All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris
A Review By: RS
Everyone has something to hide....
Ellice Littlejohn seemingly has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a “for fun” relationship with a rich, charming executive, who just happens to be her White boss. But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice arrives in the executive suite and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head.
And then she walks away like nothing has happened. Why? Ellice has been keeping a cache of dark secrets, including a small-town past and a kid brother who’s spent time on the other side of the law. She can’t be thrust into the spotlight - again.
But instead of grieving this tragedy, people are gossiping, the police are getting suspicious, and Ellice, the company’s lone black attorney, is promoted to replace her boss. While the opportunity is a dream-come-true, Ellice just can’t shake the feeling that something is off.
When she uncovers shady dealings inside the company, Ellice is trapped in an impossible ethical and moral dilemma. Suddenly, Ellice’s past and present lives collide as she launches into a pulse-pounding race to protect the brother she tried to save years ago and stop a conspiracy far more sinister than she could have ever imagined....
Review Notes:
Audio Book Publication Year: 2021
An installment in a Series? No
Narrator (s): Susan Dalian
Ellice Littlejohn is a lawyer trying to climb the corporate ladder by any means necessary. She learns any means necessary can cost her freedom and possibly her life....
All Her Little Secrets definitely had the potential to be a really good book. The storyline of Ellice Littlejohn, a powerhouse attorney, finding herself wrapped up in murder and a racial scandal, sounded great and actually was pretty good. Because of this storyline, it held my attention to see this book until the end.
Susan Dalians' narration was good. I felt her voice and tone worked well for Ellice.
With that being said, this book fell short of its true potential. One of the issues I had with this story was the constant racial referencing. Now don't get me wrong, I get that race was a large apart of the storyline, but the repetitive "its because I'm black" or the "that's how white folks do" type of phrase was overkill. It honestly took away from the story for me because I think it lacked finesse. The other issue was the character development of the main character, Ellice. Throughout the book, she is described as intelligent, smart, and driven. She was at the top of her class and managed to grow to be this powerhouse attorney in spite her meager and checkered beginnings. All that is said to describe who Ellice is; yet, all she did throughout the book was make one dumb decision after the other. And that's not to say that because of her aforementioned characteristics she was infallible, but some of the choices she made didn't make any sense. Then the author makes it seem like no matter how things progressively got worse for Ellice, she was willing to risk all for the sake of climbing the corporate ladder. I think what makes this worse is that the author herself is a lawyer. It just didn't make sense how she developed Ellice. Overall, it just was a miss for me. Not terrible, just not it.
Reading Recommendation? No
Rating: 2 - It's cool
Content Warnings? Human or animal loss, Sexual abuse/violence, Physical abuse/violence
