Sejal Badani's "The Storyteller's Secret: An Engrossing Novel"

S. Scheid: This beautiful book chronicles great love and the duty we all have to those we love and to our culture. Love and fidelity often at odds influence the future.

United States on Oct 10, 2023

Sarsoura H.: I have such mixed feelings with this book. To start, it’s amazing written and tell a sad and heartbreaking story full of love, lose and everything in between. I guess my mixed feelings come from my own personal beliefs. It makes you wonder of one’s own circumstance, of choices made, if they could be remade.

United States on Sep 21, 2023

M. W. Butler: A nuanced story with strong characters that offers a window into a different cultures, beliefs and traditions. A very enjoyable read.

United Kingdom on Sep 04, 2023

abc123: Wasn't sure what to expect but had read her other book which was equally wonderful! Felt transported to another place and time so far away .

United States on Aug 29, 2023

N. Messner: So gripping and engaging I didn’t want to put the book down. The depth of each character was so great I imagine seeing them before my eyes & I heard their voices. Obviously I am not a writer lol because I can’t find all words to tell you how great this book is! A must read!

United States on Aug 22, 2023

ramendra singh: Well written . Emotionally surcharged. Moves across the continents to capture the aspiration of a woman who is in search of her roots and trying to douse the failure to attain motherhood.

India on Jun 20, 2023

Rosemary Nissen-Wade: Partly because I also have a mother who grew up in India and a grandmother who lived nearly all her life there, and I went as an adult to discover the place where they had lived. But in other respects my circumstances were different, e.g. I knew my grandmother, and I went back to a city not a village.
Even more than that I loved this book for the engaging writing, the fascinating background, the moving story, the hint of mystery, the insight into the characters, both the sweet yet realistic romances.

Australia on May 10, 2023

ceecee: This is a beautifully written story which I liked and enjoyed but I can’t say I absolutely loved it and I can’t put my finger on why. The story is told of grandmother Amisha in India and granddaughter Jaya who is American. Jaya has suffered several miscarriages and from a health perspective cannot try again. Her marriage to Patrick fell apart under the psychological and physical strain. Jaya’s parents came to the USA from India on their marriage. Her mother Lena is remote and hard to reach emotionally and perhaps that is linked to the fact that on her marriage her father told her that she was to leave India and never come back. The family receive a letter informing them that the father is dying and requests that Lena return to India. Lena refuses and will not explain why so Jaya sets off to India to try to learn why.

The unfolding story of Amisha is a bold one and helps to explain why Lena is as she is. Amisha was a woman before her time, a square peg in a round hole during the last years of the Raj. It centres around the 30’s and 40’s and I really did enjoy the historical background with the advent of world war and the rise of Indian desire to break free of...

United Kingdom on Jul 29, 2019

A. Ingeal: Jaya, having suffered personal heartbreak and challenging circumstances in her life, chooses to escape to the past to find herself and discover her history. In her ancestral home in India, she learns the secrets and story of events that led to her own mother's cool behaviour towards her only child.

The author has constructed the story of Jaya's grandmother, Amisha, around cultural restrictions and differences but, for me, the real story is about love, devotion and heartbreak, not just the love between lovers but family love, love between friends, unconditional love ... It is a story that drew me in and I am so glad to have read it.

As one who lived over three years in India, I found much that is also implausible in the story. There are some big inconsistencies - the timeline would suggest that Amisha's story took place in the late 1940s - add about 40-50 years for the next two generations and we might get to the 1990s. The story of her granddaughter, Jaya, finds her writing a blog - something that would have come later. Jaya emails her story yet she has no mobile phone, and communications between her and her family in America are through a corded phone in a...

United Kingdom on Aug 12, 2018

C Wm (Andy) Anderson: EDITED at suggestion of a comments by James Crain and Kindle Reader Kit, below.

Last month the Amazon First books, and the short stories, all seemed to resonate with me. This month, only two stories provided any glimmer of interest for me. Then, a review of one of the two dissuaded me from reading that one. So, I took a chance on "The Storyteller’s Secret,” even though it sounded a bit too common. Would I be inspired? Would I be letdown? Is this story merely a good read, or is it something more?

Read on to learn what I found…

POV: Starts out in first person, but then shifts to third person.

THE WRITING: Frankly, the first three or four chapters were, well, sensitively written, but not particularly interesting for me. Essentially, they were written to show why our heroine travels to India. Parts were gripping, but other parts felt as if the author was trickling information instead of painting a picture. Yeah, it was a bit like my writing, so I shan’t be too critical. By Chapter 6, when we travel back in time to the 1930’s, the POV changes to third person and becomes much more engaging.

I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I did feel...

United States on Aug 01, 2018