In this Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller, a devastating secret is revealed, and a family must finally come to terms with the past.Single mother Maisey Addington has always fallen short of her own mother’s expectations—never married, a bit adrift, wasting her high IQ on dead-end jobs. The only thing Maisey’s sure she’s gotten right is her relationship with her twelve-year-old daughter, … twelve-year-old daughter, Elle…until a phone call blows apart the precarious balance of their lives. Maisey’s mother is in a coma, and her aging father faces charges of abuse and neglect.
Back at her childhood home, Maisey must make a heartrending life-or-death decision. Her confused father has destroyed family records, including her mother’s final wishes. Searching for answers, Maisey uncovers one unspeakable secret after another when she stumbles upon a shattering truth: a twin sister named Marley.
Maisey’s obsession with solving the mystery of her sister forces her to examine her darkest memories and triggers a custody battle with Elle’s father. Will Maisey’s love for her daughter be strong enough to break a cycle of abuse and create a new beginning for them all?
more
Page turner
This book engages you from the very beginning. You keep reading because you keep wanting to know what happens. Like dangling a carrot.
However, I did not think Tony and his story belonged in the book at all. It added a weird bent to the story that wasn’t necessary. The reaction in his pants the first time he saw her? Not necessary. It just didn’t fit in this book
This is a good read and I’ll certainly look for other books by Kerry Anne King.
Tight writing kept me turning pages – I am nothing like the protagonist but I felt like she was in my skin. Can the cycle really be broken? Yes, it can! Love this author.
Not what I originally expected, this book was a pleasure to read with a few unpredictable parts in a romance without the smut. I enjoyed the characters and how they reacted to each other with a real feel to their sincerity.
The story was easy to follow with a little laugh out loud mixed with watery eyes and full of precious moments and eye opening ah-ha’s!
I recommend the book for a quick light read.
Enjoyed the characters in the story and the way they were developed. Kept me interested til the end.
Domestic violence in any form, physical, emotional, controlling, etc is so much more prevalent than people perceive it to be. Kudos for writing about it and not around it. Believable characters of varied ages rounded everything out nicely. I left out a star because Maisey
should have reacted much more strongly when her daughter was slapped in the face. By now Maisey should recognize abuse. and no mother would just stand there and not react. Any book that is willing to educate about domestic violence show be read and recommended.
I have to agree with some of the previous reviews that I’ve read in regards to this novel. It’s not a thriller in my opinion. It does deal with Domestic Violence both emotional and physical. I liked the way Ms. King wrote about how it affects children who have grown up in that type of environment, from completely different backgrounds and levels of abuse. It comes from a Male’s perspective as well as the females, each person deals with it differently and she wove them together to make a great story.
I found this to be more about the main protagonist who is forced to go through a heck of a lot of issues that would have to be devasting to even begin to deal with.
I would like to thank the publisher as well as NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley in exchange for my honest opinion, the opinion expressed above are my own.
I quit this book once. After reading the reviews again, I tried it a second time. First of all, Maisey is TSTL. There is no way this woman is 39 years old and this stupid. And, it was irritating that with her mother dying and her father in the hospital with dementia and suspension of assault, she has the hots for the hunky fireman and can’t think straight when he is around. How did she manage to stay alive this long?
After you suspend all belief that anyone could be this stupid and keep reading, everyone involved in this book is either abused or an abuser. And. to top it off, poor old Maisey doesn’t even realize.
I kept thinking how dumb everyone was, even though most had had therapy as children. Don’t think I’ll be reading any more by Ms. King. And, I definitely don’t see where the great reviews are coming from. I must have missed the point.
What if you found out your mother has been hiding a secret your entire life? What if you mother was dying and leaving you to deal with this secret, a secret for which you must seek out the truth? What if your father was slowly losing his cognitive abilities and needed round-the-clock care? And while all this was happening, your daughter’s father is threatening you with a child-custody case? That’s a lot of drama to deal with and keep your sanity. The author handles the juggling of these problems quite well in this story. There’s a love story brewing in the background of all this and I found myself rooting for Tony. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes romantic suspense.
I enjoyed this book.
Whisper Me This was amazing! I enjoyed the mysterious nature surrounding the secrets that were revealed. And I also enjoyed the way that the scenes were described in such detail and in a way that made this book hard to put down! I loved the character Maisey and the way that she was depicted. The story is about Maisey who is a single mother to twelve-year-old Elle. One day, Maisey finds out that her mother is in a coma and her father is being accused of harming her mother. From that moment on, everything will change in Maisey’s life, her past and her future. We get to know the character Maisey the most as she is fully developed throughout the pages. She appears to be unfocused and always floating around in her life. We see other characters mostly through Maisey’s detailed descriptions. Maisey’s daughter Elle seems to be a portrayal of Maisey’s hidden strength. The story is mostly about two families and the deep, dark secrets from their pasts. Which parts of their memories are real and which are just their imagination? The characters must come to terms with the past and overcome their fears in order to gain strength. The plot is full of surprises as unimaginable events occur and secrets are revealed. There are moments of unbelievable sadness, but also some of love and joy. The themes are of family, death, loss, abuse, and strength.
Exceptionally well crafted! I didn’t want it to be over, but I loved that it ended as it did.
Excellent book!!
Whisper Me This is a book full of feels. It tackles some very heavy real life issues, and not everything works out as a happily ever after.
The characters are very well written and so realistic. The story itself has lots of tragedies and tears, but there is a thread of hope that runs through the background of the entire story.
This is the first book I’ve read by Kerry Anne King, but it will not be my last.
Very good read.
A haunting mystery about a woman’s past has her daughter, Maisey, searching for clues. Maisey’s mother has died under suspicious circumstances, and her father may have been negligent in not seeking care for his dying wife. The secrets of her mother’s past unravel and enable Maisey to stand up for herself and her daughter’s future. This book delicately deals with the issue of domestic violence and is a must read.
When I opened this book and read the epigraph, I knew I was already pulled in and was going to be captive. I was stepping into a story that would be one to make me feel. It touched me in so many ways. From deep and heart wrenching anguish to anger and absolute horror at what another human could do to someone. I felt compassion and love for the characters who dealt with abuse from the people who should have loved them unconditionally.
This book took me on an emotional journey with the main character, Maisey. I was pulling for her to find the answers she was searching for. To uncover the secrets her mother had kept and never wanted anyone to learn about. I wanted her to find the peace she had been missing all her life and to also be free of the burdens she had been carrying.
I love Kerry Anne Kings style of writing. She writes passages with word pictures that are so descriptive and accurate. I like the touches of sarcasm that actually pull the thought and ideas of the story together. I could envision so much by these word pictures….an example for me was this passage:
“My heart does a sideways lurch one direction and then the other. A flock of butterflies that has apparently been roosting in my belly bursts up in a flight pattern that would be the envy of the Blue Angels.” I could actually feel that feeling from those words!
This story dealt with the serious issue of domestic violence. It was at times very difficult to read but one that I couldn’t NOT read. I lost track of time turning page after page. This is a book that I will think about and remember for a long time. I want to thank Lake Union, Netgalley and Kerry Anne King for the honor of reading this book. I totally give it 5 stars!
This is a story of secrets, life choices, family, strength, and redemption. It also a reflection of domestic violence and how it affects the victim and their children, how there is a cycle of domestic violence, and reclaiming your life.
Maisey had an imaginary friend named Marley that felt very real to her. But any mention of Marley brought on punishment from her mother, Leah Addington. Now Maisie is the single parent of precocious 12-year-old Elle. Maisie receives an unexpected call from her mother’s neighbor. The neighbor informs her that Maisey’s mother fell three days previously and has been in a comatose state since her fall. Her father Walter has been at his wife’s bedside the entire time. He has not called an ambulance and insists that his wife does not want to go to the hospital. Thinking he has dementia emergency services personnel take Leah to the hospital.
When Maisie arrives at her parents’ home she finds her father frantically burning papers in the fireplace. Among the papers is a journal Leah wrote when she learned she was dying. In it she reveals the secrets she have kept from her husband and from Maisey. Only twelve pages of the journal have survived the fire but the destroyed entries are interspersed between chapters. Maisey also finds another document that turns her life as she knew it upside down.
The book has fairly graphic scenes of domestic violence so beware. In the wake of all its darkness, the story also has strength and the reclaiming of one’s life. The realization of the cycle of abuse is a strong point.
While the book was well written I gave the book a three-rating because there are some areas that are just too pat, too simplified, too “over the top”.
Why “over the top”? The depiction of Elle’s father (whom Maisey did not marry) was realistic given the unfortunate cycle of abuse phenomenon. But then Maisey’s new romantic interest Tony is also a victim of abuse. You can debate whether this would be a good pairing for Maisey, but I felt it was just too much thrown into the story.
I would give this novel 10 stars!
Maisey has to make a heartbreaking decision to allow her Mom, Leah to move on to Heaven.
That is only the beginning.
Leah has been loved by so many, and especially her dear husband Walter, but the secrets she carries need to be released in some way to explain her decisions past, and die in peace. “I am who I am, and I have done what I have done.”
This book will keep you on the edge of your chair,make you angry, break your heart and yet scream for joy at times.
I found myself in love with Elle a twelve year old, who has heart and an “old”soul. She has spunk, grace and wisdom far beyond her years.
I can not say enough good things about Whisper Me This. It is something I will be reading again and will be sharing it with others.
Whisper Me This was such a good read. It was filled with pretty much every emotion and tells the story of secrets and all the problems such secrets can create.
Maisey was an interesting character that at times I wanted to hug and other times I wanted to ask her what she was thinking. Elle on the other hand, was so lovable. She was a seemingly unflappable old soul in a 12 year old’s body. She behaved throughout with so much spunk, I guess is the word I want, just stepping up to whatever challenge was happening at the time and working through it. She sometimes felt like the mother while her mother sometimes seemed like the daughter.
Heartbreaking choices are a given in a story such as this and they were terribly tough choices. Where a person starts, I have no idea, but they had to be dealt with and so, they were. This is ultimately a story of family. I would definitely recommend this to fans of women’s fiction and family centric stories.
Thank you very much to Lake Union, Ms. King and Netgalley for the ARC.
More an emotional read than a thriller, the characters and the story line kept me moving through the story to see what secret would be revealed and how it would be dealt with. I thought the author handled the domestic abuse part of the story well and compassionately. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions, and felt Maisey finally came into her own by the end. For me, this was a good story to curl up with and lose myself in, content to go where the story took me.