Romantic Suspense published by Blue Box Press 02 Feb 21
A packet hidden in the seams of her bedroom wall send Isobelle on a quest to find the long-buried secrets of her mother’s past. Isobelle’s journey will give her an education on secret societies, looted Russian crown jewels, her parent’s history, and help her discover a love of her own. The story is told in two voices, alternating chapter by chapter. Isobelle’s mother Sophie grew up with the Russian Royal family and called the arch duchesses of Russia her friends, especially arch duchess Olga, who presented Sophia with the tiara from which this story got its name. It is during the war, when Sophie volunteers at a local hospital, that she meets the love of her life, an apprentice Faberge jeweler. Subsequently, Sophie lost it all – her lover, her friendships, barely escaped to America with her baby, a chain with Faberge eggs made by her jeweler lover, and the tiara gifted to her by her friend in the Russian royal family.
Heartbroken, she never spoke about her life in Russia with her daughter, choosing to bury it and focus on creating a life for her daughter. When Isobelle discovers the tiara, she also finds out that her mother sold the jewels in the tiara to buy her apartment and start the business that became her livelihood and means to raise her child. Isobelle has a more mundane childhood than her mother did, but she’s a fighter, as well-evidenced by the fact that she chooses an occupation in a male-dominated field and makes the necessary sacrifices to survive in her chosen profession.
In her journey of discovery, Isobelle visits the jeweler who bought the jewels in her original tiara and that plunges her into the world of looted Russian jewels and long-buried lies and truths. From a slow start, the story takes on twists and turns that will keep readers fascinated. There are some twists that you’ll never see coming. Given that there are so many theories about what happened to the Russian royal family and all the fabulous crown jewels and Faberge eggs that were looted and disappeared, there may be some truth in this so-believable fiction. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy a bit of suspense with their history.
Grade: B
Summary:
Sophia Moon had always been reticent about her life in Russia and when she dies, suspiciously, on a wintry New York evening, Isobelle despairs that her mother’s secrets have died with her. But while renovating the apartment they shared, Isobelle discovers something among her mother’s effects—a stunning silver tiara, stripped of its jewels.
Isobelle’s research into the tiara’s provenance draws her closer to her mother’s past—including the story of what became of her father back in Russia, a man she has never known. The facts elude her until she meets a young jeweler, who wants to help her but is conflicted by his loyalty to the Midas Society, a covert international organization whose mission is to return lost and stolen antiques, jewels, and artwork to their original owners.
Told in alternating points of view, the stories of the two young women unfurl as each struggles to find their way during two separate wars. In 1915, young Sofiya Petrovitch, favorite of the royal household and best friend of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, tends to wounded soldiers in a makeshift hospital within the grounds of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and finds the love of her life. In 1948 New York, Isobelle Moon works to break through the rampant sexism of the age as one of very few women working in a male-dominated profession and discovers far more about love and family than she ever hoped for.
In M.J. Rose’s deftly constructed narrative, the secrets of Sofiya’s early life are revealed incrementally, even as Isobelle herself works to solve the mystery of the historic Romanov tiara (which is based on an actual Romanov artifact that is, to this day, still missing)—and how it is that her mother came to possess it. The two strands play off each other in finely-tuned counterpoint, building to a series of surprising and deeply satisfying revelations.
