Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Color of Secrets
    The Color of Secrets
    The Color of Secrets
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Color of Secrets

    Written by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

    Narrated by Heather Wilds

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Everyone has secrets, but some can change your life forever…

    In the midst of the Second World War, Eva receives the devastating news that her husband is missing and presumed dead. Neither wife nor widow, she lives in a numb state of limbo until, in the heat of an English summer, she meets Bill, a black American GI. Despite their vastly different backgrounds, neither can deny the love that overcomes them in the frantic weeks that follow, when every day could be their last.

    After Eva discovers she’s pregnant, Bill is shipped off to join the D-day fight, leaving her alone in a bigoted world. As her mixed-race daughter, Louisa, grows up, how far will Eva go to keep her safe and bury the past? And how far will Louisa go to uncover the truth?

    Revised edition: Previously published as With Love and Crocodiles: The Untold Story of a War Bride, this edition of The Color of Secrets includes editorial revisions.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 14, 2015
    ISBN9781501234408
    The Color of Secrets
    Author

    Lindsay Jayne Ashford

    Raised in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, Lindsay Jayne Ashford was the first woman to graduate from Queens’ College, Cambridge, in its 550-year history. She earned a degree in criminology and was a reporter for the BBC before becoming a freelance journalist, writing for a number of national magazines and newspapers. Lindsay began her career as a novelist with a contemporary crime series featuring forensic psychologist Megan Rhys, followed by the historical mystery The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen. Her four most recent books, The Snow Gypsy, Whisper of the Moon Moth, The Color of Secrets, and The Woman on the Orient Express, blend fiction with real events of the early twentieth century. She has four children and divides her time between a seaside home on the west coast of Wales and a farmhouse in Spain’s Sierra de Los Filabres. Lindsay enjoys kayaking, bodyboarding, and walking her dogs, Milly and Pablo. Visit the author at www.lindsayashford.com.

    More audiobooks from Lindsay Jayne Ashford

    Related to The Color of Secrets

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Ninth House

      Oct 9, 2019

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 450 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Leigh Bardugo Publisher Gollancz Fantasy writers were fascinated by schools and colleges long before Harry Potter caught the train to Hogwarts, and it’s fairly easy to draw up a list of th

      1 min read

    • Article

      Fiction

      Jul 9, 2020

      Hilderbrand’s latest novel is perfect for cosy weekend reading. This time she focuses on former lovers who now lead separate lives but share an island idyll once a year. Captivating and bittersweet. (Available Jul. 23) Inseparable twins Stella and

      1 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      The Truth Is I Never Left You

      Aug 17, 2017

      The Truth Is I Never Left You
      8 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Education of Mrs. R.

      Sep 6, 2022

      An adolescent shriek woke her. Cockerels, she thought, cockerels, with a wry twist to the word. She lay in the dark listening. There was no use in covering her head; the screaming still came through. The soloist was suddenly submerged in the chorus.

      13 min read

    • Article

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?

      Aug 8, 2019

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      A Little Trip

      Aug 2, 2021

      As the first morning light peeked through the gap in the curtains, Alice left her new husband in bed. She wrapped her silk kimono around her; a present from Jeremy, it reminded her yet again just how generous he’d been since their wedding. Even this

      5 min read

    • Article

      Jack of Knives

      Jun 3, 2021

      WINNER £100 Jennifer is the author of four middle grade children’s novels published by Maverick (writing as Jenny Moore). Her latest book, The Misadventures of Nicholas Nabb, is set during the same period as her winning story and also includes a scen

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Almadraba

      Sep 1, 2018

      The Almadraba
      14 min read

    • Article

      In Love And War

      Jun 10, 2021

      April 1943 - Krakow, Poland Irena was bent over her needlework, stitching the frayed seam of her skirt when she heard a single gunshot ring out. She jerked and then scowled. After four years of war, she ought to be used to it. Why, the other night a

      11 min read

    • Article

      100-WORD-STORY COMPETITION Winners

      Aug 16, 2022

      We’ve been delighted by the huge response to our 100-word-story competition. The entries have flooded in thick and fast during the past few months, but while we’ve enjoyed reading every story, only a few can come out on top! You, our readers, voted t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Towns Like Ours

      May 3, 2018

      Towns Like Ours
      9 min read

    • Article

      Cherubs

      Jul 5, 2023

      Cherubs
      10 min read

    • Article

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty

      Sep 8, 2021

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty
      7 min read

    • Article

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty

      Sep 8, 2021

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty
      7 min read

    • Article

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty

      Sep 8, 2021

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty
      7 min read

    • Article

      Night Flying

      Aug 2, 2018

      Night Flying
      10 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Jun 18, 2015

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Aug 8, 2013

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Sexual Tension

      Jun 5, 2023

      Sexual Tension
      13 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Color of Secrets

    3.5/5

    44 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A sometimes sad, sometimes fulfilling, tale of a mixed race family in Britain. I hadn't given much thought to racism and Britain prior to this novel, but apparently the British held very similar views on race as white Americans did during WWII and post-war years. This story starts with a black GI and his romance with an English woman, which ends abruptly when he departs for D-Day and her missing husband returns from a Burmese POW camp. However, the daughter they conceived together struggles in the following years to navigate a harsh world and to conceal her heritage. An interesting book, if a little predictable at times.
    • 3/5
      In the midst of WWII, Eva receives word that her husband is missing and presumed to be dead. She meets an American black GI. Despite their differences, they fall in love. When Eva discovers that she is Regnant, Bill is sent to participate in D-Day. In the bigoted world Eva lives in, how can she manage to raise her daughter without Bill....
    • 4/5
      I was quickly drawn into the story from the beginning. The author obviously did a lot of research and it shows in this wonderful book. It is a very touching war-time romance between a British woman and an American GI who happens to be an African American.
    • 4/5
      The Color of Secrets by Lindsay Ashford is a wonderful historical romance. It starts out in 1943 in Wolverhampton, England. Eva Melrose’s husband is missing in action. Eva is living with her mother, sister, and young son. Eva and her husband have been apart more than they have been together. They had to move after their home was bombed out during the initial blitz on London. Eva is now working on rail lines (hard work) instead of in a library. One day while working a train comes into town filled with American G.I.’s. Eva’s friend Cathy convinces her to go to the dance for the servicemen. Eva meets Bill Willis at the dance. Bill is an African-American GI. Unlike in the United States, black men can go out with white women (it may not be against the law, but some people do object). They are attracted to each other and they start quietly dating. Their relationship grows but then a scandal happens in the town. A friend of Bill’s has been seeing a white girl and the girl ends up pregnant. The young girl tells her parents that she was raped (even though the relationship was consensual) and man is hanged. Bill and Eva have to be very careful, but they are in love. Bill is so upset at the death of his friend. Eva finds herself pregnant and she does her best to hide it from everyone. Eva has yet to tell Bill that her husband is missing (not dead) and that she has a young son. Bill is shipped out and Eva’s mother finds out that she is pregnant. Eva’s mother throws her out of the house. Eva goes to Wales to live with relatives.Eva gives birth to a little girl with very light complexion and names her Louise Ann (after Bill’s home state). Unfortunately, it does not seem as if Bill and Eva are meant to be together. When the war ends and Eva looks forward to seeing Bill again, Edward Melrose returns home. He was rescued from a POW camp. He is so happy to be home that he is willing to overlook Eva’s indiscretion and accept Louise. As Louise grows up, will she find out about her real father? What about Bill? Did Bill survive the war? Secrets have a way of coming out over time whether you want them to or not. I give The Color of Secrets 4.5 out of 5 stars. The book starts off a little slow, but then I could not put it down. This is a British novel so some words, phrases, and items will be unusual. The Color of Secrets is a novel that you will enjoy and think about for days after you finish reading it.I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley (and the publisher) in exchange for an honest review.