Identity and Secrets. 

A subject I love in my reading. At the end of March and all of April I was reading some fantastic novels about Identity, secrets and families.

I really like the e-book from Net Galley I Found You by Lisa Jewell I enjoyed the way Lisa wrote small chapters with la little bit being revealed about different points of view about the main characters in the story. A young woman is left on her own, her husband goes missing and she sets out to find him, with only a clue - a phone number.

In another town Alice finds a man sitting on the beach - he has lost his memory. Alice is lonely and dis-organised, she has three children all with different fathers. Her best friend keeps her organised.

Alice gives the lost man a home and a name and tries to help him regain his memory.

Meanwhile 23 years earlier in the same town another person goes missing and Gray tries to protect his younger sister from a man they meet on the beach.

Early in April I finished reading The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney. This was about an architect who wanted to control how people lived in buildings he designed. People were given cheap rent on condition that they followed all the rules. The house at One Folgate Street was perfect for Emma. Emma was hoping for a new start in a building with better security. Emma had secrets and she soon discovered the owner and architect had secrets.

Jane moved in after Emma and gradually discovered the house secrets and Emma's secrets but there were still secrets left to be discovered.

I loved the way this book was written. Each chapter unraveling a little bit of what is happening in the house and gradually revealing Emma's secret. A quick easy read.

More Secrets and History

Spindrift by Tamara McKinley an E-Book from Net Galley had a theme I enjoy about families, history and secrets. This was a novel set in 1904, Christy lives in Tasmania. Her husband has just died and her children and grandchildren live in other states of Australia.

Christy and her daughter Ann and granddaughter Kathryn go to Scotland and Skye, so Christy can revisit her birthplace and put her memories to rest. Along the way Christy gradually tells her life story to her daughter and granddaughter revealing the tragedy of her early life and the decision to leave Scotland and travel to Tasmania.

Christy has secrets about her early days in Australia and while she is away someone in Australia sets out to reveal Christy's secret and make a claim on her property. Christy's two sons and soninlaw are left to fight the claim in their mother's absense. 

I loved the way history was told in Skye and back in Australia in the life on the goldfields.

Love and Belonging

Keep Me Safe by Daniela Sacerdoti this was an e-book from Net Galley. I loved this book, the cover grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it, blue sky, blue ocean and a girl in a red coat.

Anna takes her six year old daughter Ava to a small Island called Seal.

This is about loss, guilt and love. Anna and Ava are enfolded into a community of Seal and rediscover love and a senses of belonging.

The main characters tell their story as it unfolds gradually revealing a tragedy that happened 15 years earlier.

It is set in the present time with flashbacks to earlier events. this book was well written, easy to read, makes you want to read just a little bit more to see what happens.

Secrets, Lies and Family Relationships

Keeping with my theme of identity and secrets I was drawn to e-book from Net Galley that was a mystery and a thriller and lots of secrets.

Are you sleeping by Kathleen Barber starts with a creepy phone call at 3 am that unsettles Jo and brings back buried memories of her sister who she hasn't seen for ten years. Not long after the phone call Jo hears about a podcast started by Poppy Parnell. Everyone is talking about it. Poppy Parnell is an investigative journalist who is using her podcast to look at evidence and uncover the truth of who murdered Jo's father ten years earlier. Jo and her partner Caleb live in New York. Jo has changed her name and Caleb does not know about her family.

This is a psychological thriller mystery full of secrets, lies and family relationships.

Identity and History

A nice easy read to finish off my April reading was an e-book from Net Galley Letters from Italy by Pamela Hart. This book was set in Italy during the First World War. Rebecca is in Italy with her husband Jack during the First World War and they are journalists from Australia reporting on the war. While Jack is away reporting on the resistance movement against the Austrian’s Rebecca struggles to work on her own her own as a war correspondent. She teams up with a photographer to give her a better chance in a male dominated field of journalists clamoring to get the best stories.