THE SECRETS INSIDE

A teenager falls into an unexpected relationship with her father’s friend in Tirado-Ryen’s novel.

Connie Baltimore is an 18-year-old in her last year of high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, when her life gets shaken up in the year 2000. Her grandmother has flown in from Jamaica to stay with the family until Connie’s graduation, and Connie’s older sister, Alison, has also moved back home following a terrible fight with her husband. In addition, her dad’s recentlywidowed, 35-year-old friend Nicholas Riley has been invited to live with them for a few months until he gets back on his feet; he hasn’t worked as a journalist since his wife’s death. Connie has never been in love, nor has she ever had a serious boyfriend, but she soon finds herself connecting with Nick and falling into a slow-burn romance that makes up much of the plot. The narrative places a lot of emphasis on the age difference between the two main characters, with both resisting the possibility of a relationship; Nick is given to phrases such as “If I was ten years younger…,” and Connie refers the idea of her having a crush on him as “perverted.” In addition, strangers mistake the couple as a father and daughter. Outside the romance plot, however, the Baltimore family comes across as complex and real, and the complicated dynamics of Connie’s relationship with her best friend, Dee Ramsey, offer a heartfelt examination of growing older and growing apart. The work succeeds as a coming-of-age story, but it’s one that never quite decides how it wants readers to perceive the main couple. Because of that, some may find it hard to connect to the romantic element of the story. Connie is a charming enough character to keep the story afloat, however.

A tentative romance that’s strengthened by complex characterization.