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Book Summary and Reviews of The Secret of Everything by Barbara O'Neal

The Secret of Everything by Barbara O'Neal

The Secret of Everything

by Barbara O'Neal

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Readers' Rating (30):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2010, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Barbara O'Neal, author of The Lost Recipe for Happiness, delivers a generous helping of the best in life–family, food, and love–in the story of a woman's search for the one thing worth more than anything.

At thirty-seven, Tessa Harlow is still working her way down her list of goals to "fall in love and have a family." A self-described rolling stone, Tessa leads hiking tours for adventurous vacationers–it's a job that's taken her around the world but never a step closer to home. Then a freak injury during a trip already marred by tragedy forces her to begin her greatest adventure of all.

Located high in the New Mexico mountains, Las Ladronas has become a magnet for the very wealthy and very hip, but once upon a time it was the setting of a childhood trauma Tessa can only half remember. Now, as she rediscovers both her old hometown and her past, Tessa is drawn to search-and-rescue worker Vince Grasso. The handsome widower isn’t her type. No more inclined to settle down than Tessa, Vince is the father of three, including an eight-year-old girl as lost as Tessa herself. But Tessa and Vince are both drawn to the town's most beloved eatery – 100 Breakfasts – and to each other. For Tessa, the restaurant is not only the key to the mystery that has haunted her life but a chance to find the home and the family she's never known.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"O’Neal has created a powerful and intriguing story rich in detailed and vivid descriptions of the Southwest." - Booklist

"[W]hile the contrived climax may annoy, the recipes and the depth of the characters will please." - Publishers Weekly

This information about The Secret of Everything was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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More Information

Read Chapter One
Read the backstory to The Secret of Everything

Barbara O'Neal fell in love with restaurants and the secret language of spoons when she was sixteen. She spent more than a decade in various restaurants, dives to cafes to high cuisine, before selling his first novel. O'Neal teaches workshops nationally and internationally, and lives with her partner, a British endurance athlete, in Colorado Springs. She can be found online at www.barbaraoneal.com

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