By Jo Ann Hernandez
LatinaLista — What is a person to do when they find out all they believed for all of their life about their family, and especially their mother, is false? So lays the plot for Tell Me Something True by Leila Cobo.
Gabriella Richards feels betrayed. Between her doting father in Hollywood and her grandmother’s aristocratic family in Cali, Colombia, a few facts have been carefully hidden about her mother, whose tragic death shattered a seemingly picture-perfect marriage.
Gabriella, 21-years-old and now a classical pianist, has kept one foot in her grandmother’s elegant, guarded world, visiting her every year. But one trip changes everything.
In a dusty closet in the faded mansion, Gabriella finds her mother’s diary, written just for her. As Gabriella reads her mother’s diary, she gets to know her mother, as never before, as page by page reveals shocking secrets long hidden from the young girl.
To complicate the roller coaster of emotions she feels, Gabriella meets a man she can’t resist — and who has dangerous secrets of his own.
Gabriella finds herself torn between learning what to honor about her past and how to accept what is the truth about her mother, her parent’s marriage, and mostly, about herself.
Will she survive this intrusion of new facts that paint her past in a whole new light?
Leila Cobo, a major force in the Latin music industry, has written a powerful, sensuous, and moving debut novel about a young woman unearthing her mother’s secrets and discovering truths of her own.
Jo Ann Hernandez is assistant Bookshelf editor and author of the award-winning “White Bread Competition” and “The Throwaway Piece,” as well as, creator and publisher of BronzeWord Latino Authors web site.
