Fifteen-year-old Melinda is looking forward to spending another summer with her cousins Rebecca and Kate in the small outport village of Cook's Cove on Newfoundland's west coast. Rebecca is a goody-goody who is under the thumb of her stern mother. Kate, the city dweller, is determined not to let a swoonworthy boyfriend block her future. Melinda tends to talk a mile a minute and is a bit bossy and a bit saucy. The first inkling of real trouble comes when a stranger arrives in the village and invites Rebecca to Boston to develop her artistic talent. The three girls are suddenly exposed to the possibilities of the outside world. Melinda finds herself not only responsible for keeping the family secrets, but is also faced with deciding just how far family loyalty should go. Join the girls as they flirt, party, endanger their lives with their own foolishness, and meet their first loves."If there are dark themes and undertones to this brilliant debut novel, there is also a liveliness -- an astonishing amount of "life" -- that radiates from its pages. Its language, its characters, its story are indelible." Susan Perren, Globe and Mail Seven for a Secret is an award winning novel and the first in the Tales from Cook's Cove series of three books.