Book Review - Secrets She Left Behind - Diane Chamberlain

Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One afternoon, single mother Sara Weston says that she’s going to the store—and never returns. In her absence, she leaves her teenaged son alone with his damaged past and a legacy of secrets.

Keith Weston nearly lost his life in an act of arson. He survived—but with devastating physical and emotional scars. Without his mother, he has no one to help him heal, no money, nothing to live for but the medications that numb his pain. Isolated and angry, his hatred has one tight focus: his half-sister, Maggie Lockwood.

Now the person Keith despises most is the closest thing he has to family—until Sara returns. 

I really enjoyed this book once I got into it. It follows Maggie Lockwood as she is released from prison having served a year for arson. Maggie had set a fire to help her firefighter boyfriend look good in the eyes of his bosses. When she realised there were people in the building she tried to stop it but a careless cigarette set off the blaze killing 4 people and injuring others.

Returning to her small community, Maggie is supposed to do 300 hours of community service but finding a placement proves difficult. Many of the residents would rather Maggie had rotted in jail.
One of them is her half brother, Keith who was badly burned in the fire. Maggie's family set up is complicated. Maggie and half-brother Keith shared the same father, Maggie and her other half-brother Andy share the same mother.

On the day Maggie is released Keith’s mother Sara goes missing.

With flashbacks told from Sara’s POV giving lots of background information, the story follows the ongoing drama of how Maggie tries to come to terms with her situation and how Keith copes with his mother missing. Then a newcomer to the area Jen, separately befriends both Keith and Maggie with almost fatal consequences.

I hadn’t realized this was a sequel to Before the Storm until after I’d finished it. It probably would have helped to have read that first but much of its content was covered in this second book. It’s an easy read and it’s not obvious straightaway who Jen is or what her motives are. Sara’s secrets and what happened to her are also revealed bit by bit.

I liked that it also had a realistic ending rather than tying up all the loose ends and everyone being happy.




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