House of Secrets

This story was exceptional, as I've come to expect from Tracie Peterson. The way she is able to twist several story lines into one major theme keeps the reader fully engaged. It's hard to put her books down, which is the types of stories I like best.

Wow! I thought as the story went on how much more pain can be had by one family. One girl suffered so much in her life but it took God's love to break the binds of pain and fear. Healing can come for anyone who believes in Him!!

I loved the characters, the relationship that developed from 3 ages of perspective and grief in the relationship with their mother and father. So many twists and turns that were very realistic for families struggling with mental illness and the complications it brings in families, I highly recommend Tracie Peterson's book, House of Secrets.

To set the struggles told by children from a mother with a mental illness was difficult at times but very insightful. I felt it was a quick read for me because I needed to know what had happened to these children and what secrets were going to be revealed.

My Kindle is named by my husband's name, but I doubt he would read this book! I loved it, though, and feel it's the best of Tracie P.'s that I have read. Her insight into mental illness, family dynamics, and Godly love are excellent, making this a hard book to put down!

Amazing book for anyone dealing with past hurts. This read made me sense God's hand in choosing this book, and brought with it a deep closeness to God and an even greater sense of peace. Look forward to searching for more of Tracie's books!

i like this author but very disappointed with the story.i forced myself to finish it.i think it had a good subject but could have been written better. the book did not flow. it did not keep my interest.

This month for my Fans of Amish Fiction group read on GoodReads our Christian Fiction pick was

House of Secrets by Tracie Peterson

I'll admit it, I wasn't going to read this. I am short on time, have a ton of books to get through, and finals are looming! Not to mention I am job searching like mad...

But I really like Tracie Peterson. I have only previously read her historical fiction works, and you can catch my reviews of some of those by clicking here.

This contemporary fiction novel struck me as interesting because of the fact that it deals with mental illness, which is not common among Christian fiction.

Usually Christian fiction doesn't get to the nitty-gritty issues. It's all about romance, and finding the right man (or woman) that God means for the main character. What I really admire about Tracie Peterson is that she addresses more challenging topics in her novels, and does so with respect and tact.

In House of Secrets, three young women, who have had a challenging relationship with their father after the death of their mother some 15 years prior, return to their summer home at their father's request.

But upon their return, the secrets of their past, and the death of their mother begin to emerge as they find out that she was a paranoid schizophrenic, who lived in fear that "bad men" would come steal her daughters. And when she felt the whole world had turned against her, things became worse and worse. Their father was at his limit and upon their mother's mysterious death, he withdraws further, sending the girls to boarding school and closing himself off from them entirely.

Bailee, the oldest, has felt the responsibility of watching over her younger sisters Geena & Piper her entire life. After all, her mother constantly told her that they were her responsibility, or else a "bad man" would steal them away. So Bailee has shut herself off from the world, refusing to open her heart to anyone or anything, and only caring for her sisters, trying to protect them.

But the more time they spend together in the summer house, the more mysterious memories that Bailee has, and the more secrets begin to emerge. Things that have been hidden for so many years are finally out in the open, but it causes their already weak bonds as a family to crumble...

Will forgiveness be a possibility after all the lies and secrets that have been kept for so many years? Or is the house full of secrets too much, enough to destroy their shaky bonds...?

Read House of Secrets to find out!

From the minute I started this book, I was drawn in. Be assured, it isn't exactly the cheeriest read one can pick up, but it is compelling, and fascinating.

Mental illnesses can easily destroy families, and one as devastating as paranoid schizophrenia is almost an insurmountable challenge. To be such young girls, and to have their father gone, and therefore forced to deal with an ill mother on their own must have been unbelievably hard. It's no wonder that their familial bonds are weak at best.

The story is told from the first-person perspective of Bailee as she works through the flashes of memories she gets from the past while visiting their old vacation home where their mother had last been alive. I was able to connect with her immediately in so many ways: I am close to her age, and I understand how lost we can feel at this age.

Geena was probably the least personable of the characters. A law student, I should have been able to relate to her, but I found her to be rather pretentious with her law knowledge. Gosh, I hope I'm not like that in daily conversations with others! She was always interjecting with her law knowledge, but the one thing I can say as an almost law graduate myself, the only thing I know is how much none of us know. So perhaps that's why she annoyed me a bit.

Piper is the youngest of the sisters, and was clearly struggling with potential mental illnesses of her own. She too believed in the stigma against mental illness and refused to seek treatment for herself. But it was clear that she wasn't very functional because of her desire to do little but stay in bed almost all day, every day.

I think that Tracie Peterson did a brilliant job addressing a sensitive topic. She handled paranoid schizophrenia with dignity, and never once made a judgment negatively about the mental illness. Instead, I think she was really able to delve into the challenges that family members would face when having a loved one suffer from this type of illness. I think it's very true that some people, like their father in the book, would shut down and avoid dealing with the mental illness head on.

The only things I didn't like about the book were that it was a bit preachy in some places (yes I realize it's Christian fiction, but I prefer undertones rather than preaching) and that while Tracie Peterson didn't make negative judgments about paranoid schizophrenia, she did about abortion.

No character in the book got an abortion, let me make that clear, it's just a topic that came up at one point, and there was a lot of judging by calling it "murder". While I realize it's a very divisive topic that everyone has a strong opinion on, it really jarred me that a large part of the book makes a point to show how "Christians" ran away from helping someone suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and how wrong that is, but then later it's ok to call abortion murder... It doesn't seem to be consistent with me. I think she easily could have written that part of the book where the father expresses regret that he asked their mother to get an abortion in the past, without including it was murder. There was no reason to throw such a loaded word in there, and the storyline could have progressed just as easily without it. I almost considered putting the book down at that point, and not finishing. It bothered me that much!

Again, I respect that there are varying opinions on the topic, but what I can't stand is the hypocrisy of Christians saying that they believe in not judging others and treating all people with love, and then turning around and judging someone so harshly by calling them a "murderer". I feel if you're going to be Christian and preach love and acceptance, you have to practice it too!

And though the abortion discussion was very short (maybe only a couple pages), it bothered me that much, and it jarred me that much, and it was so inconsistent with the entire message of the book, that it seriously lowered the rating of the entire book for me. Tracie Peterson showed such respect and tact when discussing mental illness, and then threw it all out the window in a couple of pages discussing abortion... And now, I'm a bit gun-shy about picking up any more of her books. It's really a shame...

Consequently, I give the book 2.5 out of 5 stars. Had it been consistent in demonstrating how Christians should practice love and acceptance, always, it might have been a 4 or 4.5 out of 5.