Spotlight & Giveaway: Hidden Treasures by Michelle Adams

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Michelle Adams to HJ!

Hi Michelle and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Hidden Treasures!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Hidden Treasures follows the journey of Harry, as he clears his mother’s house following her death. All her life, his mother, Frances, was a collector of things, items which seemingly had no place in her home, and yet took up most of the room until there was little space left for anything else. Harry never felt this more than when she abandoned him when he was a young boy. After reuniting in adulthood, Harry had hoped to find some answers as to why she left him, and who his father was. But instead of that, he grew only more confused about who his mother really was, and lost the love of his life, Tabitha, in the process.
But before her death his mother left some letters behind, and the information contained within them reunite Harry with Tabitha. Together they uncover his mother’s lost past, from a youth spent in the countryside of southern France, to the mysteries that surround Harry’s life, by following Frances’ instruction to find a lost jewellry box, looted by the Nazis during the Second World War, which she claims is hidden in her house. In finding it, Harry has the chance to not only solve one of history’s biggest mysteries, but also answer the question about his own life, and perhaps also rediscover a love he thought was lost long ago to the past.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

The car was there again. Red lights pierced through the darkness and thick smoke chugged from the exhaust. Frances had seen it parked there last night too, and once the week before that.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

This is probably one of the fastest stories that ever came to me. It all seemed to arrive in one great big information dump, and I had to work fast to get it on the page! And while certain things have changed throughout the writing process, which is inevitable I think, what you read in the final draft is pretty much the story I first envisioned. That was the first time that has ever happened for me as a writer. I wrote the first draft in about six weeks, when I usually take more like six months. Hidden Treasures was always the working title too, but it does have a different title for the UK edition, which will be called The Lost Lives of Frances Langley.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Harry was perhaps the character who changed the most. He was very quiet and shy to begin with. While is is still a bit of an oddball, he has much more oomf about him than he once had. I think there is also a little bit of me in him too, because he plays a brass instrument in an orchestra, which I did too as a teenager.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

There is a scene where Harry and Tabitha are about to confess their feelings to each other, and something happens that changes that scene entirely. This is a really pivotal moment for both of them, because after this they both understand the things they have got wrong, and what they must do to put them right. If an actor could embody the importance of the moment, I think they would be able to do it all. Here is a little snippet rom that scene.

‘Oh my God, Harry,’ she said, her hand rushing to her mouth as if she was going to be sick. ‘Harry, you have to let me explain.’
‘My mother’s necklaces,’ he said, his hands against the window. ‘One of the last things of hers that I remember her having.’ Slowly he turned to face her. ‘How could you, when you knew what they meant to me? They belonged to her. To me. I thought you understood how –. . . I don’t know, but I thought . . .’ He searched for something else to say, but nothing came. A sense of foolishness washed over him, and he wanted to run, get away, consumed by an urge to disappear. As the picture of what had happened became clearer to him, he found he was gripped by a deep sense of shame, as if he was responsible for what he saw before him. As if his own inadequacies had facilitated it. Shame had followed him around his whole life, and he had long understood that once it got its grip on you, the slightest slip could feed it. It came rolling in like a storm, bringing the conclusion that he had let his mother down again by somehow not being enough. He didn’t know how exactly, only that it was the truth.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

I hope people understand that some difficult decisions and pivotal moments in life are never simple, and that the motives are not always easy to understand. As much as the majority of this story is told from Harry and Tabitha’s point of view, Frances’ story is equally, if not more important to the conclusion. I think often we are quick to see mistakes made, rather than the effort of people who are trying so very hard to do their best. I hope people sympathize with Frances and the unbelievably difficult decision she took to abandon her child.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

Hidden Treasures will be released late this year, followed by the UK and other foreign editions in 2022. Currently I am working on my next book, which explores the complex way grief can affect our lives, and how our relationship with ourselves, along with the ability to forgive ourselves our flaws and mistakes, plays such an important part in creating the life we want.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of Hidden Treasures by Michelle Adams

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Who do you think should shoulder the majority of the responsibility for what happened in the past?

 
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Book Info:

A reunited couple search for a valuable treasure, a precious jewelry box, stolen from the Nazis and hidden away since World War II, in this powerfully emotional and romantic novel of rekindled love—perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Josie Silver, and Jill Santopolo.

Then…

Once upon a time, in a small village in southern France, a pretty, willful English girl is falling in love. Frances 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 Frances 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.

Now…

Years later, Frances’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.

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Meet the Author:

Michelle is a writer and novelist. She is the author of two psychological thrillers, My Sister (2017) and Between The Lies (2018), and now writes heartwarming women’s fiction. Her debut women’s fiction title, Little Wishes will be released in November 2020, and will be followed in 2021 by Hidden Treasures.

Michelle contributed to the 2020 anthology about motherhood, The Best Most Awful Job with an essay entitled Learning To Be A Mother, an account of her experience with adoption.

Her novels have sold in 20 territories, including UK, US, Germany, Greece, and China. She has also written for The Guardian newspaper and The Daily Mail.

Michelle is British, but now lives in Limassol, Cyprus, with her husband and their children.
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