The Secrets of Paper and Ink | Book Review, Guest Post + Giveaway

ABOUT THE BOOK

Lindsay Harrel presents a powerful story of healing, forgiveness, and finding the courage to write your own story.

A year after the death of her abusive fiancé, domestic violence counselor Sophia Barrett finds returning to work too painful. She escapes to Cornwall, England—a place she’s learned to love through the words of her favorite author—and finds a place to stay with the requirement that she help out in the bookstore underneath the room she’s renting. Given her love of all things literary, it seems like the perfect place to find peace.

Ginny Rose is an American living in Cornwall, sure that if she saves the bookstore she co-owns with her husband then she can save her marriage as well. Fighting to keep the first place she feels like she belongs, she brainstorms with her brother-in-law, William, and Sophia to try to keep the charming bookstore afloat.

More than 150 years before, governess Emily Fairfax knew two things for certain: she wanted to be a published author, and she was in love with her childhood best friend. But he was a wealthy heir and well out of her league. Sophia discovers Emily’s journals, and she and William embark on a mission to find out more about this mysterious and determined woman, all the while getting closer to each other as they get closer to the truth.

The lives of the three women intertwine as each learns the power she has over the story of her life.

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Release Date: February 26, 2019

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MY REVIEW

Lindsay Harrel’s The Secrets of Paper and Ink, with its bookstore setting and classic-novel references, is the perfect novel for a bookish reader.

While still in the process of healing, Sophia Barrett travels to Cornwall, England and begins to work in a bookstore. Here, she meets bookstore owner Ginny Rose and discovers the journal of governess Emily Fairfax. The stories of these three women intertwine as they sort through dreams and loves, heartaches and hopes, both past and future. Though they each have different circumstances in which to grow, they exhibit remarkable traits, like courage, strength, and determination, through it all.

Harrel expertly blends mystery, romance, and personal growth in The Secrets of Paper and Ink, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a story that I have a feeling will stick with me for a while, and I highly recommend it.

★★★★.5

Thanks to Celebrate Lit, I received a complimentary copy of The Secrets of Paper and Ink and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lindsay Harrel is a lifelong book nerd who lives in Arizona with her young family and two golden retrievers in serious need of training. She’s held a variety of writing and editing jobs over the years and now juggles stay-at-home mommyhood with writing novels. When she’s not writing or chasing after her children, Lindsay enjoys making a fool of herself at Zumba, curling up with anything by Jane Austen, and savoring sour candy one piece at a time.

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GUEST POST FROM THE AUTHOR

With every book I write, it seems God has something new to teach me. That certainly was true of The Secrets of Paper and Ink.

Lately, I am learning more and more about the power of our words. I’ve become more conscious of the words I speak over myself as well as what I say to other people. It’s more than “positive thinking”—the words we say ultimately contribute to the stories we weave, and I want my story to be as positive and hope-filled as possible, regardless of my circumstances.

I’ve also become much more aware of the lies that I tell myself—“you are not worthy, you are not enough, you will never achieve what you want to achieve”—and the need to replace those lies with the truths that God says about me. I have listened to Lauren Daigle’s song "You Say" on repeat lately, and it has become a theme not just of The Secrets of Paper and Ink, but one in the story of my very life.

So while I may not have experienced everything my characters have—I’ve never suffered emotional abuse, or been ostracized by my family, or been orphaned and alone in a world that seems against me at every turn—I have learned alongside them. I set out to write a book that would draw readers closer to the true healer and hope giver, and I ended up being drawn closer myself.

And that, to me, is the true power of story.

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate her tour, Lindsay is giving away a copy of her’s first book The Heart Between Us. Enter below, and be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway.

TOUR SCHEDULE

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