Spotlight & Giveaway: Book of Forbidden Words by Louise Fein

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Louise Fein to HJ!

Hi Louise and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Book of Forbidden Words!

Hello! I’m delighted to be chatting with you on HJ Spotlight – it’s lovely to be here!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Book of Forbidden Words is a story of three indomitable women: Lysbette, writer of words; Charlotte, printer of words; and Milly, broadcaster of words. Although they live four hundred years apart, their lives are connected by a mysterious manuscript, the contents of which both enlighten and bring danger to each of them. From the backstreets of sixteenth century Paris, to 1950’s New York, each woman is faced with stark choices in times when the spread of ideas is feared and every effort is made to suppress them.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

I have a few!
“What power lay there in words on a page. And with that thought, Charlotte knew she would not rest until she had seen what was in the manuscript that Lysbette so desperately wanted to preserve in print.”

“There is a beat to this book, a heartbeat, faint but discernible, a
metronome buried deep within its pages, pulsing away time until its
mysterious contents can be revealed. It is as though the manuscript is
a creature of immense importance, waiting patiently, all but forgotten
for countless years, somehow knowing its time will come.”

“…don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t think, or do, or
write, or say.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

The manuscript featured in Book of Forbidden Words is inspired by a real, unencrypted manuscript called The Voynich manuscript. But because the contents of the real manuscript are unknown, I had to invent the contents of mine, and an encryption method! I spent many fun hours researching encryption methods in 16th century Europe. This book also contains a sun graphic and code. My editor came up with the idea of including a graphic which I was very excited about, but not so much when she asked me to draw it! My drawing ability is about that of a five-year old, unfortunately, but luckily for the readers, a much more talented artist transformed my awful attempt into some stunning artwork for the book!

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

There are two love stories in this book, but my favourite is between Lysbette and John. They meet when they are young, and their paths are destined to cross at various times, but destiny isn’t always kind. They share a love of books and ideas and possibilities from the first moment they meet. Their connection is real and deep.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

There is a scene where Milly is reunited with her children after a spell apart and I have to admit, it brought a tear to my eye!

“Milly is on the floor, the room blurred by a wash of tears, and
the children, oh, her darling Edward and Olive, are suddenly in
her arms real and alive and solid. The feel of them, after she has
dreamed over and over of such a moment, is too much and she
cannot speak, only bury her sobs in their hair, cling to their sweet,
hot bodies.”

Readers should read this book….

If they enjoy thought-provoking, dual time-line historical fiction with love, mystery, suspense and a dollop of family drama!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

Book of Forbidden Words will be out on 17th February 2026. I am at the early stages of a new book that will be published in 2027. I can’t say too much about it, except that there will be friends to lovers, adventure and chocolate!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: (3) A copy of BOOK OF FORBIDDEN WORDS by Louise Fein

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: In Book of Forbidden Words, one of the characters, Lysbette, is very taken by the book, Utopia, written by Sir Thomas More, with whom she lived in the early 1500’s. Even today we are familiar with the concept of a Utopia – an ideal state. If you were to invent your own ‘Utopia’ what would that look like for you?

Excerpt from Book of Forbidden Words:

Prologue
Paris, July 1552

The moon hung low in a cloudless night sky.
She paused a moment to stare at it, wondering what magic held it there, suspended like a specter in the dark, round as a freshly minted coin, pale as buttermilk.
But this was no time to linger, and, pulling the hood of her cloak farther over her head to be sure the fair band of her hair was fully covered, she crept, quiet as a cat in her indoor slippers, the cobbles hard and rough against the soles of her feet, toward the gate that led into the Cemetery of the Innocents at the heart of Les Halles. She turned and checked behind her before entering the graveyard.
For it was the living, not the dead, who filled her with trepidation. All was quiet and still.
She heaved a long, slow breath to gather herself, then, head down, she hurried on, recalling the route in daylight yesterday. The distance was short. The manuscript was safe. And, with good fortune, by the time the sun rose, she’d have secured its future too. She turned right onto Rue St. Denis, St. Catherine before her, keeping to the shadows of the walls of the hospital, left, then right again, passing the hulking shape of the church in the square, then winding down toward the river. She could smell it now, sharp in her nostrils, raw and earthy. She glanced east and fancied there was a lightening of the sky over Paris, but perhaps it was just the glow of the moon, still shining bright as a polished pearl button.
She was at the edge of the bridge now, Le Pont Notre-Dame, and hesitated. There she would be at her most vulnerable. The bridge ran straight and true across this stretch of the river, on to the island at its center where the great church of the Notre-Dame de Paris dominated the surrounding buildings. But with the houses densely packed side by side along the bridge, if she were pur- sued, there would be no escape. No alley to dart down, no wall to hide behind. Her fingers found the tender flesh at her wrist. Her head still ached and her ribs were bruised, but she would not cry. Enough tears had been shed already, and they were useless.
She could see the Notre-Dame cathedral from where she stood, its tall steeple dense against the paler sky, rising like a long, tapering finger toward the heavens. It felt like a message. God will not abandon you in this, your hour of need.
A soft breath of wind from the river stroked her skin. She listened. No sound on the cobbles, just the rush of water beneath the bridge and she was moving again, tripping in her haste, her breath shallow, heart beating like a drum. Eyes fixed on the far end of the bridge, she didn’t look back, didn’t dare. At last she was on solid ground, the walls of the Convent of the Blessed Heart rising before her and she almost cried with relief.
All she needed to do now was follow the wall to the end of the street, turn left, and the woman would be waiting.
A tiny stone, no bigger than a silver penny skittered beside her left heel. The sound of it echoed off the tall stone wall, too loud, too unnatural, and a dart of red-hot fear shot through her. She whirled around. The figure of a man loomed but three feet behind her, hooded, swathed in black. She stumbled back, attempted to run, but her legs turned to liquid.
There was a beat of time as her mind tripped. Where had he come from? How did she not hear him?
A viselike grip on her arm, and she was spun around as if she were but a feather tossed on the wind. She glimpsed his face beneath the shadow of his hood, the set of his jaw, shape of his chin. The shock of recognition.
“Please—”
But her words, her sob, her struggle against his grip, were stopped as he pulled her flat to his chest, her throat tight with terror, his large, solid arm pinning her to him.
Silver flashed in his other hand.
There was no more time for thought or words as a roar filled her ears and a searing pain like none she had ever known tore at her throat.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Info:

From bestselling author Louise Fein comes a new historical novel about an encrypted manuscript that unleashes a chain of consequences across 400 years, set in a world of banned books, fear of new ideas, and the dangers of censorship, perfect for fans of The Briar Club and Weyward.

“What power lay there in words on a page. And with that thought, Charlotte knew she would not rest until she had seen what was in the manuscript that Lysbette so desperately wanted to preserve in print.”

1552, Paris: Against a backdrop of turmoil, suspicion, and paranoia, the printing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives one day at Charlotte Guillard’s famous printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbette’s audacious ideas.

1952, New York: Milly Bennett, lonely and unmoored, is a seemingly ordinary housewife with a secretive past. Balancing the day-to-day boredom of keeping house and struggling to find her way with the mothers at her children’s school, she finds her life taking an unexpected turn as conspiracies spread amidst the paranoid clamors of McCarthy’s America. When a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, she is reluctantly pulled into a vortex of danger that threatens to shatter her world.

From the risky backstreets of sixteenth-century Paris to the unpredictable suburbs of mid-twentieth century New York, the stakes couldn’t be higher when, 400 years apart, Milly, Lysbette, and Charlotte each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared and every effort is made to suppress them.

Dramatic and affecting, and inspired by the real-life encrypted Voynich manuscript, Book of Forbidden Words is both an engrossing story about a timeless struggle that echoes through the ages and a testament to the indomitable spirit of those who dare to let their words be heard.
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Louise writes historical fiction, focussed around unheard voices or from unusual perspectives. Her novels have variously been shortlisted for literary awards, international best sellers and translated into foreign languages. Louise holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University. Equally passionate about historical research and writing, she loves to look for themes which have resonance with today’s world. Louise lives in the Surrey countryside with her family, and is a slave to the daily demands of her pets.
Website | Facebook | Instagram | GoodReads |