Things Left Unsaid by Courtney Walsh – Review

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I look forward to every one of Courtney Walsh’s books. Her ability to reach inside and wring out emotions is on point, and Things Left Unsaid is no exception. Return to Sweethaven, Michigan and meet an entire new cast of characters who are haunted by events ten years prior.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Things Left Unsaid
Author: Courtney Walsh
Publisher: Waterfall Press
Release Date: October 30, 2018
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

An emotional novel of family, friendship and forgiveness from Courtney Walsh, the New York Times bestselling author of Hometown Girl.

Lyndie St. James is thrilled that her best friend, Elle, is getting married but unprepared for the emotional storm of the wedding week and returning to her childhood summer home of Sweethaven. The idyllic cottage community harbors some of her best—and worst—memories. It’s not only the tragic death of her childhood friend Cassie that has haunted her for ten years, it’s the other secrets she’s buried that have kept her from moving on.

But Lyndie isn’t the only one with secrets.

Cassie’s mother, father and brother, still struggling with the loss, have been drifting further and further apart. And Elle herself, the last to see Cassie alive, carries an impossible burden of guilt. Now reunited, each of them has a choice: to reveal the truths of that night or continue to live in its shadow. That means embarking on a personal journey of the heart—to escape the darkness and all its regrets and to finally come to terms with the past and, especially, with each other.

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IN MY OPINION

In Things Left Unsaid, Courtney Walsh returns to her beloved Sweethaven with a new cast of characters and an emotional novel that left me with a bit of a book hangover.

It’s been ten years since Lindie, Elle, and the Jacobs lost a piece of their hearts. Ten years Lindie, Elle, and Tucker have kept silent with guilt, shame, and sorrow. But a wedding week planned around the anniversary of Cassie Jacobs’ death will bring it all boiling up.

Walsh once again expertly pulls at the strings of pain, sorrow, loss, and stunted lives, drawing readers into the lives of each of these once-friends who have gone their separate ways only to be drawn back together. Through the pages of Things Left Unsaid, truths are revealed, forgiveness is offered, and things not seen before by this group of people are exposed.

Healing can be painful but on the other end of the pain is joy. And life. Walsh excels at bringing this truth to light every single time.

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Courtney Walsh is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist as well as an artist, theater director and playwright. She is the author of the Sweethaven series—including A Sweethaven Summer, which was a Carol Award finalist in the debut author category—as well as the small-town romances Paper Hearts, Change of Heart, Just Look Up and the forthcoming Just Let Go. Things Left Unsaid is her ninth novel. She lives in Illinois, where she and her husband own a performing-arts studio and youth theater. They have three children.

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