Birthmark


Non-Fiction - Autobiography
Kindle Edition
Reviewed on 12/29/2013
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Diana O’Leary has lived! Her fascinating journey began in 1942 in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where she lived on a tea estate. Since then she has lived in London, Sicily and Nassau, Bahamas.

Along the way she was widowed from her elderly soul-mate, discovered her second husband was afflicted with bi-polar disorder, made life-long friends and discovered the world – visiting over 40 countries on six continents.

Diana now lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with her two dogs. Birthmark, the riveting story of her rich life, is her first book.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Faridah Nassozi for Readers' Favorite

Birthmark, the autobiography of Diana O'Leary, is an inspiring story about the life of a girl born in the 1940s. In the book that she dedicated to her daughter, Diana takes you through her life journey from birth to the present day. She narrates, in detail, the story about being raised by a mother who never wanted her, growing up in a very unstable home and how all this prepared her for life. She was raised by a mother who resented her and a father whose first love was alcohol. She never had a stable childhood, went to so many schools as a child and stayed in so many different places that made it impossible for her to have any real place to call home. Her courage and determination saw her through her childhood nightmares until she became a young woman, when her life took a 360% turn for the better.

This is not your everyday life story. Birthmark is a story about courage, about hoping against hope, and a story about love. I found myself falling in love with Diana, the little girl who had such an unstable childhood, the girl who had to grow up way before her time. Then I crossed my fingers for the hard working young woman she became and I was filled with joy for her when she found love and her life turned around. From growing up with a drunkard father and a resentful mother, Diana O'Leary survived so much, and yet she never let any of that hold her back. Birthmark is a captivating and inspiring story that reads like a well-written novel. So many times, I forgot that I was reading a true-life story.