GIGANTIC HUGE SPOILER WARNING FOR THE ONE AND ONLY THING I WANT TO SAY RIGHT NOW:

The wolf plot? Has nothing, literally nothing, to do with the money except for the fact one of the conspirators got mixed up with it. Or the money plot has nothing to do with the wolf plot. Either way they were unrelated and glued together with cheap knock off duct tape. ( )

Emma is a typical teen aside from the strange dreams she’s been having about wolves. She thinks they might be caused by something that happened when she and her sister Sophie visited their aunt as very young children and she was bitten by a dog. However neither she nor Sophie can really remember the dog bite and there is no scar. Strangely enough there have been some wolf attacks in town. One night Emma sneaks off with her boyfriend and some of their friends for a camp out in the woods. When they find a brief case full of money stashed in a tree greed and distrust among the friends may become a problem. Meanwhile there is more then one secret going on that needs to be kept.. or discovered. This was a fun read although a little less on the spooky side than some of the others by R.L. Stine

I received an advance copy for review ( )

Rated on only the first 20 or so pages; my assessment standard for juvenile reading ~ Was the writing accomplished and the theme well-done? Would I give this to my grandchildren to read? In this case, I thought Yes to the first and a definite No to the second. ( )

Can You Keep a Secret is everything you came to love from R.L. Stine's Fear Street books back in the 90s. I was an avid Fear Street reader in my early teens and this relaunch is pure nostalgia.

In this Fear Street novel we have 2 story lines that merge together in, what can only be described as, a "Stiney way". Emmy and her friends go out one night to camp in the Fear Street Woods (cause all good ideas happen in the woods). They encounter a tree with a bag hidden inside of it that is full of cash. They decide to take it, but whose money is this and will they be tracked down? Meanwhile, Emmy has been having dreams about a black, blue-eyed wolf and now there is a wolf attacking animals and people. What is going on? How are her dreams connected to these attacks?

To me these books are just quick, fun reads. They're not going to blow you away but hopefully they provide some easy entertainment. ( )

Can You Keep a Secret? Is the latest Fear Street novel by R.L. Stine. Emmy, Eddie, and their friends (Danny, Riley, Callie, and Roxie) decide to party out in Fear Street Woods. Emmy and Eddie sneak off from the group. Eddie is going to carve their initials in a tree. While over there they find money stashed in the tree (turns out to be hollow). Before they can decide what to do, the rest of the group finds them (and the money). They agree to take the money (several of their families are experiencing money problems) and hide it in a safe place (in the pet cemetery). But when one of them needs the money, they find it is gone. Who took it and why? Each teen turns on the other. Then they discover someone is following them. Could it be the owner of the money? Are any of them safe?

Emmy is having these strange dreams about wolves and they coincide with attacks in the area. Her Aunt Marta from Prague comes to visit and tries to help her. Aunt Marta remembers Emmy being bitten by a dog while visiting in Prague when she was a child. What happened to Emmy? Is she a wolf?

Can You Keep a Secret? by R.L. Stine was not the scary book I was looking forward to reading. I found it predictable especially the wolf subplot. I knew the twist before it was revealed. One thing that I did not enjoy was the drama between the sisters (Emmy and her younger sister, Sophie). I give Can You Keep a Secret? 2.75 out of 5 stars. The book would more suitable for young adults (tweens) except for the gore and violence (geared toward older readers). This book was not what I was expecting from a Fear Street novel and R.L. Stine. Can You Keep a Secret? has sibling jealously (and rivalry), romance between teenagers, jealousy, and greed. With the right writer, they make a compelling novel. Unfortunately, they just did not come together in this book. I found Can You Keep a Secret? to be a very contrived novel.

I received a complimentary copy of Can You Keep a Secret? From NetGalley in exchange for an honest evaluation of the novel. ( )