Secrets She Left Behind (Kennebec Large Print Superior Collection)

by Diane Chamberlain

One afternoon, single mother Sara Weston says that she's going to the store--and never returns. In her absence, she leaves her teenage son alone with his damaged past and a legacy of secrets.

Keith Weston nearly lost his life in an act of arson. He survived--but with devastating physical and emotional scars. Without his mother, he has no one to help him heal, no money, nothing to live for but the medications that numb his pain. Isolated and angry, his hatred has one tight focus: his half sister, Maggie Lockwood.

Nineteen-year-old Maggie Lockwood spent a year in prison for the acts that led up to the fire. Now she's back home. But her release cannot free her from the burden of guilt she carries. She grew up with Keith Weston, played with him as a child...and recently learned they share the same father.

Now the person Keith despises most is the closest thing he has to family--until Sara returns. If Sara returns....

• ISBN10: 1426833911
• ISBN13: 9781426833915
• Publish Date: 1 June 2009 (first published 26 May 2009)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Mira Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

Secrets She Left Behind is told in a present perspective from Andy Lockwood, Maggie Lockwood and Kieth Weston and in a past perspective from Sara Weston. Once again, Chamberlain's wrote two different timelines in an amazing way so that the end result would be one heartbreaking story. There were also four different POVs to read about, but each character had their own story, personalities and pain that were easy to differentiate.

There's one thing about this book that I love: the characters and how they make me feel. Each character has something good and something bad about them, they have made mistakes and/or are bearing the consequences of them, they all feel pain and they are wonderfully flawed. My emotions towards the characters were so conflicting. On one hand, I hated every little thing that they did, but on the other hand, I understood their motives for doing it. If I was in that characters shoes, I would probably do things in a similar way and that scared me. Chamberlain captured humans and their flaws so perfectly.

In Secrets She Left Behind we get to see Sara's side of the story. We get to know who she was, what her life was like, how she was able to befriend and betray Laurel at the same time and how Jamie was a perfect jerk. We get to see Andy growing up. We also see Maggie dealing with her guilt and the hatred that is shown towards her. We see Keith, whose struggling with his life, who's bearing physical and emotional scars from the fire and whose anger is directed towards the Lockwoods, especially Maggie. This along with Sara going missing, and Jen, a suspicious character, being introduced makes for an interesting read.

It's the realistic characters that made Secrets She Left Behind an amazing read along with the realistically bittersweet, but hopeful ending. Secrets She Left Behind made me feel thoroughly upset... In a good, I'm-totally-into-this-story type of way. Diane Chamberlain, this is certainly not the last book of yours that I will be reading!