Emma's Review: Her Forgotten Hours by Lily Graham

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

France 1944: Frankie opens her eyes and winces. The daylight coming through the shutters is acid bright but that’s not what is causing her pain. As she tries to speak through burned and blistered lips, she realises there is only darkness where her memories should be. She is fed sips of water by a kindly old French man, Antoine, who tells her that his grandson found her lying next to her burning plane, crying out for a man called Michael. A man she cannot remember.

The Nazis stalk the streets outside the little French farmhouse where Frankie is hidden, and she knows that she is putting Antoine and his grandson’s life in terrible danger. But to leave she needs to remember who she is, and why she feels so afraid when she tries to recall the man she cried out for. As she lies in lavender-scented sheets, flashes of memory begin to come back. A forest deep in rural France, the smell of fear and pine trees and a face she loves marked with terror. Frankie is sure she came to rescue Michael, and she’s determined to complete her mission. But can she find him before the soldiers find her?

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Emma's Review: The Irish Nurse at the Lodging House by Natalie Meg Evans

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Nurse Grace Whelan’s Irish accent isn’t out of place on the hospital wards in the East End. But she hides it, and so much more, when her work takes her to the other side of the city. Her roommates at the lodging house and her potential beau, RAF pilot Owen, can never know the secrets she’s keeping about her family…

The three girls may share a room in the cosy lodgings, but they are very different. Jess is a country girl not used to the city, and Betony is adjusting to life without her aristocratic father’s money. But as they go through terrifying air raids and family heartbreak together, a sisterhood starts to form.

Until Grace’s criminal brother tracks her down, looking for money. And when it’s revealed she’s not the only one involved with Owen, the scandal threatens to tear the three apart for good.

Devastated, Grace is torn. Will she lose her new friends as quickly as she found them? Or can confessing all her secrets bring them closer together, as the war comes to their doorstep?

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Emma's Review: The Hidden Daughter by Soraya Lane

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

London, present day: Everything in Charlotte’s life is about to change. As she clutches a small box in her palm containing a diamond ring and a Norwegian crest, she knows she must return home to be reunited with her beloved great-grandmother Amalie and her Norwegian family.

Accepting her dream job as a head chef at Norway’s most prestigious hotel, Charlotte is welcomed by the hotel’s head designer, Harrison. For years, Charlotte sacrificed everything for her career. As she tours her new surroundings with Harrison, she soon starts to see a way of focussing on her heart too.

But when Charlotte takes the box to Amalie, everything Charlotte thought she knew about her family changes in an instant. As Amalie clutches the ring that she thought had vanished forever, she reveals a tragic love story and a precious secret that stayed buried for years.

When Charlotte discovers the huge sacrifice Amalie made to keep her family safe, will it give Charlotte the strength she needs to follow her heart? Or will she leave Norway forever?

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Emma's Review: The Key to the Island House by Amanda Lees

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Egypt, 1942. After her husband and baby son are killed, Nadia flees to Villa Eden in Cairo. The gorgeous scents of the blooms and calming water garden soothe her aching heart… and give her the strength to keep fighting.

With a group of other young Europeans at the villa, she works undercover against the Nazi threat to Egypt. Friendships form as they host extravagant parties for ambassadors and generals – and gather vital information whispered in quiet corners.

Until betrayal snatches yet another person she loves from Nadia. And the villa’s high walls may be the only place to keep a dark wartime secret safe…

Cairo, present day. After the death of her fiancé, Sophie arrives in Egypt, clutching an old photograph of her aunt. Sophie always loved her stories, but all Aunt Nadia would say about the villa was that she could never return.

Sophie hopes that solving the mysteries of her aunt’s past will help her deal with all the loss in her life. But when she finds a note in her aunt’s handwriting, tucked in the villa’s library, it seems Nadia has lied to her for her whole life…

Sophie is left questioning everything. Will the truth from the war tear her apart, just as it did her aunt? Or will facing these secrets help heal not just her own heartbreak, but also one from decades ago?

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Emma's Review: The President's Wife by Anna Stuart

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Eleanor Roosevelt takes a deep breath. She knew this day was coming but now that it’s here she needs every ounce of courage to face it. She’s stood by Franklin’s side through thirty years of marriage and three terms in the White House but entering the war that’s been raging across the world will be their greatest challenge yet.

Eleanor watches thousands of women as they embrace their husbands for what could be the last time before they go off to war. She knows she needs to put aside the troubles in her own relationship for the sake of the country. But will the latest threat to her marriage finally tear her and Franklin apart?

The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. This is a moment that history will never forget, and all eyes are on them. Will Eleanor succeed in her role as the president’s wife and help to save her beloved country as well as her marriage? Or will tragedy strike before the war is won…?

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