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The Splendour Falls
Leigh says: Emily heads to Chinon, France after her cousin Harry persuades her to join him on a trip, only to find him missing upon her arrival. As she looks for him around town, she gets to know the townspeople and hotel guests, as well as Chinon’s secrets. There’s a subtle paranormal element and includes two brief past storylines, one set during the Plantagenet reign in the 12th century and the other during WWII during the German occupation of Chinon. Written in 1995, there are a few aspects that did not age well. The most troubling was the prejudice and stereotypes around the way Romani secondary characters were written. There’s a romance between a French resistance worker and a Nazi soldier, which perpetuates the myth of the “good” Nazi. Plus, it was difficult for me to buy the townspeople romanticizing the relationship when less than fifty years had passed since the war. That aside, I still lost myself in this world, even if it was a lesser Kearsley novel.
About the Book
Publisher’s description:
“Kearsley blends history, romance and a bit of the supernatural into a glittering, bewitching tale.”―Kirkus
An Ancient Castle, a Tragic Love, and a Web of Secrets Begins to Unravel…
Emily Braden has stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings. When her fascinating but unreliable cousin Harry invites her on a holiday to explore the legendary own of Chinon, and promptly disappears―well, that’s Harry for you.
As Emily makes the acquaintance of Chinon and its people, she begins to uncover dark secrets beneath the charm. Legend has it that during a thirteenth-century siege of the castle that looms over the city, Queen Isabelle, child bride of King John, hid a “treasure of great price.” And in the last days of the German occupation during World War II, another Isabelle living in Chinon, a girl whose love for an enemy soldier went tragically awry.
As the dangers of the past become disastrously real, Emily is drawn ever more deeply into a labyrinth of mystery as twisted as the streets and tunnels of the ancient town itself.
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