SYNOPSIS:
“There were seconds, when I woke, when the
world felt unshrouded. Then memory returned.”
When Jessica regains consciousness in a
French hospital on the day after the Paris attacks, all she can think of is
fleeing the site of the horror she survived. But Patrick, the steadfast friend
who hasn’t left her side, urges her to reconsider her decision. Worn down by
his insistence, she reluctantly agrees to follow through with the trip they’d
planned before the tragedy.
“The pages found you,” Patrick
whispered.
“Now you need to figure out
what they’re trying to say.”
During a stop at a country flea market,
Jessica finds a faded document concealed in an antique. As new friends help her
to translate the archaic French, they uncover the story of Adeline Baillard, a
young woman who lived centuries before—her faith condemned, her life
endangered, her community decimated by the Huguenot persecution.
“I write for our descendants,
for those who will not understand the cost of our survival.”
Determined to learn the Baillard family’s
fate, Jessica retraces their flight from France to England, spurred on by a
need she doesn’t understand.
Could this stranger who lived three
hundred years before hold the key to Jessica’s survival?
mY
rEVIEW:
The first time I tried to read this book… I couldn’t’ seem to
focus on what was happening. However, the
second time I absolutely couldn’t put it down.
This book was not what I was expecting at all. There
was a mixture of friendship, terror, relationships, grief, healing, history, tragedy,
family, and so much more that was woven throughout the storyline.
Jessica is on a journey that she (or the reader) have no idea
where it will lead. I found myself hurriedly
reading each page in anticipation of what might happened next.
The
emotions that Jessica experienced were illustrated so wonderfully throughout
the pages.
I love
this book and am looking forward to reading more books written by Michèle
Phoenix.
Disclosure
statement: I received this complimentary
book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions are my own.
