Book Review: The Secret of Lies by Barbara Forte Abate

As most of you know, Spring college classes have resumed this week.  Even though I've four classes with tons of homework and quizzes, I did manage to finish the latest on my TBR pile and can't wait to share it with you!

The latest novel at my fingertips is THE SECRET OF LIES by Barbara Forte Abate.

For those of you out there, Ms. Abate tells me that :

I grew up in a small town in Dutchess County, New York, the third of five children. Although I started my first novel in 4th grade, I didn't recognize what would eventually become a lifelong passion until several years later as I found my thoughts routinely wandering off to inhabit imagined places — spinning elaborate tales curiously populated by ever-changing collections of strange and unique characters that seemed to arrive from nowhere, yet remained, incredibly content to live within my fictitious worlds.

It would be impossible to determine or otherwise explain where the intense obsession to draw pictures and unreal emotion with words on paper originates from, just as it would be unfathomable to ever abandon. It is simply there – deep, unquenchable, eternal.

Influences are everywhere and in abundance – people I've known over a lifetime, as well as those who have merely crossed my path and gone, yet touched in such a way as to remain memorable. Places I've been or merely absorbed – fallen into through the pull of a photograph. Experiences of love, loss, injury, joy, and impossible tragedy. Events in our everyday world that sink so deeply they cannot be discarded from thought or memory. And more than any single thing, my Divine Creator who inspires me in all things – not simply with the desire to create, but the faith to pursue and persevere for as long as it takes.  Days later, lost and floundering in a dreary motel room without plan or destination, it is a long ago song playing on the radio that gently tugs Stevie back through the dust of remembrance. 1957 – The last summer spent at the ancient house overlooking the North Atlantic. A season which had unfolded with abundant promise, but then spiraled horribly out of control – torn apart by a shattering tragedy that remains splintered in fragments upon her soul. And it is only now, when Stevie at last lifts her eyes to stare deep into the heart of her long sequestered memories, that the long held secrets of past and future are at last unveiled.

Find out more about Barbara at: http://www.barbaraforteabate.com

The Secret of Lies

Blurb:

Propelled by an insurmountable sense of desperation, Stevie Burke is recklessly abandoning home, husband, and outwardly contented life under cover of night; at last resigned to defeat in her long battle against the tortured memories of her past.

Days later, lost and floundering in a dreary motel room without plan or destination, it is a long ago song playing on the radio that gently tugs Stevie back through the dust of remembrance. 1957 – The last summer spent at the ancient house overlooking the North Atlantic. A season which had unfolded with abundant promise, but then spiraled horribly out of control – torn apart by a shattering tragedy that remains splintered in fragments upon her soul. And it is only now, when Stevie at last lifts her eyes to stare deep into the heart of her long sequestered memories, that the long held secrets of past and future are at last unveiled.

My Review:

I have to say I love that I never 'shelf' my reading choices by strictly one genre.  The Secret of Lies is one such book that, any person that says they won't read it, doesn't realize what they are missing.

The Secret of Lies is emotional fiction with a plot that will rock a reader to the core.  Skillfully set in the late 50s and early 60s, the author has brought the entire sense of that era magnificently into the pages of this book.  The tale is wrapped around several years in the main character's life, gut-wrenchingly dark and intense.  As it is so often said, a single lie can spin a web so intense; a person's soul can become lost in the lie itself.  Barbara Forte Abate brings that concept into full view in her tale of lies, betrayal, the coming of age, and acceptance. 

I loved this story because it pulls at the heart…it makes a reader wonder how they would react in a similar situation and whether their own past would tear them apart. 

Wonderful characters, a compelling tale, and well written drama!

4 Stars!