Book Description

Family Secrets or Lies is a touching story of family -- the secrets we keep to protect and when exposed, change the course of our lives forever. David and Jack Dover return to their childhood home, a small community in Arkansas, to bury their father, Brad. Both are successful with families of their own and going home brings not only the anguish of burying their father, but the memories of experiencing their youth without a mother. Carol Dover was committed to a mental institution while her boys were toddlers, so the brothers' vague memories were blurry snapshots of a mother they never knew. David and Jack discover a journal that their father leaves them requesting that they read it after his death. What is revealed uncovers unimaginable secrets that cut to the core of their identity, their lives and threaten to damage the bittersweet memories they have about their father. What really happened to their mother? Debbie Steever beautifully captures the precariousness of family ties, the lies we tell one another to protect, and how we resolved those issues. Steever's characters are real, the emotional landscape finely crafted, and the storyline superbly written. Debbie Steever is a full-time writer, mother, and grandmother. Ms. Steever is currently working on a fiction book about five best friends growing up in a small community. She lives with her husband of 42 years in Oklahoma. Family Secrets or Lies is her first book."