Hidden: Diary of a Bad Girl

In her latest book, Karen Truesdell Riehl reveals her life of living in the shadows, beginning with hiding from elementary school bullies, who don't know her battle with dyslexia has kept her from learning to read before the age of ten. Ten years later she enters a home for unwed mothers, hiding her love affair with a married actor, who deserts her before becoming an international film star. She continues to hide her past after marrying a man from a wealthy, socially prominent family, later discovering her husband has been hiding his own secret from her throughout their 17-year marriage. Karen Truesdell Riehl's memoir, in diary form, transports readers back to the days when women were to be seen, but not heard. Women who've lived through the 1950's will recognize the judgmental paternalism of those years. Younger readers will be grateful they don't.

A 5-Star Review:

"Why is the subtitle "Diary of a Bad Girl"? Because in the era in which Riehl found herself joining five other young women who had become pregnant outside of wedlock, that's how they were seen. While Riehl kicks off her memoir by filling us in on how she became intimately involved with George C. Scott, the real focus of the story is the bond of friendship and understanding between these young women preparing to give birth. In each other they find someone who cares and doesn't judge when the rest of the world points fingers at them. When each goes off to give birth, they leave knowing they won't see each other again, but you sense they will ever be alive in each others' hearts and memories.

Hidden is a very short book that can be read in 90 minutes or less. But in that short time span, readers feel every emotion Karen Truesdell Riehl did. Her writing is that good."

Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite