Wednesday 7 June 2017

Review: Stolen Time by Chloe Duval


In a rural French village, a letter is delivered decades late, inspiring a young woman to try to reunite two star-crossed lovers . . . Middle school teacher by day, romance writer by night, and group knitter on Tuesday evenings, Flavie Richalet leads a fairly uneventful life-until she receives a long delayed letter meant for a total stranger. Postmarked 1971, the yellowed envelope, addressed to an Amelie Lacombe, holds a fervent message of love and a marriage proposal, signed only with the initial E. Given her own fractured family history, Flavie is dreamily determined to learn what became of the couple . . .

Flavie's inquiries lead her to a French seaside inn-and to E. himself, a true romantic who never forgot the girl who got away so many years ago. But his protective nephew, B&B owner Romaric, isn't sure that trying to find Amelie after all these years is good for his uncle. At odds with the tall, dark, and impossibly passionate Romaric, Flavie must show him, and perhaps herself, that true love is timeless-and always worth waiting for . . .

Paperback
Expected publication: June 13th 2017 by Kensington Publishing Corporation

Terri's Thoughts

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!  It is set to be released on June 13th.

The synopsis of this book is what made me decide to read it.  A letter is received 45 years after it is sent?  The person who receives it sets out to discover what happened to those involved? Of course I wanted to read it, this is exactly the kind of thing that I actively seek out when searching for new material to read.  I love when there are two storylines, past and present, and the reader is invested in both outcomes.

If I am honest, this story is less about the letter and more about Flavie's journey.  While the reader gets some brief glimpses to the back storyline leading up to the issuance of the letter it really is minimal.  Falvie's personal journey while trying to solve the mystery is the actual focus of the story. While I was interested to see where the story took Flavie, I do wish there was a little more time spent in 1971.

Speaking of Flavie's journey, this story is essentially a romance.  While I liked Flavie and Romaric, I did find that their story moved really fast.  Is it possible to fall in love a first site (even if you don't know it)?  I guess the point of the story is that yes, it is possible so in that case perhaps their storyline didn't move too fast.

Completely off topic but I feel I must put this out there.  I have read a lot of books and been many places throughout the world and this is the first I ever heard of the name Romaric.  To be honest I thought it was a play on romance and wondered if this is a common name perhaps in other parts of the world (knowing this story was written with France as the backdrop).  I actually googled the name and found all sorts of interesting information.  For those who are wondering, it is a name of German decent however has variations of the name in German, Italian, French, Polish, and Spanish.  It is a name that is geographically used in Europe.  That is my new fact for the day.

Altogether this was a sweet story about love, family, and fighting for those you love.  It was an interesting read.  My only disappointment is that I wish as I had mentioned earlier that I got to spend more time in 1971 within the pages.



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