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FIRST LINE FRIDAY

Happy Friday & welcome to First Line Friday hosted at Reading is my Super Power! 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 Wings of Poppy Pendleton by Melanie Dobson.

“Are you cold, madame?”

Her hands shook like the tremors from the ships bell, clattering against the shreds of wet fabric that hung at her sides, but she didn’t answer his question.

In this compelling new time-slip mystery, a little girl goes missing from her family’s castle in the Thousand Islands of New York. Eighty-five years later, a journalist teams up with a woman living on Koster Isle to find out what happened to Poppy, once and for all.

1907. On the eve of her fifth birthday, Poppy Pendleton is tucked safely in her bed, listening to her parents entertain New York’s gilded society in their Thousand Islands castle; the next morning, she is gone, and her father is found dead in his smoking room.

1992. Though Chloe Ridell lives in the shadows of Poppy’s castle, now in ruins, she has little interest in the mystery that still captivates tourists and locals alike. She is focused on preserving the island she inherited from her grandparents and reviving their vintage candy shop. Until the day a girl named Emma shows up on Chloe’s doorstep, with few possessions, save a tattered scrapbook that connects her to the Pendleton family. When a reporter arrives at Chloe’s store, asking questions about her grandfather, Chloe decides to help him dig into a past she’d thought best left buried. The haunting truth about Poppy, they soon discover, could save Emma’s life, so Chloe and Logan must work together to investigate exactly what happened long ago on Koster Isle.

Grab a Copy Here

Have a teriffic day and thanks for stopping in.

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The Curator’s Daughter by Melanie Dobson-Review

About The Book

A young girl, kidnapped on the eve of World War II, changes the lives of a German archaeologist forced into the Nazi Party and—decades later—a researcher trying to overcome her own trauma.

1940. Hanna Tillich cherishes her work as an archaeologist for the Third Reich, searching for the Holy Grail and other artifacts to bolster evidence of a master Aryan race. But when she is reassigned to work as a museum curator in Nuremberg, then forced to marry an SS officer and adopt a young girl, Hanna begins to see behind the Nazi facade. A prayer labyrinth becomes a storehouse for Hanna’s secrets, but as she comes to love Lilly as her own daughter, she fears that what she’s hiding—and what she begins to uncover—could put them both in mortal danger.

Eighty years later, Ember Ellis is a Holocaust researcher intent on confronting hatred toward the Jewish people and other minorities. She reconnects with a former teacher on Martha’s Vineyard after she learns that Mrs. Kiehl’s mother once worked with the Nazi Ahnenerbe. And yet, Mrs. Kiehl describes her mother as “a friend to the Jewish people.” Wondering how both could be true, Ember helps Mrs. Kiehl regain her fractured childhood memories of World War II while at the same time confronting the heartache of her own secret past—and the person who wants to silence Ember forever.

My Thoughts

I love Melanie Dobson’s books the excellent research makes for a riveting story.
The author goes back and forth between the time periods, and it ends up seamlessly blending perfectly.
The author drew me into both time periods as both were equally fascinating.
A time split novel that has us alternating between Hannah and Ember.
Each time period is well represented with believable characters and vivid descriptions. The historical detail is accurate for both past and present times.
I was very immersed in the story as it brings out many emotions.
Heartbreaking yet inspirational this is one that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Pub Date: 09 Mar 2021
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

About The Author

Writing fiction is Melanie Dobson’s excuse to explore abandoned houses, travel to unique places, and spend hours reading old books and journals. The award-winning author of almost thirty books, Melanie enjoys stitching together both time-slip and historical stories including The Curator’s Daughter, Memories of Glass, and the Legacy of Love novels (legacyofloveseries.com). Five of her novels have received a Carol Award for historical fiction, Catching the Wind’s audiobook won the 2018 Audie for Inspirational Novel, and The Black Cloister was ForeWord’s Book of the Year for Religious Fiction. Her next time-slip novel, The Winter Rose, comes out in January 2022.

Melanie and her husband, Jon, have two daughters. After moving numerous times with Jon’s work, the Dobson family has finally settled near Portland, Oregon, and they love to travel and hike in both the mountains and the cliffs above the Pacific. When Melanie isn’t writing, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, dancing, and reading stories with her girls.

More information about Melanie and her books is available at her website (melaniedobson.com) or at the following social media platforms:

Facebook.com/MelanieDobsonFiction

Instagram/MelBDobson

Twitter.com/MelBDobson

Have you read this book by Melanie Dobson? Do you have a favorite by her?

Have a wonderful day. Thank you for stopping by.