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When Lydia was a teenager, she made a decision that ruined her family's life. They've spent the last 30 years living with the consequences and doing their best to pretend it never happened. Lydia's husband, the gorgeous and reliable Mark, and her two teenage children know nothing about that summer back in 1982. And that's the way Lydia wants it to stay. The opportunity to come clean is long gone, and now it's not the lie that matters; it's the betrayal of hiding the truth for so long.
A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother....
Brooke Nolan is a battered child who makes an anonymous phone call about the escalating brutality in her home. When social services jeopardize her safety, condemning her to keep her father's secret, it's a glass of spilled milk at the dinner table that forces her to speak about the cruelty she's been hiding. In her pursuit of safety and justice, Brooke battles a broken system that pushes to keep her father in the home.
Best-selling author Diane Chamberlain delivers a breakout book about a small southern town 50 years ago, and the darkest - and most hopeful - places in the human heart. After losing her parents, 15-year-old Ivy Hart is left to care for her grandmother, older sister, and nephew as tenants on a small tobacco farm. As she struggles with her grandmother’s aging, her sister’s mental illness, and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can give. When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County’s newest social worker, she doesn’t realize just how much her help is needed.
As I saw my newborn baby’s face for the first time, I tried desperately to capture her face in my mind - to stamp it onto my eyelids. As she was taken from me, I knew I might never see my daughter again. Thirty-seven years later... 'You were adopted'. Three short words and Sabina’s life fractures. There would forever be a before those words and an after. Pregnant with her own child, Sabina can’t understand how a mother could abandon her daughter or why her parents have kept the past a secret.
Ginny Carter was once a rising star in TV news, married to a top anchorman, with a three-year-old son and a full and happy life in Beverly Hills - until her whole world dissolved in a single instant on the freeway two days before Christmas. In the aftermath, she pieces her life back together and tries to find meaning in her existence as a human rights worker in the worst areas around the globe.
When Lydia was a teenager, she made a decision that ruined her family's life. They've spent the last 30 years living with the consequences and doing their best to pretend it never happened. Lydia's husband, the gorgeous and reliable Mark, and her two teenage children know nothing about that summer back in 1982. And that's the way Lydia wants it to stay. The opportunity to come clean is long gone, and now it's not the lie that matters; it's the betrayal of hiding the truth for so long.
A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother....
Brooke Nolan is a battered child who makes an anonymous phone call about the escalating brutality in her home. When social services jeopardize her safety, condemning her to keep her father's secret, it's a glass of spilled milk at the dinner table that forces her to speak about the cruelty she's been hiding. In her pursuit of safety and justice, Brooke battles a broken system that pushes to keep her father in the home.
Best-selling author Diane Chamberlain delivers a breakout book about a small southern town 50 years ago, and the darkest - and most hopeful - places in the human heart. After losing her parents, 15-year-old Ivy Hart is left to care for her grandmother, older sister, and nephew as tenants on a small tobacco farm. As she struggles with her grandmother’s aging, her sister’s mental illness, and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can give. When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County’s newest social worker, she doesn’t realize just how much her help is needed.
As I saw my newborn baby’s face for the first time, I tried desperately to capture her face in my mind - to stamp it onto my eyelids. As she was taken from me, I knew I might never see my daughter again. Thirty-seven years later... 'You were adopted'. Three short words and Sabina’s life fractures. There would forever be a before those words and an after. Pregnant with her own child, Sabina can’t understand how a mother could abandon her daughter or why her parents have kept the past a secret.
Ginny Carter was once a rising star in TV news, married to a top anchorman, with a three-year-old son and a full and happy life in Beverly Hills - until her whole world dissolved in a single instant on the freeway two days before Christmas. In the aftermath, she pieces her life back together and tries to find meaning in her existence as a human rights worker in the worst areas around the globe.
It's been 10 years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne's case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched. The decade-old investigation focused on Nic; her brother, Daniel; her boyfriend, Tyler; and Corinne's boyfriend, Jackson. Since then only Nic has left Cooley Ridge.
A hungry, stray dog is the last thing Cara Butter needs. Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara's heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone - on foot.
Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens - until the day its complacency is shattered by an act of violence. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened before her very own eyes - or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show - destroying the closest of friendships and families.
Bea has barely been scraping by since her husband died. After falling for a telephone scam, she loses everything and is forced to abandon her trailer. With only two-thirds of a tank in her old van, she heads toward the Pacific Ocean with her cat - on a mission to reclaim what's rightfully hers, even if it means making others pay for what she lost.
When Leo and Molly met and married, they believed they were invincible. Together they could take on the world. But Leo, a war correspondent, lives for life on the edge, and when he takes a step into the unknown, tragedy strikes and he loses his memory. Molly rushes to help him fill in the gaps and soon they start falling in love all over again. The trouble is, Molly is hiding something. Something big. The devoted wife at Leo's bedside is a sham; Leo and Molly's marriage was on the rocks long before Leo's accident.
In The Silent Sister, Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she's in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary. Lisa is alive. Alive and living under a new identity. But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now?
Melanie Oak appeared to have the perfect life. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Jacob, the couple live with their beautiful, loving, teenage daughter, Beth, in a pretty village. Nothing can shake her happiness -- until the day that Beth goes missing, and is discovered beaten almost to the point of death, her broken body lying in a freezing creek on the marshes near their home. Consumed with grief, Melanie is determined to find her daughter's attacker. Someone in the village must have seen something. Why won't they talk?
When Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, he presents her with a wedding gift: the young slave she grew up with, Sarah. Sarah is also Allen’s daughter and Clarissa’s sister, a product of his longtime relationship with his house slave, Emmeline. When Clarissa’s husband suspects that their newborn son is illegitimate, Clarissa and Sarah are sent back to her parents, Cornelius and Theodora, in shame, setting in motion a series of events that will destroy this once-powerful family.
Maya and Rebecca Ward are both accomplished physicians, but that's where the sisters' similarities end. As teenagers, they witnessed their parents' murder, but it was Rebecca who saved Maya from becoming another of the gunman's victims. The tragedy left Maya cautious and timid, settling for a sedate medical practice with her husband, Adam, while Rebecca became the risk taker.
Shortly before dawn on a frigid morning in Radom, Poland, twenty-one year-old Joe answered a knock at the door of the cottage he shared with his widowed mother and siblings. German soldiers forced him onto a crowded open-air truck. Wearing only an undershirt and shorts, Joe was left on the truck with no protection from the cold. By the next morning, several around him would be dead. From there, things got worse for young Joe, much worse.
A fiercely independent divorce lawyer learns the power of family and connection when she receives a cryptic message from her estranged mother in this bittersweet, witty novel from the nationally best-selling author of Someone Else's Love Story and Gods in Alabama - an emotionally resonant tale about the endurance of love and the power of stories to shape and transform our lives.
For reasons of his own, Stephen Hampton, Lord Summerdale, is determined to learn the truth behind the tangled tale of Helen's ruin. There is nothing he abhors so much as scandal - nothing he prizes so well as discretion - and so he is shocked to find that he cannot help but admire her. But how can she trust a man so steeped in the culture of high society, who conceals so much? And how can he, so devoted to the appearance of propriety, ever love a fallen lady?
Your husband took his own life. Tell the truth and destroy what is left of your family. Or keep a secret that will tear you apart. What would you do?
Olivia and David were the perfect couple with their whole lives in front of them. When beautiful baby daughter Zoe came along, their world seemed complete.
But now David is dead and Olivia's world is in pieces. While she is consumed with grief, her mother-in-law Ivy is also mourning the loss of her son. Both women are hiding secrets about the man they loved. Secrets that have put the family in danger.
Something was very wrong in Olivia and David's marriage. Can Olivia and Ivy break their silence and speak the truth? A mother should protect her child, whatever the cost, shouldn't she?
Four stars for a book of surprises. And the biggest surprise is saved for the end of the book. My heart and soul ached while reading A Mother's Confession, realizing I know people who are so similar to each of the characters. I found that scary while fearing there were times I should have spoken up. Seems each main character had good and bad traits, and I found myself understanding why. I recommend this book for almost everyone.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful
This story and narration were excellent! Never imagined the twist at the end. Although the story did move a little slow, I really enjoyed Brigid Lohrey's performance of each character, and the story unfolded in a way that held my attention and interest. Also, was quite interesting to see the multiple ways that some of the characters used denial as a coping mechanism. The twists did not feel contrived and were well integrated into the story. Emotionally gripping. Sad story, yet shows hope for the future. Don't give up. Hang in there, because you won't be sorry.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful
Do NOT read the review titled "A Mother and/or Woman's Worst Nightmare"!!! She gives away the whole book, and even the twist at the end!!
That being said, I loved this book!! Loved, Loved Loved!!! I fell in love with some characters, and absolutely despised others! keeps you guessing!
7 of 7 people found this review helpful
I loved this book, the narration was beautiful! story was engrossing! with a twist I did not see coming. best book I've listened to.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
This book really hit home. I was involved in an abusive relationship, though no where as severe as this one. I could really relate to the struggles to try to make sense of a relationship that continued to go wrong regardless of what you did. I will listen to this one again, and probably again. Should I suspect someone is in an abusive relationship, I will give them this book. Excellent story and excellent narrator. Thanks, Audible!
6 of 7 people found this review helpful
Great story but the narrator was horrible. Had to force myself to continue listening. After the first few chapters the book grips you so you want to get to the end. But, the narrator is almost unbearable.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
This Was a good listen although it could have done with a little more editing. post of it seemed to drag and I think we were able to understand the personality of the lead character from the third or fourth chapter. However That being said, be in for a surprise ending that you will never see coming!!
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I liked the story, the characters, the twist... just seemed to drag a little bit. Would recommend still
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This story was not as bittersweet and heart-wrenching as its described - in a good way. Yes, the story was not as heart-wrenching as its described - in a good way, it was more bittersweet as a whole, definitely strong, important moments of heartbreak but with realistic resolution. Sentiments of this book: difficulty of marriage, domestic abuse, familial sacrifice, self-preservation, loss and deceit and if I had to rename the book I would call it, The Mother's Realization or The Mother's Reality. This story is a combination of the two books "Who We were Before" By Leach Mercer and “Behind Closed Doors” By B. A. Paris in terms of certain aspects such as central issues.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I reluctantly listened to this book. it was hard not getting angry at the wife for not leaving this relationship but the anger quickly turned to sympathy as the mother in laws character came out. I could not quit listening. Nobody knows the reasons why a person stays in an abusive relationship, or why a person becomes so abusive. Fear for her and everybody she loved was her reason and for good reason.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Words are difficult to express how I feel right at this moment. Such a beautifully written yet heart breaking read. A thought provoking book that touched my heart - silent tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened to the reality that was Olivia and Zoe's lives. A must read for every woman - a book that'll make you thankful for the lives we live, or a book that may just give you strength to live better lives for yourselves. Thank you so much @bookouture and Kelly Rimmer for this beautiful book.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
Read the other reviews and thought I'd give it a go. Ploughed through, not really seeing why the raves reviews, BUT then i got it and some. What a book. I was planning to go out this morning but still too upset and moved to leave the house. Brilliantly performed and a horribly tragic story. Just use your credit. Go on. And brace yourself.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Seldom does a work of fiction move me to tears but this one certainly succeeded. It took a while for me to comprehend the true tragedy
of the story, so stick with it and have the hankies to hand !
I chose this because I've read her other books and I know she looks deeply and knowledgeably into the subject, plus I've suffered abuse and studied it myself.
I agree with other reviews, it does feel like it drones on a bit, but stay with it, all the detail is necessary , it's a cracking story.
took a while to get used to the narrator but once you get used to her the story itself is very good
A very well paced read with a tragic twist revealed near the end. I was sad to finish it.
I'm surprised that other readers found the much heralded twist a surprise - there were enough clues! I think this,would have made a good story if it was about half as long - far too.laboured for me.
great storyline with an unexpected twist, leaves you thinking what would i do and how would i cope. only bad point is the narrator's voice
Very very gripping and a really book.
I couldn't stop listening and then didn't want it to end.
brilliantly written, characters you grow to like, dislike and understand.
excellent unexpected twist to the end of the story.
Very insightful.
so pleased that I chose to give an in known author a listen. will definitely be looking for more of her books.
This was supposed to be a thriller but it’s more like a sleeper. Slow and hard to get through. Only hung on to see if this ‘amazing twist’ redeemed it but alas - a waste of time and money. And the accents were all over the shop - English Irish Australian - couldn’t tell. Very disappointing.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Well written with a relatable storyline. ry A thought provoking storyline and a great narrator.
I enjoyed the book right from the start. However, once I was a few chapters in, I couldn't put it down.
I did not see the final twists coming until they were upon me which made for a thrilling addictive read.
This book keeps you engaged from start to finish. I have never read anything like it. I loved it
The story will keep you on the edge of your seat!!! But the narration is irritatingly slow.
WOW!!! I did not see that coming.
I enjoyed this book the story seems all normal and quite uneventful until a certain point and then I was left with my mouth open. I actually had my hand over my mouth as it took me that much by surprise. I didn't realise that I was that emotionally engaged in the story. This is a must read if you like a good twist at the end of a book.
I also loved how Australian this was and it was then easy to relate to.
My first book of K. Rimmer's, and I thought it was going to be like a few other books out now-a-days; had the feeling of 'Girl on a Train' to begin with. However, I prefer this story much more.
I continued on and I was greatly surprised by the well written plot and twist. All neatly interwoven, the characters you either loved greatly, or despised intensely because of the depth that was given to them.
I look forward to reading more of Kelly's stories, and wouldn't be surprised if this became a movie.
You've done it again Kelly Rimmer! Once again I just could not walk away from your latest masterpiece for a moment! A Mother's Confession was unbelievable... a gripping novel with a huge curveball that I wouldn't have expected for a second! Loved every little bit!