I wanted to like this book, but several key points were difficult for me. First and foremost, I adore the theme of mature women coming together and choosing to be friends. Second, the mystery of mother-daughter relationships was even more intriguing. Unfortunately, I was let down by the book's structure; the characters were one-dimensional, and the chapters felt rushed and sketchy. I won't say anything else because others may have completely different feelings. I wanted to like this book, but several key points were difficult for me. First and foremost, I adore the theme of mature women coming together and choosing to be friends. Second, the mystery of mother-daughter relationships was even more intriguing. Unfortunately, I was let down by the book's structure; the characters were one-dimensional, and the chapters felt rushed and sketchy. I won't say anything else because others may have completely different feelings.

I enjoyed the women of this book, and their newfound friendship. I also enjoyed reading about their growth and their journey.

Could not follow the story... not a stand alone if you are bringing characters from 5 years or more.

The Secret Women by Sheila Williams tells the story of three women who become friends while attending a yoga class together. The women, Carmen, Elise, and Dee Dee, are all over the age of 40. They are all dealing with the loss of their mothers and decide to tackle their grief together by sorting through their mothers' belongings. It isn't long until secrets are exposed that will forever change how the women viewed their mothers and their lives all together. After reading this novel, you may want to spend more time with your mom (if she's still living) and get to know her better. The Secret Women show how friends, no matter how new, can provide much needed support to push you through the toughest times in life.

I love reading books about friendships, life lessons, and uplifting stories about families and unconditional love! The Secret Women surely had it all!

The narration is perfect - Zakiya Young really brought the fun in this amazing Chick Lit!

The Secret Women explores the complex relationship between mothers and daughters as two very different women grieve the loss of their mothers. I absolutely adored this book and the friendships among the women. I think this would be a great book club read as their are many topics to discuss that everyone can connect with in some way.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amistad for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Secret Women was intriguing and I enjoyed seeing how each of the three main characters grow throughout the course of the novel. However, it was a difficult for me to connect with the main characters because of how the story was divided. Much of the focus of The Secret Women was on their mothers, the challenges they faced, and the other aspects of their lives that their daughters didn’t know about. I mostly found myself wanting to know more about each character since we primarily got snapshots of their stories. However, I did like the broad range of issues that Sheila Williams tackled and how she addressed how loss can change you.

I think The Secret Women would make an interesting book club book. There’s definitely a lot here to fuel discussions!

*Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Three African-American women meet in yoga class and discover though they seem to have little else in common, they each lost their mothers recently and they make a pact to help each other deal with her mother's belongings so they can move on in life. But each one discovers the secret woman her mother was, finding secrets and loves and strengths she was never aware of. Together the three women help each other accept the changes in their understanding of their mothers and grow stronger because of it and because of their newfound friendship. A very enjoyable read, interesting characters, though I would have liked more variety in the voices of the three women, they sounded rather alike. Their mothers were fascinating women with interesting reveals. Highly recommended.

This book never really took off. The writing was...ok. Not terrible but also not great. I think it could’ve been better with less characters and deeper character development of the remaining characters.

If you are looking for a book that will pull at your heartstrings and still fill you with happiness then I highly recommend The Secret Women by Sheila Williams. I finished this book within a week last week that how phenomenal it was. Three women become fast friends after a yoga class and margaritas at a local restaurant. I was initially drawn to the cover of this book because it is so pretty, but once I started reading I was drawn to all three women. I love how they became such a great support system for each other when they live completely different lives and didn't formally know each other outside of their weekly yoga class. I found myself aww-ing at certain parts of this story that how invested I became in these characters. They each couldn't handle what was troubling them alone and with the help of the others, they battled and conquered their fears. Two things you can take away from this book are how women are great at uplifting each other when handling things alone just won't cut it. everyone needs a great set of friends to help them with life struggles and to help them navigate how to be able to move on and succeed in life. The second is that sometimes you don't have to have similar backgrounds with someone for them to be a friend. I liked this book so much I will be going to pick up a hard copy it was published last week! Truly great read.

I really enjoyed the female friendships made and these lovely women just jumped off the pages. I was also able to grab a copy of the audiobook and it was fabulous as well. Four strong margaritas! I look forward to many more books by this author.

Three women are become friends because they have one thing in common - their mothers have all died. This beautiful story delves into their grief, friendships, and memories of their mothers. I loved reading about the friendships formed and their mothers histories. Tackling issues from interracial marriage to mental health, this was a complex and emotional read - but it was well worth it. Highly recommend for family drama lovers.

I really enjoyed this one. Three very different women - Elise, Carmen and DeeDee- become friends after meeting in yoga class. They learn they share something in common - they’ve all lost their mothers recently. As they each work through their grief and take care of their mothers’ belongings they discover secrets that their mothers have been holding onto. This book is written from the perspective of each woman, then also dips into the voices of their mothers and the reader learns about those secrets. This is a beautiful story about family and the love of mothers. I loved seeing the friendship between the three women and how they supported each other and pushed each other to address the secrets they’ve learned. This is a great heartwarming family drama.

The Secret Women is a well written, touching and important book about the lives of women, particularly Black women Elise, Carmen and Dee Dee. Yet its themes of friendship and grief are universal. Each woman is at a different stage of grief and grieving is complicated no matter the state of that relationship, which Ms. Williams illustrates can be also be quite surprising because sometimes those we have lost, in this case their mothers, may not be who we think they are, and most times they are better than we know them to be even when they are flawed. Despite the morbid subject, I found The Secret Women to be uplifting and filled with a plethora of sage life lessons. I highly recommend this poignant book.

Summary:

Elise, DeeDee, and Carmen all meet in a yoga class, joined together by laughter and the frustration of trying to master their headstand poses. When they get together after class, they discover that they have all lost their mothers and are still grieving. The three become fast friends, and they agree to help each other process their losses and sort through their mothers' leftover belongings. As each woman tackles their mothers' things, they learn more about who their mothers really were, and they are each faced with challenging decisions about how to move forward with their lives. The Secret Women is an emotional tale about friendship and the bonds between mothers and daughters.

Review:

What a beautiful and relatable story this is. In The Secret Women, Sheila Williams captures all aspects of life - the good and the bad, the pain, the laughter. From the very first page, these characters are likable. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a yoga class and have wanted to swear out loud as I'm sweating and trying not to fall out of my pose. This is exactly what Elise does, and the laughter that ensues by Carmen and DeeDee brings these women together into a deep and beautiful friendship.
As much as this book made me laugh, it equally brought me close to tears on several occasions. As a young woman with a complicated relationship with my own mother, reading this story made me face head-on what it will be like to someday lose her. The complexity of these women's emotions is portrayed so well - the guilt over what was left unsaid, the anger watching everyone else in the family seemingly move on, and the hard realizations that mothers have their own pasts, their own secrets, their own lives outside of being somebody's mom.
Where this novel lost me was in the division of perspectives. It didn't feel to me that each woman was given an equal part of the story, with Carmen's mother being focused on for several chapters and Elise's mother hardly at all. DeeDee's story with her mother was arguably the most complicated, and I don't feel there was enough space given to it, with it being the last section of the book. Furthermore, while Elise, Carmen, and DeeDee were all very likable characters, they didn't feel particularly well-rounded, especially not compared to the rich descriptions and backstories we were given of their mothers.
Overall, The Secret Women is an emotional and relatable book that is perfect for fans of Tayari Jones and Barbara O'Neal.

The Secret Women is a story of life journeys. And as with every journey there are planned and unplanned events. This story weaves together the lives and memories of three accomplished women who become comrades in arms to clear out mental and physical clutter from their mothers’ lives. Along the way they share secrets of their mothers and form a bond of trust and love. Vivid details and realistic life experiences make this book a starting point in analyzing our own secrets

This is the ultimate Book Club read.

This book was a little to 'cutesy' for me. I had difficulty relating to the characters or caring about any of them. I found it trite-loaded with puns and "Amen to that," I prefer books with more substance and depth of character.