Bay of Secrets by author Rosanna Ley ...Family secrets are uncovered and heartbreaking...but beautifully written!

Bay of Secrets by author Rosanna Ley is a multi-generational story which uncovers family secrets and misunderstandings in layers through the years. The secrets of one generation to protect the innocence of the next generation can sometimes have very long reaching consequences.
Ruby is awakened early one morning by the horrible news her parents have been killed in an accident. She manages to make it through the funeral with the help of her best friend Mel. Now two months later she is back in Dorset to begin the chore of cleaning out her parent's house and deciding what to do with her life. She does not feel her two-year relationship with James is going to work out. Maybe she should stay at the family home for a while to sort out her feelings. She is thirty-five and enjoys her work as a freelance journalist and playing her saxophone with a band of friends for clubs or events.
Mel helps her organize the cleaning out of her parents' personal lives. In their bedroom, Ruby discovers a shoebox hidden away she had never seen before. SHe opens the box and finds old pictures of a lovely young couple on a Mediterranean beach. There is another picture of the same girl in her mid-twenties sitting in the driver's seat of a VW camper van. The third picture shows the girl with a group of hippies on a beach, she has a guitar and a baby. From the bottom of the box wrapped in tissue, there is a string of old love beads and a tiny crocheted bonnet. The last item in the box was a plectrum, just like the one she uses when she plays her guitar. Why was this stuff in the wardrobe of her parents' bedroom?
Meanwhile, on one of the Canary Islands in Spain, Fuerteventura, Sister Julia is thinking about her long life and how she has lived through so many changes. She is thinking about the book, a secret book where she had made a record of names and dates. Only she knew the meaning of the information in the book because she is the one who had written each entry over the years. Every day she prayed for guidance, for atonement, and her latest prayer "May God forgive us'.

Bay of Secrets is written beautifully from the different perspectives of the characters as they are involved in the unfettering of long-held secrets. The consequences of people with authority to take actions which can change young lives and the heartbreaking results.

Photo-Art by Diane Lochala

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi