Michelle Adams has given us an extraordinarily beautiful tale of love, family and coming to terms with your past. “Hidden Treasures” is a sparkling gem of intrigue, mystery and forbidden love. I adored the moments in the past when Frances spent her summers in France, where she could be the young woman she always dreamed she could be. The dark clouds that surrounded her in England gave way to perpetual blue skies and carefree days. Every day was relaxing, freeing, and filled with new opportunities. No wonder she fell in love with the handsome and charming Benoit!

I love everything about this book from the romantic and beautiful setting to the emotions of Frances as she fell in love for the first time. As we traveled between Mirepoix, France to the present day at Nook Cottage in England, we were treated to the teenage Frances enjoying life in the French countryside to her son Harry, where we observed him taking stock of his mother’s house and everything she had amassed.

Many things had transpired over the years and Ms. Adams eloquently wrote from her heart about Frances’s life as a young mother and Harry’s burning desire to feel wanted. Nook Cottage was a time capsule of memories for Harry and the depth of his feelings was monumental and heartbreaking. Harry had many decisions to make and I was afraid that he would never find the jewelry box and that he would never know why his mother had kept it hidden. What secrets did it hold and who does it really belong to? “Hidden Treasures” is a deeply emotional book which brought tears to my eyes in many instances, as well as surprised me when I was unsure as to what would happen next. I will never forget this magical story and the endearing characters that captured my heart.

I’m not quite sure what to say about this one, but I felt like it was an overall rather unlikeable book, and felt constantly frustrated with each of the characters. I almost gave up about 20% in but pushed thru to finish it but didn’t change my mind by the end even so.

This is a dual timeline between 1981 and 2022. It really had almost nothing to do with WW2 but a rather inconsequential detail about the box that was a central item in the book, so just a heads up to other readers like me who thought, based on the description, that WW2 was a far more central theme/setting.

The major issue for me was that for the whole book, practically every character was lying to or hiding things from each other, refused to risk vulnerability, and constantly abandoned each other. No one fought for each other or their circumstances - they just let life happen to them.

The abandonment/leaving was a consistent theme in the book, but it wasn’t even viewed as a negative half the time. Even in the ending the sentiment was, if you love something you’ll set if free - and while in theory that’s true, in this setting where people were constantly either leaving each other or not fighting in the least for each other, that no longer holds true. At that point it just becomes an excuse to be selfish and self-protecting, or just resigned and lazy.

In addition, there were a number of unrealistic factors. A 16 year old that’s orphaned, legally can’t be left as an adult - she’d be in foster care even if she is a mother so she would not have been alone or been able to make some of the decisions she did. And for a 30 year old man to not just find and renew relationship with his biological mother but to decide to live with her - in her hoarding environment that you have to tunnel to the kitchen or sleep in a chair because you can’t get to a bedroom?? And in the process completely ditch every relationship but your work? Not believable. There were many others as well. It made the story hard to swallow, in addition to the unlike-ability of the above.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Full of family secrets, repressed feelings. and self-discovery, Hidden Treasures is a slow-burn historical fiction that draws you into both of the main characters stories with a dual POV between Harry and Tabitha current day, and Benoit and Frances after WWII in France.

This was one of my favorite quotes: “Some things, he realized, important things that felt truly lost, were really there all along, safely hidden, just waiting to be found.” and I do have to mention how much I loved the cover.

I did struggled just a little bit with Adam's plot and I felt like the story/characters didn't read as smoothly or easily as I'd hoped and overall it was a little too predictable since I feel like she was trying to give it a twist of mystery.

3/5

Thank you William Morrow, NetGalley and Author for this advance ebook copy!.

Hidden Treasures is my first read by Adams.
I thought this story was a bit on the slow burn side, but every bit of enjoyable.
The characters are are somewhat predictable. Still enjoyed following their journey.
I loved the premise of this book so much. It was intriguing and interesting.
Overall. Good read. And one I really did enjoy reading.

Thank you again for the opportunity to read the this novel!

Thanks again NetGalley, Publisher and Author for the chance to read and review this amazing book!
I'll post to my Social media platforms closer to pub date!

This is an interesting story - the concept is intriguing, but the characters are weak and not really likeable.
It's a dual storyline - between Harry and Tabitha current day, and Benoit and Frances after WWII in France

What reader could resist a book with a sentence like this?
“He’s very sexy, in a sort of, let me rearrange your bookshelves kind of way.

a pretty terrible book

A beautifully written story, but very similar to books of this genre that are popular. I loved it, but at the back of my mind I kept feeling like this was something I had already read before.

What reader could resist a book with a sentence like this?
“He’s very sexy, in a sort of, let me rearrange your bookshelves kind of way.

This book is a love story wrapped up in a mystery that crosses generations. As Harry struggles to “find himself” and figure out if his mother really ever loved him, we get to meet a hoarder, delve into Nazi history, art theft, and to cheer for the discovery of commitment and love. “Some things, he realized, important things that felt truly lost, were really there all along, safely hidden, just waiting to be found.”
If you like historical love stories, this is a good read—it is light and loving.

What a great love story wrapped in a mystery as Harry is left with a task from his recently passed mother, a mother he spent 10 years with trying desperately to make up for time lost to be her son. He is now tasked to find a box- the most precious thing she ever possessed among the hoards of towering piles of papers and things left behind by her.
The duality of Harrys love story and his mothers love story had me reading through to the end in anticipation. The love stories are intertwined with Harry processing the loss of a mother that he tried so hard to understand and also a path of self discovery as he deals with the past and looks to the future. The slow burn as his history unfolds and explains wrongs done and why decisions were made.
I very much enjoyed reading this; it was a great escape that I desperately need during these crazy times we find ourselves in. I enjoyed the development of the characters- it was a slow burn not fully revealed until the end which kept me coming back for more. Well written and an easy read.
Thank you Michelle Adams and William Morrow/Custom House for allowing me to read and review this book.

This book had a lot going on that I love. I love dual timelines. I love historical fiction, I love specifically World War Two historical fiction. I would say that I can be a harsh judge in that specific niche since I prefer that genre and read several a year. It is hard to tell the same story over and over again and hit a new angle so I was so happy to find that Adams did just that. She told a story that I haven't heard a million times before! I appreciated the characters especially since I didn't love them. I believe that the imperfect characters was a intentional decision as it was important in the mental health aspect and for the fact of happy ever after can be available for anyone,

I received a free e-arc through Netgalley.

This book covers two love stories in depth: Frances and Benoit and then Harry & Tabitha. I also think it's a story about love between Frances and her son Harry who she gave up to keep him safe. This book has an added component of mental health which I wasn't expecting and actually I'm rounding my rating from 3.5 up to 4 stars because of that additional complication that reminds us that love exists between us imperfect humans. I think some parts could be smoother or more connected to each other, but real life is not exactly smooth either.

First loves are almost always the hardest. Nothing is sweeter and nothing stings more than the heartbreak that often follows.

When Harry’s mother dies, she leaves him a cottage jam packed with stuff and a mystery. But she also leaves him a chance to reconnect with the love of his life…something she never got to do.

The characters in this book are refreshingly realistic. Harry is socially awkward, Tabitha is fighting with self preservation and Frances is a girl who gets lost in the idea of love. I mean, who doesn’t relate or know someone exactly like one of these characters?

What I Liked
Gorgeous cover. And the title could have multiple meanings as the story unfolds. I love a smart title.

The characters in this book are brilliantly developed. I really felt for each of them. I wanted Harry to find the answers he was looking for. I wanted Tabitha to find and hold onto her own self-worth, and my heart really broke for Frances.

There is a ton of great sensory description. I could see the cottage full of all of the things. I could practically smell the French countryside, see the artists as they lay paint to canvas. It was easy to suspend disbelief and sit as a silent observer in the middle of both storylines.

What I Wish Was Different
Two things keep me from giving this book a five-star rating despite the fact that it was beautifully written.

First is the fact that a sixteen-year-old Frances enters into a relationship with a man twice her age. I get that times were different and it demonstrates how alone and taken advantage of she truly was, but I have to wonder if the same thing couldn’t have been accomplished with her at 18 instead of 16. That Henry then meets this man and there was no discussion of the inappropriateness of the relationship just sat a bit wrong with me. The author doesn’t glamourize that relationship, and in fact, does a good job of showing how vulnerable Frances was, but it was still a bit uncomfortable for me to read.

Second, I liked the mystery of the box and I really wish there was more to it. This had so much potential and I wish it had been developed a bit more. I did enjoy the ending, it tied up loose ends, but I just wanted more when it came to the story and history of the box.

For it’s beautiful prose and likeable characters, this book earns 4 stars.

Harry Langley’s mother and only known parent has just passed away, and he must sort out the rest of her affairs. The situation is made more difficult than normal because Harry’s mother, Frances, abandoned him on a park bench when he was a child and had only reconnected with her ten years before when he was in his thirties. She was also a hoarder. As Harry faces losing the house to pay off his mother’s debts, he is summoned to the door by a knock. He opens it and sees not only Tabitha, his ex-girlfriend from ten years prior, but that she has a note from his mother asking her to help him find a treasure she has hidden called the Klinkosch box, a valuable piece stolen by the Nazis during World War II. If they can find the box, it would be more than enough for Harry to keep his home.

The story alternates between Harry and Tabitha in the present and Harry’s mother in 1981. She has met a man in his thirties named Benoit, and she is completely head over heels for him. Even though she lives in England, she spends her summers in France at her aunt’s home, which also functions as an artists’ retreat. Frances lets Benoit believe that she is a university student when she is, in fact, only sixteen. After a considerable period of going slowly, Frances finally agrees to sleep with Benoit, convinced he loves her as much as she loves him. She even begins to try and figure out how she can stay in France so they can be together forever.

The abuse scenes were very hard to read at times, but it was a quick read and a nice love story.

This book paints an interesting picture of being in Europe and what the culture is like. I was hoping for more of a mystery and could have done without the sensitive sexual content. I did like the character details and thought mental health issues were described well. Lack of communication between characters was frustrating.

I received Hidden Treasures as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

Days after his mother's death, his is surprised to find none other than Tabitha, his long-lost love, on his doorstep. Left by Harry ten years prior so that he might tend to and seek answers from Frances, the mother who abandoned him as a young child, she has been summoned by an old letter to help Harry find the Klinkosch Box, an artifact purportedly stolen by the Nazi's during WWII. In investigating the box's history and current whereabouts, Harry and Tabitha discover long-lost keys to Harry's past and their shared future.

This was...fine. I saw the plot coming from a mile away, so there wasn't much of a mystery to solve, but if you're a fan of the dual timeline/family secrets novel, this may scratch your itch. The plot didn't quite feel developed enough, either in terms of the mystery storyline or in convincing me of the depth of Harry and Tabitha's relationship, and despite a lot of the dark themes there was an unnatural air of "happily ever after" around the whole thing that didn't really satisfy my affinity for sightly darker themes.

HIDDEN TREASURES - Michelle Adams
William Morrow & Custom House
ASIN: B08Y912VGL
ISBN-10: ‎0-06311-749-5
ISBN-13: ‎978-0-06311-749-5
December 7, 2021
Romance - General Fiction

Mirepoix, France - 1981 and the Cotswolds, England - 2022

The preface begins in the winter of 1982. Cars parking at night near her home, Nook Cottage, worry Frances. They indicate trouble has found her. She believes they are after the Klinkosch box, a treasure of immense value, stolen long ago by the Nazis. Her love, Benoit Bonnet, who lives in Mirepoix, France, retrieved (stole) it back and gave it to her for safekeeping, but right now her infant son Harry's safety concerns her far more. She must protect him at all costs.

Chapter one starts in the summer of 2022. Harry Langley's mother recently died. She gave him away as a little boy, but he found her and has stayed with her at her Cotswold cottage for a long time trying to get to know her and to learn why she gave him up, but she was not mentally stable. She was a hoarder and deeply in debt. The lawyer told Harry Nook Cottage had to be sold. How can he ever get it in shape? He can hardly move from room to room between the piles of stuff. Then, suddenly, the woman he loved and gave up ten years ago so he could get to know his mother arrives at the cottage. Tabitha tells him his mother wrote her a letter which arrived two days ago, which is impossible since his mother wasn't alive then. The letter contained a photograph of the Klinkosch box. Tabitha, as an art historian, tells him it is very valuable. The note tells Harry to find the box hidden in the house as it has all the answers to understand who he is. Tabitha insists on helping him.

From this point, the story shifts between Frances's vacations in Mirepoix, and her love affair with Benoit to Harry and Tabitha's re-acquaintanceship and their search for the box. HIDDEN TREASURES is about lost family ties, things so well hidden it makes their existence uncertain, and how love can go so wrong or so right—a great read!

Overall, this book was just okay but didn't blow me away. None of the characters felt special or memorable and the plot was a bit predictable. If the synopsis sounds good to you, you'll probably at least like this book.

DNF.

This one lost me with its purpose. I love multiple timelines, but wasn’t really invested in either. Maybe it was all a little too sweet for my taste.

Thank you netgalley for the advance copy.

This is an interesting story - the concept is intriguing, but the characters are weak and not really likeable.
It's a dual storyline - between Harry and Tabitha current day, and Benoit and Frances after WWII in France

Harry has just lost his mother, he's stuck trying to clean out her house - she sounds like a hoarder. I want to feel for him, but he's just really weak - he isn't moving on, he's mulling the past and not really living. He's tasked with finding a silver box his mother spent her life protecting - for another man. She fell in love with Benoit when she was 16 and never saw him again, and he never knew about Harry. Tabitha let Harry walk away 10 years prior, she married a wife abuser and lives in fear of him. Frances sends a letter to Tabitha to let her know Harry needs help finding the box and she shows up after Frances' death, surprising Harry.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

I was a little disappointed by this book. The description grabbed me as soon as I read it. The book was sweet but predictable. Following the 4 main characters was interesting, but I struggled with all the communication and misunderstandings.

Thank you for letting me read this book.

This is a sweet book, but very predictable. It’s the story of Harry and Tabitha who were separated due to family issues 10 years earlier. They come together after the death of Harry’s mother. It is his mother who writes to Tabitha, asking her to come and help him find a very valuable box that had been lost after its seizure by the Nazis.

The author takes us back to the love story between Harry’s mother Frances and the Frenchman, Benoit.
There are 2 plot lines, between Harry and Tabitha, and Benoit and Frances. The stories are full of missed connections and misunderstandings, as a reader I hoped for a positive resolution.

Thank you Netgalley for this book.