{Review} Secret for a Song by SK Falls

Secret for a Song by SK Falls
Published by Self-Published on May 31, 2013
Genres: New Adult
Pages: 206
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Saylor Grayson makes herself sick. Literally.

She ate her first needle when she was seven. Now, at nineteen, she’s been kicked out of college for poisoning herself with laxatives. The shrinks call it Munchausen Syndrome. All Saylor knows is that when she’s ill, her normally distant mother pays attention and the doctors and nurses make her feel special.

Then she meets Drew Dean, the leader of a local support group for those with terminal diseases. When he mistakes her for a new member, Saylor knows she should correct him. But she can’t bring herself to, not after she’s welcomed into a new circle of friends. Friends who, like Drew, all have illnesses ready to claim their independence or their lives.

For the first time, Saylor finds out what it feels like to be in love, to have friends who genuinely care about her. But secrets have a way of revealing themselves. What will happen when Saylor’s is out?

Here’s the Song that Inspired the Title:

Kassiah: I want to start off this review by saying that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. It seems to be miss or miss further for most self-pubbed books that I’ve read lately, but I really liked this one. I’m not gonna lie and say I didn’t see any errors, but they were few and far between, and that made me be able to focus on the story, which I really liked!

Next, can we talk about the cover? It’s beautiful! And what’s even better is that it matches the story. Yay! You can tell that SK Falls cares about putting out the best quality story that she can, and I respect that. I probably would have given this 3-1/2 stars, but I’m rounding up because of that.

Onto the story…Saylor Grayson is the nineteen year old daughter of a busy lawyer and a detached stay-at-home mom, both of whom do not pay much attention to their only child. She has Munchausen Syndrome, doing whatever she can to make herself sick and gain attention, including eating actual needles, taking pills, and giving herself infections with used tissues and her own saliva.

After her latest fake out, her parents pull her out of university and bring her home where she can be monitored. Her therapist suggests that she volunteer at the local hospital, and that’s where she meets Drew–in a group for the terminally ill. When everyone assumes she belongs in the group because she has an actual illness, she goes along with it. For the first time in her life, she finds herself having friends and people who are interested in her for who she is. Saylor and Drew fall in love, all while she’s trying to figure out how to tell him that she lied to him about being sick.

I really liked this story, and I felt sympathetic toward Saylor’s character, though at times it was difficult for me to identify with her. There were lots of times that Saylor is describing the symptoms and motivations of her illness that, while I appreciated the information, I didn’t feel that it was authentic for her character to be thinking about in that moment.

One thing that I did find authentic was Drew. I liked him a lot. And I really liked them together.

A pulse began to beat deep inside me as I got up, pulled the cane off his knee, and tossed it into a pile of snow. I straddled his legs, sitting on his lap, and his look of confusion quickly turned to a look of pure lust. His eyes grew darker, his gaze fell to my lips. “What are you doing?”

I didn’t answer. I just covered his mouth with mine, the ecstasy of making him live in the moment, the power of reducing him to the basest pleasure overtaking every other sense in my brain. After a moment, his hand tangled in my ponytail. He pulled on it, making me expose my throat to him. He nibbled along the tender skin there, and I gasped. I could feel his erection pressing into my inner thigh where my legs were spread, wanting more.

I pulled back. “We could go somewhere,” I whispered.

I liked the other characters in this story, too, especially Zee, and I wish that we got more information on what happened with some of them. Something that I didn’t like was her mother’s transformation toward the end of the story; I didn’t feel like it was realistic and was a little too wrapped-up-in-a-bow. Though I understand it was probably the right answer for the characters, I didn’t love the end. I needed more closure than what we got, but I think that was probably the point that Falls was trying to make.

This book is labeled NA, but I think it could really be YA. The topics are heavy, but there’s no graphic sex.

When it’s all said and done, I really enjoyed this story, and I think you will, too. I will definitely be checking out more from this author.

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