Secrets of My Heart

Willamette Brides, Book 1

By: Tracie Peterson

Narrated by: Stephanie Cozart

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Portland, Oregon, 1879. Nancy Pritchard finds herself a widow with a world of problems when her deceased husband's schemes start to come to light. As she searches through the pieces of her loveless marriage, Nancy realizes there is a lot that she didn't know about this man.

Seth Carpenter is a childhood friend of Nancy's who has recently returned to Portland. He's delighted to see her again, and as a lawyer, he is able to help her sort through the legal aspects of her husband's death. But there's more to him than meets the eye, and his job will take him into a darker side of Nancy's life - a side she didn't even know existed.

As they search for the truth behind her husband's death, their attraction to each other creates complications, and the threat to Nancy increases. Can Seth be honest with her about who he really is and why he's come to Portland? And can Nancy bear another betrayal?

©2020 Tracie Peterson (P)2020 Recorded Books

Good, but lacking

Enjoyable story but lacked a dramatic climax. I think it’s important to remember that this is a work of fiction and that the things represented may or may not be accurate of the time. I was dismayed when it was said that most people dislike people of color. I don’t know that that was true at all in that day. I also don’t know if they used that term and feel like this was intended to address issues of today and perhaps change history to fit. I don’t find it to be true in my own life. I also get tired of plots that involve a rather minor deception that’s perfectly understandable and legitimate, yet the female protagonist is overly sensitive and overreacts to the situation.

The narrator is good, but needs some better male voices. In particular, she uses too many high-pitched tenor voices which sometimes makes it difficult to distinguish them from the female characters. Overall her tone is pleasant and her acting good.

The edge of it all

I just loved the entire book! Kept me on the edge of the seat most of the time.

Excellent

Tracie Peterson hit the mark again and Stephanie Cozart did a superb job. Petersons has always been able to capture the raw human emotions and spiritual struggle while all along pointing the characters and readers to Christ through her stories- that's what I've found to be so captivating in Petersons writing.a

Excellent read!

The author takes you on an insightful journey as the character struggles to understand God and deal with the challenge of her life.

Narration

I have never found a narrator I couldn’t stand to listen to before. Today I have. The over enunciation and the terrible try at other voices was just awful. I have listened to many books with reviews saying bad narration, and did just fine. I will get a paper version of this book and read it because I want the story but please lose this narrator!

Anxious

I cannot wait to move on to the 2nd book. My husband loves listening to the books with me, hopefully he will get some spare time to start the next one soon with me. I’ve already bought the rest of the books😍

Wonderful story!

Enjoyed the story and the reading very much. Only negative comment I would make (as an Oregonian) is the incorrect pronunciation of the Willamette. It is nothing pronounced Willuh-met. It is pronounced Will-a-met (the ‘A’ sounds the same as in the words as or at)

Hard to put down

This story has enough intrigue to keep you reading even when you should be doing something else. I love it.

Christian Historical Romance

I loved the story and the narration! Everything was perfect, except for the pronunciation of Willamette. It actually made me laugh, though.
it's not Will a mitt. It's Will Am et. It almost sounds like Lamb in the middle (even if I can't write it out, phonetically).

Great story with even greater Truth❣️

Nothing was unwanted. Story was very well developed. I really hope there are more written.