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    Emma's Secret: A Novel
    Emma's Secret: A Novel
    Emma's Secret: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Emma's Secret: A Novel

    Written by Steena Holmes

    Narrated by Kate Rudd

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    For two years, Megan, Peter, and their two older daughters, Alexis and Hannah, dream of nothing but being reunited with the family’s youngest child, Emma, who was kidnapped just before her third birthday. When Emma is miraculously found living with an elderly couple just miles from the family’s home, they are hopeful that her return will heal the wounds her disappearance created.

    But Emma is vastly different from the sunny toddler they remember. She barely remembers her parents or her older sisters. She is quiet and withdrawn, and, worst of all, longs for the very people who kidnapped her.

    Megan is consumed with bitterness, while Peter works later and later nights in the company of his gorgeous business partner. And in the middle of everything, Megan’s best friend has become suddenly distant and secretive.

    Then a chance encounter in town leads to a secret that changes everything again for Emma. And Peter must decide between the happiness of his youngest daughter and the trust of his family.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateOct 29, 2013
    ISBN9781480558038
    Emma's Secret: A Novel
    Author

    Steena Holmes

    Steena Holmes is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of titles including Saving Abby, Stillwater Rising, and The Memory Child. Named to the “20 Best Books by Women in 2015” list by Good Housekeeping and Redbook, Steena won the National Indie Excellence Award in 2012 for Finding Emma as well as the USA Book News Award for The Word Game in 2015. Steena lives in Calgary, Alberta, and is a self-proclaimed “travelholic” who can’t resist a good cup of coffee. To find out more about her books and her love of traveling, you can visit her website at www.steenaholmes.com or follow her journeys on Instagram @authorsteenaholmes.

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    Reviews for Emma's Secret

    4/5

    62 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This author is fantastic. The stories are so heartfelt. I have read three of her books now and am starting another. All I can say is keep them coming..
    • 4/5
      Reading "Finding Emma" by Steena Holmes will assist in fully understanding the dynamics of the characters in this novel.

      "Finding Emma" is an emotionally charged story of a little girl who goes missing for two years and the devastating effects it had on her family, The pain and anguish the mother experienced was almost palpable, a parent's worst nightmare. Through it all, Peter (the father) tries to console and keep his marriage to Megan (the mother) together as he attempts to provide closure to care for their other two daughters. Even after 2 years Megan couldn't help but see Emma's face in every child she encountered. How does one put closure on a missing child when there is no body to bury, no funeral to attend? Although Megan decides it is time to move on for the sake of her family, she still holds onto to the hope that her daughter is still alive waiting for her.

      "Emma's Secret" goes on to further depict the emotional pains family endure when a kidnapped child is returned. Reading this book first is really a spoiler in my opinion. Having read "Finding Emma" first, I was delighted to see that the story continued. The first book takes you on the roller coaster ride with the family and kidnappers as they struggle with how to handle their situation. Although named "Emma's Secret", I found the book focused more on the mother's experience of having her daughter returned. Understandably, a tragedy of this nature will affect the entire family for many more years to come. It was difficult at times to reconcile with Peter's attempts to "help" Emma by bringing her to see Jack (Dotty has since passed), with whom Emma came to know as grandpa. Although, it was his ailing spouse who brought Emma home, he did little to rectify the damage initiated by Dotty who suffered with dementia.

    • 5/5
      Thankfully, I had purchased Emma's Secret at the same time as I purchased Finding Emma on my Kindle.

      Emma's Secret is the sequel to Finding Emma. I agree with previous readers regarding Emma's mother Megan. Megan seems to have stepped out, when Emma disappeared. And, once Emma was found Megan was perhaps overprotective, but still only present in her life. She wants Emma to forget the life that she lived for two years with Jack and Dottie, but Emma loved Papa and Grandma and the only life she truly remembers.

      Peter sees that Emma still needs her Papa, so he begins to take Emma on breakfast dates to see Papa, and he has the restraining order lifted. I can empathize with Megan's hurt, but she seems more focused on her own feelings than those of her daughters. What is in the best interest of Emma? Hannah? and Alexis? Megan seems to barely know her daughters...

      I enjoyed the plot and flow of this novel. I look forward to reading other titles.
    • 4/5
      Often I find a sequel to be more satisfying than the original book, and it is true in this case. Megan and her family are reunited with Emma, who only remembers them a little, and who is very attached to the "Grandpa" who helped raise her the past two years. Megan has to grapple with the messy feelings she has about what has happened to Emma, and her desire to keep her safe. Her family has difficulty adjusting, as do both Megan and Emma, and it reflects the messy reality that would really happen in such a situation.
    • 5/5
      A follow-up to Finding Emma - this is a wonderful read. I do recommend that you read these two books in order.Emma had been kidnapped from her front yard two years ago and now the searching is over – Emma is home. She had been living only 20 minutes away on a farm with an older couple. Emma had been happy and well cared for – truly loved by this couple, Jack and Dottie. Now that she was home, Emma needed time to adjust and accept the changes with her family. After two years of searching, Megan just wanted her daughter back, and for Emma to be the same little girl she was before the kidnapping. Megan wanted to totally erase the last two years that Megan was missing, and just couldn’t get beyond her anger. Megan and Peter assumed their marriage would be healed with Emma being home, but tension develops, as a lot of obstacles are faced. She is afraid that Peter will walk away from their marriage - and the story unfolds ---.My favorite character is Jack, who is portrayed with such warmth, depth and emotion. There were several scenes between Emmie and Jack that just warmed my heart. Jack missed Emmie more than he thought possible. The house was empty without her, and now Dottie was gone. He was completely alone. The sadness ate at Jack both day and night. The author wrote in a vivid way, portraying the inner thoughts of all the characters. There were so many emotions – sadness, heartbreak, grief, fear, and regrets. This is a sequel that I highly recommend – a powerful read. 5 stars.
    • 3/5
      This is the second book in a series following FINDING EMMA. You need to read the first book before reading this one. Emma was kidnapped at three years old and gone from her family for two years. She was treated as a grandchild by another couple. This is the story of her becoming part of her family again. The book was good but there were a lot of flaws in it. I did not like the mother, Megan in this book. I felt like she was more concerned with her feelings than with Emma;s or her other daughters or her husband's and she was very selfish. I finished the book and was happy with the outcome and was glad that I read the books back to back but just didn't think that this was a well written book.
    • 2/5
      I must be a much harsher critic than other readers. This is the follow-up to "Finding Emma". The author revisits this family's story once their daughter has been returned home. I thought the characterizations rang even more false than the first one. No more books by this author.
    • 5/5
      In this sequel to Finding Emma, author Steena Holmes has relieved every parent’s nightmare, Emma has come home. Her mother, Megan, is overprotective; her father, Peter, is confused as to how to rebuild his relationship with his youngest daughter; and Emma’s two older sisters, Hannah and Alexis, are struggling with their own demons now that they are living a miracle and Emma has been returned (mostly) unharmed.Holmes dives right in, gripping her reader from the very first page, with a journal entry from Emma’s kidnapper, Dottie. This twist of being able to see into her mind makes for interesting interludes throughout the story. While Megan and Peter exert themselves to hold their family together and maintain their marriage, they are desperately trying to make the right decisions to allow Emma to immerse herself into her real family. In the meantime, Dottie’s widower, Jack, struggles with the loss of a little girl, his little Emmie, who he fell in love with and raised as his own granddaughter for the two years Emma was living with him and away from her own family. Without naming the city, we know this could take place in any Small Town, USA. This is my neighborhood and your neighborhood, the best coffee shop and little bakery downtown, the carpools and birthday parties we all attend. It isn’t important for Holmes to name the city, because it is any city. Every child is at risk of being abducted and it happens all too often. In recent years, we’ve learned of girls being abducted, only to be tortured, molested and abused. Then these girls grow into women with small children of their own before they are miraculously discovered and returned to their rightful lives. As viewers of these news broadcasts, we view the abductors as monsters, terrible people who should rot in hell for the things they do to these children. Holmes, however, takes a different approach and makes us feel bad for Emma’s abductors. The first 50 pages had a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes, until I realized I was not only sympathizing with Emma’s family, but I found myself understanding and sympathizing with her kidnappers as well. The story goes on to explain how and why Emma was kidnapped, as well as in detail the relationship she built with her kidnappers. Now, this is no Stockholm Syndrome, Emma seriously loves these people. The question is, how will Emma’s family come to grips with that? And how will they let Jack, a man who came to love Emma as his own and is not long for this world, maintain his connection with her? Emma loves him and her parents just can’t understand. We sympathize with Jack and his struggle to mourn his wife and the granddaughter she suddenly brought into their lives. But he knew what his wife did was illegal and he didn’t try to make things right, can we honestly feel bad for him? Holmes sure asks us to. This novel is beautifully written and encapsulates many different aspects of the human struggle, happiness, confusion, grief, sadness, anger, excitement and acceptance: it’s all there. A heartwarming conclusion to very heartbreaking story, there are moments of cliché and storylines that could have been left out, others expanded upon, but all in all, Holmes has done it again. She has made us question what we would do in a situation we all pray to avoid.
    • 3/5
      The Secret is not Emma's. Tip: Read the pre-sequel first. ***Warning Contains Spoilers***I had mixed feelings about this book, at times I liked it, yet at other times I was not so sure. Emma's Secret centers around a family (with no last name) and with a major emphasis on the one daughter Emma. Just before she turned three Emma was kidnapped by an elderly woman with dementia and had been living in the same town with said woman named Dottie and her husband Jack.Emma's disappearance happened in a pre-sequel called Finding Emma which I did not read. The time is now 3 years later and Emma has now been returned to the family. The mother Megan who struggles with the need to center her daughter in the family since the return of her daughter to the family. This is a major issue for Megan because Emma had bonded with the couple who had kept her for those years. However Emma's emotional attachments to this couple does not seem to be as much of an issue for Emma's father Peter. My problems with this story had nothing to do with Homes's writing style, I found the book was fluid and easy to read. Although I read this book from cover to cover I was still left confused by a few things. I didn't understand why the book was Called Emma's Secret, when the actual secret was being held by Dottie, the demented kidnapper.Although Holmes does reference a few times in the book how long Emma has now been home, for me the time line felt blurred as I was unsure of how much time had passed between both books. I didn't understand why Emma and her mother were not receiving regular therapy sessions anymore. Although Megan does have a few minutes of a refresher during a moment of stress with the apparent previous therapist. You would think this would continue considering Emma had only been home for a few months, and being a kidnapping is a very tramatic experience.Throughout the story the author tries to give a sense that Peter is having an affair with his business partner Samantha (aka Sam). I didn't feel enough clues were given into making the reader feel her husband Peter might have been having an affair, other than his partner Sam stating a couple times, that he must tell his wife, leaving it open ended. Then at the end of the book I find out Megan might have had her own affair, when she sees her friend locking lips with someone she appartently locked lips with. Appartenly a character who was the police officer involved in searching for Emma who the author does not reference as such during this episode.I also did not understand what was going on with the relationship Jack had experienced with his wife. Jack knew Dottie had dementia and knew his wife thought Emma's was their granddaughter. Although the secret does clarify why Dottie might have thought Emma was the granddaughter. Any person with dementia bringing home a child that they seem to have plucked out of the thin air without any explanation is reason enough to set of flags in any marriage. Yet Jack who seems to be in his right mind did not question this, yet he is still allowed to see this child. So is Peter a little crazy for allowing him ascess to his daughter? Is it really good for Emma in the long run?I don't know what information the pre-sequel contained however I felt Holmes could have detailed more in this book for those who have not read the pre-sequel. I would say I don't feel this book is one that reads well out-of-order and the reader would need to read Finding Emma to get a grasp as to what is actually going on with these characters. I don't like giving a bad review but I do belive in being honest, maybe this story was just not one I could relate to. I have my own three children and understood Megan's anguish and need to protect Emmas as well as her other daughters at all times now that Emma was home. I tried to place myself in Megan's shoes when it came to Emma's relationship with Jack I just couldn't do it.