ALL THAT WAS LEFT UNSAID
by Danielle Dragona
September 28 - October 23, 2026 Virtual Book Tour
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
All That Was Left Unsaid Trailer:
Book Details:
Genre: Women's Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Published by: Book Publishing Plus
Publication Date: July 15, 2026
Number of Pages: 274
ISBN: 9798950388514
Book Links: Amazon | KindleUnlimited | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | BookBub
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.
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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Review:
Long-held secrets come to light after the death of a woman's spouse.
All That Was Left Unsaid is a new women's fiction novel by Danielle Dragona that explores how a new widow is forced to face her new future, and I was glued to every page, so immersed in the story that I read it in one evening. After the death of her husband from cancer, Katrina Johnson must come to terms with the secrets he had been keeping throughout their long marriage. While working through her grief, she comes face to face with betrayal, disillusionment, and, eventually, her own mortality.
Katrina, the main character, met and married Sam Johnson during the Vietnam War, and theirs was what people called "a traditional marriage": he was the breadwinner, and she was the stay-at-home mom and homemaker. Never holding a job outside the home, except for an exceptional level of volunteerism for their small community, and not the one paying the bills, she is shocked when she uncovers some of Sam's secret financial activities. Katrina is also forced to confront the evidence of Sam's infidelity, the pain of which still lingers in her and their two grown children. Each has handled their father's long-ago betrayal in different ways, the damaging effects of which have long impacted their relationships with each other and potential partners as well.
The story is riveting. Just as you think Katrina's situation has hit rock bottom, a new twist comes along to dig the hole a little deeper. However, I wasn't surprised when one of the hits she takes involves her health, as I've seen this happen time and time again in real life. The descriptions of the medical treatments she undergoes are vivid and realistic. I was worried she would face additional complications as more details about Sam's infidelity were revealed.
The best part of the story for me was the evolving relationships between Katrina, her friends – old and new, her adult children, and herself. Katrina experiences such growth, which felt especially amazing considering her age. She starts out so lost, hurt, and angry, and through her experiences becomes the woman she always wanted to become. It is all that she goes through to get to her destination, her journey, that makes this book such a satisfying page-turner. You may need tissues.
I recommend ALL THAT WAS LEFT UNSAID to readers of women's
fiction.
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