#BlogTour #Review: The Teacher’s Secret by Suzanne Leal @Legend_Press @Suzanne_leal

I’m on the blog tour for The Teacher’s Secret by Suzanne Leal today.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this interesting author.

The Teacher’s Secret is available to buy in ebook and paperback here.

Book Description:

A small town can be a refuge, but while its secrets are held, it’s hard to know who to trust
and what to believe. Terry Pritchard, assistant principal at Brindle Public School, watches his career collapse. Nina Foreman, a new teacher, struggles with the breakdown of her marriage and a new classroom. Rebecca Chuma is also new to Brindle: the locals are curious – what’s she doing there and why can’t she return home. By contrast, Joan Mather has lived in Brindle all her life. Since the death of her elderly mother, however, she’s been finding it hard to leave the house.

My review:

This was a much more emotional and thought provoking book then I was expecting it to be.  It was surprisingly gripping and I soon found myself immersed in the book and unable to put it down.

I love books that discuss a moral issue and The Teacher’s Secret does that using the subject of pupil-teacher contact as an issue for one its characters.  As a parent I’m a little on the fence about this issue.  Whilst I understand that guidelines need to be in place I don’t see why teacher’s can’t used their discression and determine when hugs etc can be used.  It breaks my heart when my son fall over at school as I know that all he wants is a hug and yet no one on site is allowed to give him one.  I think sometimes this lack or affection or sympathy could cause more harm to the child then a hug could, especially as this could be the only time children get any love or affection from anyone.

The issue of pupil-teacher contact is one that puts veteran teacher Terry and Acting Principle Laurie against each other.  Terry, like me, thinks there are times when contact is necessary and comforting for a child.  He uses it when he feels the situation calls for it and his pupils will benefit from such interaction.  Laurie is very strict and likes things by the book.  The rules say absolutely no contact is allowed, so I Laurie’s world that means anyone disobeying this rule should be punished.  It was very interesting to find out about the tow ides of the argument through these characters.

My favourite character was Terry and I wish that all children were lucky enough to have a teacher like him in their lives.  His energy and relationships with his pupils was so lovely to read about, as was his efforts to change his lessons and assemblies to get all the children involved and ensure that they excel.  I really felt for him with his continued arguments with Laurie as it was obvious he was really a nice guy just trying to do the best for his pupils.   As the novel progresses and the reader becomes more aware of what Laurie is like I did start to find some of his interactions with pupil’s unsettling,  This wasn’t because he was doing anything wrong but rather because you knew that it would get him into trouble with Laurie and I really didn’t want him to.

I hated Laurie, what an interfering horrible women! I could never understand why she felt the need to change so much and get so involved when she was only the acting principle and therefore not there for very long.  It seemed that she took an instant dislike to terry and wanted to make things as difficult as possible for him.  As the book goes on I did begin to wonder if there was a reason for this, which definitely kept me intrigued and wanting to read more.  The revelation when it came did surprise me, which is always great as I do like being kept on my toes.  The ending was very heart warming and uplifting and helped to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.

The only reason this book isn’t 5 stars for me is that I felt it was a little slow to start and the introduction of multiple characters quite quickly was a tad confusing and I did initially struggle to work out who was who and their relation to each other.  If you are finding this too, I do urge you to continue as the book soon picks up and becomes very interesting and gripping.

This is Suzanne’s debut book and I really look forward to reading more from her in the future.  If you enjoyed books like The Slap then you will really enjoy this one.

Huge thank you to Imogen from Legend Press for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

Suzanne Leal is a lawyer experienced in child protection, criminal law and
refugee law. The Teacher’s Secret is her first novel published in the UK following her well-received debut in Australia, Border Street. Suzanne lives in Sydney with her husband, David, and her four children, Alex, Dominic, Xavier and Miranda.

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