From Goodreads
New York–based photographer Cat Jordan is ready to begin a new life with her successful, button-down boyfriend. But when she learns that she’s inherited the estate of a complete stranger—a woman named Isabelle de Florian—her life is turned upside down.
Cat arrives in Paris to find that she is now the owner of a perfectly preserved Belle Époque apartment in the ninth arrondissement, and that the Frenchwoman’s family knew nothing about this secret estate. Amid these strange developments, Cat is left with burning questions: Who was Isabelle de Florian? And why did she leave the inheritance to Cat instead of her own family?
As Cat travels France in search of answers, she feels her grasp on her New York life starting to slip. With long-buried secrets coming to light and an attraction to Isabelle de Florian’s grandson growing too intense to ignore, Cat will have to decide what to let go of, and what to claim as her own.
My thoughts
My thanks to the Publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review.
I gave this a 7/10. I loved the premise of the story surrounding a locked apartment in Paris, which I didn't realise was a real find until after having read the story. I did however realise that some of the names of the characters in the book were real people.
Ella Carey has woven a story around the locked apartment and the real people and told us the readers a history of the apartment that is pure fiction.
I enjoyed the story of Cat, who inherits the apartment upon the death of an elderly lady who once knew her grandmother. As Cat's current world is turned upside down, her life in America with her boyfriend seems to be going well. She's a little fed up with work though and yearns to be doing something else.
As news of the inheritance hits, it takes over her life and becomes all consuming. As she leaves America to go and meet up with the lawyer of the deceased elderly lady in Paris, she temporarily leaves her boyfriend behind.
Armed with a key she goes off to find out what the apartment that she has been left might reveal to her. As Cat approaches the apartment she hears someone calling her name. Who is this person and what do they want from her?
Cat decides that she can't accept the inheritance and needs to find out why she has been named as the beneficiary and not the family of the elderly lady. She takes it upon herself to do some digging into the past and with the help of the grandson Loic Archer, she embarks on a journey of discovery in more ways than one.
As the secrets that are hidden become unearthed Cat realises that maybe her life in America isn't the life that she craves as much as she thought she did.
Cat was a likeable character, as the story progresses the reader becomes aware that all is not as it seems with her relationship with her boyfriend. I actually disliked her boyfriend with a passion and I was hoping that Cat would wake up and smell the coffee, realising what he was actually like.
I enjoyed the whirlwind that was Loic Archer and I was hoping that Cat would realise that he was far more suitable for her than her current boyfriend.
I was immersed in the lives of all the characters for the duration of the book and I was constantly trying to second guess what had happened in the past to mean that the family had been disinherited so to speak.
To immerse yourself in the lives of all the characters and find out the secrets behind the locked apartment, you'll have to grab a copy of this story for yourself, in my opinion it's well worth a read if you like books with a historical slant and lots of secrets to solve then this is an ideal read for you.
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