"Be careful what you wish for" was never more true in I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING by Rebecca Kelley. Twenty-year-old college student Ramona Crawford has always wanted to find her birth parents, and lately, she has yearned to know more about the circumstances surrounding her adoption. When Ramona reconnects with her birth mother, Amy Linden, Ramona thinks she will finally learn the identity of her birth father, but when Amy’s stories weave and misdirect, Ramona begins to realize that Amy tells a lot of lies and Ramona may be in grave danger herself.
Amy Linden loves her life as a hotelier at the Seven Glacier Hotel, a place she worked as a seasonal worker in the 1990s. Amy has it all: a handsome husband, an eight-year-old son, and business success. When the daughter she gave up for adoption twenty years ago appears and starts asking questions, Amy worries her carefully constructed life may come tumbling down. So Amy misleads Ramona regarding the identity of her father and then changes her story to recount a summer romance in her youth that led to impossible choices. All the while, Amy paints herself as the self-sacrificing heroine in her own story. But how much of what she says is true? Or did Amy make an impulsive and desperate decision that changed the course of Ramona’s life and the life of the father she never knew?
I’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING is an addictive tale of one woman’s desire to manipulate the narrative of her life to avoid the repercussions of her actions. Acting out of self-preservation, Amy Linden has trouble keeping her stories straight and avoids feelings of guilt until she is forced to face her past. The mountain lodge setting is picturesque and promises beauty, but it hides a terrible secret. Told through the alternating viewpoints of Ramona and Amy, the storytelling captures Amy’s mounting desperation and Ramona’s increasing frustration. The mystery is engaging and multi-layered, pulling readers in and keeping them glued to the pages until the truth is finally revealed. There is good character development and the effective use of suspense, especially the grizzly bear encounter and Amy and Ramona’s unexpected hike. It takes a little while to make it to the truth, but readers will enjoy this compelling mystery and the ambiance of the remote mountain lodge setting.
When her estranged daughter asks to hear the one story she doesn’t want to tell, a woman spins lie after lie to protect her perfect life in this gripping novel.
Amy Linden has a loving husband, an adorable son, and a glamorous career as the hotelier of a grand mountain lodge. Then Ramona Crawford, the daughter she gave up for adoption twenty years earlier, pays her a surprise visit. Ramona wants to know the identity of her biological father—and Amy completely understands. There’s just one problem: the truth would destroy Amy’s carefully curated life.
Amy shares a sad tale about a teenage romance with a boy named Freddy and the painful decision to give Ramona a better future than they could provide. At first, the pieces fit together and give Ramona both closure and a chance to get to know her odd but charming mother. But then Ramona gets a different story from Freddy, and Amy’s memories seem to change…and change again.
Will Amy ever reveal the full story of that fateful summer at the lodge? And if so, can Ramona live with the truth?
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