The Color of Secrets by Lindsay Ashford

The Color of SecretsNarrated by Heather Wilds

The Color of Secrets is the story of Bill and Eva, two young people from very different backgrounds, who are thrown together in the middle of the Second World War. It is also the story of Louisa, their daughter, and her struggle to uncover the secrets of her past, the secrets that could be the keys to a future filled with love.

Eva lives in a small British town. Her husband has been away since the beginning of the war, and Eva has just begun working for the railway, laying tracks for the many trains that clatter by day after day. When she learns that her husband is missing and presumed dead, she doesn’t know how to feel. Eva loves their young son, and knows she should mourn the loss of her husband, but it simply doesn’t seem real to her.

Then, Bill Willis steps off a train and into Eva’s life. Bill is unlike anyone Eva has ever known. He comes from Louisiana, and he’s African-American. Eva, her family, and friends don’t really know what to think of Bill and the rest of the black GI’s. They’ve never seen black people before, but Eva soon gets past any discomfort she might feel. Suddenly, she and Bill are swept up in an affair, both determined to forget everything but each other and the passion each stirs in the other’s heart.

As quickly as it began, it ends. Eva finds herself alone and pregnant, while Bill is shipped off to France. How will she manage to bring up a child of mixed race? Eva was very aware how people viewed her affair with Bill, and she doesn’t want her unborn child to suffer from any of the prejudices she knows await him or her.

The story skips ahead several years, and we get to know Eva and Bill’s daughter Louisa, a young girl who is determined to fit into the world around her, even if that world is reluctant to accept her. Louisa learns how to pass as a white girl, a decision that will haunt her for years to come.

Louisa has always wondered about her father. Her mother says she can’t remember his name, and Louisa hates her a little bit for that. When Louisa herself becomes a young mother, she sets out to discover the secrets Eva has kept hidden for so many years, and finds love along the way.

The Color of Secrets is more than a romance novel. It’s the story of two women, and the choices they make to protect themselves and their families. It’s the story of love that sees beyond racial lines, but still fears prejudice. It’s the story of family, of enduring love, and heartbreaking loss.

Over the past year or so, I’ve become quite fond of the work of narrator Heather Wilds. She has a habit of pausing in strange places, and this can sometimes be distracting. However, she is still someone I enjoy listening to very much. Her contralto voice is pleasing to my ears, and her ability to create believable male and female characters is nothing to scoff at. She uses a wide range of accents to differentiate the characters from one another, and no two sound alike. She seemed to fully grasp all the complexities of this story, and brought them to life beautifully.

Ms. Wilds doesn’t do the best children’s voices I’ve ever heard, and this was a bit of a drawback here. We see Louisa as quite a young child, and Miss Wilds portrayed her in a way that ended up coming across as quite shrill, even though it shouldn’t have. Having said that, I recognize the fact that children are difficult to depict in a believable way. I just could have done without the sometimes screechy way Louisa spoke.

This is a book with a lot of darkness. Ms. Wilds never shied away from any of it. Instead, she made me feel it, something not all narrators can do.

The Color of Secrets gave me insight into the way African-Americans were viewed overseas. I’m well aware of the problems they had during World War II here in America, but I must admit to being woefully ignorant of how the rest of the world treated them. Ms. Ashford opened my eyes to so much I suspected, but didn’t really know. I’m the kind of person who likes to come away from a book with a little more knowledge than when I started, and the setting and characters in this story helped me do that.

If racial slurs and prejudices are hard for you to listen to, you might want to take a pass on this book. However, if you are a fan of things rooted in World War II, I strongly encourage you to give this a try. I doubt you’ll regret it.

Shannon


Narration:  B+

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Escalated fighting, Domestic

Genre:  Historical Romance

Publisher:  Brilliance Audio

 

The Color of Secrets was provided to AudioGals by Brilliance Audio for review.

 

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