Review: The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery

The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery by Amanda Cox

My rating: 💛💛💛💛

What a great find for a new-to-me author who writes beautiful heartwarming dual time stories.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was engaging and delivered each voice in such a strong way that I connected to each of the three generational ladies, and felt their pain, dreams shattering, challenges and hope.

Clarence was one of my favourite male leads to date. His unconditional love and softness towards the three ladies in his life was beautiful to see unfold.

This was a story filled with loss and lost years, due to secrets being kept and assumptions made.
How different the lives of these ladies would have been if they just communicated.

I also appreciated Glory-Ann and Clarence’s love story – where love is not always instant and passionate but can also catch you of your feet quietly and slowly and can develop into something strong and powerful.

If you enjoy stories rich with depth, emotion, and character growth, you should try Amanda Cox’s stories.

*I listened to the audiobook on Scribd.*


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About the book:

Present Day. After tragedy plunges her into grief and unresolved anger, Sarah Ashby returns to her childhood home determined to finally follow her long-denied dream of running Old Depot Grocery alongside her mother and grandmother. But when she arrives, her mother, Rosemary, announces to her that the store is closing. Sarah and her grandmother, Glory Ann, make a pact to save the store, but Rosemary has worked her entire life to make sure her daughter never follows in her footsteps. She has her reasons--but she'll certainly never reveal the real one.

1965. Glory Ann confesses to her family that she's pregnant with her deceased fiancé's baby. Pressured into a marriage of convenience with a shopkeeper to preserve the family reputation, Glory Ann vows never to love again. But some promises are not as easily kept as she imagined.

This dual-timeline story from Amanda Cox deftly explores the complexity of a mother-daughter dynamic, the way the secrets we keep shape our lives and the lives of others, and the healing power of telling the truth.

About the author:

Amanda Cox is a blogger and a curriculum developer for a national nonprofit youth leadership organization,

but her first love is communicating through story. She holds a bachelor's degree in Bible and theology and a master's degree in professional counseling. Her studies and her interactions with hurting families over a decade have allowed her to create multidimensional characters that connect emotionally with readers.