“Secrets From a Happy Marriage is a beautiful, emotional, tender story with a gorgeous setting and characters I adored. Maisey Yates always writes stories that stay in your heart long after you read the last page.”–RaeAnne Thayne, New York Times Bestselling Author New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates’s new novel introduces the women of the Lighthouse Inn B&B. They might not … B&B. They might not have it all together, but this summer, they’ll discover that together, they might still have it all…
Rachel Henderson’s family is falling apart. Becoming a widow–especially at this age–is heartbreaking. With her teenage daughter, Emma, leaving soon for college, Rachel needs a friend–but local diner owner Adam is the last person she ever thought she’d lean on.
From the outside, her little sister, Anna, has a picture-perfect marriage. But the weight of it is suffocating her. The only way for her to breathe again comes at a high price, one she’s not so sure she can pay.
After raising two daughters on her own, their mother, Wendy, knows just how hard life can be. She’s done things she’s not proud of, things she desperately wants to keep from her girls–until keeping quiet is no longer an option.
As long-held secrets bubble up and their old lives unravel, this family will need all their strength to start again and open their hearts up to the possibility of more. But most of all, they’ll need each other…
Don’t miss Maisey Yates next book, Confessions from the Quilting Circle! An emotional and powerful look at the secrets that divide a family, and the love that can heal it.
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A culmination of relationships old and new tear at the seams of this family’s dynamic! Maisey Yates has the reader’s attention quickly with SECRETS FROM A HAPPY MARRIAGE. As one marriage shows true love even in the darkest days, another self-destructs before our eyes and we’re left watching the pieces crumble. I really enjoyed getting to know these two sisters, their mother and the teen daughter of one try to figure out life after all is said and done. I would have liked a little more closure to the endings for some of them, but overall I enjoyed the characters a lot.
Rachel Henderson was one of my favorites in the book from the start because I could sympathize with her loss, but see the beauty of her growing friendship with Adam as it developed into more.
Rachel’s little sister Anna will resonate with anyone who has ever felt unseen in a room full of people. She has a good heart, and she feels so much, but she self-sabotages instead of standing up for herself and what she needs.
Rachel’s mother Wendy has a smaller presence in the book, but her teachings and beliefs bring a strong structure to what her daughters built their relationships on, so when secrets are uncovered, things become a bit dicey!
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a close knit family who readily admit they aren’t perfect as they traverse the every day road of life and hope against hope for a happily ever after. The characterization was rich and the plot was thick with emotion.
I loved Maisey of this book it was powerfully emotional story. This is about a mother who fell in love with a married man and had one baby named Rachel and then the man didn’t show up for a while then he showed up again and she got pregnant again and she got pregnant with Anna. Wendy the mother answer an ad to run The Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast. So she got the job and her and the her girls got to start a new life that nobody new about. Rachel was a mother of a high school girl and was married to man for 20 yrs that had she was taking care of him. Jacob passed away and left her just with her daughter and family. Rachel didn’t have a good relationship with Anna and what had happened with Rachel she decided to try and bond with her sister.
Anna was married to a minster of 14 yrs and she was not happy. She had no children and she helped at the Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast. Emma who was 17 yrs old when she lost her father and she had got the day her father past away the college she wanted to go to that she was accepted. She couldn’t tell her mom because she need to there for her. She had a crush on a guy who ran the garage. Adam the owner of the Diner gave her a job as waitress and started having her take lunch to him at the garage because he was so busy. Luke started to like her and they had lunch and then it went to dinner. Then she had ready to go to the next step.
Anna had an a hard time when her marriage ended and the town was giving her a hard time because her husband made and announcement shortly after she had lost her brother in-law that she had and affair and they where getting a divorce.
Rachel didn’t know what to do she went to her continued talks with Adam.
Wendy explain what happened and why they ended up at the Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast.
These 4 ladies had a rough life and they all need to look at what the next step was and that is where they needed and went to Wendy she had found her daughters. I am not going to continue because as I do this review I am here in tears this is how powerful this story is. I hope you go get the Secrets from a Happy Marriage took me into the story and it was tearjerker and very caring story that I could not put down. I recommend this book and so you can find out what happened to these 4 ladies and there journey. Maisey Yates is a fabulous writer I love all her books.
I’ve been reading Maisey Yates’ novels for a number of years and have enjoyed each and every one of them, but none of them prepared me for Secrets for a Happy Marriage. Was is a good read? No–it wasn’t. It was a remarkable, brilliantly and beautifully written, deeply emotional, thoughtful, and heartfelt read, and, quite simply, it blew me away. I’d give it more than 5 stars if that were possible.
Secrets from a Happy Marriage took me a bit of time to get into–it’s a multi-generational story with its roots in the past, opening with a letter from a mail order bride, Jenny Hansen, in response to an ad from the Chief Lighthouse keeper at the Cape Hope Lighthouse on the Oregon coast, Olaf Hansen. As we get to know her through her letters and her journal entries, as well as getting to read portions of letters from servicemen stationed on the grounds of the lighthouse during wartime, we also get to know the current occupants of the Cape Hope Lighthouse Inn, a grandmother, Wendy, her two adult daughters, Rachel and Anna, and Rachel’s teenage daughter, Emma–and do we ever!
Rachel has been married to the love of her life, Jacob, for 20 years, and except for the first year or two of their marriage, Jacob has slowly and painfully been dying from a variety of illnesses, and Rachel has been caring for him, as has her daughter, Emma, both of them knowing that he wouldn’t be with them forever, and making every moment of their lives as special and meaningful as possible. When Jacob finally succumbs to cancer, Rachel is unsure of how to proceed with the rest of her life without him, while their daughter, Emma, realizes that her beloved father won’t be at her high school graduation or even there for her 18th birthday. She’s dreamed of a career in marine biology and has been accepted to a college in Boston, but she is now torn about leaving her mother and grandmother alone in their grief, so she lies about her acceptance in Boston, and agrees to attend OSU, only 3 hours away–but is that really the right choice for her? Emma is also keeping another secret, her first crush on Luke, a 21-year-old car mechanic and high school dropout in town, and their budding relationship.
Rachel too has been keeping a secret–when caring for Jacob has been just too much, Rachel’s found some respite at the small town diner, stopping in for a hamburger, and a chat with Adam, the proprietor–nothing really personal, just someone to talk to for a brief while. But what happens after Jacob finally dies? What will Rachel do with her grief and with her life moving forward?
Anna, Rachel’s sister, has been married to a popular pastor in town, Thomas, for more than 15 years, yet she has felt him pulling away from her and becoming ever more distant as time has passed. She’s tried to talk to him, but gotten nowhere. She feels unloved, ignored, and feels as though she’s just going through the motions of being a pastor’s wife, not really feeling much for him or the members of the congregation. In her frustration, she has an affair, which Thomas catches her at, and which he shares with his congregation one Sunday morning, shocking her, her family and the entire congregation, many of whom now belittle or ignore her, or treat her as a whore, and they aren’t surprised when Thomas announces that he’s divorcing her.
Wendy too has been keeping secrets, secrets that will come as a shock to her entire family, and to the reader as well, the lead-in being a handsome, single, older man whose history is also tied to the lighthouse, spending some vacation time there at the inn, and spending much of it with Wendy, who is happy to share her love of the lighthouse and its history with him.
Each of the four women in this novel are keeping secrets, each of them trying to deal with their own issues, their own problems, their own grief, and the novel is so beautifully written and so well-paced that, as a reader, I often had to stop and ponder what I would do if faced with the decisions these women have to make and deal with, and take a good hard look at how keeping their secrets have affected their relationships with their partners and especially with each other.
At my age, 67, I’ve been through all these stages of life, I’ve been a young teenager with a secret crush, I had to decide to go to college while living at home, rather than accept a scholarship at a college away from home after my mother’s sudden and unexpected death when I was 15, and, as an only child, I couldn’t leave my father alone with his grief. I’ve had to deal with my husband’s cancer diagnosis (thankfully, he’s beaten it), and other personal issues that might have torn my marriage apart. To say that this book strongly resonated with me is putting it mildly. In one way or another, I’ve faced what these characters have faced, and in every case, I believe these same issues will resonate with readers of all ages, in all walks of life, because they are very human issues, and Maisey Yates has done such an absolutely incredible job of making these characters come to life (although I wish she’d given us physical descriptions of them), and imbuing them with such humanity, self-awareness, and honesty that I can’t recall another book that moved me quite as strongly as this one in several decades. These are characters that will live with me for a very long time, and I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.
I’m so happy to be able to share my honest review of this advanced copy I was fortunate enough to receive prior to the release date . This is quite the captivating book from the very first few pages ! I encourage anyone reading this book to hunker down in a remote place where you can let yourself FEEL every powerful word spoken , every emotional hiccup & visualize every descriptive setting that this author manages to hand you at any given moment. It’s filled with such rich vibrant characters that ALL HAVE endured many painful moments individually & yet they ALL have such wonderful moments of personal growth individually and as this amazing family unit . The love & pain felt within this family was simply heartfelt & palpable from beginning to end . I could hardly put the book aside while enjoying ever so slowly not to miss a single second of gut wrenching heartbreak or an instantaneous sob because of such emotional comments or memories from these beautifully written flawed authentic characters! I adored this book & I miss them ALL so much already . Well done Maisey , well done…:
This is my favourite kind of women’s fiction – real and warm and set in a lighthouse 😉