From top-ten bestseller Ella Carey comes a gripping, haunting and utterly captivating novel about love, secrets and betrayal in a story that spans the most tumultuous decades of the twentieth century.
What happens when the truths you have built your life on start to crumble?
Emma Temple sits looking out of the window in her beautiful apartment in the heart of London, surrounded by memories of her younger years as one of England’s most influential artists. Nearly ninety, it would be easy to overlook her as a forgetful older lady. But Emma’s past, including her great love affair which survived two world wars, is about to come crashing into the present.
When her granddaughter Laura arrives asking questions about the portrait that hangs above her bed, Emma is transported back over sixty years. The picture was painted by the only man she ever truly loved, the one soul on earth who knew her deepest secret. But when a newspaper claims that the portrait is a fake, everything Emma believed to be true starts to collapse. Suddenly she is transported back to a sunny house in the south of France in 1923 and the moment when her life changed forever…
An incredibly emotional and totally compelling historical novel about the relationships that shape us and the secrets we never forget. Fans of My Name is Eva, Fiona Valpy and Rhys Bowen will be completely transported from the very first page.
My Thoughts.
It is certainly no secret that I am a fan of Ella Carey’s books, so when given the opportunity to read and review this story I simply couldn’t resist. The storyline is unique and intriguing right from the start and i quickly lost myself in this beautiful story.
The chapters alternate between the past and the present which is something Ella Carey achieves beautifully. Emma’s complicated past is brought to life when her granddaughter Laura starts enquiring about a portrait that hangs above her grandmothers bed, Emma finds herself lost in her past as the memories come flooding back to her. The secrets from Emma’s past begin to unfold, and in turn, this brings Laura and Emma closer together as the story behind the intriguing portrait is brought to the surface.
This book was so beautifully written, It was impossible not to find myself lost in this story. The characters were unique and loveable, and their own unique traits added so many depths to the story as it unfolds. The romance that Emma and Patrick had shared was breath-taking and incredibly moving as their story is retold.
Beautifully written, full of emotion and a storyline that is impossible to forget. I adored this book.
To purchase your own copy of this wonderful book, follow the links below.
Buy Link:Amazon: https://bit.ly/39EPAQh Apple: http://apple.co/3mAasMV Kobo: http://bit.ly/34t4c3m Google Play: http://bit.ly/3nHnauS
*I received a copy of this book from Sarah Hardy/Bookouture in return for my honest review. All thoughts are entirely my own *
Ella Carey is the international bestselling author of The Things We Don’t Say, Secret Shores, From a Paris Balcony, The House by the Lake, and Paris Time Capsule. Her books have been published in over fourteen languages, in twelve countries, and have been shortlisted for ARRA awards. A Francophile who has long been fascinated by secret histories set in Europe’s entrancing past, Ella has degrees in music, nineteenth-century women’s fiction, and modern European history. She lives in Melbourne with her two children and two Italian greyhounds who are constantly mistaken for whippets.
Victoria Wilks 