What's Left Untold

by Sherri Leimkuhler

Overview

Every secret has its price.

Anna Clark and Lia Clay were unlikely best friends in high school, but their yin-and-yang personalities drew them together in a sister-like bond. Then during college, Lia inexplicably walked out on their friendship and disappeared, leaving Anna hurt, confused, and disillusioned.

Twenty years later, Anna discovers a letter Lia wrote the summer after high school-a letter that contains a cryptic postscript concealing a devastating truth. With her twenty-year high school reunion approaching, Anna moves closer to uncovering the secret in Lia's letter and the heartbreaking consequences it set in motion.

As the layers of deceit and betrayal begin to unravel, Anna is forced to question everything she believes and come to terms with what it means to forgive the one person who hurt her in the worst way imaginable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948051507
Publisher:	Red Adept Publishing
Publication date:	05/19/2020
Pages:	436
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.97(d)

Editorial Reviews

2021-11-05
In this novel about relationships spanning 20 years, two high school friends lose touch but remain linked by untold secrets with possible dire consequences.

The story’s narrator, Anna Wells, is 34 years old and happily married to her devoted husband, Jack, with three lovely daughters. From the book’s outset, she harbors an obsession with Lia, her high school best friend. Lia precipitously ended their intense friendship the summer before they left for college. Whenever Lia comes to mind, even after two decades, Anna’s “pulse raced.” Finding out that Lia will be attending their 20th reunion, Anna “recoiled in shock, hot tea splashing onto my wrist.” She knows that back then Lia had something important to tell her, but she never learned what it was. Anna desperately wanted to become pregnant again since she knew Jack would love to have a son. She was unable to maintain another pregnancy, and, after multiple miscarriages, she sank into depression. Her need for a close friendship drew her to therapist-cum-bestie Faith Barrows. Faith moved away, leaving Anna bereft. When Lia reenters Anna’s life, they tentatively try to regain their footing as friends. Parts of the novel reveal their high school days together when Lia was beautiful, unparented, and promiscuous while Anna was more circumspect. As Lia begins to divulge her mysterious past, the tale takes some decidedly dark and twisted turns. Trigger warnings might be advisable as the plot hinges directly on a taboo. There are many moments of grace in Leimkuhler’s ambitious story. But the majority of the book is a succession of anodyne encounters involving family life. The wisdom of various grandparents includes “There’s no crying over spilt milk” and “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Dinnertime conversation includes Jack reporting, “You wouldn’t believe how flexible this guy’s toes were!” But the truly shocking secret is handled with bizarre understatement. The keepers of the secret, ultimately unwilling to spoil anybody’s happiness, decide “what good would it do anyone now to know the truth?”

A tale that offers explosive secrets and familiar insights.

Kirkus Reviews