Secrets and Lies - T.A.Rosewood

This is my third book by the author Traci aka T.A.Rosewood and as with her other two books, this too has become my favorite!

Blurb:

Sarah Has Secrets...

Secrets she thought were hidden away for good, only existing in her memory, being too ashamed to tell anyone the truth.

But Secrets Lead To Lies...

Lies that could destroy her new life with Tom, but at the same time, give her a future she never thought possible.

Will The Secrets Be Revealed And Will The Lies Ever End?

Who will stay and who will leave her along the way?

And When Will She Be Free Of Her Secrets And Lies?

My review:

In Reasonable Lies[Book 1] we read about Jane’s secret and this one is about her bestie Sarah’s secret. We see very little of Sarah’s childhood/background in Book 1 but here we get the whole story. Sarah though outwardly looks cool and happy does have her share of secrets that she hasn’t even shared with Jane! Reading her account of her childhood and all that she had to go through is very emotional. This book is more of life from Sarah’s POV.

I have always admired Sarah for being a rock, a pillar of support for her friend Jane. Sarah’s husband Tom is a very loving and caring person and I’m sure Jane would have been so happy to see them together. But now with Jane gone, she has no one to share her secret with especially when a person from the past comes knocking by! After a lot of deliberation, she finds solace in sharing it with Jane’s husband who is now her best friend.

How does Sarah handle the secret and does Tom come to know about it is what this book is about?

The first thing that impressed me about this book is the simple language and the connection the author makes with the readers. The book starts with the prologue where Sarah is getting her Caffeine fix and a timid voice asks if she is Sarah Roberts! That’s when the nightmare starts. The story goes back in time and then comes back to the place where the book started. Hence the suspense keeps building right from the beginning.

Sarah grieves Jane’s death and she is supportive to her kids and the family on the whole. Then comes the real punch when she says she isn’t interested in having kids and the reason is well justified! Just like how Traci handled Jane’s situation in Book1, here she has done a superb job of writing about Sarah!

All the characters are relatable, especially Sarah’s condition where she struggles in telling Tom about her past. There are several places in the book where I felt Jane would have felt so proud of her dear friend Sarah and some places I felt Jane should have been there to hold Sarah’s hand and tell her everything was going to be ok. Sarah’s past and her loss are so unbearable! Was it as emotional Reasonable Lies? Definitely Yes! And a lot more than that, after reading about the tragedies in Sarah’s life.

I also like the fact that the author has maintained all the characters from the first book. They still meet up and hang out with each other and have an important part in each other's lives.

Overall, a good emotional read that I could finish in one sitting. If you have read Traci’s previous books, this one is definitely for you. Even otherwise pick up this book and read about friendship, tragedy, love, and enjoy the roller coaster ride through emotions!

About the Author:

T.A. Rosewood, who wrote her first short story when she was just thirteen years old in a school textbook, which was called, 'Looks Aren’t Everything' was inspired by best-selling author, Jojo Moyes.

During her GCSE English exam, she was supposed to write a two-page short story; but once she’d started writing, she couldn’t stop, ending up with a thirty-page story!

In her twenties, she began writing poetry and to date, has had five of them published in various poetry publications, but, as her family and life grew busy, she found she had to stop writing.

Almost two decades later though, she was inspired to write again, when she met bestselling author Jojo Moyes at the open evening of Harts Books store in Saffron Walden, Essex.

She listened intently as Jojo Moyes described how it felt for her when her bestselling book 'Me Before You' was turned into a Hollywood movie. At that precise moment, she turned to her husband, and said: “I’m going to start writing again” and she did just that.

A month into starting the book, her mother was diagnosed with the same disease as the main character in Reasonable Lies so again, she halted all her writing to concentrate on helping her mother through her ordeal. Thankfully, her mother recovered and told her she had to continue with the book and the rest is history as they say!

Now her debut novel, 'Reasonable Lies' is out and readers are enjoying it, plus it raises awareness for breast cancer which is something very dear to the hearts of her family.

T.A. Rosewood lives in North Essex