The holiday season has started everywhere and I am sure you all would appreciate a few book recommendations from me to tide you through the holidays. If books are your constant, loving companions as they are mine, then be sure to check out the books I recommend in the coming days; there will be little chance of you being lonely, whether you are spending your holidays alone or not. In fact, one of the books I have reviewed today is a lovely holiday read and I would love to hear your opinions on these books. Lovely holidays everyone!

I am usually wary about trying new authors particularly those who write contemporary women’s fiction; in fact, I have tried only a few new authors recently. You either get an exceedingly sweet story with highly unrealistic characters or exceedingly erotic story with very little depth. I am happy to say I have finally found an author whom I can read again and again; whose characters are completely believable, and whose story was very much relatable.

“The Story of Our Secrets” by Shari Low, which came out on Nov. 2, is in essence a story about dealing with personal loss and working oneself out of the grief of losing a loved one. Low takes us into the hearts and minds of a group of friends and family who have lost their friend Colm O’Flynn. Colm’s wife Shauna, his ex-wife Jess, his best-friend Dan, Dan’s wife and Shauna’s closest friend Lulu form this unique group of friends; in fact, they are more family to each other than just friends. They all support each other, look out for each other all the while accepting each other for what they are and as they are. This is the first book I am reading containing such a premise.

All of them are floundering in their lives and couldn’t seem to get hold of what they ought to do. Jess, who is training as a life-coach suggests to her friends that they all could work together following her guidance to get themselves out of the rut they had fallen into after their friend’s death. Thus begin the meetings, get-togethers and a general toss-up of the usual monotony of their lives, culminating in an interesting but also a heart-warming series of self-actualizations and realizations.

I loved the way the author has written the characters and given us insight into each and every one of them. This is not a love story nor a family story per se. It’s more in line with being a human story and the various dynamics and shades of human relations. It is also a poignant, heart-warming portrayal of the human’s resilience towards hardships, the best of human-virtues and also the worst of human-faults. I came out of this book with a sense of completion and fullness in my heart. If you are looking forward to getting the same feelings from a book, please just go ahead and buy it.