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Thursday, October 8, 2020

Book review of Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey

French Village Diaries book review Paris Time Capsule Ella Carey
Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey


 Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey

 

The parcel arrived on an ordinary morning in the mailbox of her New York apartment, postmarked Paris. It was wrapped in brown paper and tied with a silk ribbon. Little did she know that the old brass key and letter it contained were about to turn her life upside down…

1940, Paris. Life is getting desperate for young Isabelle de Florian. Alone with her best friend in her Paris apartment, Isabelle knows that they must seek safety or die. For months she has been playing a dangerous game of secrets with the Nazis, trying to keep the people she loves safe. At last, she secures passage out of the city, packs her best jewels into a small suitcase and steps into the treacherous night…

New York, 2015. Photographer Cat Jordan is shocked when she receives a letter informing her that she is the sole heir of the estate of Isabelle de Florian. She was a friend of Cat’s enigmatic grandmother, who both lived in France until the Nazi occupation forced them to flee. The letter offers few details but is clear on one point: Cat must come to Paris in person.

When she arrives, Cat is enchanted by Isabelle’s beautiful apartment. But why did she leave it to a stranger? Determined to find the truth, Cat investigates her grandmother and Isabelle’s escape from Paris, and discovers that Isabelle was hunted by the Nazis in 1940. But as Cat searches through the dusty letters in the apartment, will the secret she finds change everything she knows about Isabelle and herself?

From bestselling author Ella Carey comes an utterly spellbinding novel about wartime secrets. Paris Time Capsule shows that pulling on the tiniest thread of a life can unravel everything you thought you knew, and change your world forever.

This book was first published in 2015.  

 

French Village Diaries book review Paris Time Capsule Ella Carey
Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey Books-On-Tour


My Review

Cat is confused as to why she is the beneficiary of an inheritance in Paris, but at every turn to discover the truth, more mystery awaits her. She has little choice but to undertake an almost impossible journey from New York to Paris, and then to Provence and the west of France in search of the answers. 

 

Having put her life in New York on hold, Cat is pulled in two directions. Fiancé Christian wants her back home, but the family she has become entwined with in France need her help. Loic and Sylvie are warm, natural and accepting of her invasion into their lives, as they come to terms with losing Isabelle and discovering the secret she’s kept for seventy years. Why would someone struggle all their life when an apartment in Paris, full of antiques, was locked and left decades ago? 

 

Every lead Cat uncovers seems to end in disappointment. Events took place so long ago, too many who remembered have now been lost. Can Cat discover the truth and what impact will it have on her future? 

 

This book gives the reader a glimpse into the Paris of the Belle Epoque, of family life in Provence and of the sacrifices people made during The Occupation. It is also a journey of discovery, opening Cat’s world to new opportunities at an important crossroads in her life.

 

I really enjoyed losing myself in the pages of this book and am looking forward to reading more from Ella Carey.


 

French Village Diaries book review Paris Time Capsule Ella Carey
Ella Carey


Author Bio

 

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. 

 

Ella loves to connect with her readers regularly through her Facebook page, Twitter and on her website


Purchase Links


 


3 comments:

  1. I read this a while ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hope you've also read The House by the Lake as it fills in some extra details of Isabelle's early years.

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