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The Metropolitan Affair (On Central Park Book #1)Historical fiction, thriller, Egyptian Art forgery- By Jocelyn Green

393 pages March 14, 2023 publish date Bethany House Publishers

Grab A Copy Here

About The Book

Bestselling author Jocelyn Green sweeps you away in a dazzling novel of secrets, betrayal, and romance within one of New York City’s most esteemed museums.

For years her explorer father promised Dr. Lauren Westlake she’d accompany him on one of his Egyptian expeditions. But as the empty promises mounted, Lauren determined to earn her own way. Now the assistant curator of Egyptology for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lauren receives two unexpected invitations.

The first is her repentant father’s offer to finally bring her to Egypt as his colleague on a new expedition. The second is a chance to enter the world of New York’s wealthiest patrons who have been victims of art fraud.

With Egyptomania sweeping the city after the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, Detective Joe Caravello is on the hunt for a notorious forger preying on the open wallets of New York’s high society. Dr. Westlake is just the expert he needs to help him track the criminal. Together they search for the truth, and the closer Lauren and Joe get to discovering the forger’s identity, the more entangled they become in a web of deception and crime.

My Thoughts

THE METROPOLITAN AFFAIR is the first book in the On Central Park series.
Now let me just say, I have read and loved ALL of Jocelyn Greens’ books but in this one she’s taken it to a new level of writing.
I would classify the book as a historical fiction novel as it takes place in Manhattan, New York City in mid 1920’s but with the action and suspense and its rich layers I would also classify it as a thriller.
Exquisitely researched, I found the book not only fascinating but informative as well.
I have never read about ancient Egyptian art forgery before, and I really learned a lot.
I learned you check for forgery by weight, material used, a scratch test and more, I’m sure.
The book was pretty intensive as a police detective and the assistant curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitain Museum of Art are trying to figure out who is the head of and its members of the Egyptian forgery ring. These two characters knew each other during childhood but life had taken them their separate ways. Now they are back together working professionally and as these characters try to solve the crime will they see each other on a more personal level as well?
After hardly being around her father growing up Lauren is not close to him, but this is not of her choosing. Her heart was crying out for his companionship, but he was always traveling for his Egyptian work he did. Never being there for her and her mother. She also has a deep interest in Egyptian things as well, first as a way to get close to him but it’s a genuine interest now. Now that her father needs her help with some work-related things, she wonders, should she involve herself in it? There was a pretty big twist in the last part of the book that I just didn’t see coming, really took me by surprise. I also found it fascinating that many of the characters are based on real life people. Make sure to read the author’s notes at the back of the book, very informative.
I highly recommend this book.

Pub Date 14 Mar 2023
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

About The Author

Jocelyn Green is a former journalist who puts her investigative skills to work in writing both nonfiction and historical fiction to inspire faith and courage.

The honors her books have received include the Christy Award in historical fiction, and gold medals from the Military Writers Society of America and the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association.

Complex and nuanced characters, rich historical detail and twisting plots make her novels immersive experiences. Her fiction has been praised by Historical Novel Society, Romantic Times, Library Journal, historians specializing in her novels’ time periods, as well as popular and acclaimed authors Laura Frantz, Lori Benton, Jody Hedlund, Sarah Sundin, Joanne Bischof, Julie Lessman, and more.

Jocelyn loves Broadway musicals, the color red, strawberry-rhubarb pie, Mexican food, and well-done documentaries. She lives in Iowa with her husband, two children, and two cats she should have named Catticus Finch and Purrman Meowville.

Visit her at jocelyngreen.com.

Have you read any book by this author? What were your thoughts?

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping in.

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Top Ten Tuesday

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is TTT Rewind, which means you’re invited to scan the list of 641 past topics that have been done over the last 13ish years and pick one you’d like to do! Maybe you missed a fun one that you’d like to write about, or maybe you’d like to write a follow-up or update to one you’ve done previously. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl . I am choosing a topic from April 19, 2021

Top Ten Colorful Book Covers

I’ll admit colorful book covers do draw me towards a book. Here are some colorful book covers on my tbr list still waiting for me to pick them up and give them a read.

Pub Date 03 Oct 2023

ingle all the way to Silver Bells, Wyoming, for the coziest holiday read of the season!

Clumsy, earnest baker Sylvie West has worked at the Christmas Café in Silver Bells, Wyoming, ever since her boozy eggnog fruitcake won the town’s annual holiday bakeoff fifteen years ago. Her forever happy place, the café compliments her sweet, well-ordered life with her roommates: recently-widowed Gramps and her yappy chihuahua-pug Crumpet.

When Sylvie learns the café might be sold, she’s determined to put the Christmas Café on the map in a big way. Good thing the Holiday Channel* is filming in Silver Bells. And how perfect of bra-snatching Crumpet to have forced an awkward encounter with the film’s charming lead actor, Royce. When Gramps and Sylvie make a pact to be brave this Christmas, Sylvie knows just how to stretch her wings and save the Christmas Café in the process: get the film team to set a scene at the café!

Between her newfound acting gig, a booth at the Christmas Festival, an appearance at the Christmas Parade, and a budding romance with Royce, Sylvie has a lot on her plate. Good thing her old friend, gruff yet reliable Abe has just come back home to manage his parents’ goat farm. That is, until she catches herself feeling all too merry and bright in his presence. With a little help from family, friends, Crumpet, and the goat farmer down the way, Sylvie just might make this Christmas the sweetest she’s ever had…

Pub Date 23 May 2023 

In this charming installment of the Heart Lake series, a grumpy single dad and a small-town bookseller—who’s secretly an advice columnist—find love when they least expect it.

As chaotic as it can be, Rosie Dean loves her unruly life. But between raising twins alone, running her struggling bookshop, and secretly writing a parenting advice column, the single mom can’t think about dating. At least that’s what she tells herself . . . until her high school crush (and his incredible blue eyes) return to Heart Lake for the summer. Even though Evan has grown into a huge grump, he’s still a super sexy one, and soon sparks begin to fly.

Single dad and widower Evan Mills is used to hearing he’s too serious. But with a grieving tween daughter to raise on his own, the graphic designer is just trying to stay strong for her. He hopes a few weeks at the lake will be the fresh start they both need. Evan never anticipated reconnecting with Rosie, or that she could make him feel whole again—if he’d give her the chance. Will one steamy summer with Rosie be long enough to melt Evan’s heart?

Pub Date 25 Jul 2023 

t’s Halloween weekend and Beacon Harbor, Michigan, has a packed schedule of events, including the Pumpkin Pageant, featuring humans and their canine counterparts. For treats, there’s plenty of pumpkin goodness from bakery/café owner and local lighthouse resident Lindsey Bakewell. But someone wants to spoil the fun with a deadly trick . . .

Lindsey prefers to keep her bakeshop’s Halloween decor light and autumnal, rather than gruesome and ghoulish. But everyone knows her lighthouse home is haunted. Some intrepid teens have even tried to break in to witness the resident ghost themselves. Dreading Halloween night, Lindsey reluctantly allows her influencer and podcaster best friend, Kennedy, to host a live ghost-hunting investigation in the lighthouse, conducted by a professional team. Protective of her ghost, Lyndsey is understandably nervous about what they might uncover . . .

The segment is uneventful—until things take a terrifying turn. The team freaks out. As Kennedy joins the mad dash outside, she bumps into what looks like the prankster teens’ creepy clown costume hanging from a tree. But when Lindsey’s dog, Wellington, begins to whine, they make a grim discovery: the clown is no dummy. It’s a corpse.

Now Lindsey and company will need to keep their cool if they want a ghost of a chance to solve the murder—and see another Halloween . . .

Pub Date 01 Apr 2023

In 1944 in war-torn Dubrobvnik Branko Milisic holds his newborn daughter Safranka and wishes her a better future. But while the Nazis are finally retreating, the arrival of the partisans brings new dangers for Branko, his wife Dragica and their new baby…

As older sister to two half-siblings, Fran has always known she has to fit in. But now, for the first time in her life Fran is facing questions about who she is and where she comes from.

All Fran knows about her real father is that he was a hero, and her mother had to flee Dubrovnik after the war. But when she travels to the city of her birth to uncover the truth, she is devastated to discover her father was executed by the partisans in 1944, accused of being a collaborator. But the past isn’t always what it seems…

Pub Date 06 Apr 2023

Welcome back to The Starfish Café for a glorious summer, but with a few dark clouds on the horizon…

This is the final book in The Starfish Café series and is best enjoyed after reading the other two books in the series – Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café and Spring Tides at The Starfish Café.

Pub Date 02 May 2023 

A random connection sends two strangers on a daylong adventure where they make a promise one keeps and the other breaks, with life-changing effects, in this breathtaking new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After.

Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in the city. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t.

At thirty-two, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home, running her mother’s lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend’s the manager, and Fern doesn’t know where to begin.

She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern’s going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern’s not sure she wants to know what it is. 

But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?

Pub Date 30 Apr 2023

Love Heart Lane – where friends are there for you no matter what

When Bea Fernsby discovers her fiancé’s eyes have been wandering, she calls off the wedding and hits the road. The village of Heartcross in the Scottish Highlands is about as far away from home as she can get, and when she stumbles into the ideal summer job at The Little Blue Boathouse and meets gorgeous vacationer Nolan Hemingway, things finally start looking up.

Now, as an old mystery surfaces and Bea and Nolan band together to find out what happened to his late grandfather’s one true love, fate throws Bea some unexpected curveballs…and promising opportunities.

Bea’s stay is only supposed to last a couple of weeks, but as the old saying goes: ‘Once you arrive in Heartcross, you never want to leave…’

Pub Date 23 Mar 2023

As Esmeralda moved past Christopher, her breath stifled as he caught her finger in his. It was only a split-second, their fingers intertwined in a hold so brief that no one could have possibly noticed, but it told her everything she needed to know. He didn’t just come to see Cuba. He travelled all this way to see me.

Havana, 1950. As the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Cuba and regarded as the most beautiful girl in Havana, Esmeralda knows the importance of marrying well for her family. But when her father takes her on a business trip to London, she falls in love with a young merchant named Christopher.

When Christopher is invited to visit her father’s sugar farm, Esmeralda knows that they must keep their love affair hidden at all costs. But when the country falls into revolution, Esmeralda is faced with an impossible choice – flee to America with her family or follow her heart and travel to London to be with Christopher. But Esmeralda has been keeping a secret from her family for months, and her decision will have devastating consequences.

London, present day. Claudia is rebuilding her life and following her passion of restoring unloved houses back to their former glory. But when her mother asks for her help in tracking down her grandmother’s history, her curiosity is piqued. Her only clue is a family crest, which she learns is for the Diaz family, once one of the wealthiest dynasties in Cuba. Impulsively Claudia books a ticket to Havana, feeling sure in her heart that she will be able to uncover her family’s true story.

Arriving in the bustling and vibrant city she meets a young man named Mateo, a chef who loves nothing more than to cook his family’s recipes. As they get to know each other over dinner, Mateo says that his grandfather used to work for the Diaz family and he too wants to uncover what happened.

But when they arrive at the Diaz family home, they find it completely abandoned as if preserved in time from the 1950s. It’s not long before they uncover a heartbreaking story about her family, who were forced to leave everything they had ever known. As she becomes closer to Mateo, will her family’s story of sacrifice convince Claudia to leave behind her own home and follow her heart to Cuba?

An utterly gripping and heart-wrenching novel about family secrets, lost loves and new beginnings. Perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore, Lucinda Riley and Victoria Hislop.

Pub Date 02 Mar 2023

Hold on to that feeling of a holiday by the sea with this gorgeous romance.
‘A wonderfully warm, romantic read’ Karen Clarke
Bella is happiest running her tiny antique business from the front room of her cottage on the Boardwalk.
To ensure she has enough income coming in, she also rents out two of her bedrooms to paying lodgers.
But she didn’t count on having a secret crush on Jack Collins, one of her lodgers and her best friend’s brother…
As if life wasn’t complicated enough,her world-travelling mother appears on her doorstep on the same evening that Jack’s ex-fiancée arrives on the Boardwalk determined to win him back.
Bella has a lot of thinking to do and soon discovers that not all gems sparkle.

Pub Date 04 Apr 2023

Julia Rothman’s series of Anatomy books are beloved by children and adults alike. In Wildlife Anatomy, Rothman captures the excitement and distinctive attributes of wild animals around the world. The book is packed with hundreds of her charming, original illustrations, detailing the unique features of animals of the rainforest, desert, grasslands, oceans, and much more. From lions, bears, and zebras to monkeys, mongoose, bats, elephants, giraffes, hippos, and much more, Rothman’s visual guide covers all the key features, right down to the anatomy of a lion’s claw and a wild horse’s hoof. All the illustrations are accompanied by labels, intriguing facts, and identifying details, such as: When is a Panther Not a Panther? and What Makes Aardvarks So Odd? Rothman’s characteristic combination of curiosity and an artist’s eye makes this wildlife treasury rich and full and promises new discoveries every time it’s opened.

Thank you for stopping in today. Have a wonderful day.

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First Line Friday

Happy Friday & welcome to the First Line Friday link-up hosted by Reading Is My Suoerpower ! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. Today I’m featuring the first line of The Metropolitain Affair by Jocelyn Green. I just love Jocely’s books they are filled with historical detail.

And the first line is………..

Manhatten, New York City

Wednesday, October 14, 1925

Dead people were easy to talk to.

About The Book

Bestselling author Jocelyn Green sweeps you away in a dazzling novel of secrets, betrayal, and romance within one of New York City’s most esteemed museums.

For years her explorer father promised Dr. Lauren Westlake she’d accompany him on one of his Egyptian expeditions. But as the empty promises mounted, Lauren determined to earn her own way. Now the assistant curator of Egyptology for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lauren receives two unexpected invitations.

The first is her repentant father’s offer to finally bring her to Egypt as his colleague on a new expedition. The second is a chance to enter the world of New York’s wealthiest patrons who have been victims of art fraud.

With Egyptomania sweeping the city after the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, Detective Joe Caravello is on the hunt for a notorious forger preying on the open wallets of New York’s high society. Dr. Westlake is just the expert he needs to help him track the criminal. Together they search for the truth, and the closer Lauren and Joe get to discovering the forger’s identity, the more entangled they become in a web of deception and crime.

Pub Date 14 Mar 2023 Bethany House Publishers

Let me know the first line of the book closest to you.

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by.

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Remember Me (Pictures of the Heart Book #1) Tracie Peterson

I just love this beautiful cover and can’t wait to read the others in the series.

About The Book

From the Yukon to Seattle, the hope of a new beginning waits just around the corner.

Addie Bryant is haunted by her past of heartbreak and betrayal. After her beau, Isaac Hanson, left the Yukon, she made a vow to wait for him. When she’s sold to a brothel owner after the death of her father, Addie manages to escape with the hope that she can forever hide her past and the belief that she will never have the future she’s always dreamed of.

Years later, Addie has found peace in her new life as a photographer, training Camera Girls to operate and sell the Brownie camera. During the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expo in Seattle, Addie is reunited with Isaac, but after the path her life has taken, she’s afraid to expose the ugliness of her former life and to move toward the future they had pledged to each other.

When her past catches up with her, Addie must decide whether to run or to stay and face her wounds in order to embrace her life, her future, and her hope in God.

My Thoughts

I have long been reading this authors books. She has so many out, I call her the “Queen of Historical Fiction.” Her research is immaculate and makes each story relatable and realistic.
Her books have a beautiful faith message but it’s not overbearing.
Remember Me is the first book in the Pictures of the Heart series.
The setting is 1909 at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expo in Seattle.
Addie Bryant has had a very harsh and heartbreaking bringing up. Her brothers and father did not love her, and she had no one. After they betrayed her in the worst way possible, she was able to escape. With memories of a promised love from childhood she holds onto these happy memories as a way to keep going but doesn’t expect anything to come of it.
After she is reunited with Isaac, her past love, she doesn’t feel worthy of forgiveness or to be with him.
The theme here is your past is in the past and God is a forgiving God to be trusted and Addie does come to do this. A strong story line with themes of forgiveness, redemption and love.
I will continue to read books by this author as she’s one of my all-time favorites.

Pub Date: 07 Mar 2023
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

The Author

Tracie Peterson is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than one hundred books. Tracie also teaches writing workshops at a variety of conferences on subjects such as inspirational romance and historical research. She and her family live in Montana.

Visit Tracie’s web site at: http://www.traciepeterson.com

Your presence here blesses me. Thank you!

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Doors to the Past series, review of Passages of Hope by Terri J. Haynes

258 pages Barbour fiction November 1, 2022 publication date

About The Book

Discover the Story Behind a Secret Passageway
 
Walk through Doors to the Past via a new series of historical stories of romance and adventure.

Gracie Kingston begins renovations on the Philadelphia house inherited from her grandmother and finds a secret room. It is connected to a house nearby, the home of William Still, the man known as the father of the Underground Railroad. As she researches, she discovers a mystery in her house’s ownership. In 1855, Olivia Kingston helps a mother and her young child by hiding them in a secret room in her home. As she helps, she learns that there may be an impostor conductor in their community. As Gracie’s and Olivia’s stories intertwine, they learn the meaning of sacrifice and love.

Don’t miss other great books in the Doors to the Past series:
The Lady in Residence by Allison Pittman
Hope Between the Pages by Pepper Basham
Bridge of Gold by Kimberley Woodhouse
Undercurrent of Secrets by Rachel Scott McDaniel
Behind Love’s Wall by Carrie Fancett Pagels
High-Wire Heartbreak by Anna Schmidt
Love’s Fortress by Jennifer Uhlarik
A Promise Engraved by Liz Tolsma
Laura’s Shadow by Allison Pittman
Passages of Hope by Terri Haynes
In Spotlight and Shadow by Rachel Scott McDaniel
The Keys to Gramercy Park by Candice Sue Patterson

Grab A Copy Here

My Thoughts

I have really been enjoying the Doors to the Past series, of which Passages of Hope is a part of.
This book is told with a dual timeline.
Gracie McNeil inherits a home in the historical district in beautiful Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
As she’s having remodeling work done on the home to ready it for her yarn shop, she’ll open a secret room is discovered.
Olivia Kingston, a conductor of the underground railroad houses and hides many, many Blacks helping them as they go on their way seeking freedom from slavery. Olivia is able to change her childless marriage after she’s able to adopt a sick child.
The author tells her story about a terrible and unjust time in history in a gentle and respectful manner.
I absolutely loved this book. The bravery of these women during their time period is amazing.
Gracie is going through so much, missing her grandmother terribly, worrying about eviction from the home, money worries and not having the best relationship with her uncle. She is blessed with such a strong romantic relationship though.
The story goes back and forth between the two time periods smoothly and I enjoyed seeing how discovering a hidden room brought forth history studying and the discovery of such strong and dynamic women in Gracie’s family.

Pub Date 01 Nov 2022
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

About The Author

Terri J. Haynes, a native Baltimorean, is a homeschool mom, writer, prolific knitter, freelance graphic artist and former Army wife (left the Army, not the husband). She loves to read, so much that when she was in elementary school, she masterminded a plan to be locked in a public library armed with only a flashlight to read all the books and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She is a storyteller at heart. Her passion is to draw readers into the story world she has created and to bring laughter and joy to their lives.

Terri is a 2010 American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis contest finalist, and a 2012 semi-finalist. She is also a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Quarterfinalist. Her publishing credits include Cup of Comfort for Military Families, Crosswalk.com, the Secret Place Devotional, Vista Devotional, Urbanfaith.com and Publisher’s Weekly.

Terri and her husband pastor a church where she serves as executive pastor and worship leader. Terri lives in Maryland with her three wonderful children and her husband, who often beg her not to kill off their favorite characters.

Visit her blog, http://www.inotherwords.terrijhaynes.com or her website, http://www.terrijhaynes.com.

Have a beautiful day and keep smiling.

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The Grand Design by Joy Callaway A Novel of Dorothy Draper and The Greenbrier Resort In West Virginia

399 pages Harper Muse publisher May 17,2022 publication date

About The Book

She has one last chance to prove she chose the right course for her life.

In 1908, young Dorothy Tuckerman chafes under the bland, beige traditions of her socialite circles. Only the aristocracy’s annual summer trips to The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia spark her imagination. In this naturally beautiful place, an unexpected romance with an Italian racecar driver gives Dorothy a taste of the passion and adventure she wants. But her family intervenes, sentencing Dorothy to the life she hopes to escape.

Thirty-eight years later, as World War II draws to a close, Dorothy has done everything a woman in the early twentieth century should not: she has divorced her husband—scandalous—and established America’s first interior design firm—shocking. Now, Dorothy returns to The Greenbrier with the assignment to restore it to something even greater than its original glory. With her beloved company’s future hanging in the balance and brimming with daring, unconventional ideas, Dorothy has one more chance to give her dreams wings or succumb to her what society tells her is her inescapable fate.

Based on the true story of famed designer Dorothy Draper, The Grand Design is a moving tale of one woman’s quest to transform the walls that hold her captive.

Grab A Copy Here

My Thoughts

In 1908, rich young socialite, Dorothy Tuckerman, gets to experience the Greenbrier Resort yearly while vacationing there with her family. Dating an Italian racecar driver just ups her social status and makes her crave the passion and adventures that come with being with a wealthy man of status.
Despite her yearning it is not to be as her family puts a stop to it, not uncommon for a young woman in those days.
Never having forgotten the beauty and charm of the Greenbrier in West Virginia, Dorothy returns there thirty-eight years later as a divorced woman and her eye for beauty and style leads her to become CEO of America’s first interior design firm. She is tasked with restoring the Greenbrier to become more elegant than the original design. Her bold and brilliant prints are ahead of her time and one of a kind. Her unconventional methods of design lead some to give her designing suggestions but she won’t back down. Her whole life was the Greenbrier and she absolutely loved it there.
“Based on the true story of famed designer Dorothy Draper, The Grand Design is a moving tale of one woman’s quest to transform the walls that hold her captive.”

Pub Date 17 May 2022
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Some current pictures of the Greenbrier Resort

Have a most lovely day. Thank you for stopping in.

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Blog tour for The Last Letter from Paris by Kate Eastham

Book Description:


June 1940, Paris. For days she’s seen the flashes in the night sky. She’s heard the drone of planes and the thump of marching boots. Doors shut as the German flag billows over the Eiffel Tower. Leaving Cora just one last chance to get her letter out of Paris…

The Nazi occupation has begun, and soldiers stand guard on every corner. The terrifying threat of war hangs in the air, and whispers of an unimaginable death toll roll across Europe. But Cora Mayhew has come to Paris from America to search for her birth mother – a fine silver locket her only clue – and she refuses to give up now.

One winter day, the air thick with fog, Cora is on a train – praying that it will lead her to the mother she never knew. But when the train is struck by bombs, throwing her from her seat as the carriage lurches off the tracks, all she can think about is everything she’s left behind.

Bruised and gasping for air, Cora struggles to her feet, shaking glass from her hair. Surrounded by passengers taking their last breaths and crying out for their loved ones, Cora knows she must find a way to send a heart-wrenching letter she’s been carrying around for weeks and return to her dear adoptive family while she still can.

Staggering from the wreckage, Cora shelters in a nearby ditch. But as the cold sets into her bones and her fighting spirit slips away, a German soldier finds Cora and offers her a chance at escape… With golden-flecked hazel eyes, handsome Max Heller is everything a Nazi shouldn’t be: kind, good-humoured and selfless.

With Max’s help, Cora uncovers a devastating secret about her birth mother, which makes her even more determined to get home. The key to Cora’s safe journey lies in the letter she’s been trying desperately to get out of Paris. Now she is faced with a choice: place her trust in the hands of the enemy, or go it alone and risk never making it out alive?

A heart-breaking story of love, belonging, and resilience in Nazi-occupied Paris as one woman searches desperately for the truth in the face of grave danger. The perfect wartime read for fans of The Dressmaker’s GiftThe Lost Girls of Paris and The Nightingale.

My Thoughts

Historical fiction is my favorite genre to read. There is so much to learn from it, even the fictional stories contain some true facts and happenings.
The Last Letter from Paris by Kate Eastham is a wonderful book that I read in several hours.
A young American woman is in France, June 1940 living with her mother’s best friend for the sole purpose of finding out information about her birth. All she knows is she was found with a locket. It is her only clue. A capture turns the plot of the story into one filled with danger and intrigue. It is hard to put this one down.
The story is filled with strong women who must persevere, but my favorite is Cora who was found by and was raised by Eva.
As Cora is searching for her beginnings, she is befriended by German soldier Max but with a war going on can she trust him and can she trust herself with her growing feelings for him.
The Germans have invaded, and she helps with the resistance which throws her right into danger.
Full of power, courage, bravery, worry, strength and romance.
I enjoyed the author’s writing style and well-developed characters. I will be looking for more by this author.

Pub Date 07 Feb 2023
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Author Bio:

A change in circumstance meant Kate Eastham made the shift from a career in nursing to being a carer for her partner. Determined to make the most of this new role ‘working from home’ and inspired by an in-depth study of the origins of nursing, she wrote her first novel at the kitchen table. Miss Nightingale’s Nurses was published by Penguin in 2018, closely followed by three more in the series. With her passion for history, Kate aims to make visible the lives of ordinary yet extraordinary women from the past. Her current historical fiction is set during the World Wars and will be published by Bookouture.

Sign up to be the first to hear about new releases from Kate Eastham here: https://www.bookouture.com/kate-eastham

Buy Link:

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0BM9X7X58social

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Thank you for stopping in today. May your day be joyful.