Family Secrets

Frank and Marian Robertson have been married for seventy-five years and their ten year old great-granddaughter Hannah cannot understand why they do not want a party to celebrate this milestone. To Hannah their lives together have been filled with many great things, and she thinks the family should celebrate to honor what they have been given, and to honor the couple who started their family all those years ago.

Frank and Marian come from very different backgrounds – he a high school drop out who is estranged from his family, she a preacher’s beloved daughter. But they find themselves falling in love, and nothing stops them from being together. Their tale is filled with love, heartache and the troubles that bring them farther apart then closer together.

Frank and Marian have had a long fulfilling life and reading their story brought tears to this reviewers eyes. Their story is told through their eyes as well as their daughters and granddaughters. When Hanna begins delving into their lives to find out what makes them not want a party, she opens the book and gives readers glimpses into world from 1929 until present day, 2004.

Tessa McDermid has written a winner with FAMILY SECRETS. She tells a touching story that covers over seventy years of history in just under 300 pages. Nothing prepared this reader for a tale filled with so much love, history, and sadness. Ms. McDermid did not gloss over the heartaches Frank and Marian suffered on their way to a long fulfilling marriage, nor did she give the happy times an overabundance of flowery words. This author is talented and has found a series that takes her talent and expands it to tell a tale that comes across as an honest recount of facts – both real and emotional.

While the reader never gets a clear answer on why Marian does not want a large party, Ms. McDermid gives enough of a tale to make the reader understand that Marian and Frank just want happiness, for themselves and their family. I highly recommend this novel to every reader; it will touch hearts and stay alive in their mind for long after the last page is read.

April 2007