review: secrets from the past by barbara taylor bradford

After losing both of her parents to natural causes, 30 year old Serena Stone gives up her dangerous career as a war photographer to write a biography of her beloved father who was also a war photographer. While writing in New York, Serena realizes that some of the family albums are at their other home in France, so she makes a trip to where her sisters live. She’s soon distracted from writing the biography because her ex-boyfriend has been traumatized while working as a war photographer and Serena believes only another war photographer can help.

When a book is titled “Secrets from the Past,” it stands to reason the plot will center on a secret from the past; however, the novel is more than halfway over before Serena even realizes there might be a secret to uncover. There were a few little hints dropped for the reader, but by the time the secret came about, I was already bored. Initially it seemed like there’d be some great secret surrounding the year 1999 as that’s the album Serena goes to Europe to look for, but that storyline went nowhere. Furthermore, the writing is very passive (lots of “I was” and “they had”) which contributes to its excruciatingly slow pace.
2/5
Review copy provided by Get Red PR.