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I’ll drop anything for a new Adele Parks: she nails it every time"—Lucy Foley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Apartment I’ll drop anything for a new Adele Parks: she nails it every time"—Lucy Foley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Apartment And that issue I mentioned, that no little girl grows up wanting to be an escort, well that’s true, but they – we – had dreams. Plans. I know I did. Adele Parks is one smart writer. You think she writes domestic noir and for the large part she does, but her books are getting darker and darker and there’s a sense that she is publishing books now and rubbing her hands with more glee than ever before. This is a good book and a unique read. Well, I really want to scream at Dora as soon as she said yes to Daniel. And when they arrive at the château, she meets with Daniel’s eccentric friends who act like they see an exotic creature as soon as they say hi to her. And one of them is a very dangerous man! Dora absolutely knows who he is!
As the story developed, I could not believe some of the surprise revelations that Parks includes. At some points I was gasping in disbelief, finding myself re-reading some paragraphs in case I had missed something! There were some clever plot twists that come in the final chapters, so this is definitely a book you need to see through to the end to truly appreciate Parks thrilling narrative. At the funeral, Dora learns fiancé can swim and just let his dad die for torturing her. No one in super wealthy connected family is bothered that she’s a former escort so yay for her. A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France—it should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning and discreet escort, and Daniel has paid for her services before. This time, all she has to do is to convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a front. Now thirty-one years old, Dora is still working with Elspeth and has formed a close friendship with her neighbor, Evan, a twenty-seven-year-old trust fund baby she met four years ago. Evan will eventually inherit a fortune from his father, who owns an international property and land management company. “He is my best friend and he hates what I do, but he loves me,” Dora explains in her first-person narrative. But she has returned from a job beaten, bruised, and shaken. The client was not a regular, and as he assaulted her, he said, “You disgust me. Stop what you are doing. Stop it now. Or next time will be worse. Next time will be the last time.” With a plot that is far from conventional, complete with an alluring main protagonist, a suspect outer cast and a flashy setting, One Last Secret will keep you guessing until the bitter end. An amazing read!A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France . . . should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning, and discreet escort. Daniel has paid for her services many times before. This time, all she has to do is to convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a believable front. Here Dora’s told us of her manager Elspeth, who books clients and the screening process… so she’s at ease about her work, even referencing the ‘workplace health and safety’ measures in place. It’s a surprise then when she’s beaten and threatened by a client. So when she’s offered a lifeline by her best friend, and she decides the time is right to get out of the industry. I saw the big reveal coming a mile away, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment. It is slightly OTT, which I know some readers don’t like, but it worked fine for me. Being valued does, and that might surprise you more, because people assume women who are prepared to accept money for sex have self-esteem issues. One Last Secret is a juicy, tantalising and pacey read that will appeal to fans of Sally Hepworth and other domestic dramas with strong female protagonists.
Despite some of those contrivances I enjoyed this novel and read it in a sitting, finding it the perfect Saturday night bathtime read! When taken as a whole, the storyline isn't all that surprising in the end. I pretty much called everything that was going on. That said, it's still a uniquely told story from an interesting point of view. I don't typically like first person storylines because it's too much "I did this and I did that" rather than letting us in on the action, but in this case it really works. Dora is an escort, the oldest profession in the world. She is quite upfront about her career but after one client treats her horrifically her friend Evan, a trust fund baby, asks her to marry him and she says yes. However, one client begs her to do one last job which is to accompany him to France and fake a relationship and so she reluctantly agrees. What could possibly go wrong? Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer team up to exonerate a woman who’s already served five years for killing her ex-husband. I don’t want to give spoilers but plenty happens, some of it sad, some a bit silly. There are also some truly bizarre/problematic plot points that the author seems to just skim over.
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A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France – it should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning and discreet escort and Daniel has paid for her services before. This time, all she has to do is convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a front. Overall though, I had a difficult time putting the book down because it's compulsively readable and I did want to know how everything was going to shake down in the end. There are some good twists and although I didn't always like Dora's choices I did like her and was rooting for her success. But change was not going to come easily. Her most trusted client Daniel reaches out, pleading for one last rendezvous. He needs her to escort him to a function in the French countryside. Nora is reluctant, torn between her two opposing worlds. But come on! The French countryside? One last job won’t hurt anyone…. ya right!? Dora is a high end escort in London, and she is not ashamed of it. She makes good money and she is happy. Until she is beaten badly by a client in a hotel room. He threatens her and she is scared to leave her home. This is when her best friend Evan proposes to her. He has been in love with her for a long time, he is rich and handsome. Dora says yes and agrees to stop working as an escort. But she agrees to do one last job for a client while Evan is away, and flies to France. What could go wrong? Dora is a sex worker. Or a ‘hooker’ or ‘whore’ - words that are littered throughout the text…not sure that was necessary. When she’s beaten by a dangerous client, she’s more than a little shaken and her millionaire boy best friend offers her an out.
Parks gets better and better"—Gillian McAllister, New York Times bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France – it should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning and discreet escort and Daniel has paid for her services before. This time, all she has to do is to convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a front.Dora is a high priced escort. She knows at some point she needs to put this life behind her. And after her latest ‘date’ with a new client left her beaten and bruised, that time was now! Except with Evan out of town on business, she sees no harm in accepting one last assignment. A regular client, Daniel, asks her to do one final favor for him. He wants her to accompany him to a chateau in the south of France to celebrate a friend having been made a partner in a law firm. It will only be from Friday to Monday, and they will be pretending that she is Daniel’s girlfriend because all of Daniel’s friends will be attending with their partners. Daniel has always been “a pussycat,” he will pay her handsomely, and it will be a strictly platonic weekend so she will not break her promise to Evan. It should be an easy weekend for Dora in luxurious surroundings. After all, she explains, she reinvents herself every time she embarks on a new assignment, becoming the woman her client is paying for her to be. “I am anyone I want to be. I am no one at all,” she relates. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Perfect pacing… a clever plot with several jaw-dropping twists and a protagonist you’ll find yourself rooting for…’ My Weekly
Whip-smart protagonist, immensely satisfying"—Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Girl, Forgotten I did briefly consider being a therapist, but I figured it would be exhausting. All those feelings. During her career Adele has lived in Italy, Botswana and London. Now she lives happily in Surrey, UK with her husband, son and cat. She is then asked to attend one last function at a stunning chateau in the South of France, simply to be there as staged arm candy, no intimacy required, only pretence where necessary. It happens to coincide with her fiance's Evan absence on a work trip and feels it would be doing one last favour to an ex client. Yes, there is luxury, there are beautiful people hanging around the pool, the accommodation is stunning, but almost as soon as she arrives she doesn’t feel herself and she can’t quite put her finger on what is going on. She also recognises one of the other guests and immediately goes into overdrive. It is someone she really would never want to meet again, yet her clarity of thought is letting her down – she is usually at the top of her game, astute and incisive when she needs to act. it is all undoubtedly turning weird. However… she’s (far too easily!!!) coaxed into one last gig for a regular customer and it’s then her life is threatened.Dora goes on one last girlfriend experience (without the sex) to a super secluded mansion in the south of France. She is gaslit, drugged, and raped while drugged. She does not figure out that her “naps” right after politely eating or drinking something forced on her mean she was drugged even though it happens multiple times. The guy who beat her up is an employee of her daughter’s father who has brought her out there to be murdered by that employee. It didn’t take long for me to invested in Dora’s story. As a ‘lady of the night’, Dora’s frank, blunt narrative is very honest and it felt like she was talking directly to me as a reader. Like a confessional, Dora makes it clear that her life is not glamorous and that she accepts the criticisms behind her profession. However, money is the driving force and Dora shows she is not embarrassed by what she does: she is embarrassed because she does not know what she would do instead with her life. I loved the start and sarcastic, straightforwardly blunt narration of Theodora/ Dora: thirty years old sex worker/ escort, honestly telling her work life, her clients, her only friend Evan, her struggles in her tough, survival tone. I liked her immediately! Dora finds herself face to face with a man she has never forgotten, the one man who really knows her. And as old secrets surface, it becomes terrifyingly apparent that one last secret could cost Dora her life… This is told mostly from the first person account of Dora/Teodora, who is a high end escort/sex worker. She isn't ashamed of the way she earns money, but when a client gets too rough she decides it's time to leave the business. Dora can't resist but take one last job as a favor to a client, a weekend away at a luxury home, yet what happens there is not what she was expecting.
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