Hidden Secrets will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew.
Carla Michaels’s life isn't what she thought it was. She met her loving husband in college. She had a career as a teacher. All she ever wanted to complete her life was a baby. After five miscarriages, Carla had almost given up hope of ever becoming a mother. Then a devastating tragedy strikes and everything she had ever loved is gone—now she’s left torn and shattered, wondering if she can go on with life. Unexpectedly, she receives an envelope full of books. Journals that were kept hidden from her. A mystery starts to play out as secrets are revealed. Will she get a second chance at life? Will the hidden secrets destroy her? Or will she find the strength to survive once she knows the truth? “Hidden Secrets” will pull at your heartstrings until the very last page. Some secrets are not meant to be hidden.
Excerpt
Prelude:
What would you do if you found a book, a journal hidden away, filled with secrets—things you weren’t meant to know; things you should’ve known from the beginning?
So the question remains, how well does anyone really know his or her own spouse, sister, brother, mother, or father?
You could be living under the same roof for five, ten, even twenty years, and not really know one another. Even before they became your significant other, did their parents or siblings know them better than anyone else did? Did your family keep things hidden?
Siblings don’t always share their secrets with each other. They are not close. They most likely won’t get along with one another until they become adults, and still maybe even then, not see eye to eye!
What if you’re an only child, no one with which to share anything? What if one-day you stumble across a secret journal that your so-called loved ones have been hiding from you? What would you do? Of course, you would read it. You wouldn’t be able to help yourself. You would be too curious the moment you opened the book and read the first line. Especially, if you saw your name written as one of the words.
What if everything you thought you knew about your family, your spouse, your lover were all lies? Something they thought was better kept hidden from the one person they supposedly loved the most.
Even then, no one really knows anyone, do they?
Professional Reviews
I.Ray
Wow! Wow! Wow! What an emotional read. I have not read this author before but I will definitely pick up more books by her. Hidden Secrets is an amazing read that I could not put down. The plot and story line moves a long at a steady pace. It is believable and quite a tearjerker for sure. I enjoyed Carla and Tim's story and it resonated with me. The characters were very easy to identify with .
Carla's life is pretty ideal. The only thing missing in her life is a baby. She has always wanted a baby and she won't stop trying to have one or give up hope of having one. Her husband is there to support her but it has caused a strain between them. She is pregnant with a little girl and so far things are going good. Little does she know that her life is about to change forever and she will find out that things are not always what they seem. There are things she never knew about Tim and his past that come to light and secrets that he has hidden from her over the years. With everything she has gone through and everything she has learned will she be able to pick up the pieces of her life and move on?
Tim hasn't always had an easy life but he has a good life now. He has a wife he loves with all his heart and a job he has always wanted. There isn't a thing he wouldn't do for his wife and he hopes she knows that. The only he knows that she wants is a baby and they have been trying for years. With each loss it breaks his heart a little more each time. Not only does he lose a baby but he loses pieces of his wife as well. He doesn't know what he will do if they lose the one she is carrying now. He's afraid he will lose her completely. What can he do? He isn't sure but he will find a way to make all her dreams come true. But what will it cost him?
Hidden Secrets is easily one of my top 5 reads for 2016. I didn't like that there were a lot of secrets kept but without them the story wouldn't be what it is. I loved Tim and Carla. They were both great characters. Both had flaws but both were good people. I liked Tim for his compassion. I also liked that he took his troubled past and made something good come from it. I liked Carla because she was a great teacher and really cared about her students. I did thinks he tended to be a bit selfish at times. That being said it is quite understandable considering all she went through. I would highly recommend Hidden Secrets to anyone who enjoys contemporary romances, though I must warn it isn't for everyone considering some of the subject matter and emotions it may invoke.
Evie
Carla Michaels, the protagonist in the novel Hidden Secrets by Donna Zadunajsky, longs for a child. After a number of miscarriages, she delivers a premature daughter. From that day on, her life changes in epic ways. Tragedy strikes and the aftermath is shocking. This is a powerful story that leaves the reader wondering how well we know anyone close to us.
I found this to be a well written and engrossing story.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Amanda Dalton
How well do you truly know anyone in your life? Carla Michaels thought she knew her husband. She thought that she had a happy life. She married her college sweetheart, she had her dream job, the only thing missing was a baby to make them a family. After several miscarriages it seems like Carla and her husband Tim won't have a chance to have a child. Then she becomes pregnant again and makes it to six months. She's so happy, finally her dream has come true. She loves teaching and feels a special affection towards one of the children that's in her class, Samantha Berkley. She feels that she's being abused and tried to report it, but nothing happened. Until tragedy hits, she goes into premature labor. She wakes up in the hospital and is confused because she's no longer pregnant and Tim is edgy about the answers to her questions. For the first time she can't read her husband. Things go from bad to worse while Carla is recovering and they are waiting for the baby to get healthier. Tim doesn't think that Carla can take too much more bad news and keeps most things close to the vest. Tim does let Carla know that Samantha is in the same hospital and that her parents were in fact abusing her. Samantha was taken away and she is now one of his cases. Carla knows he's a lawyer, but not exactly what he does. More tragedy follows Carla and she must learn to pull her life back together. Once she finally starts to do so, she starts coming across journals and learning things she didn't know. Will it change her complete outlook? Change everything she thought she knew? Will it through her back into severe depression?
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