Reviews – Continued

Paul’s novel makes for an engaging, yet often disturbing, read. My suspicion is that readers who hail from highly dysfunctional families will get the most from it; they will identify with its characters.
–Joseph’s Reviews

Family relationships also figure prominently in this new novel by Carmel-based author Diana Y. Paul. Her protagonist, Jules, is a wife, mother, daughter and educator facing difficult challenges in every arena, and Paul illustrates just how poignant and rewarding those challenges can be.
—San Jose Mercury News :  “Books by the Bay”

Would you do everything humanly possible to maintain your parents’ comfort and lifestyle, even if that comes at the expense of your own family?…Things Unsaid by Diana Paul is a powerful, emotional tale that takes the reader deep into the complex dynamics of a dysfunctional family, alternating between love and obligation. Paul expertly entwines the past and present while exploring Julia’s moral impasse between love and duty for her two families — the one she was born into and the one she has created as an adult.   
—Readers Favorite

While it seems instinctual and right to take care of our parents, Ms. Paul forces us to reconsider. What if our parents have made life awful for us? What if they insist that they be put first every time, even to the detriment of our lives?… Diana Paul is a good writer – despite my difficulty with the characters, the story itself is compelling. While the story is fictional, it also serves as an important reminder that we all deserve to have good people in our lives, who love and support us just as we do for them.
–Literary Lindsey

This wry, wise novel about coming to terms with conflicting family obligations in middle age also addresses the roles that pain and loss can play in awakening people, and in healing dysfunctional family patterns… A deeply engaging book, filled with compassion. Wonderful!
–Jennifer Dwight, author of The Tolling of Mercedes Bell

It is a thoroughly enjoyable book, with solid, believable characters, plenty of salacious family drama, and ultimately a universal theme. It’s a role reversal that most children eventually face and that is caregiving for their aging parents—a matter that will always be relevant to the human condition.
— BookClubBabble

As I read more, I could see a pattern forming…. The scenes played out on the pages of this story are intense…. The author expertly places us in the midst of a very dysfunctional family.
– Fiction Zeal
I have to say I was hooked on the story as it unfolded and found it hard to put down…. The characters are amazingly well-drawn. It’s almost as though Diana has written about people she knows, she gets into their innermost thoughts and feelings so well….
– Diane Paul, reviewer, BookBlogForBookworms

….THINGS UNSAID by Diana Y. Paul is a raw and candid look into the life of one family dealing with blow after blow. Struggling to be there for their aging parents makes being there for their own families difficult….Paul delivers a beautiful portrait of life, familial obligations and just how far you will go to try to do it all – and the risks that you take in doing so…Things Unsaid tells of the tightrope act that is fulfilling familial duty and obligation.
– Maggie Franz of Black Dog Speaks 

In a carefully crafted cautionary tale, Diana Paul writes a story of a family that could be anyone’s family…In gripping detail, Paul unravels the threads that once bound these individuals together. Family ties are stressed to the breaking point….Moral dilemmas, emotional roller-coasters, sacrifice and duty abound in this tense novel that exposes raw human emotion—sparing no one the pain that comes with such issues.
– Lee Ambrose, reviewer, StoryCircleBookReviews.org