ammaarah
Written on Aug 16, 2015
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!
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!