The Paris Inheritance by Natalie Meg Evans
The Paris Inheritance by Natalie Meg Evans
A family heirloom, handmade in Paris. A wartime sacrifice that changed everything. And a secret kept for generations.
Paris, 1940. Clutching a delicate silver dove-shaped brooch – the last gift from her beloved Otto, with a message of love engraved in the back – Lally flees her home in Paris. With her closest friend by her side, she dodges the Nazi gunfire echoing all around the city streets. But as they become more and more desperate during the darkest days Europe has ever known, one must make a terrible sacrifice for them both to survive…
France, 2014. After her father’s death, grieving Hope starts a new life in France. All she knows of her father’s family is that they were separated in World War Two. And her only inheritance is a unique, dove-shaped brooch.
Exploring an antique market one day, Hope’s breath catches in her throat at what she finds. A wartime picture of a green-eyed girl, a silver brooch pinned to her dress, shaped like a dove in flight. Hope has only ever seen one like it before.
Certain it’s her family heirloom, Hope is desperate to find the woman in the portrait. But it soon becomes clear that some wartime secrets are dangerous to uncover…
Will Hope’s discoveries change everything she ever believed about her father? And even if she does find the truth, will it bring her healing – or tear her apart?
Fans of The Letter, The Nightingale and We Were the Lucky Ones will be utterly swept away by this heartbreaking and unforgettable tale about family secrets in World War Two and the bonds that held people together during terrible times.
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| The Paris Inheritance by Natalie Meg Evans |
My review
Hope’s French market find of a wartime painting brings her and Yves together to untangle the mystery of his grandmother Lally. Each new discovery, from artwork to photographs, to pages from a memoir, helps them to piece together her traumatic past.
Lally is an English girl in Paris at the start of the Occupation, with the added complications of an exiled German boyfriend and a needy young English friend, Pauline. They must escape to free France, but seem to be thwarted at every turn, throwing the reader into an emotional story of sacrifice and survival in the harshest of circumstances. I easily became totally immersed in the pages, and as keen as Hope and Yves to discover Lally’s war story and work out how she was linked to the broach Hope’s father held so dear to him.
%20-%20Flatlay%20-%20V2.jpg "French Village Diaries book review The Paris Inheritance Natalie Meg Evans") |
| The Paris Inheritance by Natalie Meg Evans |
Lally was strong, determined and despite the daily challenges she faced making her arduous escape to rural France, always did what she felt was best for those she was trying to protect. Her actions inevitably led to repercussions that lasted for generations, but this is also a heartbreaking love story, where betrayal and forgiveness go hand in hand. Moving on takes bold steps, often from the new generations, but Hope and Yves now have the chance to release a village trapped in the past.
The Paris Inheritance is another fabulous read from Natalie Meg Evans, whose gift for storytelling never fails to whisk me away into the lives of her characters. If you enjoy historical fiction, I am sure you will love this book.
Purchase links
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Author Bio
Natalie is a RITA nominated, USA Today best-selling author of ten historical novels: The Dress Thief, The Milliner's Secret, The Wardrobe Mistress, A Gown of Thorns, The Secret Vow and The Paris Girl (featuring sisters, Katya and Tatiana.) Two further novels are set in southern Italy: Into the Burning Dawn and The Italian Girl's Secret, both featuring young women faced with hard choices.
The Girl with the Yellow Star takes the reader to wartime Cornwall and introduces Gwenna and little Lotti, the motherless child who arrives in her care. Natalie's latest novel, The Locket, is a split timeline novel featuring Irene, a country girl living next door to a new American airbase, and her grandaughter Ruby, returning to the family farm and discovering Irene's lost past. Natalie writes page turning stories of wartime, love and challenging choices.
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