Secrets never stay secret, and when they are revealed the damage they cause can be worse than had they never been secret.

Secrets abound in this novel, hiding the truth and separating people from those they love. The story is an emotional roller coaster of loss and guilt, finding love and losing it. But in the end, when the truth is revealed, healing begins and love finds its home.

Ella and Jude were teenage soul mates. Jude had secrets, the secrets of his mother’s death and his father’s alcoholic abuse. As Jude becomes close to Ella and her mother, his father pushes to separate them, finally taking a job in another city. The young lovers stay awake for days, inseparable, dreaming of ways to stay together.

When Jude’s father nearly dies, Ella is arrested for attempted murder. Neither Ella nor Jude have clear recollections of what had happened that fateful night when Jude’s father was poisoned. Only Jude’s father knows the truth, and he uses his power as a judge to place the blame on Ella. Jude does not know that she was pregnant, and was coerced to give the baby up; she was sentenced to twenty-five years and could not take care of a child.

With an early release, Ella is intent on one thing: finding her daughter. She gets employment by lying about her felony conviction and moves to Ann Arbor, stalking her daughter until by chance she meets the adoptive mother, and befriends her. Her daughter’s adoptive family looks perfect from the outside, but it is far from a happy family. Can she protect her daughter?

When Ella’s secret past is revealed, she is poised to lose everything.

This emotionally charged novel is a page turner, and although coincidences and melodrama abounds, it will appeal to a large readership.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. ( )