The Secret of You and Me

June 15, 2020
Lenhardt (Heresy) delivers a love story between childhood friends and lovers who rediscover their spark 18 years after their high school graduation. Nora Noakes reluctantly returns from Washington, D.C., to Lynchfield, Tex., for her estranged father’s funeral. Her visit becomes an extended stay after discovering she’s been willed her father’s property. Soon after Nora reunites with Sophie Russell, the two begin to feel the pull of their long-lost passion, despite Sophie’s effort over the years to preserve a veneer of “conservative, Christian, straight.” Nora, who left Lynchfield to join the military and has led a free-spirited, openly bisexual life, has a strikingly pointed view of the small-mindedness held by the friends and family she left behind, while Sophie is married to a man and wants to keep things that way, though her dishonesty has driven her to heavy drinking. Lenhardt focuses on the couple’s sexual attraction in vivid detail (“Soon we were clawing at each other’s clothes, blindly trying to find bare skin to touch”), and while their passion feels genuine, Lenhardt’s florid descriptions overshadow the nuances of their connection. The story implies Nora and Sophie are driven recklessly by love, but lust is the prevailing emotion on the page. Still, Lenhardt convinces in her portrayal of the conflict between desire and control.

August 1, 2020
Nora Noakes and Sophie Russell were best friends growing up in their small town of Lynchfield, TX. This friendship blossomed into love during their senior year in high school. They hid their relationship, but were caught in bed together by Sophie's mother. She and Nora's father forced Nora to leave town, leaving Sophie heartbroken. Nora ends up in DC, enjoying a life as an out bisexual woman in a semi-serious relationship. When her father dies, she reluctantly travels back to Lynchfield, where she learns, to her surprise, that her father left her everything. Sophie, on the other hand, never left town. She married Nora's old boyfriend, had a daughter, and remained firmly in the closet, but seeing Nora again causes Sophie to reevaluate her life. As each woman battles her own demons, including PTSD and alcoholism, they grow closer to each other, and to living the life they always wanted. At turns sweet, sexy, and always respectful of these characters and their journeys to their most authentic selves, Lenhardt's wonderful book is highly recommended for all fiction collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)