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 Only Light in London by Lily Graham

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

London 1939. As war casts a dark shadow in his homeland Germany, journalist Sebastien wanders the grey fog-filled streets. His heart breaks as he remembers his hurried goodbye to his mother and sister. But even if everyone in London looks at him with suspicion in their eyes, he knows he made the right choice. It was the only way to keep his family safe from the Nazis hunting him…

When he sees a notice for a lodger in a pretty house on a cobbled street, he doesn’t allow hope to flare within him. He’s been rejected at every door he’s knocked on. But when Finley, with her warm brown eyes and sparkling smile, agrees to rent him the room, he allows himself to see a chink of light in the darkness. And as they grow closer over cups of cocoa in the cosy kitchen, love begins to develop.

Sebastien knows that he can’t stay hidden in Finley’s warmth forever though. He has to join the fight. It’s the only way to save his family and put a stop to the horrors in the country he once called home. When he leaves, they promise to keep their hope and love alive.

But Finley has something that she hasn’t been able to tell Sebastien; something that makes her life alone in the city all the more dangerous. And as the bombs rain down in London, and Sebastien risks his life in France, will she ever get the chance to share her secret with him? 

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Emma's Review: The Last Restaurant in Paris by Lily Graham

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

Paris 1944. To save her people, she served the enemy.

In enemy-occupied Paris, as the locals go to bed starving and defeated by the war, music and laughter spills through the door of a little restaurant, crowded with German soldiers. The owner Marianne moves on weary feet between its packed tables, carrying plates of steaming, wholesome food for the enemy officers. Her smile is bright and sparkling, her welcome cordial. Nobody would guess the hatred she hides in her heart.

That night, the restaurant closes its doors for the final time. In the morning, the windows are scratched with the words ‘traitor and murderer’. And Marianne has disappeared without a trace…

Years later, Marianne’s granddaughter Sabine stands under the faded green awning, a heavy brass key in her hand, staring at the restaurant left to her by the grandmother she never met. Sabine has so many questions about herself. Perhaps here she can find answers, but she knows she isn’t welcome. Marianne was hated by the locals and when Sabine discovers they blamed her for the terrible tragedy that haunts the pretty restaurant, she is ready to abandon her dark legacy.

But when she finds a passport in a hidden compartment in the water-stained walls, with a picture of a woman who looks like her grandmother but has a different name, she knows there must be more to Marianne’s story. As she digs into the past, she starts to wonder: was her grandmother a heroine, not a traitor? What happened to her after the tragic night when she fled from her restaurant? And will the answer change her own life forever?

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Emma's Review: The German Girl by Lily Graham

 Reviewed by Emma Crowley

‘Our parents were taken. And if we go home, the Nazis will take us too…’

Hamburg 1938. Fifteen-year-old Asta is hurrying home from school with her twin brother Jurgen. The mood in the city is tense – synagogues have been smashed with sledgehammers, and Asta is too frightened to laugh as she used to.

But when she and Jurgen are stopped in the street by a friend, her world implodes further. Her Jewish parents have been dragged into the streets by German soldiers and if she and Jurgen return to their house, they will be taken too.

Heartbroken at the loss of her parents, Asta knows they must flee. With her beloved brother, she must make the perilous journey across Germany and into Denmark to reach their only surviving relative, her aunt Trine, a woman they barely know.

Jammed into a truck with other refugees, Asta prays for a miracle to save herself and Jurgen. Crossing the border is a crime punishable by death, and what she and Jurgen must embark on a dangerous crossing on foot, through the snowy forest dividing Germany and Denmark. And when barking dogs and armed soldiers find Jurgen and Asta escapes, she must hold on to hope no matter what. One day she will find her twin, the other half of herself. Whatever the price she has to pay…

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Emma's Review: The Child of Auschwitz by Lily Graham

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

It is 1942 and Eva Adami has boarded a train to Auschwitz. Barely able to breathe due to the press of bodies and exhausted from standing up for two days, she can think only of her longed-for reunion with her husband Michal, who was sent there six months earlier.

But when Eva arrives at Auschwitz, there is no sign of Michal and the stark reality of the camp comes crashing down upon her. As she lies heartbroken and shivering on a thin mattress, her head shaved by rough hands, she hears a whisper. Her bunkmate, Sofie, is reaching out her hand...

As the days pass, the two women learn each other’s hopes and dreams – Eva’s is that she will find Michal alive in this terrible place, and Sofie’s is that she will be reunited with her son Tomas, over the border in an orphanage in Austria. Sofie sees the chance to engineer one last meeting between Eva and Michal and knows she must take it even if means befriending the enemy…

But when Eva realises she is pregnant she fears she has endangered both their lives. The women promise to protect each other’s children, should the worst occur. For they are determined to hold on to the last flower of hope in the shadows and degradation: their precious children, who they pray will live to tell their story when they no longer can.

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Emma's Review: The Island Villa by Lily Graham

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Marisal. A villa on a sleepy Spanish island. A place that time had forgotten. A place of long ago summers, sun-kissed memories and one terrible betrayal …

When Charlotte’s husband James tragically dies, he leaves her an unexpected gift – her grandmother’s beautiful villa, Marisal, on the Spanish island of Formentera.

As she begins to explore her new home, and heal her broken heart in the warm golden sunshine, Charlotte discovers that her grandmother Alba has been keeping secrets about her life on the island. Intrigued by her family’s hidden history, Charlotte uncovers a devastating love affair that put many lives at risk and two sisters torn apart by loss.

Can the heart-breaking truth of the island’s dark history finally be laid to rest? Or will the secrets of the past shake the new life and love that Charlotte is close to finding?

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Emma's Review: Christmas at Hope Cottage by Lily Graham

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When twenty-eight-year-old food writer Emma Halloway gets dumped then knocked off her bike, she’s broken in more ways than one, and returns to her family’s cosy cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. Emma hasn’t been back in some time, running from her crazy relatives and her childhood sweetheart, Jack Allen.

Emma’s grandmother is determined to bake her back to health and happiness, as the Halloways have done for generations. Surrounded by old friends and warm cinnamon buns, Emma starts to believe in her family’s special talents for healing again. But then in walks Jack with his sparkling hazel eyes, stirring up the family feud between them. 

As the twinkly lights are strung between the streetlamps, Emma remembers just why she fell for Jack in the first place... and why a Halloway should never date an Allen.

The infuriating new lodger, Sandro, doesn’t believe anyone should have to choose between love and family. With a little bit of Christmas magic, can Emma and Jack find a way to be together, or will Emma find herself heartbroken once more?

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