The Trouble with Secrets

The Kilteegan Bridge Story, Book 1

By: Jean Grainger

Narrated by: Siobhan Waring

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Kilteegan Bridge, County Cork 1958

For eighteen year old Lena O'Sullivan, life is predictable and dull. A future of hard work, marriage to a local boy, and a family of her own one day is all she has to look forward to. People from her background know not to expect too much, but Lena yearns for something different.

Malachy Berger was different, for him, the world is at his feet. An only child of a wealthy, if peculiar father, a large inheritance, a beautiful house and a fine education are his due. Nobody is in favour of Lena and Malachy’s friendship, but why not? What harm are they doing? Why is everyone so dead set against it?

Then fate takes a hand, and Lena realises that secrets and lies have bound her and Malachy in an impossible situation. And their future seems determined by events that happened long before they were born.

From rural Ireland to post-war Cardiff, Lena and Malachy’s story winds its way back to wartime Germany and occupied France in a web of deceit that threatens to destroy them both.

©2022 Gold Harp Media (P)2023 Gold Harp Media

GREAT STARTING STORY TO THIS SERIES!

I really enjoyed this first book in the Kilteegan Bridge series.

Lena o’Sullivan is 18. She feels her life on the farm is boring and she wishes she could get away from it. As much as she longs to go somewhere (anywhere), she can’t go. Her 15-year-old brother runs the family farm after his father’s death. Her mother is mentally ill. Her older sister is getting married in two months. If Lena leaves, who will take care of the two-year-old twins when her mom is having one of her “episodes”?

Lena expects her life to be just like her mother’s and sisters — boring. She’ll get married, be a farmer’s wife, have a bunch of kids. She’s resigned to it, but it’s not exactly her dream.

Then she meets Malachy at a dance. He’s the only child of a wealthy father. He lives in a big house, is getting a first class education, and for some reason Lena doesn’t understand, he falls in love with her (and she with him). Before Malachy returns to school for his final exams, the two decide to marry; but after Malachy leaves, he doesn’t respond to any of Lena’s letters. She is heartbroken. She also soon discovers she is expecting. She knows she can’t stay at home, risking upsetting her mother to the point of her plunging into another mental episode and might cause no end of scandal in town, but where could she go?

Lena’s beloved Godfather, Dr. Emmett Brown, arranges for her to go stay with friends in Cardiff, Wales for the duration of her pregnancy. There, she meets some very special people who completely change her life — in ways she could never imagine.

Not only was this an engrossing story, but as always the narrator, Siobhan Waring (who is the voice of many of Ms. Grainger’s books), does her usual fantastic job of bringing ALL the characters to life.

If I have any complaints about Ms. Grainger’s books in general, it’s how quickly her characters fall in love (as happened again in this book). Also, when Lena’s water broke while out at dinner one night, suddenly she was in the hospital 30-minutes later pushing a baby out. Only in Ms. Grainger’s world does real life generally go quite that fast.

I enjoyed this book tremendously, and can’t wait to begin book two in the series!

Can’t stop to write a review

I can’t stop to write a review- I’ve got to get to the 2nd book!!!!!