Reviewed by Lisa Heidle for RebeccasReads (7/08)

In "The Safety of Secrets" by Delauné Michel, we meet Fiona, a working actor in Hollywood, who is married and expecting her first child. Although this should be an exciting time, her closest friendship is unraveling and her marriage is strained. She has spent much of her life holding a life-altering incident from her childhood so close that nothing can penetrate, showing the malignant effects of secrets and how they contaminate all that we love and desire most.

She and Patricia, her childhood friend, were drawn together out of a shared understanding of what it's like to be unseen, not considered. Both become actors in order to gain the acceptance they never had as children, a natural progression for two unwanted women who learned to play roles and wear masks at a young age. The experience they shared and chose to lock away has bound them together, more out of necessity than devotion. Due to their troubled early lives, neither Fiona nor Patricia learned how to separate from one another and create boundaries as they moved into adulthood; the interactions between them and others are juvenile at best. When Fiona shares the news with her husband that they are going to have a baby, he asks that she postpone sharing the news until the pregnancy progresses. Having already told Patricia, Fiona has "...a sudden impulse to cross my fingers behind my back." She justifies the telling to herself by saying, "And she's my best friend, for Christ's sake. Telling her is like telling myself."

Michel uses Fiona's progressing pregnancy in parallel to the disintegrating relationship between the two women. As the burden of concealment builds in them both, communication turns into competition and devotion turns into animosity until the pain and resentment is palpable. They skirt around the secret they share, unwilling to delve into the pain from the past. The author also refers to acting approaches to mirror Fiona's interpersonal relationships, reinforcing the belief that all is not what it seems with the struggling character. After a difficult encounter with Patricia, Fiona muses, "I want to slap her. And rewind this to the beginning when she walked in to see if we could do a better take, like happy best friends. Like that acting technique of working from the outside in: do the physical and the emotions will follow. Not that I ever believed in that technique, but maybe it could work this time."

When Patricia divulges their shared history on national television, Fiona is forced to question what occurred so many years before and to explore the difference between secrets and privacy. Delauné Michel's "The Safety of Secrets" shows that safety is only an opaque illusion if it does not reside within the truth.