Guest Blog - The Diary by Eileen Goudge

I was pleasantly surprised by this little novel by Eileen Goudge. Once in awhile I break away from mysteries and read something romantic. The blurb on the jacket of The Diary caught me. Two sisters, Emily and Sarah, find an old diary belonging to their mother in the attic. All of their lives they have heard about how their father, Bob, was the only man that their mother loved. As they begin to read her diary from 1952, they discover that she had a passionate romance with a man named AJ. Who is this mysterious man? And why did she marry Bob instead?
When I picked up the book and started reading I thought, “Oh no. Do I want to read this? Is this going to be another The Bridges of Madison County?” I never could believe Robert James Waller’s assumption that children would be touched deeply and feel sympathetic when they discovered that their dead mother had an affair years ago and only stayed with their family out of a sense of duty.
The Diary did not fall into the unbelievable pattern of Bridges. It has a life and story of its own. I will not ruin the ending for you. I will simply say that this is a romance that was a delightful break from my usual who-done-it.