The Telegram

The Secret Author Series, Book 5

By: M. J. Padgett

Narrated by: Carmen JE Jones

When cleaning out her recently deceased great-grandmother’s attic, Easton Long discovers a box of telegrams exchanged between her grandmother and a man whose name she has never heard of. Reeling after the loss of her beloved family member, a nasty break-up, and the loss of her job, Easton decides to dive deeper into the life of the mysterious man, William.

When Easton discovers William was Nannie’s childhood friend who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor, she cannot resist the urge to see the wreckage for herself. She is drawn to William and his story, one she isn’t sure has been thoroughly told, and soon finds herself on a cross-country road trip with her own childhood friend, Drew Prescott. While the two set out to reconnect and get over their past issues, they discover much more than they had anticipated. With each step, the mystery deepens...and love grows.

©2020 Melissa Padgett (P)2021 Melissa Padgett

Family History & Mystery + Clean Romance

Parents- PG- good for middle school to adults
Language- PG- none
Violence- PG- nothing too graphic
Sexual Content- PG Kissing, young adult romance, stays clean no bedroom scenes

I really loved the family history journey that our MC goes on! The book starts a bit sad with the death of her grandmother, loss of her job and boyfriend, and they are being forced to sell her grandmother's house with all the happy memories. She's in turmoil and she doesn't know what to do. She finds some old telegrams in her grandmother's attic between her and a man that's not her grandfather and when her sister suggests going on vacation she only briefly hesitates. One of her long time friends goes with her and what she thought was a guy friend... I really loved to see the relationships unfold. This whole serries has a great love of the family and friends theme with a light Christian take on life. I definitely recommend it.

Narrator- did a great job with the differentiations between the characters and was just easy to listen to. I did prefer listening at 1.35x speed but I usually listen around 1.25x speed anyway.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Exceptional story!

The Telegram is the fifth book in the Secret Author Series, a series of interconnected stories that share the same people and a coming of age scenario. In this book, Drew Prescott has broken up with his nightmare girlfriend, Kate, and has come back into the fold of his friends and family. He has always loved Easton Long, but his ex-girlfriend almost drove a wedge between them. While Easton is cleaning out the attic of her recently-deceased great-grandmother, she comes across a box of telegrams that belonged to her grandmother and written to a man named William. Easton didn't know a man by that name, and her grandfather's name was George. When Easton begins to read the telegrams, she realizes that there's a lot about her Nanny that she never knew and a man that Nanny loved who died at Pearl Harbor. Drew lived next door to Nanny, so Easton comes up with the perfect plan. She and Drew plan to drive across the United States and take a plane to Hawaii. Theirs is a retrospective journey of love and discovery of family long-since dead and family that turns out to be just who or what they've been looking for. It's heartbreaking and soul lifting at the same time. It's the first of the series that left a little sadness in my heart, but that's to be expected with a story involving WWII. The ending ties it all together and the look into the future is not just happy, it's proof that love never dies. 
The narration is beautifully done by Carmen JEJones. Her expressive voice brings each of the characters to life and infuses them with personality and attitude. 

TELEGRAM FROM THE PAST

A GREAT STORY OF LOVE AND LOSS, SO MANY STORIES FROM WW2 THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN TOLD. THE NARRATOR DID A GREAT JOB.

Good wrap up

of the series I really liked all the little links to most of the previous stories and I LOVED the premise of this one with all the little surprises along the way. The narration was done well and this was a very entertaining listen.