ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Closest Kept by Kitty Johnson
Closest Kept by Kitty Johnson will be published by Lake Union Publishing on 6th May. My thanks to the author for sending me a copy for review.
Breaking free from the past is one woman’s greatest challenge in an emotional novel about love, friendship, and the courage to overcome the worst of times by the author of Prickly Company.
Best friends Lily and Inga do everything together―they even meet their future loves at the same bar. After one serendipitous night, it seems like it’s going to be Lily and Alex and Inga and Matt forever.
But life gets more complicated. A job offer moves Inga and Matt from Norwich to London. Lily, who craves stability after a traumatic childhood, is already struggling with the change when Inga confides in her a secret that could tear the group apart for good. At the same time, Lily’s friendship with Matt deepens, and she wonders if she was always meant to be with him instead of Alex.
As the two couples try to hold on to their dreams and one another, Lily’s life is further upended by the reappearance of her long-lost sister―and all the terrible truths she brings home. Lily needs her chosen family more than ever, but in order to heal the rifts, she must find the courage to be honest with herself and reveal the secrets she’s kept hidden from her loved ones for too long.
In Closest Kept, Lily narrates the story of her friendship with Inga, how they pair off with best friends, Alex and Matt, and how her own childhood demons affect her life and her relationships with those around her, including her younger sister, Violet. As the story progresses, so does Lily’s life with Alex, and as is often the case, there are many ups and downs for her in her love life, her family and friendships, and her work as an artist.
I thought this was a lovely book. It’s an easy read overall but it has plenty of depth to it too. Lily can be a bit of a doormat, particularly with Violet because of the sisters’ difficult childhood, but she’s so kind and considerate and a really likeable main character. In fact, I was rooting for her all the way through, hoping that she would ditch those who brought her down and choose to make a life with those who made her feel good about herself. No spoilers, but I was pleased with the outcome.
Closest Kept is an appealing novel about growing up, dealing with childhood trauma and trying to move on. It’s a cliché but Lily genuinely does go on a journey and she reaches the end with more acceptance, love and friendship. I closed this emotional and ultimately uplifting book feeling very satisfied.
Kitty Johnson is the author of Prickly Company and Five Winters. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia and teaches occasional creative writing classes. A nature lover and artist, Kitty enjoys walking in woodland and on the coast with her dog and makes collages and paintings from the landscape. She loves a challenge and once performed stand-up comedy as research for a book―an experience she found very scary but hugely empowering. Kitty lives in Norwich, Norfolk, in the UK with her partner and teenage son. For more information, visit www.kittyjohnsonbooks.com.