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A special thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Beautiful cover!

Juliet Blackwell returns following The Paris Key (2015) with LETTERS FROM PARIS — a sweeping historical family saga taking readers from Chicago to Louisiana to ultimately, Paris- to uncover secrets of the past.

Claire Broussard is ready to give up her life in Chicago when she receives a call regarding her sick grandmother. Claire (Chance) no longer felt like she was living the dream. She was not happy in Chicago. She wanted something else.

Her mother died when she was little and her Mammaw always said:

“The Lord’s got something special planned for you. You mark my words.”

Her Mammaw wasn’t just a grandmother. She had raised her and saved her life.

Claire heads to Louisiana. The place where she was called Chance. From her dying mother, and alcoholic father.

She discovers a mask (sculpture) in the attic, along with some old newspapers and receipts. Her grandmother tells her it is from Paris. Her great-grandfather sent home from Paris after World War II. She encourages her to find out more about the story.

She is intrigued. After her grandmother dies, Claire decides why not, go to Paris. What does she have holding her to this place?

Claire discovers the shop which made the (death) mask, L’Inconnue de la Seine (the Unknown Woman). She begins working at the shop, in order to find out more about its history with some eccentric characters.

Drawn into the past and the mystery, there is the story of Sabine, a young model in Paris in the 1890s. How are these two women’s lives connected? The model for L’Inconnue lived decades before WWII. A poor girl from the countryside?

From tragedy and death to the romantic; the beauty of Paris from art, food, culture, history, and secrets to be discovered. Old wounds reflected and scars to be healed. Re-discovery.

Having survived drowning as a child, Claire is wary of rivers, while Sabine is rumored to have met her end in the Seine.

Per the author’s note, L’Inconnue is an actual mask of a young woman who lived during the nineteenth century. No one knows for sure whether the model was French, English, German, Russian, or otherwise.

To find out more about this intriguing story, and follow Claire’s journey in LETTERS FROM PARIS!

I also purchased the audiobook, narrated by Xe Sands for a captivating adventure.

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