Sophias Secret

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Adam was kind of backing away and he backed into the window and as Kiely just kept hitting, Adam crouched and kind of fell back through the window and Sophie was free. I didn't even see my brother come through. When we first got to the hospital I think the doctors thought, like I did, that it was just a surface injury and there was a lot of blood because the head bleeds a lot. The security officers and police officers were all asking her questions, you know, "What does he look like? Who are his friends?

Where does he go, what does he drive? She started switching her words around, like the end of a word would be in the beginning, and they realized that something serious was happening. When I first, like, seen Sophia … she just had blood in her hair, like you could see the blood. Kiely was 15 when this all happened. When he saw her … he just broke down, and he said, "I did that to her, I did that to her.

I was scared that she might have brain damage or something -- from the bat. She was in surgery for a few hours and then they put the whole hospital on lock down. Sophia was under guard at the hospital, because Adam had just committed a very violent act. He'd broken into a house, he'd set it on fire; he'd held a knife to Sophia's throat and he was on the loose. Nobody knew where he was, what his mental or physical state was. So she was protected at the hospital to make sure that nothing more could happen to her.

I don't know, I guess it was close to midnight. And they searched through the house. He did not come home that night, he didn't answer any calls that night, he didn't answer any texts. Just, "Oh my God, I'm alive, I'm here right now. My brother … he saved my life. He was walking down one of the main roads, um, kind of distraught, and the police pulled over and … took him into custody without any problem. He was charged with assault with intent to murder Sophia. He was charged with home invasion, arson, and felonious assault. I just felt like I was doing everything to have this perfect image in my head of us, like….

And then, I dunno, she just stopped talking to me and I felt like that was taken away, and then…. He couldn't understand why after four days she wouldn't communicate with him, and that's what set everything in motion for him. How angry were you, like, what was going through your mind? What were you going to do at this point? But, I mean, once I saw her face and just -- just thought about it, I was so mad and, I mean, I pretty much lit myself on fire right there, in the room, blocking the door from her mom ….

With Adam now in custody, both Sophia and Kristin could rest easier. But Kristin, a social worker who happens to specialize in childhood trauma, had no idea -- until now -- the true nature of Adam's abusive relationship with her daughter. She's always been just such a wise and amazing young woman. And I could not have imagined that she would be vulnerable to this.

After she knew, it was kind of just like a waterfall of me just telling her things that I'd kept in secret for so long. I was so ashamed that I had let him treat me like this for so long that I didn't want anyone to know about it. She kept it to herself.

She didn't want her family to find out. You feel like nobody else is going through it. And I didn't realize that what I was going through was even domestic violence until I spoke out about it. One of the first questions anyone has in a domestic violence relationship is, "Why do you stay? Why don't you just leave? Why do you put up with this? Why I stayed with Adam was because at first it was because I wanted to help him.

I thought I could save him. And then it was because he had torn my self-esteem down so low that I didn't have any value for myself, and I was scared for my life obviously -- 'cause when I did try to leave him, look what happened. When they took the bandages off Sophia's head, they had shaved a big section.

And she had this big scar with staples that came all across her skull. And I remember at first, it was just hard -- it was hard to look at, you know? Just painful to look at. And she said, "Mom, I'm gonna shave it off, I'm just gonna shave it off. Everything that happened with Adam made me feel so ugly inside and out and horrible about myself. I don't think she looked forward to confronting Adam, but she knew it was something that she had to do. After Adam was arrested, the next stage of the process was the preliminary exam, which requires the prosecutor to show that there's evidence to prove that the crime was committed and that Adam committed it.

Preliminary exams are always difficult because they are usually just a couple of weeks after the incident had occurred. I thought that I was trapped and there was no way that I was gonna get out and that was going to be the moment that I was gonna die. I just was really worried about her, you know, emotionally, I was just really worried about her. The prosecutor basically just told me to tell the truth … Just be honest. Tell them what happened.

My mom, um, burst in and — and -- he was kind of grabbing me and he was kind of moving us towards the fire. I was saying, "Sophie, come, come out, come out," but the flames were all in front of the door. One of the things that Sophia, Kris and I all agreed on was that Sophia was only gonna be safe as long as Adam was locked up. We tried to give him a chance. We tried to give him a break and that just didn't work. After one day of testimony, it was decided there was enough evidence for Adam to stand trial.

Ten months after his arrest, Adam chose a bench trial over a jury trial, putting his future in the hands of a single judge. I was very confident in the home invasion and arson counts. But proving intent is very difficult and I was concerned about whether or not we could adequately prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he went there with the intent to kill Sophia.

He got gasoline, he got a knife, he got a lighter, he went to her bedroom and tried to kill her. My strategy for building this case was to show, not just what happened in Sophia's room on the day of the incident, but to show the pattern of behavior and the escalation of what was happening in Adam in the days prior. I argued to the court that he lost control of himself and he also realized that he was losing control of Sophia.

One of the really important pieces of evidence in this case were the text messages in this matter. She did not respond once. The defense argued that Adam did not go to the house with the intent to kill Sophia. I don't believe that he is capable of hurting her.

I definitely know he's not capable of murder. He talked about when he testified how his only goal was to keep Sophia away from the fire…. Did you ever tell Sophia when you were in that bedroom, even before the fire or after the fire, that you were gonna kill her? I didn't expect him to lie like that. That was my final realization that this person is actually sick.

I found beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to cause great bodily harm to her but he did not intend to murder her or kill her. The judge found Adam guilty of the home invasion and arson counts. And the sentencing guidelines at that moment went from something like 20 years to three years. The judge said in her verdict that he didn't try to kill her that he was there to commit suicide.

Shigwadja intended to kill Sophia, he would have and could have done that… He obviously very much loved her. It went way overboard. The judge made it seem like we both had equal parts in what had happened and so to me, that put all the blame right back on myself. The level of deviance and the danger of who he is was not recognized by the court.

And I was terrified that Sophie was not going to be protected.

That the system didn't think he was a threat. The community, who had watched Sophia from the hospital bed, started raising their voices … "What just happened? How is this love? Letters were written to the judge from many people I've never even met about how wrong her verdict was. One of the most amazing things that happened was that the YWCA coordinated this march outside the courthouse on the day of sentencing. We were all very nervous for sentencing. There's no other way to keep Sophie Putney-Wilcox and the rest of the community safe other than to lock up Adam Shigwadja for the maximum allowable time.

He got a chance to get help. He even got a chance to keep a conviction off his record, but his desire to control Sophia was stronger than any of those chances. View all 8 comments. I had a strong visceral negative reaction to this book. It felt simultaneously forced and anachronistic, sacrificing all in the maudlin name of Romance. The anachronisms played out on two different levels. Mind you, earlier she had accepted a far longer car ride from a total stranger.

Editorial Reviews

What world does this woman live in that grocery stores have recently become modernized and walking along the beach in broad daylight is a questionable activity? The whole thing felt to me as if it was meant to be taking place in the fifties and had been suddenly transported. It's a weird type of anachronism that left me wondering if the author was just 30 years older than she was claiming.

And nobody has cell phones either. Then the other half of the story seemed to suffer from a different type of anachronism. And would the countess have gratefully accepted such a ridiculous offer? Was the art of glassmaking so well advanced that one could stand at wide bow windows of year-old castles gazing clearly out at the sea? I would far rather get lost in the story, not be so unengaged that I have lots of mental energy left to look for flaws. But somehow none of it drew me in and over the course of the novel things just got flatter and flatter, even as the author reached and over-reached for her dramatic resolution.

So this book managed to comprehensively strike-out. History fans might like this.

I listened to about 4 hours of audiobook 10 chapters which is about pages of the page book. The chapters alternate between 1st person Carrie who is a present day author writing a historical fiction book set in Scotland. The other chapters are 3rd person telling the story she is writing. In the story some characters are factual others are fictional.

"48 Hours" Live to Tell: Sophia's Secret

In the Carrie chapters we watch her and History fans might like this. In the Carrie chapters we watch her and hear her thought processes as she is writing. Her muse is the cottage she is renting. The words come to her at night. She writes details about how the castle looked back in She makes up a name for a captain. Later she is mystified when she sees a scale drawing of the castle which agrees with what she made up.

She wonders how she did that. She is also surprised to learn that the made up captain name was an actual captain back then. The Carrie story was more interesting than the story. Carrie gets negative vibes from one man and positive vibes from his brother. The story was hard to pay attention to.

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Rosalyn Landor did a fine job. Not sure why I started reading this book. It sounded like interesting historical fiction, set in Scotland. But it turns out to sit more in the romance genre, and the "weak in the knees" bits were really repetitive and tiresome. Also, the main character is a writer who has "genetic memory"?!?? So she's not writing at all? She's just a vehicle for a dead person to tell a story? I'm not buying it. And I'm not finishing it, either.

Sophia's Secret

I got half-way through this book and just couldn't get into the story. Another major turn off for me was the hint of romance scenes to come. There was a scene where the main character brushed up against the arm of one of the male characters and she got electric chills up her spine I could not get into the story at all. To say that I had a difficult time reading it would be an understatement.

After pages and still not interested in the plot of the book, I quit. I'm usually not one to give up so quickly but when it takes me so long to yawn through a book, I have to draw the line somewhere. I'm definitely not one of the majority with 5 glowing stars. I'm in the minority Trite, boring, predictable and corny. I did my homework I had read reviews on both Amazon and goodreads and everyone gave it 5's! I hardly ever leave book reviews but this book was, unfortunately, one of the worst I've read in recent memory.

The plotline dragged on, uninspired and boring, the characters were insipid, the relationships were poorly developed, and the prose lacked imagination. The plot centers around "Carrie" an insufferable main character that continually pontificates about her writing "gift" but the interwoven stories are dry and without substance. The descriptions of the setting and characters are flowery I hardly ever leave book reviews but this book was, unfortunately, one of the worst I've read in recent memory.

The descriptions of the setting and characters are flowery but repetitive and unoriginal.

In my opinion, this watery novel deserves a hard pass. This book made me groan out loud with exasperation.

KEEPING SECRETS

I disliked it on multiple levels. Pass and pick up something else instead. I must admit, I liked the beginning, especially the description of the locale. But when it turned out that the writing flowed so well for the writer in this story because of genetic memory of an ancestress, I just put the book aside in disgust.

As a writer, I believe writing is one of the hardest career choices, and to say one writes because of something imprinted on her mind generations ago is to negate everything we writers are. Other than this fact, the characters were quite unsophisticated a I must admit, I liked the beginning, especially the description of the locale.

Other than this fact, the characters were quite unsophisticated and predictable. Would recategorize as historical romance. The area is strangely familiar to her but she puts aside her faint sense of unease to begin her new novel, using the castle as her setting, and one of her own ancestors, Sophia, as her heroine. Then Carrie realises her writing is taking on a life of its own and the lines between fact and fiction become increasingly blurred. As Sophia's memories draw Carrie more deeply into the intrigue of , she discovers a captivating love story lost in time.

After three hundred years, Sophia's Secret must be told.

Susanna Kearsley | The Winter Sea/Sophia's Secret

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Previously published as The Winter Sea.

Read more Read less. Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Editorial Reviews Review 'A deeply-engaging romance and a compelling historical novel Product details File Size: April 15, Language: Is this feature helpful?

Thank you for your feedback. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention winter sea susanna kearsley sophia secret present day published as the winter kearsley books secret is the winter new book book of love historical carrie romance fiction title.

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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. I originally read The Winter Sea as an ebook and loved it. That's no problem for me but it might be for others! I hate the fact the name was changed the name on this book. I would not have wasted my money and bought it again, since I still own the book.

They should let people know this before hand, which Amazon does if the book has the same name.

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