Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Tangled Secrets




Tangled Secrets
By Carol Preston


About the Author

Carol lives in Wollongong, NSW with her husband, Neil. As well as writing novels based on her family history, Carol has a private counselling practice and enjoys reading, gardening, spending time with her four grandchildren and bushwalking. She has pursued with great admiration the lives of her ancestors in Australia and has greatly enjoyed writing novels based on their stories and the inspiring history of the Australian people. For more information about Carol's books and her other interests she can be contacted on her website: www.carolpreston.com.au

About the book


In tragic circumstances Beth and her brothers are left in England to grow up without their parents. When Beth's childhood dream to be reunited with her father in Australia finally eventuates she finds that dreams do not always come true.The reality she faces is a tangled web of disappointment, deceit and mistakes. Further abandonment follows. Will she ever find true love? And will she discover she doesn't have to be alone before it is too late?Set in the early colonial days of New South Wales and based on real characters in the mid 1800s.Revisit Charlotte and Thomas from Charlotte's Angel and Mary's Guardian, and meet new characters in this new novel by Carol Preston. Mary's Guardian was a finalist in the fiction section of CALEB 2011.

MY THOUGHTS

By now, I've read enough books by Carol Preston to have an idea of what I may expect. She writes well-crafted stories set in Australia's Colonial period, and because they are based on her own family history research, the plots may take sudden and surprising twists. "Tangled Secrets" was no exception. It is very easy to feel empathy for the heroine, Beth, who believed she was acting wisely to get herself out of a bad family situation and instead, found herself in a far worse predicament. As readers, we know the signs were there from the very start, but that's part of what makes reading fun. We can't always make wise predictions in our own lives but at least we can do it in books.

I was pleased to revisit Charlotte and Thomas from "Charlotte's Angel" as I'd been wondering how they'd been finding married life. Yet although I'd recommend that each book in the series be read consecutively, it isn't highly necessary, as each story focuses on different characters and sits alone.

Knowing that the author, Carol Preston, is a psychologist in her work apart from writing, I could understand how she was able to write the thinking patterns and habits of characters such as William Thorne so convincingly. I was very satisfied with the way Beth's story ended for her and hope you will be too.


Tangled Secrets Available at Amazon