Trail of Secrets By Eileen Goudge
This story kept my interest throughout, but the sex scenes could be edited considerably.
The story involves issues of adoption and parenting, and I found myself sympathizing with most of the characters while I had some major problems with each one of them. The conclusion was both satisfying and questionable as to it's workability. But the issues of adoption and truth-telling kept my interest as I felt mixed feelings about the workability of the arrangement at the end of the story.. Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult A vintage Goudge offering recently re-released, so some heavier (read: fraught & overwrought) drama was to be expected. Lots of descriptive passages (show jumping, neonatal ICUs, antiques, clothes, rooms, houses... you name it) that slowed the pace of the narrative. I skimmed a great deal of description and internal monologue that at times, though beautifully done, got a bit repetitive.
There were plenty of twists along the way, and though the ending felt a smidge too convenient (and predictable) it was still an enjoyable read. I much prefer Goudge's more recent books --- her craft has improved so much! Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult Eileen Goudge did an exceptional job in writing this story and though she tried to make readers emphasize with the characters, I could not. The only characters I emphasized with were Tony, Skyler’s baby’s daddy who loved her, Mickey, Kate’s best friend since childhood, and Paul, Ellie’s husband. I found the rest of the characters: Ellie, Skyler’s biological mother and Kate and Will, Skyler’s adoptive parents, narcissistic and selfish.
Ellie Nightingale’s infant daughter was kidnapped. Kate learned that the baby she and Will had adopted was Ellie’s kidnapped daughter. She told her husband what she suspected and he told her to keep quiet about it.
Author Goudge introduced many characters but readers never lost tract of them because of author Goudge’s great writing. Sandra Burr did a good job in storytelling.
Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult I'm a little conflicted by this novel. It had moments of very insightful and moving vividness of the happiness and difficulties within relationships. Be those relationships between mothers and daughters or a women and her husband. Those were beautiful. The constant internal dialogs with the characters where annoying and drove me a little crazy because they slowed the entire story down. The entire book plot can be found on the blurb and so the story was predictable. Getting there was wonderful and engrossing when I wasn't completely irritated with the internal dialog that all the main female characters had. Also, the ending left me wanting for more closure. Instead of the elaborate details that everything else had, things didn't feel fully explained and so I ended up frustrated by this novel. Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult Just finished reading Trial of secrets by Eileen Goudge...it starts off with a woman who lost her child because she was kidnapped....Then moves to the future....circumstances brings her lost daughter back into her life....the characters became like friends and family to me as I read through this story...they are so real...you feel for all who are involved...will read other books by this author if I get the opportunity. I definitely recommend this book for anyone's want- to-bread lists Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult
It's been a while since I read any books by this author and I'm wondering now what I've been missing. This was an excellent story of family.
Two decades ago Ellie's infant daughter was kidnapped and sold to the highest bidder. Ellie knew in her heart that her child was alive somewhere but after spending years looking for her with no results her life moved on. Unable to have more children, Ellie and her husband have tried repeatedly to adopt a child only to have each birth mother change her mind at the last minute.
Skyler is a young woman raised by her wealthy parents with all the love and advantages they could give her. She's always known she was adopted and couldn't help but wonder about the birth mother who she's been told abandoned her.
Now Skyler finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and she's made the tough decision to give her child up for adoption. She's begun interviewing hopeful families searching for the perfect home for the baby she's carrying.
What follows is both heart-breaking and heart-warming. Ms. Goudge has done an outstanding job of capturing the emotions of her characters. I didn't want to put this one down....was so curious about how the chips would fall. Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult The premise was interesting and the characters were done well (even though at times I really wanted to smack Skyler) but at times, the story dragged and felt too long and drawn out. While details about equestrian activities, antiques, pediatrics, and crisis counseling (various characters' interests/professions) were interesting, I feel that it was sometimes too much detail and didn't move the story forward. The ending was a bit predictable. Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult Trail of Secrets by Eileen Goudge is 2011 Open Road Integrated Media publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is one of those books originally published in the mid- 1990's and reissued in digital format, so that is something you want to keep in mind before starting this one.
Ellie, a young single mother suffers a parent's worst nightmare. Her infant daughter is kidnapped and Ellie must go forward with her life never knowing what happened to her child.
A world away, Kate and Will are raising their beautiful adopted daughter, Skyler and living the good life. A freak horse riding accident brings them in contact with a young doctor named Ellie. A brief connection occurs between Kate and Ellie, one that will haunt Kate for years to come.
As time passes, Ellie struggles to conceive a child, has issues with her marriage, and seeks alternative solutions to her childlessness which includes adoption.
An unbelievable turn of events puts Kate, Will, and Skyler in direct contact with Ellie in a heart wrenching scenario that will leave you gasping for air.
While this book is very typical of the style of women's fiction written during this time period, and it is obvious in many ways, it is also a book that can still withstand that age factor and maintain it's incredible power over the reader.
This would make a very good book club read since I can imagine the storyline would evoke some really strong emotions in some people. The book starts off in the 1970's and goes up to through the 90's. Attitudes in those days of out of wedlock pregnancy were vastly different. Ellie chose to raise her child alone, which was a very brave decision on her part. Also, for someone like Kate, not being able to have children was an even larger frustration than it would be today. Adoption was pretty much her only choice.
A couple who can not have children is given the gift of a precious daughter, while another woman loses her only child, and that child grows up struggling with the unknowns regarding her parentage, and is lead to believe she was abandoned by her mother, and as a young adult must deal with a situation in her own life that mirrors that of her mother and and adoptive parents.
The plausibility factor was stretched to the max in some places, but it made for some pretty crazy twist in the story. The odds of this actually taking place are infinitesimal and created some melodrama that almost got a little out of hand. I don't know if it would work in a more modern day contemporary novel, which is why it is important to remember heavier drama was common in this time period in women's fiction. If you overlook some of that, the book still packs an emotional punch.
The complexities of marriage, relationships between parent and child are examined and the effect the choices made so many years ago can come back to haunt you. Did Kate do the right thing by keeping Skyler in the dark about her heritage? As a mother, Kate worried about how this information would effect her daughter, but she was also worried about losing her, which was the reason she kept quiet I think. I sympathized with Kate, but also felt angry with her. I could understand Skylar's attitudes at times, and at others I was truly mystified. She was a confused young woman in many ways and while I wanted to like her, at times she just left me feeling frustrated. The one person I felt the most compassion for was Ellie and while she may not have had the happy ever after she had envisioned, she does get much needed closure and a chance to be a mother, just not in a way she would ever have dreamed.
In the end, despite all the drama and secrets, and lies, the families begin to put forth an effort to right wrongs and strive for forgiveness. Things will never be the same, but a tentative step in the right direction left me with a good feeling. It will take work, commitment, and lots of patience and forgiveness for these characters to make it things work, but I have faith they will. 3.5 rounded to 4 Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult I found this to be a fascinating read ... the plot is challenging and engrossing ... but the real attraction for me is the ability of the author to sustain from start to finish an extraordinarily high emotional level throughout the story and through several different points of view Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult Set amongst the wealthy of Northfield, Connecticut, Trail of Secrets brings us the story of Kate Sutton. Kate works hard in her local antiques shop, and her husband Will runs a successful real estate development firm. Together they have raised adopted daughter Skylar, who has become a champion show jumper.
Trail of Secrets also brings us the story of Ellie Nightengale, a successful New York psychologist. At the age of eighteen, she found herself to be an unwed teenage mother. A shocking and nightmarish event changes all of that.
Now, many years later, the lives of Skylar, Ellie and Kate are brought together by fate and circumstance.
Eileen Goudge brings us a detail filled novel that keeps the reader on edge.
3.5 stars
Literature Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult
Psychologist Ellie Nightingale is haunted by the kidnapping of her baby daughter twenty-three years ago. Years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive another child have left her with a fierce desire to adopt - an obsession that is driving a wedge between her and her husband . . .
Former equestrienne Kate Sutton's hopes for both show-jumping stardom and a family are shattered in a fateful fall from a horse. Yet the miscarriage also brings her an abandoned infant she and her husband claim as their own daughter. Then she reads the headlines about the kidnapped baby and the young mother who lost her, and faces the soul-wrenching decision of her life . . .
Skyler Sutton is a young champion for whom no hurdle is ever too high - until she's challenged by her seemingly impossible love for Tony Salvatore, a tough-talking New York mounted policeman. Too soon for anyone's good, she is pregnant. And Tony knows a woman therapist who wants a baby more than anything in the world . . . Trail of Secrets