I could not put this book down! Compelling and well-written, with complex characters and a great premise. Would definitely recommend!

Hannah Williamson is searching for the truth. After finding old letters to the newspaper where she works, Hannah cannot quit her search for more information. What she finds along the way is so much more than information....a sense of belonging, friendship, family and a new level of self-confidence. This was a good story, but did tend to drag at some points.

I really didn't enjoy this book. I gave up half way through. I think it just wasn't my type of book and im sure others will really enjoy it

Hannah relocates to the south to help her 91 year old mawmaw ... she is a journalist, whose career and personal life have taken a tumble. While working at the local newspaper she comes across old letters from an Evelyn. She keeps digging and uncovers things she didn’t expect. This was a good read. I was more interested.in Evelyns story than Hannah’s.

Really enjoyed this pre-release copy from NetGalley. The story was well-written and made you look forward to reading more. Good character development. Well worth checking it out.

I wanted to like this book more than I ultimately did. I was put off by the "woke" approach to the racial biases of society and found it to be rather preachy. The topics of suicide and depression seemed choppy and forced. I liked the characters of Guy and Mamaw and the ending came together to make it a good story.

Trigger Warning: Suicide, Sexual Assault
Thank you to NetGalley for the gifted advance copy.
Hannah left Chicago for rural Mississippi after a disastrous six months. A bad breakup, the death of her father, loss of her job and ultimately a time committed have her looking for an escape. After finding hidden letters in the basement filing cabinets of a southern newspaper that disclose an eighty year old secret. She becomes obsessed.
Overall - I enjoyed this book. I liked how the characters tied together slowly in non-obvious ways. I liked the drama and the mystery plus the sleuthing. I thought the story came together very well. The ending was good.
I wasn't a huge fan of the main character - she seemed self absorbed and reckless - but perhaps that added to the storyline.

A cache of letters written to a southern newspaper that discloses an eighty year old secret. I had to read the rest of the story. I liked the drama and the mystery plus the sleuthing. I thought the story came together very well. The ending was good. This book is one of the rare instances when I took a strong dislike to the main character, Hannah. I found her to be self-absorbed, scatter brained, oblivious, and selfish. When she asks a friend to assist her and then rushes off, I knew what the fallout would be plus the neglect of her grandmother. Although the story irons out her problems, I still disliked her at the end. It’s a decent book.

I have read some of Emily Bleeker's other works and really enjoyed them so when this one came available I went for it. I am glad I did. I was intrigued by the blurb, it sounded different than the usual storylines you read these days, and the time and place were different than most of the historical fiction I read. Mostly they are WWII, European based books so this being a story, though it is in the 1930s, of the deep south in the USA, was a nice change for me.
Hannah moves back to Mississippi from Chicago to care for her grandmother and also to get a new start after some disappointments in the big city. She was working as a journalist and obtained a job at a small local press. There she discovers some old letters that were rejected at the time they were received and never published. The story Hannah uncovers through the letters begins to reveal secrets that the town would rather stay hidden. Hannah feels compelled by the letters to search for more of the story, wanting a complete picture of the events that occurred leaving a young woman crippled and many questions unanswered or covered up.
The only problem I really had with this book was Hannah herself. She just was not a likeable character, to self-pitying and at times I found her to be somewhat hypocritical of situations, at one moment criticizing some action and the next moment doing about the same as what she had just condemned. I just found her plain annoying overall. It was Evelyn and her story that held me captive and made me continue reading.
So other than the unlikeable Hannah, this is a very good book, a terrific storyline that hits upon subjects that were not only huge back then, but are quite predominate in our society today, as anyone who keeps up with current events would know.
Warning to those that may not take well to heavy subject matter, this novel contains quite a few hard hitting topics. Such as, racism, sexual assault, rape, suicide, depression and more. Not a light, breezy read, but a very informative one.
I give 4 stars, only because I just couldn't get with Hannah at all. I would recommend for all historical fiction fans, Evelyn's story needs to be heard.
Thank you to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for the free ARC e-book version of this novel. I am giving my honest review voluntarily with no obligation to anyone, these opinions are mine and mine alone.

What a fabulous book!!! I tend to struggle with books that occur outside of my own lifetime - but I completely fell in love with Evelyn and her story - and how it captured and ultimately saved Hannah. By the time I got to the last quarter of the book, I couldn't read fast enough!! There were some bombs that I seriously did NOT see coming and they floored me!!! Hannah's struggles are some that I've personally gone through and I believe that they were honestly portrayed - I loved her growth throughout the story. I absolutely looked Hannah's grandmother and the friendship that developed between Hannah and Guy. I received an advance digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and Netgalley.com. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A journalist from Chicago makes a move to Senatobia, Mississippi in order to care for her grandmother. Hannah works at a small local press company and finds rejected articles from the 1930s that uncover deep historical secrets from the town. The letters stir something within Hannah who is committed to revealing the whole truth of the young girl who penned them, despite the many obstacles she faces.
I’m really glad I chose to read this book as initially I wasn’t sure I would enjoy it. The slow reveal of all the letters was something that kept me intrigued throughout. It was very interesting reading about the historical context of Mississippi and the author explores the history of racism that was and is prevalent there. The novel is full of suspense and romance, the latter of which I personally wasn’t as interested in, yet overall a good read.
CW: attempted suicide, child abuse, sexual assault.

What’s Left Unsaid is released on 27th July 2021 and it is now available for preorder!
Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for my advanced copy

An interesting novel that touches on the racial tension still found in America’s Deep South. When journalist Hannah Williamson suffers a traumatic break up from her boyfriend just after her fathers death she relocates to Mississippi to take care of her grandmother after she is bedridden by a fall. Hannah gets a part time job sorting the archives at the local newspaper and becomes obsessed with letters she reads from the 1930’s from a girl called Evelyn, who was paralysed after a shooting when she was a teenager. Evelyn’s story uncovers a tangled web of deceit and lies that someone doesn’t want exposed. A great mystery and well worth a read.

I have to be honest, I was not a huge fan of the main character Hannah, but I stuck with this book to see what happened in her "mystery solving case." After many losses in her life, Hannah goes to live with her grandmother in Senatobia, Mississippi and while there, she gets a job at the local paper. When asked to go through a basement full of archives from the 1920s-1930s, Hannah finds letters written by a young girl named Evelyn. Throughout the novel, she continues to find more letters and do more research to find the truth- which you will find out and be pretty shocked in the end. Cute book, had me excited to see what was coming next.

I enjoyed Evelyn's chapters and thought the author did a beautiful job telling this story.
This was a brilliantly written, utterly captivating book that truly lived up to the expectations I had of it. What makes this book even more compelling, yet heart-breaking, is the fact it is based on true events lived by the authors' great-aunt.
I really !over this book!

This was a brilliantly written, utterly captivating book that truly lived up to my expectations. I need to read more by this author!

The author's writing is brilliant and so captivating. A good read, for sure.

I would like to thank Emily Bleeker and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

What’s Left Unsaid
By Emily Bleeker
Review

This gripping novel by @Emily Bleeker dealing with family secrets, betrayal, lost love and second chances kept my attention the whole way through.
Bleeker bites off a lot of big issues; depression, mental illness, suicide, abuse, the oppression of women, political corruption and racial inequality and manages to pull it off.
The protagonist is Hannah Williamson a former Chicago Tribune writer, who flees in disgrace to Senatobia, Mississippi to care for her 91 year old ailing and bedridden Grandmother.
Hannah has lost her boyfriend, job and father in quick succession and her life is in shambles.
She gets a job with the local newspaper doing grunt work and gets attracted to the mysterious life and death of a local 14 year old girl. She discovers buried letters from the girl written in the 1930’s, all rejected, never published but for some reason still in the newspaper’s files.
Hannah is mesmerized and a bit obsessed with Evelyn’s letters and sets off to solve the mystery of who Evelyn is and how her life ended.
In the process Hannah finds healing, romance and redemption.
I thoroughly enjoyed this Emily Bleeker novel.

3 stars - It took about half the book to really feel hooked by this story, but eventually I did become invested in Hannah's mission to piece together a story from decades earlier while she simultaneously puts her life back together after a difficult episode. Evelyn, although we only hear snippets of her perspective, feels like the most realistic, believable character in the story - perhaps because Evelyn was a real person and her story in What's Left Unsaid is based on her life.

CW: depression, suicide, addiction, child abuse, sexual assault, pregnancy/miscarriage

My favourite quote is from Evelyn's letters and has stuck with me: "I'm still not entirely sure what does bring happiness after all." There were few (read: no) truly memorable moments in Hannah's story for me, but I genuinely enjoyed Evelyn's letters and they were the reason I kept reading, particularly for the first half of the book. The author weaves two timelines together through those letters and I liked this way of weaving together two lives. It made for a pleasant change from typical split narratives that alternate between perspectives and/or timelines.

The biggest downfall was the excessive number of subplots and attempts to address too many issues. Too many aspects of the story - although the subplots were mostly woven into the main plot by the end - did too little to contribute to the main storyline. Hannah was irritating as she frequently used others to achieve her own goals, and in the next moment expressing outrage at injustice. There are attempts to address important issues within the narrative such as systemic racism, sexual assault, politics and mental health. The result of trying to incorporate all of these very current issues is that the attempts to address them are underdeveloped, awkward and superficial,.

Emily Bleeker, What’s Left Unsaid, Lake Union, 2021.

Thank you, Net Galley for providing me with this uncorrected copy for review.

Hannah Williamson is a journalist who has been forced to leave her prestigious position in the city and accept work with a small-town newspaper. She is caring for her grandmother, Mamaw ‘Mable’; missing (and internet stalking) her former partner, Alex; and recovering from her father’s death. Although a local, Guy Franklin, is helping build an addition to 'Mable’s' house for Hannah’s use, she looks forward to her grandmother’s recovery and moving on. While dutifully, but initially unwillingly, sorting files in the basement of the newspaper office Hannah finds some pages signed by Evelyn. They are pages of a story offered to the paper in the past. The letters appear to have been unacknowledged and the story unpublished. Hannah becomes intrigued by Evelyn’s story of a hitherto happy home life destroyed by her mother’s death and father’s remarriage. This, with the addition of a mysterious shooting, encourages Hannah to resume her journalistic doggedness. Unravelling Evelyn’s story and the reasons for the newspaper's lack of interest is not easy. The secret of Evelyn’s story is bound up in the prestige of the town’s ‘first family’, the newspaper for which Hannah works and silence around child abuse.

Evelyn’s story is a well thought out way of linking past and present social concerns such as power relationships between media censorship, prestigious families protecting their own, and the way in which a seemingly weak person’s story could undermine powerful institutions. This theme is reflected in the attempt to control Hannah’s investigation. Bleeker also includes some strong social commentary on racism and sexism. However, these ideas are largely developed as a contribution to Hannah’s personal growth. The novel is almost a romance which concentrates on Hannah and her relationships, with the mystery of Evelyn’s story and its ramifications for the town secondary to Hannah’s seemingly endless attention to her distressing past. Unfortunately, I found the romantic story lines predictable.

Race relations are well drawn, with Hannah’s self-regard having a serious impact on another character. Her understanding of the way in which her grandmother reacts is also sensitively addressed and possibly enhanced by her use of Southern terms such as ‘Mamaw’. As I did not know the word, I looked for more information. I now understand that it is a Southern term for grandmother, usually applied to the maternal side of the family, although this does not mean that it cannot be used, as Emily Bleeker has done, for her paternal grandmother. It contributed to the flavour of being in the Southern States of America, and that the racism reflected in Hannah’s grandmother’s responses to people and events was part of that environment. I have noted the positives but must admit that I found the constant use of a term more usually used for the maternal line grating in a context in which the paternal relationships are given so much emphasis. One of the elements of Hannah’s distress is the death of her father, and it is his departure from the town, and the reasons for this, that features strongly in the novel.

Despite my reservations, there is romance and a rewarding outcome for Hannah, some social commentary and two plots that come together at the end of the novel in a satisfying manner.

I absolutely love any book by Emily Bleeker! This one was no exception. Such a great story with a strong female character....I could not put this down once I started reading. I loved the story even more after reading the acknowledgements and finding the story based on a real situation in Bleeker's family. Will most definitely recommend this one! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with What’s Left Unsaid by Emily Bleeker in exchange for my honest opinion.

While assigned to clean out and scan the basement files of a newspaper office, a young journalist, Hannah, discovers a series of letters that her employer did not publish. She embarks on a mission to search for answers and to learn more about the woman, Evelyn, who wrote the letters. Evelyn's story forms a solid premise and has an authenticity that makes it fascinating.

While not a perfect book, the strength of Evelyn's story is very compelling. I wish Hannah's character had been less troubled and stronger.