The Color of Secrets

"The Color of Secrets" started off great - the Kindle sample was enough to draw me in and make me want to buy the book. (How great that it was on Kindle Unlimited!) The premise was intriguing - a young white British woman falls in love with a young black American GI towards the end of World War II. The story of Eva and Bill's whirlwind romance, their excitement and secret meetings and the hints of avoiding the judgmental eyes of 1940s Britain, was magnetic. I was hooked reading about their love, felt trepidation when Eva discovers she is pregnant, is despondent when Bill left, rooted for their letters to finally find each other.

And then the novel takes a bizarre turn early in Louisa's life when Eva has a silly, weird reaction to a major event. The reaction, in and of itself, is stupid - but maybe understandable given the state of mind that she's in at the time. Her holding onto that reaction for nearly the rest of her life, on the other hand, is just ridiculous. The description of the book asks "how far will Eva go to keep her safe and bury the past?" But Eva's secret-keeping about Louisa's heritage was not designed to keep her safe. In fact, that explanation would've made the latter 2/3 of the story immensely better. Instead, it was a selfish, reactionary way for Eva to protect herself from what she saw as sins of the past. And suddenly the feisty, rebellious woman we see in the beginning - who bucks social trends to fall in love with a black GI - turns into a fragile bird whose family tiptoes around her, trying to avoid evoking any emotion from her aside from happiness, for a very long time. It is SO irritating that it did decrease my enjoyment of the book. It's not that fragile characters shouldn't exist; it's the fact that Eva's personality changed so drastically without a really good reason, or at least a deeper explanation/exploration of those feelings.

The reason why is because after that event, narration changes to Louisa, and follows her trajectory. And while Eva's story is heart-rending, Louisa's story is pretty bland despite the massive number of things that happen to her. I mean, this young lady is just a magnet for terrible, senseless things. But the problem with her is that she has no agency; life just carries her along, with things happening at every turn. She puts up no resistance to them. And when they do happen, her terrible decisions about how to handle them just further entrenches their results. By the time the third or fourth significant Bad Thing that Happened to Louisa came to pass, I rolled my eyes. And suddenly Eva's in on it too. Despite being a champion of anti-racist feelings before, she never makes any attempt to help Louisa come to terms with her mixed-race heritage or prepare her for the trials that she'll face.

Hmm, that was probably the part of the book that was most irritating. The novel is sold as a mixed-race child trying to figure out how to navigate her world through bigotry. But Louisa's story isn't really about that. There are two significant events early in her life that set the tone for how she thinks about her race, but after that, all of the terrible things that happen to her have NOTHING to do with her race. They're much more artifacts of gender discrimination than anything else. In fact, Louisa seems to be surrounded by all of the most progressive people in Britain because after her childhood, no one seems to really care that she's a mixed-race woman, which is...unrealistic? Even her search for her father is just like the search any other war baby might have done for her GI papa. It would have been nice to see more of the book actually focusing on Louisa's struggle due to being half-black rather than her struggle due to being a woman. (Also, a pet peeve of mine is when a woman starts to change after a man rushes in to teach her that she's worth something. That is precisely what happens to Louisa. She gets no epiphany of her own; a man has to tell her she's beautiful and wonderful before she starts to believe it. Sigh.)

I'm not just complaining about the characters - there have been books I absolutely loved with characters I loathed or things like this happening to increase drama. It's more that the storyline mirrors the pacing and writing of the book. Eva's first flirtations with Bill are great reading. Eva's figuring out what to do with her life when Bill leaves is also great reading - heart-wrenching, even when she irritates me. But then after that, the plot becomes a bit plodding. There's less character exploration, with the book focusing on action; the only problem with that is that there really isn't a whole lot of action, so you sort of feel like you're being carried more-or-less-unwillingly down a lazy river. At a certain point I switched over from actually being interested in the story with just wanting to know how it ended.

I have a degree in social studies, am a history buff, and I really love reading historical fiction. When I started reading "The Color of Secrets" I was enthralled. Eva (a white British young woman) and Bill (an African American GI) meet, fall in love, and Eva becomes pregnant. The challenges that surround their affair and subsequent birth of their child (Louisa) dealt with an historical issue which was unfamiliar to me. I was enjoying the book so much that I recommended tit to friends and family. About midway through the book takes a dramatic turn. It becomes Louisa's story. Sadly the adult Louisa is an extremely unappealing character, whiny, weak, and incapable of making a reasonable decision. This would be bad enough however the author's writing style also takes a nose dive resulting in a second half of the book that reads more like a romance novel than a well-written piece of historical fiction. I struggled to finish the book, hoping it would improve but no luck. I retracted all my glowing recommendations.

Should be called The Color of Melodramatic Lies. I hate that I have to finish any book that I start reading. Well, I don't have to, but I always finish the books that I start reading. It makes no sense, but that it is what I do. This one book was a drag. Great premise, but I could not empathize with its characters at all. It was so unbelievable the situations and the drama, and the lies, starting with Eva cheating on her presumably dead husband. I could go on and on pointing out all the instances that somebody in this book decides to not tell the truth, but it is not worthy. I do not recommend this book.

I am certainly going against the grain of other reviewers here but I really did not enjoy this story. The characters were flat, dull, and unlovable. They met the challenges they faced with whiny, detestable behavior. There were so many terrible things that happened to the characters that at one point I actually said out loud, "oh come on now!" The writing was choppy which made it hard to become really engaged. I found the ending to be very cliche. The only reason I kept reading through this book was that I had hoped at least ONE of the characters would redeem themselves by the end. I was wholly disappointed.

The description sounded very good but thought slow and more romance than I like

Lovely book about the consequences of secrets throughout generations of a family. This is a love story of the kind that many experienced during World War II - lonely GIs off fighting in a strange country, finding romance with white women, the mixed children that resulted and the search for identity these children undertook and the bigotry they encountered.

This is a particularly touching story and very well written. The secrets that start from fear and shame grow and intertwine the lives of three generations. The author has created sympathetic characters and a story that is passionate, sad and disturbing, yet full of hope and forgiveness. The book pulled me in and compelled me to keep reading. The author has written a story that will touch the hearts of those who read it.

An ARC of this book was given to me in return for an honest review by the publisher through NetGalley.

I once read a writing tip that said something to the effect of "if you want your protagonists to develop, make them go through hell." Eva and Lou sure do get hit with everything life could seemingly throw at them (losing parents, losing children, rape, racial issues, perceived infidelity, and so much more). Part 1 was so beautifully romantic that when it was announced Eddie was alive, my heart actually hurt for Eva and the troubling situation that inevitably awaited her. To then see Louisa go through her own hell in Part 2 gave her a wonderful motivation to discover her roots. These women's stories may have been rough, but the resolution and peace they find in Part 3 left me feeling relieved and happy for them. I admit, I was a little disappointed Eva and Bill didn't end up together, but that sort of "Happy Ever After" wouldn't have made this story feel as real as it did. Nicely done!

Really enjoyed the newness of this novel set in war time England after WW II.
Girl believes her husband, missing in action, will never return. She becomes involved
with a Black Am. soldier. Turns out she has a child. Her husband returns and
surprises us all. Delightful tale.

This is a great story of love and loss. I started and finished the book in one day, because I wanted to know what happened. It didn't end how I would have liked for it to, but it was a good ending, none the less. Ashford did a great job of addressing many heartbreaking issues such as the loss of a love, loss of a child, and loss of innocence. The solutions to life's problems weren't always the easy way out, and the characters seemed like real people to me. I recommend this book if you enjoy romantic fiction.

I loved the premise of the book and there was potential for a deeply compelling story. Unfortunately, the character development was very poor, the story plot predictable, and it just got worse as the book dragged on. For such a long and drawn out story, it also ended quite adruptly. Very disappointed. This story had so much potential, but fell way short.