The Paris Secret
by Angela Henry
by Angela Henry
Goodreads Blurb:
ebook, 331 pages
January 17th 2011, Carina Press
Less than twenty-four hours after fleeing to Paris, Maya Sinclair is the prime suspect in a brutal murder—and targeted by the real killer. When she's viciously attacked in the gardens of Versailles, Maya barely escapes with her life thanks to sexy French journalist Simon Girard.
Simon has been investigating the mysterious death of his brother, an art forger with ties to the woman Maya is suspected of killing. Still healing from heartbreak of his own, Simon reluctantly joins forces with Maya, who has awakened feelings within him he thought long dead.
Their search for answers uncovers the existence of a secret society, and puts them on a quest to find a missing crucifix rumored to hold the key to everlasting life. Together, Maya and Simon race through Paris one step ahead of a killer who will do anything to ensure some secrets remain buried forever...
The Paris Secret was a fantastic book that I devoured in just a few hours. The writing style was very beautiful and compelling, so I was sucked into the story from the very first pages and I loved it more and more with every turn of the page. This is definitely an unputdownable book!
After being dumped by her boyfriend, Maya flies to Paris to get over the painful break up (yes, you read that right: our main character goes in the City of Love all alone, to recover from a broken heart! How’s that for irony?) And she does that all right – but not before getting into a lot of trouble and even facing death a few times. Because as if her situation wasn’t bad enough, in just a few hours after arriving in Paris, she gets involved in a mysterious murder - for which she becomes a suspect - and gets dragged into a story full of conspiracies, history, codes and symbols and secret societies.
Everything happens because of a missing crucifix. Dangerous people are after Maya because apparently that crucifix is very important and they think she has it and the only way to get them out of her back is to actually find it. In searching for it, Maya meets Simon Girard, a hot Frenchman with green eyes and a good heart. He helps her find out more about this Moret Crucifix and the Moret Society, and travel all around Paris looking for clues and people who might know more about it. We get to meet new characters who share their amazing stories related to the mysterious society. This is one of the things I loved most about this book: the Da Vinci Code feeling, the mystery, the history of the crucifix and of all those people… The history lover in me was fascinated by all these elements and always wanted to know more! The Paris setting was wonderful! All the places Maya and Simon visited were so nicely described and vivid, that I felt like I was walking around the museums or streets along with the characters. It’s all so beautiful!
As for the love story, I liked it, but I felt like things happened a bit too quickly, like there was yet more to discover about it. I would have liked to get to know more about Simon and to see more about the development of his relationship with Maya. Then again, with all the things going on in this book, with all the action and the investigations, a very complicated and twisted love story would have been too much. But I really liked Maya as a character; it was easy to relate to her and to care about her.
While reading this book, I felt like I was walking through a magical maze, and each turn, each new 'wall' was revealing another thrilling story and though I had no idea where was the end of it, I was in no hurry to reach it, because I just wanted to see more, to learn more, to discover a new special place, a new story, a new character... The plot was so well thought out and full of history, mystery, suspense, twists and turns… Simply amazing! I can only imagine the amount of research that went into writing this book! All the details are so well crafted and all the tiny pieces so perfectly put together! It was like all the puzzle parts were revealed bit by bit, at the right time, right place.
All in all, The Paris Secret is an engaging story, beautifully written, that draws the reader in a suspenseful, exciting and very interesting journey through Paris; the romance combined with intrigues, mystery and history elements in a The Da Vinci Code style promises to keep the reader captivated until the very last page. I would love to see this book made into a movie!
*Review based on the e-copy of the book I received from the author as a Tour Host, in exchange of my honest opinion.
Sorry for the delay guys! *blush* But don't forget that you still have time to enter the contest for an e-copy of The Paris Secret and for the grand prize pack until tomorrow HERE!
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