When I learned that a friend, at forty, discovered the father he thought was his dad wasn’t, I was both fascinated and devastated for him. It made me wonder why families kept secrets and believed it was the best choice. I became curious about how such news affected those lied to. Over time, I found others with similar revelations, sparking personal journeys of self-discovery. These stories, shared without me asking, led to my debut novel and shaped my writing. While my own family seems secret-free, I’m drawn to writing about characters burdened with hidden truths, exploring how these secrets affect identity, trust, and relationships.
I love historical fiction with mystery and long-held secrets centered around a piece of art, and where the story teaches me something I never learned in school. Harmel does it beautifully in this evocative novel with the POW internment camps in Florida during WWII.
Hooked on page one, I was captured by the protagonist’s hunger for roots and family, and kept turning pages to uncover the mystery of Emily’s family along with her. This page-turner is heartbreaking as well as heartwarming, and it set me off to reading all of Harmel’s novels.
From New York Times bestselling author Kristin Harmel, a beautifully repackaged and updated edition of “one of her best” (RT Book Reviews) historical novels.
Emily Emerson is used to being alone; her dad walked out on the family when she was a just a kid, her mom died when she was eighteen, and her beloved grandmother has just passed away as well. But when she's laid off from her reporting job, she finds herself completely adrift...until the day she receives a beautiful painting of a young woman standing at the edge of a sugarcane field under a violet sky. She…
I absolutely loved this dual timeline novel tying in two devastating events centuries apart—the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911 and September 11th, 2001. Meissner creatively wraps these two horrors together with a name embroidered on a beautiful scarf.
I found this novel emotional, and it kept me reading late into the night. As with all her books, Meissner brought me deeply into each scene, into each time period, with her gorgeous prose. The metaphor of the century-old scarf and how it unravels truths that could devastate yet liberate the characters is brilliant. This may be my favorite book of hers.
A beautiful scarf connects two women touched by tragedy in this compelling, emotional novel from the author of As Bright as Heaven and The Last Year of the War.
September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I adore stories where a family heirloom holds a long-held secret, especially when that heirloom is a piece of jewelry. Add in a grandmother, make it a multi-generational novel where characters discover the true meaning of family, and you’ve got me.
I was touched by this entertaining, compelling story with its wonderful characters. It was a delight to read.
Through an heirloom charm bracelet, three women will rediscover the importance of family and a passion for living as each charm changes their lives.
On her birthday each year, Lolly’s mother gave her a charm, along with the advice that there is nothing more important than keeping family memories alive, and so Lolly’s charm bracelet would be a constant reminder of that love.
Now seventy and starting to forget things, Lolly knows time is running out to reconnect with a daughter and granddaughter whose lives have become too busy for Lolly…
I love a book where the character discovers a lie about the life she’s been living, and it sets her on a journey to find the truth of her identity.
As with this title, I appreciate well-drawn characters and prose that grabs me from the first page and keeps me reading late into the night. And I love being transported to far-away lands in a different time.
A special Sophie Allport Design limited edition of the moving and powerful mystery, The Forgotten Garden, the bestselling second novel from the author of The House at Riverton, Kate Morton.
A lost child . . .
On the eve of the First World War, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her -but has disappeared without a trace.
A terrible secret . . .
On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell Andrews learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I am drawn to novels set in the not-too-distant past that resonate today. I wanted to read this book as soon as it came out because I loved Conrey’s first book, the USA Today bestseller, Nowhere Near Goodbye.
As with that book, the characters are well-drawn and the novel is gut-wrenching and unputdownable. A secret the character feels forced to keep runs through this story about love and loss, biases, and family dynamics.
When Maggie Bryan works up the nerve to tell her parents she's pregnant, they immediately disown her. Later that night, her boyfriend is killed. In desperation, she turns to her brother, Sam. Against his wife's wishes, Sam brings Maggie to his home in rural Pennsylvania.
While Maggie awaits the birth of her child and navigates the tension in her new home, she decides to finish high school. There, she meets Anne Phillips, a volunteer educator and full
An emotional search for identity, a painting that may just be the key to untangling the complicated past, and a clandestine love affair in 1920s Brooklyn all lead to a shocking family secret discovered eighty-four years later.
In her desperate quest for family, Carolyn Lee, fitness trainer and amateur photographer, is determined, against all advice, to reveal the shocking secret she uncovers. It has the potential to tear lives apart, or to bring her the closeness and comfort she longs for. It all depends on how she handles it.
