As a mom to twins, I love books about the bonds between them and this was a great one. It immerses you in the political upheavals of 1930s and 1940s Europe and I was sucked in by how it affected the girls' lives.

The beginning of this book is a little slow as there is a great deal of background information but it develops into a twisting plot with Kingston creating some strong imagery. As the search to find the sisters intensifies the pace picks up, The mystery illness keeps me intrigued; why does it need to be so secret?
The silver crosses feature towards the end and at last I understand the title.
Historical women fiction is not my usual choice but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I would certainly recommend it.

I really loved the overall premise of this book. Twins Ginny and Emily Holborn are born into the lap of luxury, but their mother Hortense takes them and leaves England when they are very young after the death of their father.. They are raised in on the run going from place to place in England living on the cusp of society. After the death of their grandfather, a law firm is hired to work in finding them and returning them to their rightful place. The book follows them as they grow up and fall in love. I felt like this book was very true to the history of the time period and I really enjoyed this aspect. The book was very long winded in places and the plot points seemed to be lost at times because of it. Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley.

This one was hard for me to get into, and I didn't manage to finish. It was somewhat of a "set it down, never got around to picking it back up again" type of thing. I would like to give it a chance again in the future though, as the writing was good and the story showed promise!

Thank you to NetGalley and Agora Books for the gifted book and opportunity to read and review it prior to its publication date! This in no way affected my review, all opinions are my own.

This book Two Silver Crosses by Bell Kingston was a bit disappointing. I thought I was going to like it a lot but that didn't happen. It wouldn't keep my interest at all.

DNF @ p68/12%

This book just isn’t for me. I’m not enjoying the reading process and the time frame is hard to keep up with. We’ve somehow spanned 7 years in about 3 pages. Sad, as I quite enjoyed the last Kingston I read.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

I had a very difficult time getting through The Two Silver Crosses. I really wanted to like it but it was a hard to keep my attention focused on it. I loved the premise for this novel and the bottom line is it was not the best book I have ever read nor the worst.

Starting in 1916 we follow the story of twin sisters, Virginia & Emily Holborn. Born into a wealthy family they have a privileged upbringing in the family home until the death of their Father when they are 10. They then flee with their French Mother back to her homeland where they grow up and ultimately find love.

This is, on the whole, a good if slightly lengthy read. We get plenty of detail of the girls and their lives. Their characters are very three dimensional and distinct. There is a good supporting cast – their Mother, the solicitors, friends, family and their ultimate suitors. I felt the characters were well written and there were no problems distinguishing between them.

I think my only quibble with the book was that it seemed to stagnate a bit in the middle. The book is quite lengthy and I feel a bit of editing there would have moved the story along better. It didn’t get to the point that I was planning to give but I did start to loose interest.

A well written, enjoyable book. Yes, slightly predictable in places and not a totally original book but a good read.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

For some reason I had trouble downloading this book-sorry for the lack of feedback! I'm not sure what happened.

I love historical fiction so I was really drawn to the description of this book. However, once I got into the book. I struggled to make it through. I felt like there was so much going on in so many different directions that it bogged the story down for me. When I wanted to stop reading it and not finish it I put it down for a few weeks then went back to it. I’m glad I finished it because I really was invested in the characters. I just wish the story had been more concise I think.

A fun and fascinating, well-plotted story set in WWI. Such a great read!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Two Silver Crosses is a story set between WWI and WWII about twin girls born to a rich english father and a poor french mother. After their father passed away the two girls and their mother disappeared. Will they ever be found?

This was well written. There was some good dynamics between the characters, I never fell in love with any of the characters but I did enjoy the ride.

The twins were interesting for the most part. I personally hated their mother. She was selfish constantly and drove me nuts. Seriously so many problems could have been avoided if the mom would actually stop thinking of protecting her secret. I will say that this book left me feeling unfinished. We never learned how the uncle faired, the cousins were left out, what happened to the mother and her family. I just felt like the book left me hanging. T

Three stars for being well written. I could not go higher because I did not feel like I had a real solid ending.

EXCERPT: 'Don't worry,' Ginny whispered as she kissed her sister goodbye outside the Advocate's house. 'I shan't come to any harm. She's exaggerating.'

Emily didn't argue because there wasn't time, and because Maman might hear it and, in any case, she was too drained by the emotion of the last few minutes to want to provoke any more outbursts. She simply kissed Ginny's cheek and said a private prayer for her safety. But she was still cold with dread and she went on feeling afraid for the rest of the day; when she finally got into bed, she carried her unspoken fears into nightmares.

Lacerated with rage, Ginny ran to the station. To say such things just at the very moment when she was packed and ready to go! It was hateful. And unnecessary. She felt upset all the way to Paris, justifying her anger with her mother and pushing pity to one side, concentrating on feeling aggrieved and hurt so that she didn't have to face the possible truth of what had been said. Because it couldn't be true. She wouldn't let it be true. It was too horrible.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: ‘Nobody is to know where we are. You must forget England. That part of your lives is over.’

Twins Ginny and Emily Holborn have everything they could ever need in their Wolverhampton home: a loving family, a garden to play in and a staff waiting to attend to their every need. Until, one summer day in 1926, they disappear without a trace.

Ten years later, bright-eyed solicitor Charlie Commoner is given his first job: track down the still-missing Holborn twins. Despatched to France, he’s left to unravel a web of infidelity, mystery, and terrifying family secrets.

MY THOUGHTS: I almost abandoned this book at one early point, but I am so very glad that I didn't. I ended up heavily invested in the lives, struggles and very different romances of the Holborn twins.

This is not a short read, but the appeal for me was two-fold: Beryl Kingston is an author I remember my mother enjoying immensely; and I have recently found myself enjoying historical fiction set around the two world wars.

The story travels from a wealthy beginning in England, to poverty and almost destitution in France. The contrast in life-styles is immense. It is told mostly from four points of view: that of Hortense, the young French wife of the only son of a wealthy industrialist and mother to the twins; Agnes her sister-in-law, married to the social climbing Claude; and the twins themselves, Virginia and the blind Emily.

The mystery is really not that mysterious; in fact, I thought it rather obvious. I also thought that Charlie should have made the connection between the missing heiresses and Jeannie a lot sooner. That, I felt, was a little too drawn out. The constant string of near misses became somewhat irritating. Perhaps the story would have had more appeal had we begun with the death of the twins grandfather, and the resulting search for them, and learned their earlier history in flashbacks. But we must also remember that this book was written and first published almost thirty years ago.

It was an interesting read, and I might be tempted to read another by this author at some point in the future.

☺☺☺.5

THE AUTHOR: BERYL KINGSTON has been a writer since she was seven when she started producing 'poetry' which, according to her, was very, very bad. She was evacuated to Felpham at the start of WWII, igniting an interest in one time resident poet William Blake (which later inspired her novel The Gates of Paradise). She was a school teacher until 1985, but became a full-time writer when her debut novel became a bestseller. Kingston lives in west Sussex, and has three children, five grandchildren and one great grandchild.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Agora Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Two Silver Crosses by Beryl Kingston for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my

The author did a brilliant job of capturing the time period in this novel. The characters and plot were also well written. This was a great piece of historical fiction!

Emily and Ginnie grow up in a privileged house in Wolverhampton in the 1920s until their father dies of a mysterious illnessand their mother takes them to France. Life is now much harder and they move around a bit, not knowing that their grandfather back in England is searching for them and they are due to inherit if he finds them.

A good story mainly in the era between the two wars. The characters are good, especially Emily who was blind from birth and I was immediately drawn into the story, my only criticism would be that it went on a bit too long when it wasn't really necessary.

I really enjoyed this book. I always love to read this time period and thought the characters and story was very entertaining and interesting. The twins relationship and conflict with the Uncle kept me wanting to finish the book quickly! I highly recommend!

I was drawn in by the description of the plot and quite rightly so. This a compelling and at times year jerking tale of family and secrets and mysteries. I really enjoyed it. The plot skirted close to there being one coincidence or near miss (don’t want to spoil the plot) too many but avoided this pitfall. Lose yourself in this book, I recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley

Ginny and Emily are sisters who as children are gifted the titular crosses by their grandfather. After their father's death, their mother flees with them to France so the terrible secret she holds isn't exposed. Years later, a search begins for the twins to bring them back into the family fold.

I love historical drama. I was so excited to dive into this read but was left highly disappointed. I don't know if it was the writing style I couldn't connect to or the characters but from the beginning I was not engaged. I struggled to make it through. I felt like there was too much plot, too many tropes, and it was overall too long. I believe had certain threads not been included, the story would have been more concise and engaging. More is not always better.

This story centers around two twin girls Ginny and Emily who were born after WWI, but live in a world that falters at the precipice of moving forward from the horrors of the war but also in anxious trepidation of what might happen if another war were to begin. Their father being a soldier in the great war and their mother whom he met in France, are no stranger to the strife that war presents, even as their daughters are born. As they discover that their daughter Emily is born blind, some of the memories of war that they would soon like to forget, come roaring back. Emily and Ginny are well-adjusted and enjoy their time at Wolverhampton in a large playroom, expansive garden to play in, and beautiful clothes. It's not until their mother decides to leave England behind with only suitcases in their hands and the clothes on their backs, and are thrust into a world and language they are not overly familiar, do they start to grasp full realities of war and relationships.

I really enjoyed the references that the author made to historical times, places, and key characters throughout the time period and how all of those would affect Ginny and Emily. It felt as though the events were truly happening and as I read through the book, I felt heartache, happiness, and genuine emotion as the story progressed and other characters were brought into their lives. I'm happy to have read it and look forward to reading other titles by Beryl Kingston. This was an excellent story in the historical fiction genre and I have certainly become to enjoy Ms. Kingston's writing style and historical references. Great read!