Synopsis:
Secrets. Betrayal. And the woman left to pick up the pieces.
At seventy, Katrina Johnson thought she understood the shape of her life. She was a devoted wife, a mother who did her best, and the keeper of a Victorian farmhouse that had held her family’s joys and sorrows for generations. Then her husband dies and everything she believed about her marriage begins to unravel.
As grief gives way to long-buried secrets, Katrina faces a devastating medical diagnosis, mounting financial pressure, and the very real possibility of losing the home that defines her past. Old fractures in her family deepen. Her relationship with her daughter remains painfully distant, while her son, caught between loyalty and resentment, attempts to hold what little remains together.
When Katrina is forced to rent out rooms in her farmhouse, the presence of a young tenant unsettles her in ways she can’t ignore, awakening memories and betrayals she thought she had survived that now refuse to stay buried. Katrina now must confront the cost of the choices she made to preserve her marriage.
With the past pressing relentlessly into the present, Katrina must face the life she built through silence and sacrifice and the parts of herself she left behind. She must decide whether reclaiming herself requires embracing the very wounds that shaped her.
Tender, reflective, and emotionally resonant, this novel explores love, betrayal, identity, and the quiet courage it takes to begin again. It asks a haunting question at the heart of many lives: when so much has been lost, is it still possible to choose yourself?
Praise for All That Was Left Unsaid:
“Through an emotionally engaging plot and nuanced characters, Danielle Dragona’s All That Was Left Unsaid elegantly explores the process of discovering the person you want to be and figuring out how to get there.”
~ IndieReader Approved Review
“In All That Was Left Unsaid, Danielle Dragona has created complex characters involved in fragile relationships. The plot is intensely charged, and a couple of bombshells are dropped, which threaten to destroy these relationships. The author has a way with words as well, identifying old age as the evening of life and the bucket list as the Love List. This story is about nurturing and valuing all our relationships, no matter their source.””
~ Donna Stevenson, Readers’ Favorite ★★★★★ Five-Star Review
“All That was Left Unsaid is a poignant, powerful novel, exploring heartfelt, realistic issues. Readers will connect with the characters and their intense emotional journeys, finding the story both heartbreaking and beautiful, yet ultimately uplifting. Danielle Dragona’s lyrical style will appeal to fans of Anita Shreve and Jodi Picoult. An outstanding debut!”
~ Valerie Biel, award-winning author of Haven and Beyond the Cemetery Gate
“All That Was Left Unsaid by Danielle Dragona is a heartfelt story. The book was beautifully written, and the author handled sensitive topics with great care. I enjoyed reading the book and found myself pondering over it.”
~ Alma Boucher, Readers’ Favorite ★★★★★ Five-Star Review
“… the author, takes you on a heart wrenching yet heartwarming ride through the main character’s journey of self discovery and self healing. The book will make you cry, will warm your heart and make you root for all the characters in her book. If you only read one book this year, I recommend reading this one because you wont regret it!”
~ Vered Cecilio
“This book is great! I couldn’t put it down! Danielle really takes you along an emotional rollercoaster of Katrina’s journey and has you feeling what Katrina is feeling. The character development throughout the book is beautiful and the twist at the end, amazing! I love when a story has a good twist! I highly recommend this story!”
~ Nicole Stallone
Book Details:
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Published by: Book Publishing Plus
Publication Date: July 15, 2026
Number of Pages: 274
ISBN: 9798950388514
Shop The Book: All That Was Left Unsaid
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Read an excerpt:
From Chapter 3…
At once, I’m transported back to the night when the image of what I thought was our perfect family erupted like a raging volcano. We were seated at our dinner table for Sam’s fifty-fifth birthday. The smell of freshly baked lasagna floated through the air like a scrumptious cloud atop our laughter, and the aroma of my spiced apple tea greeted my nose with its irresistible fragrance.
Up until a few months prior, Sam and I were having our fair share of marital issues as well as intermittent difficulties from his untreated PTSD that lingered on, so we decided to restore our love for each other to get our relationship back on track and inject some happiness back into our bond. Except for a few hiccups, which were to be expected, I truly believed we were on the path to regaining what we’d lost.
Filled with a renewed commitment to strengthening our marriage, I anticipated his birthday with such eagerness that year. To that end, I commissioned a surprise gift specially made just for him. I purchased a watch he had been ogling, and had it engraved with the words, “When I met you, time stopped,” with the date of our marriage underneath.
We sang Happy Birthday, and when I went to the counter to cut his birthday cake, instead of placing a slice on his plate, I positioned the box with the sparkling bow on it instead. With zeal, I requested he open it. He unwrapped the dazzling box, his robust hands deftly undoing the multicolored ribbons. As he revealed the treasure, his eyes lit up brighter than a star in a glittering night sky. When he read the engraving, a smile emerged like gold on his face. I fastened the watch on his wrist and kissed his lips, which tasted of red wine.
Just as our celebration was winding down, there was a knock at the door. I opened it with the plate in my hand that housed Sam’s precious present a short time before. A younger woman with luxuriously long brown curly hair and emerald green eyes was on the other side, wearing a little purple dress with sunflowers and white stiletto heels. When I gazed at Sam to discern who this woman could be, his eyes glazed over, and the blood drained from his face, rendering him as white as a ghost.
“Sam, who’s this?” I asked as my eyes searched his, my heart beating out of my chest.
“I’m so sorry, Katrina,” was all he could say, guilt and remorse plastering his face, mixing in one ugly heap.
“Sorry for what?” I gasped, but deep down I knew, and everything I thought was true crashed down around me like meteors striking at my heart.
“Tell her who I am,” the woman bellowed as she shoved herself into our home, the aroma of her cheap perfume gagging me.
“Gloria, what are you doing?” Sam moaned plaintively, and life as we knew it shattered all around us into irreparable pieces.
“You’ve been telling me you were going to leave for years. It’s just excuses after excuses. Be honest with your family. Be honest with yourself,” she shrieked, the veins bulging out of her neck in a fit of rage, her words punching me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me.
“How could you do this to me, Sam, to our family?” I howled as the glass plate that held bliss and love moments earlier slid out of my hand, crashing onto the floor into a million pieces like our life together. My body went numb. “I thought you loved me.”
“I do, Katrina,” he protested, but the words were hollow, and I felt nothing except ice and emptiness.
“You’re such a phony, Sam. He tells me how much he loves me all the time, and how he wants to leave you,” Gloria bellowed, spitting in my face.
Billy shot up out of his chair like a blazing rocket ship.
“Get the hell out my house you pathetic whore,” he screamed ominously, in a pitch I never heard before.
“I’m your father’s whore, and he loves every minute of it,” Gloria declared with a caustic snicker.
“Enough, Gloria,” Sam retorted viciously, his eyes ablaze with anger that his secret had been unleashed into the world.
“Don’t talk to me like I’m some submissive and docile woman with no backbone like you tell me she is,” she spewed, her perfectly manicured index finger pointing in my direction. “This is it, Sam. You either make up your mind, or I’m done, and this time I mean it. Oh, and happy birthday. I hope I made it a special one,” she screamed, slamming the door behind her.
My legs buckled, and I fell to my knees in despair, plummeting into the glass shards from the broken plate that sparkled like gems, cutting my skin as I tried to push myself back up. Tears streaked down my face like a raging waterfall. I couldn’t catch my breath. I was drowning, sinking into hell. Disbelief suffocated my brain, disorienting me as I realized what I was living before was a lie. Billy helped me to my feet as Sam sat motionless in his chair, his face expressionless and vacant, a stranger to me now.
In the months that followed, I realized that I was weak. I was submissive and docile. I couldn’t let go. Instead of hating him, I started to loathe myself for not being able to leave, for loving him so much that I was willing to accept the lies, the deceit, and the infidelity. I despised my powerlessness, and in turn, I detested myself.
***
Excerpt from All That Was Left Unsaid by Danielle Dragona. Copyright 2026 by Danielle Porciello. Reproduced with permission from Danielle Dragona. All rights reserved.
I was drawn in from the start, curious and invested in how all of the drama on these pages would play out. Many parts of this story were interesting and kept me turning pages, but there were also moments that left me feeling disappointed, and even frustrated at times.
The Story
Katrina is in her seventies, recently widowed, and forced to rent out rooms in her farmhouse to make ends meet. She has built her life on silence and sacrifice, shaped by betrayals that left lasting cracks in her trust. As the past presses relentlessly into the present, Katrina must face the life she built and the parts of herself she left behind.
Reading Experience
Reading this one was a bit of a tumultuous experience for me. Katrina’s story is riveting. The fractures in her relationships, both the old ones that broke her trust and the new ones slowly blossoming in her life, are what kept me reading. But Katrina herself is a cranky, crotchety old lady (self-proclaimed, no judgment here), and at times her personality was really off-putting for me.
I know that was intentional. She’s meant to be broken, betrayed, and bitter, and that would have been fine for me if her growth journey had started a little earlier. Instead, it felt like she kept rehashing the same old wounds with the same people throughout the entire book. Early on, it’s clear she’s trying to heal and move forward, and there’s a beautiful redemption story here. But she holds on to her bitterness for so long, and she’s often unkind to the friends, family, and new people in her life who are trying to be there for her. With everything she was healing from, I was surprised she stayed so angry for so long. I think I would have loved this more if she had found herself a little sooner, giving us more connection, more growth, and more of a grateful heart in place of all that crotchetiness.
Writing Style
The story is told from Katrina’s point of view, and we meet her in her seventies, with most of her life already behind her. She herself says much of her life was beautiful, but a few deeply impactful betrayals early in her marriage and family life seem to have become her identity as she got older. Especially after losing her husband, she gets lost in a victim mentality, dwelling on what was done to her and on all the ways she wasn’t strong enough or brave enough. The story moves between her memories of the past and a lot of conflict and friction in the present, and so much of it is spent with her wallowing in her pain.
Characters
Katrina isn’t the only bitter one. Her two adult children are in their thirties, and her daughter Susan is so harsh with her mother. I understand a broken relationship and years of resentment, but it was hard to read everyone being so hurtful toward each other all the time. Even with Susan on her own growth journey, I couldn’t warm up to her. She wasn’t just in pain; she was mean, and that made it hard to connect. Her son Billy is sweet with his mom, but he’s unkind to Susan, and it felt like everyone had that mean side to them.
I absolutely adored the two women who become tenants in Katrina’s farmhouse. They’re beautiful characters who bring so much positivity, encouragement, and personality to the story. I also loved Katrina’s lifelong best friend, Angela, who is uplifting and truly tries to help Katrina figure her life out. I get that after a lifetime of friendship, it’s easy to let your guard down, but Angela didn’t deserve all the snapping and sarcastic comments when all she wanted was to be there for her. I felt really bad for Angela. She deserved better.
Heartbeat
The heartbeat of this story is choosing to step out of a victim mentality and choosing to heal, forgive, move on, or learn and grow, whatever your situation requires, instead of staying stuck in misery and blame. It’s also about family and friendship. When some relationships have betrayed you or broken your trust, it doesn’t mean everyone in your life is out to get you. It’s so important to strengthen the healthy, uplifting relationships you do have, not to lash out at everyone around you when you’re hurting, and not to lose what you have now because of something you lost long ago. And it’s a reminder not to give up on your life just because it didn’t turn out the way you thought it would.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to love this book more than I did. I really enjoy stories about family in crisis, love, betrayal, courage, and redemption, and this one had so much potential to tug at the heartstrings. Many other readers have shared that it did exactly that, and that they cried their way through it. Maybe it’s just me and my own personality, but I couldn’t get as emotionally attached to Katrina and her story as I did to some of the other characters. Overall, it’s a good read for what it stands for and the heart of its message.
Don’t forget to enter the author giveaway below!
Thank you to Partners In Crime Tours for letting me read and review this book.
Author Bio:
Danielle Dragona has always possessed a passion for the written word. As a child, she kept fledgling journals, but as she matured into young adulthood, the chronicles acquired a more complex narrative, dissecting feelings, beliefs, and working through challenging emotions originating in childhood while trying to find the meaning in it all.
Danielle is captivated by the human condition—riveted by its beauty even amidst chaos, tearing apart the messiness of existence to ultimately unearth the glimmering pearl. As an explorer of emotion, she continually works to uncover what lies beneath the surface in an unapologetically raw, real, and authentic manner.
When she’s not writing, Danielle enjoys travelling, exploring new places, historical sites, music of all kinds, spending time with her family and friends, and being a perpetual student of life. She has a degree in English literature from William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ and lives in Northern New Jersey with her husband and young son.
Catch Up With Danielle Dragona:
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