Hidden Treasures by Michelle Adams: Having fallen in wild passionate love at 16 with Benoit, an Arts 
and artefacts dealer a good 15 years her senior whilst spending the summer in France with her Aunty, Frances returns to England with more than just a broken heart. Pregnant and protecting the Klinkosch box, a sought after relic thought stolen by the Nazi’s in World War II, Frances spends the remainder of her life feeling that her efforts to protect her heart and everything she loved were in vain.
Having been reunited with her son Harry whom she gave up to foster Care when he was 6 in order to protect him from those hunting the box, Harry is left with burying Frances who he knew very little about and the task of unpacking her house and life to discover who he really is.
Darting from past to present, Hidden Treasures attempts to cover a whole mixed bag of themes, not least of which is love. Unpacking abandonment, lust, identity, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy and a milieu of other ideas, at its core sat a sense that irrespective of the chaos and drama, things will work out if you keep working at them. Unfortunately though, there was an inherently cruel irony that left Harry fundamentally believing for the bulk of his life that he wasn’t wanted or loved, and whilst his ex-girlfriend Tabitha did her utmost to build his confident, the journey of self-belief was one they needed to take individually to understand who they were.
Whilst at its core, the narrative was a type of non-linear treasure hunt, it attempted to cover far too much ground and far too many themes and thus, some of the key action markers didn’t make sense in context of what was occurring.
Overall, this was a fairly interesting read with some scattered wisdom and great one-liners, but what it tried to cover in breadth ultimately left it lacking in depth. In all, if you enjoy a simple plot with some complex meat on the bones, then this is definitely the love story for you.
Book Info:
Publication: 7th December 2021 | William Morrow |
Once upon a time, in a small village in southern France, a pretty, willful English girl is falling in love. Francis Langley has fallen under Benoit’s romantic spell, so sure is she that he is everything she’s ever wanted—a self-assured, sexy man, experienced and just a little bit mysterious. But Francis is hiding a secret—one that would surely separate them if he ever knew the truth. And to hold on to his love, she is willing to do anything for him, even put herself at risk by hiding a precious object, stolen by the Nazis decades before.
Years later, Francis’s son, Harry, opens the door of his late mother’s home, never expecting to see Tabitha—the lost love of his life—on the other side. Their angry parting had broken his heart, but now she holds a letter, sent by his mother just before her death, begging the pair to search—together—for a priceless jewelry box, hidden somewhere in her little Cotswold cottage.
Harry quickly dismisses the search, but as an art historian, Tabitha cannot risk the chance to recover something so valuable that was long thought to be lost. And so they embark on a journey of discovery, but soon find themselves searching for much more than a missing piece of art. Together they learn that the true riches are not those buried in the clutter of Francis’s cottage, but are instead the treasures they each hold, buried deep inside their hearts.
