Of course, like the two books preceding this one, Best Kept Secret begins where The Sins of the Father left off. For those unfamiliar with the Clifton Chronicles, this is the story that follows a family through decades of secrets, lies, losses, gains, enemies, and more enemies. Best Kept Secret begins with an answer to who will inherit the Barrington fortune. Will is be Giles or (maybe bastard son) Harry?
Eventually, the story starts to focus more on the new generation of Clifton's. Primarily Sebastian Clifton, that is. Seb seems to be a magnet for trouble. Although he's exceptionally intelligent, there never seems to be anything he does that won't get him in some sort of trouble. No he's not malicious, but he's young, inquisitive, and... the story must go on.
Jeffrey Archer manages to maintain the attention of those who have followed this serie religiously. For those hoping to start somewhere in the middle with this series, I say STOP! You will be doing yourself a huge disservice and really book 1, Only Time Will Tell is especially worth the time. And thankfully, Archer doesn't make us wait long enough to forget the multiple storylines.
In conclusion, Best Kept Secret is a great addition to the Clifton Chronicles. It's not up there with the first two in the series but... still makes a strong case for continuing on to Be Careful What You Wish For. I am officially on to Book 4. ***
Probably the author's legacy is to blame or the book actually is not that great enough to live up to its expectations. Dragged in places or was too good to be true in others. Towards the end, it just felt that the story is being dragged unnecessarily for a sequel which the author intended from the conception of the Clifton series. I am not going to read the books either yet to be released or a prequel to this.
ReplyDeleteThat's completely understandable. I plan on seeing it through since I've gotten this far. Might as well complete the journey.
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