Search This Blog







2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona (2)
- Arkansas
- California (6)
- Colorado (3)
- Connecticut
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (1)
- Georgia (1)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho
- Illinois (1)
- Indiana (1)
- Iowa (3)
- Kansas
- Kentucky (1)
- Louisiana
- Maine (3)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (1)
- Michigan (2)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico
- New York (7)
- North Carolina (3)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (1)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (1)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (1)
- Utah (1)
- Vermont (3)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (1)
- Washington, D.C.* (1)
International:
- Australia (3)
- Canada (3)
- England (14)
- France (2)
- Italy (1)
- Japan (1)
- Norway (1)
- Puerto Rico (1)
- Scotland (1)


2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge



2025 Build Your Library Reading Challenge









Saturday, September 05, 2020
Whiny Heroine + Overly Long Story = Putdownable Family Secrets Novel
10:06 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
When Patrick Walsh's dementia gets too debilitating for him to live alone, his children relocate him to a nursing home. Since she's on maternity leave, child psychologist Beth Evans volunteers to clean out her father's house. The place has always been spic-and-span, so she's stunned when she discovers that a padlocked room holds a chaotic mess of Patrick's paintings, papers, and assorted junk. Among the detritus, she discovers loose pages from a journal that seems to have been written by her mother. Patrick always told his kids that their mother died in a car accident when they were small. The diary entries tell a different story. Beth reads about her mother's struggles with postpartum depression—which mirror her own—as well as descriptions of a Patrick Beth doesn't recognize at all. Who are her parents, really? What was their marriage truly like? And why is Patrick hiding dark secrets from his own children?
I'm always up for a tantalizing family secrets novel, so I was intrigued by the premise of Kelly Rimmer's newest, Truths I Never Told You. While the book is definitely about secrets, they're not all that tantalizing. Plus, the plot crawls along at such a glacial pace that I struggled to stay invested in the story. While I empathized with Beth, I found her to be a difficult MC to care about. She's whiny, self-centered, and victimy—my least favorite kind of heroine. Add in about 100 pages of unnecessary text and, yeah, this novel is just ... putdownable. It took me a few days, but I did finish it. Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy it. Bummer.
(Readalikes: Hm, I can't think of anything. Can you?)
Grade:
Subscribe to:
Posts
(Atom)


Reading
Rabbit Rabbit by Dori Hillestad Butler and Sunshine Bacon

Listening
The Morning House by Maureen Johnson


Followin' with Bloglovin'

-
C Is for Courting (Amish ABCs)2 hours ago
-
You're Safe Here by Leslie Stephens4 hours ago
-
-
-
Keeping the Countess by Lille Moore8 hours ago
-
-
Top 5 Tuesday ~ Times of Day11 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
Top Ten Tuesday...13 hours ago
-
A Royal Family Found in Book Titles14 hours ago
-
-
TTT – Its An Honor-ific16 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
Week in Review #283 days ago
-
-
Clean teen books for Summer2 weeks ago
-
Books read in June2 weeks ago
-
-
-
-
No Roundup this month2 months ago
-
-
Sunday Post #5682 months ago
-
-
February 2025 Reading Wrap Up4 months ago
-
One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery4 months ago
-
-
-
I'm Still Reading - This Was My October7 months ago
-
Review: The Duke and I10 months ago
-
Girl Plus Books: On Hiatus11 months ago
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?1 year ago
-
6/25/23 Extra Ezra2 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?2 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
-

Grab my Button!


Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ▼ 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ► 2018 (223)
- ► 2017 (157)
- ► 2016 (157)
- ► 2015 (188)
- ► 2014 (133)
- ► 2013 (183)
- ► 2012 (193)
- ► 2011 (232)
- ► 2010 (257)
- ► 2009 (211)
- ► 2008 (192)


2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge
2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction
2023 - Middle Grade Fiction
2022 - Middle Grade Fiction
2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction
