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Everything We Keep: A Novel Kindle Edition
An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller.
A luminous debut with unexpected twists, Everything We Keep explores the devastation of loss, the euphoria of finding love again, and the pulse-racing repercussions of discovering the truth about the ones we hold dear and the lengths they will go to protect us.
Sous chef Aimee Tierney has the perfect recipe for the perfect life: marry her childhood sweetheart, raise a family, and buy out her parents’ restaurant. But when her fiancé, James Donato, vanishes in a boating accident, her well-baked future is swept out to sea. Instead of walking down the aisle on their wedding day, Aimee is at James’s funeral—a funeral that leaves her more unsettled than at peace.
As Aimee struggles to reconstruct her life, she delves deeper into James’s disappearance. What she uncovers is an ocean of secrets that make her question everything about the life they built together. And just below the surface is a truth that may set Aimee free…or shatter her forever.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLake Union Publishing
- Publication dateAugust 1, 2016
- File size942 KB
- I wondered if he was noticing from the photo how the thickly applied makeup hid the cuts on my cheek and the bruise on my chin.Highlighted by 891 Kindle readers
- “Feeling guilty is natural. Just don’t hang on to it as long as I did. You’ll only get depressed and there isn’t a damn thing you can do to change the past.”Highlighted by 857 Kindle readers
- My heart reached out to him. I knew exactly how he felt. Hollow and incomplete. Loss left an empty cavity in the chest.Highlighted by 549 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
Review
Liz & Lisa Best Book of the Month Selection
POPSUGAR and Redbook Fall Must-Read Selection
A Top 10 Kindle Bestseller of 2017
“This fantastic debut is glowing with adrenaline-inducing suspense and unexpected twists. Don’t make other plans when you open up Everything We Keep; you will devour it in one sitting.” —Redbook Magazine
“Aimee’s electrifying journey to piece together the puzzle of mystery surrounding her fiancé’s disappearance is a heart-pounding reading experience every hopeless romantic and shock-loving fiction-lover should treat themselves to.” —POPSUGAR
“You’ll need an ample supply of tissues and emotional strength for this one…From Northern California author Kerry Lonsdale comes a heart-wrenching story about fate sweeping away life in an instant.” —Sunset Magazine
“Gushing with adrenaline-inducing plot, this is the phenomenally written debut every fall reader will be swooning over.” —Coastal Living
“A beautifully crafted novel about unconditional love, heartbreak, and letting go, Everything We Keep captures readers with its one-of-a-kind, suspenseful plot. Depicting grief and loss, but also healing and hope in their rawest forms, this novel will capture hearts and minds, keeping readers up all night, desperate to learn the truth.” —RT Book Reviews
“A perfect page-turner for summer…” —Catherine McKenzie, bestselling author of Hidden and Fractured
“Heartfelt and suspenseful, Everything We Keep beautifully navigates the deep waters of grief, and one woman’s search to reconcile a past she can’t release, and a future she wants to embrace. Lonsdale’s writing is crisp and effortless and utterly irresistible—and her expertly layered exploration of the journey from loss to renewal is sure to make this a book club must-read. Everything We Keep drew me in from the first page and held me fast all the way to its deeply satisfying ending.” —Erika Marks, author of The Last Treasure
“In Everything We Keep, Kerry Lonsdale brilliantly explores the grief of loss, if we can really let go of our great loves, and if some secrets are better left buried. With a good dose of drama, a heart-wrenching love story, and the suspense of unanswered questions, Lonsdale’s layered and engrossing debut is a captivating read.” —Karma Brown, bestselling author of Come Away With Me
“A stunning debut with a memorable twist, Everything We Keep effortlessly layers family secrets into a suspenseful story of grief, love, and art. This is a gem of a book.” —Barbara Claypole White, bestselling author of The Perfect Son
“Everything We Keep takes your breath from the very first line and keeps it through a heart-reeling number of twists and turns. Well-plotted, with wonderful writing and pacing, on the surface it appears to be a story of love and loss, but just as you begin to think you’ve worked it out, you’re blindsided and realize you haven’t. It will keep you reading and guessing, and trust me, you still won’t have it figured out. Not until the very end.” —Barbara Taylor Sissel, author of Crooked Little Lies and Faultlines
“Wow—it’s been a long time since I ignored all of my responsibilities and read a book straight through, but it couldn’t be helped with Everything We Keep. I was intrigued from the start…So many questions, and Lonsdale answers them in the most intriguing and captivating way possible.” —Camille Di Maio, author of The Memory of Us
From the Publisher
Everything We Keep is absolutely mesmerizing. It’s a thrilling roller-coaster ride into the dark heart of a relationship and a family—I was astonished by the startling secrets, and how author Kerry Lonsdale wove everything together in the end. But most of all, it’s a ride that binds us to Aimee. It’s her journey from relying too much on others to finally depending on herself and learning what to let go of and what to hold on to that grabbed me from the beginning and relentlessly held me captive.
I’d rather escape into reading about family drama than live one. Buried secrets, the lies we tell, and what we do to protect what’s ours…there’s nothing that changes us quite like family.
- Kelli Martin, Editor
About the Author
Kerry Lonsdale believes life is more exciting with twists and turns, which may be why she enjoys dropping her characters into unexpected scenarios and foreign settings. She graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is a founder of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, an online community of authors located across the globe. She resides in Northern California with her husband, two children, and an aging golden retriever who’s convinced she’s still a puppy. Everything We Keep is Kerry’s first novel. Connect with her at www.kerrylonsdale.com.
Product details
- ASIN : B0184ZLSN0
- Publisher : Lake Union Publishing (August 1, 2016)
- Publication date : August 1, 2016
- Language : English
- File size : 942 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 306 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #45,471 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #48 in Add Audiobook for $3.99 or Less
- #200 in Women's Psychological Fiction
- #350 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Kerry Lonsdale is the Amazon Charts, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Kindle bestselling author of the Everything series, No More trilogy, and multiple standalone domestic drama novels. Her books have sold more than two million copies and have been translated into twenty-seven languages. Having successfully launched two kids into adulthood, Kerry lives in California with her husband and three cats.
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Kerry Lonsdale delivers a riveting debut EVERYTHING WE KEEP, a woman who attends her fiancé’s funeral instead of her wedding. From intrigue, mystery, secrets, and betrayal; being true to oneself. Aspiring Dreams. Second Chances. From letting go, to healing, forgiveness, and love.
Sous chef Aimee Tierney has been planning a perfect wedding and perfect life with her childhood sweetheart James Donato (Donato Enterprises -import/export business). James had made promises- they would grow old together. They had been together since they were eight years old as best friends; inseparable.
They each had their own dreams. Aimee’s to open her own restaurant. James' passion was art. However, his family would not hear of this career from an early age. Aimee helped him hide in her own house as a child, to find solace, offering a place for painting without his parent’s approval.
Claire the mother had wanted James and Thomas working at the dad’s company, when they grew up, and James painting pictures was not part of her plan. However, James disappears while on a trip to Mexico, right before the big wedding day. A tragic boating accident. She never saw the actual body. When he returned they had decided he would quit Donato Enterprises and pursue art. Painting was his passion. If she had insisted he stay home, they would be married and on their honeymoon in Saint Bart’s.
Aimee is devastated and many answers still unsettled. In addition, she receives more bad news when her parents sell their restaurant (The Goat) due to financial reasons, and she had planned on buying it. She had worked with them for years, and had envisioned buying it when they retired. They owed too much money on the business.
Over the years, while she helped her mom craft new recipes for the restaurant, James painted, and his talent and their friendship flourished turning into much more. Sous chef and restaurant manager, Aimee is at odds with her life and cannot figure out why her husband was taking off at the last minute; and the events leading to the death. She had so many memories connected to both.
Things become even more complex , when a psychic named Lucy (Lacy) shows up at the funeral and says James is alive. An enigma, she remains a mystery to the very end. Readers cannot imagine how she is connected.
Thomas, James brother (his beneficiary) shows up with money saying she was entitled. The check was dated the same date as James’ funeral. With no job and no restaurant, she is tempted to take the money. Are these two connected? Should she use the money to start her own restaurant? Something was drawing her to Joe’s, a special place she and James frequented, to find it for lease. Joe’s Coffee house was closed. The café was empty. Gone forever. Just like everything else in her life.
Five months later, Aimee’s designer friend, Nadie wants her to attend a gallery opening for Wendy V Yee Gallery (international photography). The photographer was Ian Collins. Nadie had created a beautiful space for the artistic talent. They soon become friends.
She also starts thinking about turning Joe’s into "Aimee’s Café." James had even suggested the name. A place where they spent their Sunday mornings. Her friend, Nadie had told her she needed to move forward. Now at age twenty-seven could she be the proud owner of a business with no plan, no employees, or no product? A boutique coffee shop and gourmet eatery.
Aimee receives many clues through paintings that leaves her wondering if James may still be alive. She does not want to tell anyone-they would think she was crazy. She has to find out. She had buried her fiancé and mourned him. She missed him something fierce, and that longing only fueled the seeds of doubt Lacy had planted. Until those went away, it wouldn’t be fair to let Ian assume she wanted anything more than friendship.
After fourteen months since James left for Mexico and one year since she buried him, Aimee’s search leads her to Mexico, with clues from the mysterious psychic, and the art gallery post card from Mexico. Ian Collins whose wife died five years earlier, comes along- he too has suffered a painful past. Aimee’s heart reached out to him, as she knew exactly how he felt. Hollow and incomplete. Loss left an empty cavity in the chest.
If James were alive, it meant something bigger and more sinister had been going on around her and she had been too naïve to see it. However, when Ian’s sister opens up to Aimee, she learns he too has suffered a great loss and this journey with Aimee may be what he needs, and at the same time capturing his photography.
Lonsdale takes readers on a suspenseful and emotional journey, to an intense mystery of the past about James’ childhood, his accident, and how each character is a connecting puzzle piece.
Part Two takes us to The Emerald Coast to Puerto Escondido, Mexico, to a boutique beachfront resort, and a gallery to meet the artist, Carlos at this mysterious gallery. Did the postcard and painting prove James was alive, or was she wasting her time, looking for answers for the last nineteen months.
As the Belize Sunrise, true artists elicit an emotional response through their work, whether art or cooking –could Ian be the man for her, to catch her, or can she give up James’ ghost? Aimee’s heart was divided from James to Ian.
“The worst feeling in the world is never to be remembered by the one person I can’t forget.”
Does Aimee know whom she can trust? Was she losing her grip on sanity? From James, Imelda, Thomas, Lacy, James missing paintings, a death, and now Ian; opening her heart to him. It was all to to much. Who were the victims? Can perfection be an illusion?
A splendid debut, complex, multi-layered mystery and suspense, keeping readers glued to the pages to learn the dark family secrets, and the whereabouts of James’ missing paintings.
“The pain of rejection, the pain of betrayal, and the pain of everything that had been lost to us.”
When you reach the halfway mark, there are many unexpected twists, 75% intense, and the best part is the Epilogue- Twisty and surprising (Loved it)! Contemporary fiction, mixed with suspense, romance, and intrigue. Not only a physical journey traveling thousands of miles, also an internal journey.
From mental illness, DID dissociative identity disorder, fugue, emotional trauma, assault, and forgotten memories—being true to oneself. When life cannot be forced upon someone, against their will. Discovering the truth about the ones we hold dear, and the lengths they will go to protect. Would make for an entertaining movie.
Can’t wait for the next two books: All the Breaking Waves, Dec, 2016 and What We Leave Behind June, 2017! An author to follow. Amazon Kindle First (Prime) readers, you can read this title early, before, August 1 release date. BTW, it is 3:06 am just finishing. After reading, dying for a delectable scone and an espresso! When reading, you will relate.
For all you fans of (2015) James Hankins The Prettiest One: A Thriller , you are going to love this smashing new name in contemporary domestic suspense!
Aimee is a 29-year-old woman who has to attend the funeral and burial of her childhood sweetheart and fiancée James Donato on what should have been their wedding day. We are introduced to her while she is sobbing her way through the funeral service in the church decorated with the flowers that had been ordered for the wedding. Her once-to-be-future mother-in-law insisted that they not be wasted.
James was in a boating accident in Mexico while on a fishing trip and had been missing several weeks before his body was finally found. Aimee was not allowed to see the body. James’ brother Thomas took care of all that. He also gifted Aimee with a large check in excess of a quarter-million dollars on the day of the funeral and suggested that she fulfill her dream of starting her own restaurant with it. While leaving the church for the burial at the cemetery, Aimee is approached by a woman identifying herself as Lacy, who tells her James is still alive. The card she leaves with Aimee identifies her as a psychic medium and locator of missing persons.
Aimee’s friends Kristen and Nadia are furious when they learn of Lacy accosting their friend with this ridiculous news. After the burial, they go home with Aimee who wisely chose not to attend the Donatos’ reception. The three friends whip up a pitcher of a favorite beverage and commiserate over the loss of James who at that point had been missing for nine weeks. They had all been friends since the Donatos moved to their little California town almost 20 years prior. Although there was no more anxiety and wonder about his fate, there was still no peace for Aimee who was really just beginning to realize the magnitude of her loss.
When Aimee showed up for work as a pastry chef at her parents’ restaurant on the Monday morning following the funeral, her parents were aghast. They insisted she go home and had already made arrangements for a neighboring pastry shop to provide baked goods during Aimee’s absence. When she resisted, they finally convinced her to leave by telling her they were closing their restaurant due to indebtedness. She would have to find another job anyway. James had always planned to buy their restaurant for Aimee when the Tierneys retired. For Aimee, this was another death, another loss of the life she and James were supposed to share.
Aimee basically becomes a recluse for a few months, keeping the home she and James shared a shrine to him and their planned life. His paintings are in the garage, in eight boxes, and many hang on their walls while his clothes still hang in his half of their closet. Letting go is not in her vocabulary much less her thoughts. The instinct to survive, along with some no-nonsense pushing from Nadia and Kristen bring Aimee back to the world. She decides to use Thomas’ check to buy the café where she and James used to breakfast every Sunday. As she goes through the machinations to make that happen, her outlook brightens and her friendship with Ian, a photographer, provides a way back to vibrancy.
Lacy comes back into the picture and provides a small painting that seems to prove that James is indeed alive and living in Mexico under an assumed name with his own art studio. After a private investigator she hired tells her that indeed James is definitely dead and the artist known as Jaime Carlos Dominguez is not James Donato, Aimee decides to go to Mexico herself. It has been 19 months since he went missing and Aimee feels compelled to see for herself. Ian insists on going with her not just as her support but also because he has his own reasons for seeking out Lacy, whom he knows as Lucy.
Ms. Lonsdale has woven a complex and clever story in Everything We Keep. The pace is excellent and keeps the reader interested. I read it in one sitting, but each chapter provides enough information along with a hint of intrigue to invite the reader to come back soon. Although most of the book is told in present time, there are a couple of chapters where the author fills in the back story of the characters, from their childhood to their young adult years. Each of these back story chapters comes at a point in the story where a new development in the Aimee/James story is about to happen. Lonsdale is very good at providing hints without giving away too much.
This story is full of surprises. Just when you think Aimee has finally had enough of grief and mourning, something develops to take her back to JamesLand. Nothing really prepared me for the epilogue, where the author delivers a final thrust to the reader. I should have know she could not resist one more twist.
If you are looking for a story with likable characters and an interesting plot that you can either take your time reading or finish in a few hours, give Everything We Keep a try. I doubt you’ll be disappointed. This review was posted in the coastal breeze news 09/02/16 issue. [...]
Top reviews from other countries
Aimee went from planning to marry her childhood sweetheart, taking over the family restaurant when her parents retired and having her own family - to being lost. 'Everything We Keep' is a wonderful, mysterious and intriguing puzzle revolving around hints that Aimee keeps receiving. They start from a mysterious psychic woman and a stranger who approach Aimee in the parking lot after the funeral and tell her James is alive and culminate in her finally taking a trip to Mexico in search of James. The betrayals and secrets keep the story moving quickly and 'Everything We Keep' is an excellent romance. I enjoyed how it developed into a heart felt story. I would recommend this book to anyone that would enjoy a book that has interesting characters, a fast read and an amazing twist at the end.