BOOK TOUR, Guest Post & Giveaway: The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani! {Ends 7/28/19}

An Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller!

 ~ Book Details:
Book Title:  The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani
Category:  Adult Fiction, 399 pages |  Publisher:  Lake Union
Release date:  September 2018 | Tour dates: June 3 to July 12, 2019
Format available for review:  print and ebook
Will send print books to:  USA & Canada
Content Rating: PG-13 (There are some non-explicit sex scenes and slight profnity)
Book Description:

Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi—her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant—who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation.

​Through her courageous grandmother’s arrestingly romantic and heart-wrenching story, Jaya discovers the legacy bequeathed to her and a strength that, until now, she never knew was possible.

Buy the Book: Amazon.ca ~  Barnes & Noble ~  Amazon.com ~ Books-a-Million ~ Book Depository ~  Indiebound ~ Chapters.Indigo
Add to Goodreads

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MY REVIEW:(LAWonder10)
Jaya's fairytale was crumbling. Her perfect marriage had all but vanished, she couldn't concentrate on the career she had worked so hard to succeed at and her devastating losses seemed to consume her.

After her estranged husband's shocking news, when she discovered a letter stating her mother's father had died and left her something, Jaya defied her mother and escaped to India where her parents had been raised.  What she discovered, in gradual segments, would change her life forever.

This is an phenomenal, bittersweet tale of forbidden love, anguished spirits, loss, forgiveness, unconditional love, and redemption... Added topics are: humorous quips, devotion, understanding, abuse and pain.

The characters are portrayed in such a realistic way, one forgets, at times, it is fiction. The scenes are vividly "played out", it feels as though one is there.

The story smoothly flows from one scene to another in a totally captivating manner. The literary skills of this author are exceptional. She completely involves the reader and he/she feels very connected to all aspects of the story.

The Title is perfect but the Book cover would be more appealing to the "browser" if there were a more picturesque image.

*SPOILER: Perhaps it has affected me more than some, for I have experienced the pain of miscarriages and the fear of never having children.

Despite the slight "flaw", in reference to the cover, it would be unfair not to offer a solid Five Stars rating.
*This book was gifted me with no reqirement for a positive review. This is my honest review.

Click HERE to watch the Trailer

GUEST POST: HOW I FOUND MY MOTHER THROUGH MY WRITING

When I did book clubs for Trail of Broken Wings I would frequently get the same question: So your mother is your hero? Like in the story? I would pause, then hesitantly say Yes. The answer felt foreign to my ears. How could that be when I spent my entire childhood angry at her?

As in Trail of Broken Wings I am the youngest of three daughters. My father was our breadwinner. Unable to provide for three young children, my mother had to accept our situation and my father’s choices. I resented her helplessness. In contrast, my friends’ mothers were professional women who seemed stronger. Sure she could do more, I became angry.
When I started to write my mother’s voice in Trail of Broken Wings, I was shocked as the character I was creating wasn’t a composite of my mother but instead the real version. Strong, loving, kind and desperate to protect her children. What I had been unable to accept as a child I was starting to understand as an adult. She was as much a victim as my sisters and I. Yet, at every turn, she stood as strong as she could. She insisted we forge a different path in our lives. She believed and loved us unconditionally. But one story couldn’t take away the years of hurt and sense of betrayal I felt. I was sure I couldn’t have been that wrong.
My next book, Storyteller’s Secret came from the story of my grandmother who died tragically when my mother was two years old. Her family was destroyed as a result of my grandmother’s untimely death. She had a cruel stepmother who forced her to marry my father. As I wrote Lena’s (my mother’s) story, I found myself crying. I hated what was happening to her and the choices that determined her path. Angry at fact, I resorted to fiction. In the story, my mother’s husband loved her completely. Instead of being blamed by her fictional daughter she would be cherished and understood.
I stopped, bewildered. How could the writer in me empathize with my mother when I personally had not? Ashamed, I grasped for a reason but it’s difficult to explain the decisions of an adult when dictated by the beliefs of an inner child.
With new lenses I saw what I couldn’t before – that I love my children with the same fierceness and protectiveness that my mother loves me. Only at my mother’s insistence that I could be anyone do I have the freedom to express my love fully and easily. I am whole because my mother gave me everything she had. She showed me that love and belief in them are the greatest gifts I can give to my own children. I am stronger because of her strength.

It has taken two novels and a complicated journey for me to see my mother for who she really is – my hero.

Meet the Author:

​A former attorney, Sejal Badani left the law to pursue writing full time.

She is a USA Today, Washington Post & Amazon Charts bestselling author, Goodreads Fiction Award Finalist and ABC/DISNEY Writing Fellowship Finalist.

Connect with the author:

Website  ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ​~ Pinterest
Instagram

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Here is the tour schedule.

Giveaway:

Prizes: Win 1 of 3 paperback copies of The Storyteller’s Secret, another winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card (4 winners / open internationally)
(ends July 20, 2019)
Tu enter the Giveaway, click on the Rafflecopter link below.
RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY!

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