AUDIO BOOK WEEK! SECRETS FROM THE PAST: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

WELCOME TO BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S
AUDIOBOOK WEEK!
I AM EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE TODAY'S
AUDIO BOOK CHOICE....

GIVEAWAY ENDED 
SECRETS FROM THE PAST
Read By Stina Neilsen
 BY BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

ABOUT THE BOOK: 
With Secrets from the Past, Barbara Taylor Bradford delivers her most powerful and emotional novel yet, about one woman uncovering the secrets surrounding her mother.

At thirty, American photojournalist Serena Stone has already made a name for herself with her unique and dramatic coverage of wars in the Middle East, following in her famous father’s footsteps.  But after his unexpected death in France, she has left her job at the renowned photo news agency that he founded, weary of years of dodging bullets and exploding landmines. Leaving the front lines behind, Serena returns to New York where she starts work on a biography of her celebrated father.  When Serena discovers that her former lover Zachary North is in trouble overseas, she's forced to leave the safety of her new life, and head back to a place she was trying to escape...and her life will never be the same again.  She brings Zac back to health, first in the agency’s bolthole in Venice, and later at her family home in France. It is there that she discovers a shocking secret in the huge photographic archive of her late father’s work.  It is a secret that will propel her back to war-torn Libya, risking her life looking for clues that she hopes will piece together the mystery surrounding her parents’ marriage and the part of their life together she never knew about.

Well-kept secrets, passionate love, obsession, betrayal, redemption, and the power of the past to control the future propel this new novel from #1 The New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Barbara Taylor Bradford is the author of 25 bestselling novels, including Playing the Game, Breaking the Rules, and The Ravenscar Dynasty. She was born in Leeds, England, and from an early age, she was a voracious reader: at age 12, she had already read all of Dickens and the Brontë sisters. By the age of twenty, she was an editor and columnist on Fleet Street. She published her first novel, A Woman of Substance, in 1979, and it has become an enduring bestseller.

Barbara Taylor Bradford’s books are published in over 90 countries in 40 languages, with sales figures in excess of 82 million. Ten of her novels have been adapted into television mini-series starring actors including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Liam Neeson, Deborah Kerr and Elizabeth Hurley. She has been inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame of America, and in June of 2007, Barbara was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to Literature.

She lives in New York City with her husband, television producer Robert Bradford, to whom all her novels are dedicated, and their Bichon Frise dogs, who sit under her desk while she writes.

AN EXCERPT FROM SECRETS FROM THE PAST:
It was a beautiful day. The sky was a huge arc of delphinium blue, cloudless, and shimmering with bright sunlight above the soaring skyline of Manhattan. The city where I have lived, off and on, for most of my life was looking its best on this cold Saturday morning.
 
As I walked up Sutton Place, returning to my apartment, I began to shiver. Gusts of strong wind were blowing off the East River, and I was glad I was wearing jeans instead of a skirt, and warm clothes. Still shivering, I turned up the collar of my navy blue pea jacket and wrapped my cashmere scarf tighter around my neck.
 
It was unusually chilly for March. On the other hand, I was enjoying my walk after being holed up for four days endeavoring to finish a difficult chapter.
 
Although I am a photojournalist and photographer by profession, I recently decided to write a book, my first. Having hit a difficult part earlier this week, I’d been worrying it to death for days, like a dog with a bone. 

Finally I got it right last night. It felt good to get out, to stretch my legs, to look around me and to remind myself that there was a big wide world out here.
 
I increased my pace. Despite the sun, the wind was bitter. The weather seemed to be growing icier by the minute, and I hurried faster, almost running, needing to get home to the warmth. To finish reading this excerpt, visit the Macmillan publishing website HERE.

SOME OTHER BOOKS BY AUTHOR BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD:

                   

                    

                     

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

Barbara Taylor Bradford has once again given readers a story they can get lost in with SECRETS FROM THE PAST. This is a poignant story that is teeming with everything from conspiracy to deceit, salvation to devotion, and, of course, love and romance. The story captured my attention from the beginning and almost left me breathless at the end. I am not sure if it is because Bradford was a favorite author of my mother’s and so she is a sentimental favorite of mine, or if it is just because she writes engrossing stories, but I can never resist one of her novels. This one being an audio book was a new experience in “reading” her work and I thoroughly enjoyed it in that format as well.

The main character that readers will connect with is that of Serena Stone. Stone is a photojournalist, following in her famous father’s footsteps, and working in some of the most dangerous and devastated battlegrounds on earth. Through her vivid imagery of this war-filled background, Bradford has given SECRETS FROM THE PAST such an edgy and moving backdrop to as to set the stage for the entire narrative.

However, older twin sisters, Jessica and Cara, along with Serena are now mourning the sudden death of their father, and a few years prior to that, the loss of their mother. Sabrina has returned to the states and has left the war stage behind as she begins to write a biography of her father.

When Harry, Serena’s father’s best friend, calls from Venice to ask her to come help her former love Zachary North, she goes. It seems that Zac is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is asking for her. Since Harry is a loyal second father to Serena, she trusts his judgment and honors the request. From that point on, Serena is caught up not only in the old feelings for Zac returning, but trying to decide if their rocky relationship is a wise one to enter back into even though he is her true love. Zac’s treatment of Serena is not always healthy one. Can Zac change as he recovers or will his old frightening tendencies return? And what secrets does Serena find among her parents things that can change her life forever? What part does Harry play in this and how many secrets does he hold on to? Will Harry decide to share these secrets and help Serena and her sisters find the answers they seek?

It is these questions and the twists and turns in this part of the novel that take the reader deeply into Serena’s family’s past. The more she uncovers as she searches through her parents belongings in their home in France, the more confused she becomes until she realizes she must follow all leads in order to reveal all the SECRETS FROM THE PAST. Once again, Barbara Taylor Bradford didn’t disappoint and you will find this a “page turning”, can’t stop listening, audiobook!   

GIVEAWAY 

THANKS TO ESTHER AND THE GREAT FRIENDS
AT MACMILLAN AUDIO BOOKS, I HAVE ONE
COPY OF BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD'S AUDIOBOOK,
  SECRETS FROM THE PAST, TO GIVE AWAY 
  TO ONE OF MY LUCKY FOLLOWERS 
  

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
--INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS IN COMMENT
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE IN 
ORDER TO COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY
 

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT SECRETS FROM THE PAST THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS AUDIO BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING WHEN YOU VISITED BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD'S WEBSITE HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE OTHER CURRENT GIVEAWAY YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU CAN COMMENT ON EACH ON SEPARATELY AND GAIN MORE ENTRIES THAT WAY

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
 6 PM, EST, JULY 17
 
GOOD LUCK!