If you read this book, you have to be willing to suspend belief a little bit, especially towards the last 1/4 of the book. However, with that being said, I really really liked this book. The reason for only 4 stars is because it took me quite a few chapters to really get invested in the story, to...
what a book. The characters are so well written and complex that you tend to forget that their fictional, and what a plot! Diane Chamberlain knows how to tug on your emotions and make you think about the issue at hand, her writing of this novel is very reminiscent of a Jodi Piccoult novel. Both ...
I feel I'm a bit generous to give this book 4 stars, probably 3 1/2 would be more accurate, but it was very readable and enjoyable, and I wanted to turn each page to see what would happen. The plot was good and full of twists and turns. Unfortunately I found the characters shallow which let the...
Diane Chamberlain is one of my favorite authors. Having said that, the Before the Storm books are not my favorite books. I waited a while to read the second book. I'm not sure why I find these characters so unlikeable. Maybe their justification of their bad acts is far too human or the mere ...
Her family's cottage on the New Jersey shore was a place of freedom and innocence for Julie Bauer—until her seventeen-year-old sister, Isabel, was murdered.It's been more than forty years since that August night, but Julie's memories of her sister's death still shape her world. Now someone ...
A quick glance through the various reviews of this book would probably have made me think twice about bothering to read it, so I'm glad I didn't look it up before I downloaded it- I had read (and re-read) one of Chamberlain's other books, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, saw her name and bought ...
Annie A loving mother and wife, Annie O'Neill was the heart of the small community of Kiss River. But her generous nature hid a darker side that remained secret for years after her tragic death. Lacey When Lacey O'Neill finally learns the shattering truth about the mother she's spent a decade em...
What makes a mother? Genes? Childbirth? Love? And once a mother bonds with her child, is there anything that can break that bond? Diane Chamberlain’s novel “The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes” gives us the story of a teenage mother and her child. But there’s a lot more to it than just that an...
In the anticipated sequel to KEEPER OF THE LIGHT, award-winning author Diane Chamberlain takes fans back to the sea-swept place called KISS RIVER. Ten years ago, a hurricane caused the upper half of the Kiss River lighthouse to crumble into the sea. Deemed beyond repair, the remaining 100-foot br...
Dr. Olivia Simon is in the middle of treating a gunshot victim while on duty Christmas night when she realizes that the patient is Annie O'Neill, the woman with whom her husband, Paul, is in love. Despite Olivia's best efforts to save her, Annie dies in surgery. For Olivia, Paul and Annie's husba...
Susanna Miller may have lost legal custody of her beautiful eleven-month-old son, Tyler, but that doesn't mean she is giving him up. Even if her ex-husband, Jim, an attorney, and his new wife, Peggy, have every advantage to offer a child, Susanna knows the two of them cannot be as caring, loving,...
Claire Harte-Mathias is an infinitely capable solver of other people's problems. Along with her husband, she has established a prestigious foundation to aid in the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injuries. Training therapists, counseling patients, and conducting workshops keeps Claire b...
The author of Brass Ring and Fire and Rain delivers an edge-of-your-seat story filled with secrets, surprises, and psychological suspense. Returning to the small Pennsylvania Dutch town of Reflection, Rachel Huber must confront the tragedy that caused her to leave twenty years before."One of the ...
I do like Diane Chamberlain. I know that every time I open one of her books I am going to get a page turner with characters whose lives I can get really involved in, and this is no exception.In 1967 at a commune on Big Sur, a visiting doctor, Carlynn Shire, saved the life of a new born baby girl....
The First Lie is a short story by the American author Diane Chamberlain, written as a prequel to her novel "Necessary Lies", although the author states that they may be read independently. Both works were published in 2013.This short story is set in 1958, two years before the novel. The reader fo...
Riley I’d never expected to lose nearly everyone I loved by the time I was twenty-five. I felt the grief rise again as I parked in front of the small, nondescript post office in Pollocksville. The three-hour drive from my apartment in Durham had seemed more like six as I made a mental list of all...
Yet, that realization did nothing to lift her mood. She’d gone to bed feeling as low as she’d ever felt; this morning, she felt even lower.What the heck had happened to her life? A few years ago, she’d been married to a fine and loving man, she’d had a career that was the envy of most entertainer...
Joelle smiled at him from the edge of Mara’s bed, and Carlynn looked up from where she was sitting in the recliner. “Good!” Carlynn said. “I’m proud of you.” He had not brought the guitar the week before, when Carlynn had initially instructed him to do so. He hadn’t touched it since the day Sam w...
THEY were going to an early movie, then out to dinner. He’d suggested he come down to Rodanthe for this outing, but as he might have predicted, she said she would prefer to drive up to Kill Devil Hills. He finally asked her why she never wanted him to come to Rodanthe, and she sounded surprised b...
I hadn’t slept all night. It had been more than two weeks since the fire, but those posters from the memorial service were still on the back of my eyelids every time I closed my eyes. Around two in the morning, I got up and drove to The Sea Tender. I sat on the deck and cried, because I couldn’t ...
EVEN as she spread the drop cloths around the living room, the irritated little voice ran through her head. “I’m not Janie!” Remembering it made her grin. At the therapy appointment that morning, Heather had suggested Sarah join Emma for her next session. Laura recoiled fr...
Cassie said and they all laughed. She was definitely on this morning. “I was hoping that you and I could go fishing one day while you're here,” Kyle said. Eden had a sudden memory of Kyle taking her fishing. She must have been no more than Cassie's age, and she remembered sitting with him on the ...
I didn’t give the decision much thought. I simply pulled the stone from my dresser drawer and stuck it in my pocket. Every once in a while, I’d wrap my hand around it and feel an instant sense of comfort wash over me. I needed that comfort in a way I didn’t understand. Chris and I talked on the p...
2014 1. San Diego I’m a good liar. I take comfort in that fact as Aidan and I sit next to each other on our leather sectional, so close together that our thighs touch. I wonder if that’s too close. Patti, the social worker sitting on the other wing of our sectional, writes something in her note...
She and Adam were strapped into the fold-down seats of a military helicopter, along with a disaster medical team from Asheville. On the floor between them were stacks of supplies and equipment, poorly anchored. They tilted and shifted from side to side, and Rebecca finally shut her eyes to stop t...
I’d visited her twice while she was in the hospital. The first time she was almost cheerful, asking me questions about my work and my life, listening attentively to my answers. She didn’t want to talk about herself or her husband or her little daughter, so I did as she wanted and filled the half ...
She’d slept poorly the night before, worried that she’d left Sarah alone with memories of her husband’s tragedy. One good thing about her preoccupation with Sarah: it prevented her from stewing over the fact that Dylan had a woman at his house again the night before.“Can we go for a walk?” Sarah ...
Jade “Hi, Charlie,” she said as the old man walked into Grady’s carrying an armload of LPs. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and took the records from him. “Ready to turn these in?” Every time he came into the store lately, he brought more records to sell to Grady. He’d reached the age where it w...
Bella and I walked along the waterfront, stopping in the shops and restaurants, showing her picture to everyone we met. After our fifth unsuccessful stop, we were about to cross the street when a red Mustang pulled up to the curb in front of us. A woman threw open the passenger-side door and near...
It started slowly at first, so slowly that Mia took no notice of the graying sky outside the office, or the few drops of water on the window next to her desk. She was immersed in her work at the typewriter when Chris walked into the room, and it wasn’t until his shadow fell across the desk that s...