At its core, Barbara Delinsky's The Secret Between Us is about family dynamics, particulary those between a single mother and her teenage daughter.

At the start of the novel, Dr. Deborah Monroe picks up her daughter Grace from a party. Grace gets behind the wheel and the two head home in the pouring rain - but suddenly their car hits a man, who turns out to be Grace's history teacher. The man needs surgery but is not critically injured, but then he suddenly dies in the hospital due to medications he failed to tell his doctor he was taking.

But the accident is really only the basis for the story. Afterwards, the focus turns more toward Deborah, Grace and the victim's estranged brother.

Deborah is the town doctor in a practice with her father, a perfectionistic man still mourning his deceased wife. Her husband suddenly divorced her and remarried, leaving her to raise her two children alone, one of whom has serious vision problems. Deborah's concern for her children's well-being is so ingrained that she does not correct the police when they assume it was she, not Grace, who was behind the wheel the night of the accident.

While Deborah struggles with the aftermath of the accident, Grace struggles even more with the guilt of not taking responsibility. Delinsky details how Deborah and Grace mend their relationship after the accident and goes even further into the nuances of familial relationships.

The Secret Between Us is a fast read and well-written; Delinsky uses a lot of dialogue to move the story along. While she deals with some interesting topics, at times the story seems melodramatic. In addition, some parts seem too pat or coincidental, for example, how Deborah falls for the victim's brother.

- Ashley