Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Secrets She Left Behind
    Secrets She Left Behind
    Secrets She Left Behind
    Audiobook13 hours

    Secrets She Left Behind

    Written by Diane Chamberlain

    Narrated by Abby Craden and Kris Koscheski

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The sudden disappearance of Sara Weston is a mystery to her seventeen-year-old son, Keith. A survivor of an arson fire, Keith is still healing, and in Sara's absence, he must face a challenging situation alone: the release of his half-sister, Maggie, from prison. Maggie, who was partially responsible for the fire, is the handiest target for Keith's rage.
    Reintegration into the outside world proves difficult for Maggie, even beyond dealing with Keith and her guilt. Somehow the two must find a way to overcome the past because Maggie and her family may be all Keith has left.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateOct 27, 2014
    ISBN9781494574710
    Author

    Diane Chamberlain

    Diane Chamberlain is the bestselling author of twenty novels, including The Midwife's Confession and The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes. Diane lives in North Carolina and is currently at work on her next novel. Visit her Web site at www.dianechamberlain.com and her blog at www.dianechamberlain.com/blog and her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Diane.Chamberlain.Readers.Page.

    More audiobooks from Diane Chamberlain

    Related to Secrets She Left Behind

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Counselor of Chippewa Cabin

      Jun 26, 2020

      Counselor of Chippewa Cabin
      5 min read

    • Article

      Maria

      Mar 1, 2022

      MARIA AND I had just settled into a corner of the classroom to work on our Civil War project when Mr. Sanchez told me I had a message from the front office. OooOOOOoohs echoed around the room. “OK, OK, pipe down, everyone,” said Mr. Sanchez. I s

      9 min read

    • Article

      Ice cream DREAMS

      Aug 4, 2021

      Ice cream DREAMS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Grandad’s Chair

      Oct 6, 2020

      Grandad’s Chair
      7 min read

    • Article

      Yellow Is the Color of Choices

      Dec 10, 2023

      For whatever reason, when she sees me each weekend, Megan still hugs me like when she was five. Her skinny arms wrap around my waist, and her eyes squeeze tight like she’s absorbing me into her skin. This is both heartening and heart-wrenching. I wan

      13 min read

    • Article

      Shanda

      Jan 1, 2024

      Shanda
      13 min read

    • Article

      Thirteen

      Jan 30, 2020

      Thirteen
      21 min read

    • Article

      Some Kindof Justice

      Mar 10, 2023

      What I’m about to tell you happened like thirty years ago or something. It happened to my mum, and I only know about it because she got drunk last Christmas and like totally broke down crying and saying she was a bad person. Of course, I told her she

      13 min read

    • Article

      Daughters’ Bodies

      Dec 1, 2019

      WHEN I’M about to go away to college, my grandmother dies and my mother silently puts herself up for adoption. LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO ADOPT ME: Kind, lonely, beautiful woman in her 50s. Dead husband. No children. Cooks and cleans. 4’11 and 90 lbs. Gu

      20 min read

    • Article

      Football Crazy

      Dec 1, 2022

      Football Crazy
      6 min read

    • Article

      CHRISTMAS Secrets

      Dec 2, 2020

      CHRISTMAS Secrets
      9 min read

    • Article

      Festival

      Sep 15, 2018

      My husband, who loved festivals, who was a great fan of festivals, wanted to get to the square in time for the first band at eleven o’clock. From bed, the dog and I watched him dress. He tried on various T-shirts, declaring some of them too tight and

      13 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Jan 1, 2022

      It was an unusual birthday. Colorful banners blanketed the backyard. Kids chased each other through the grass. Adults talked. It all went downhill from there. My little sister was turning five. On her birthday cake, painted in frosting, was a fat, pi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Without A Trace

      Jan 5, 2023

      Heading to my room and closing the door, I lay down on my bed and took a letter out of my pocket. Poring over the words on the page, I read it over and over again. It was from my mum, Tina, 32. Having had me at just 19, life had been difficult for he

      5 min read

    • Article

      King Of The Castle

      Dec 28, 2023

      King Of The Castle
      5 min read

    • Article

      You’re The Dirty Rascal

      Apr 6, 2023

      You’re The Dirty Rascal
      5 min read

    • Article

      Vanished

      Apr 20, 2023

      Vanished
      5 min read

    • Article

      Together Again

      Jul 14, 2022

      Together Again
      6 min read

    • Article

      See for YOURSELF

      Sep 1, 2021

      See for YOURSELF
      6 min read

    • Article

      Battle Of The Parking Space

      Nov 12, 2021

      Battle Of The Parking Space
      5 min read

    • Article

      Lucky To Have You

      Mar 12, 2020

      Rushing around the house, I looked about for my keys and wallet, eventually finding them under a pile of laundry. Checking I had my shopping list, I popped my head into the living room to say goodbye. I’m off to Iceland for the food shop, see you bot

      5 min read

    • Article

      Advent

      Nov 22, 2018

      Advent
      8 min read

    • Article

      Love That Hurts

      Apr 16, 2020

      Tony Hannington, 56, Herne Bay, Kent Settling on the sofa, I took a swig of my drink. Bit strong, I thought to myself, wincing. It was a Friday night in November 2013, and after a long day at work, this glass of Jack Daniel’s was just what I needed.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Ashes To Ashes

      Apr 14, 2020

      Ashes To Ashes
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Joy of BOOKS

      Apr 8, 2020

      The Joy of BOOKS
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Healthy Cigarette

      Sep 6, 2022

      A Healthy Cigarette
      5 min read

    • Article

      Wicked Witch Of Yorkshire

      May 1, 2020

      Staring up at the man in the navy suit, I watched as he shuffled his papers. He smelled of shoe polish and stood with a briefcase by his side. ‘I’m sorry to tell you, your mother is dead,’ he said. ‘Do you understand?’ What’s he on about? Mums don’t

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Secrets She Left Behind

    4/5

    32 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This author is such an excellent writer. Reading her books is such a great experience for those who love the twists and turns of a mystery. Her books deal with the challenges that face the characters in their everyday lives and the consequences that each must face when certain choices are made. This particular story deals with the intricate relationships within a particular family. Each of the characters must deal with certain revelations when they surface. By the end of the story the turmoil of the prominent characters seems to be resolved. I highly recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      This is the sequel to Chamberlain's book [Before the Storm]. I loved that book and was very excited to hear about this one. I was not disappointed. This book picks up when Maggie is released from prison. Keith's mother Sara disappears on the day of Maggie's release. This book gives a lot of insight to Sara's feelings through the years in regards to the Lockwoods and her feelings about Jamie and the fire. There is a good mystery element to it in regard to Sara's sudden disappearance. What happened to her? What will happen to Keith? Just like the first book, the characters are well developed and you feel empathy for all of them. I couldn't put it down!
    • 3/5
      I was looking forward to reading the sequel to "Before the Storm", and although it was enjoyable, I don't think it was as good as the first book. This story was more plot driven. I can't say that I loved the characters this time around. But, I still could hardly put the book down. I HAD to find out how it ended,. I read so fast, even skimming some parts just to get to the end. This is actually why I did not give it a higher rating. The book was too long. Most of the core of the story is revealed in the first book, so in this book there was alot of rehashing and retelling from different points of view. The actual new twists were a bit obvious and took too long to be resolved. Where is Sara? Who is Jen? What will happen with Maggie? That being said, I think that the story is a good conclusion to what Ms. Chamberlain began in "Before the Storm". I would recommend reading this if you have already read the first one.
    • 3/5
      I didn’t find out that this book was a sequel to “Before the Storm” until I finished it and was flipping through the ads at the back. I open with that, because had I known that, and/or had I read the first book, my feelings about “Secrets She Left Behind” might be different.Maybe then I might have understood more about why the characters took the actions they did, or if not, maybe I would have been more emotionally invested in them so that it didn’t matter as much. This book is very soap opera like, but instead of having each plot point drawn out FAR too long (as in the soap operas I used to watch) major things like arson, rampant infidelity, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc just get skimmed over. It’s like the author drops them into the plot to shake it up but then never lets us know why the characters do these things. (Again, had I read the first book, things may have been explained there, but at some point, this book needs to be strong enough to stand on its own.)Maggie, one of the main characters, is released from prison in the beginning of the book. She served 12 months for arson, after setting (although not lighting) a fire in which several people died. The deepest explanation I have for why she did this is that her married boyfriend was a firefighter and she wanted him to succeed. The reader is not shown through any thoughts or flashbacks what type of relationship this was that led her to these actions. We are just told over and over that now she is sorry and now she is a good person. With a pretty healthy ego, I might add. When confronted by an angry group of adults during her community service, she thinks: “I brought out the mean side in them. How many of them knew me personally? Some did, I was sure of it. Some were probably the parents of my former friends – my friends before I flipped out. They’d probably wanted their kids to hang out with me back then, hoping a little of me would rub off on their own children. Now they thought I was crazy or dangerous. Maybe both.” Keep in mind that she served one year for a fire that killed and maimed children and adults.One of the most frustrating aspects of this book was the total lack of foreshadowing. Instead of carefully crafting a subtle arc of clues for a major reveal, at one point of the characters drops a bombshell that gives away the game for the reader, but then we are supposed to believe that Maggie doesn’t notice. It’s a spoken line that in the real world would have caused her to take a step back and she certainly would have started asking some serious questions, but the author expects us to believe that she just let the bombshell go by, and maybe, I don’t know, saw something shiny. That’s just lazy writing, and even worse, lazy editing.I think there might have been one real story here. One about what led a young girl to commit arson and/or how she deals with her life after prison, or maybe the story of a boy disfigured by that arson and his attempts to rebuild his life, or one about the mothers of either the girl or boy and how they deal with their children in those situations. But ALL of these stories are here, plus about five others. It’s too much, and as a result, there’s too little. Too little character development, too little craftsmanship, too few insights. Had the author kept a focus – maybe there would have been less soap opera and more moments like this:“Anyone could have been holding her at that moment, and she would have seemed just a peaceful. But it wasn’t just anyone. It was me. And I felt strangely lucky to be able to hold her in my arms that way. She’d felt light that last time I’d held her here in her room. Now she seemed to become lighter by the second, and it took me a moment to understand the reason: circled by my arms, she was already turning to dust.”In this one moment, the author stops moving the characters around, and instead, keeps them still. And by doing so, finally moves the reader.
    • 4/5
      This is a wonderful sequel to "Before the Storm", which picks up that story a year later. Ms. Chamberlain is an excellent writer who can both tell a good story and create deep, realistic characters.I loved this book and couldn't wait to find out what happens to the Lockwood family. I am not sure, however, that this book would stand alone well. I think readers really need to know the "Before the Storm" story to fully appreciate this sequel.
    • 3/5
      I started reading this book as a stand alone, but found that it actually is the sequel to Before the Storm. This one begins as Maggie Lockwood leaves prison after finishing her one-year sentence for an act of arson that killed several people and severely damaged Keith Weston. The story is told in chapters in the voices of the many characters involved. While this device can be effective in many novels, in this story I found I actually needed to look at the name and time frame at the start of each chapter. Maggie’s difficulties in trying to regain her life after prison gained my sympathies, as did Keith’s dealing with the pain of his injuries. However, I had little for the mother’s, Laurel and Sara, in way they chose to live their lives. This book was enough, I don’t feel the need to go back and read Before the Storm.
    • 3/5
      A sequel to Before the storm that tells what happens when Maggie Lockwood is released from prison after having set {but not lit) the fire which killed several children and one adult . Keith's mother disappears on the day Maggies is released and her son Keith, badly injured in the fire, is not given the letter his mother left for him. A bit of an insight into what it was like for Maggie coming out of prison, and for Keith havinig to cope with his horrific injuries and the loss of his mother. The story is told from Sarah's point of view, and the point of view of other characters. Not a bad read, but not great.
    • 4/5
      Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed this book; Chamberlain is an excellent storyteller. That said, there were a lot of points during the novel when I found myself feeling a little lost, and it wasn't until I was finished with the book that I realized the first half of the story was told in Before the Storm. As I hadn't read the first book, I definitely felt at a disadvantage during some of the action.This book is an unflinching look at the consequences from our actions however big or small. It is also a story of forgiveness and redemption as almost every character has something to atone for, something to be forgiven. Keith is catapulted into adulthood by the fire which almost claimed his life and by the sudden disappearance of his mother Sara. His half-sister Maggie (who started the fire that almost killed him) is wrestling with a community unwilling to forget and her own unwillingness to forgive.The structure of the story that bounces between diary entries that explain the complicated history these two families share and their present-day attempts to navigate through that history to find truthful answers. I did think the ending was a little contrived, and that ending, combined with the need to read Before the Storm first, dropped this from 5 stars to 4. All in all, a great read, especially I imagine if read as intended as a sequel.
    • 4/5
      In this sequel to Before The Storm, 19-year-old Maggie gets out of prison after serving a year-long sentence. She returns home but many of the people in the town are angry that she got such a light sentence after so many people died or were injured by the fire she was responsible for. Maggie is supposed to perform 300 hours of community service but no one wants her around. Then there's Keith -- her half brother who is still suffering from burns and injuries -- whose mother disappears. Plus a mysterious stranger . . . Although I didn't like this book quite as much as the first, it was a satisfying follow-up to the first book and with several new surprises.
    • 3/5
      It was a weird coincidence that I picked this book just after I had read Before The Storm. I had a lot of this author's books on my kindle but picked this , then to discover it was the sequel to the book I had just finished.
      As always with this authors books they are so silly really, so unrealistic. Both women have sex once and both got pregnant that one time, is just one example.
      Although I know this I keep on reading her ooks because they are an easy escape. quick to get into books.
    • 5/5
      A must read! Loved this book! I find myself saying that about most all of Diane Chamberlain books but I highly recommend this one!