The Secrets of Paper and Ink

Title: The Secrets of Paper and Ink

Author: Lindsay Harrel

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Genre: Christian Fiction, Contemporary, Historical

Source: Library

My review:

The Secrets of Paper and Ink is the first book I have read by Lindsay Harrel, but it won't be my last.

I have to say this is one of those books that I will never be able to review properly, but I am going to give it my best shot.

All we have in life are the choices we make. We must make choices we can live with-and die with, if it comes to that.

There is something very special about this story. It spoke to me on so many levels.

Well, anyway she talks about books as friends who need a place to belong, a new home.

A bookstore. New friendships. An old journal. Second chances. Starting over. Giving up on dreams. Finding a new dream. Love. Heartache. England. Isn't England a fantastic setting for a story? Especially one that has a bookstore?

 Maybe we just need to keep walking, even when it takes us somewhere we don't want to go. Maybe on the other side, that's where the happiness is found.

Could it be that I've been so focused on helping others that I forgot self-care?

This is a beautiful story of redemption, forgiveness, and healing. I loved the main story and the past timeline that was woven seamlessly throughout. I was sad to see the story end, I was not ready to leave this story. I don't know if the author wrote any more books about these characters, but I would love to see more of them. Can I say it again? I loved this story! It is going to be one of my all-time favorites. I can't wait to find and read more books by this author!! 

★★★★★

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 

Lindsay Harrel presents a powerful story of healing, forgiveness, and finding the courage to write your own story.

A year after the death of her abusive fiancé, domestic violence counselor Sophia Barrett finds returning to work too painful. She escapes to Cornwall, England--a place she's learned to love through the words of her favorite author--and finds a place to stay with the requirement that she help out in the bookstore underneath the room she's renting. Given her love of all things literary, it seems like the perfect place to find peace.

Ginny Rose is an American living in Cornwall, sure that if she saves the bookstore she co-owns with her husband then she can save her marriage as well. Fighting to keep the first place she feels like she belongs, she brainstorms with her brother-in-law, William, and Sophia to try to keep the charming bookstore afloat.

Two hundred years before, governess Emily Fairfax knew two things for certain: she wanted to be a published author, and she was in love with her childhood best friend. But he was a wealthy heir and well out of her league. Sophia discovers Emily's journals, and she and William embark on a mission to find out more about this mysterious and determined woman, all the while getting closer to each other as they get closer to the truth.

The lives of the three women intertwine as each learns the power she has over the story of her life.