When Stella met Adam, she was a few weeks out of a breakup with a dangerous man. Adam was a welcome change - a steady, dependable man who was positively giddy over his antique business. When Adam disappears in a seemingly random explosion on their Paris vacation, Stella panics. As the French police investigate, it becomes clear Adam was on their radar as a black market dealer in the antique world, working with high profile and dangerous criminals. Stella can’t believe this is the same man she knew. But with him presumed dead, she must face the fact that whoever was after her husband may be after her next.

I have loved every book I have read by Kimberly Belle but this may be my favorite yet! The setting in Paris was magical and the element of art/history added an extra layer to the mystery Stella found herself at the center of. From the first few pages, I was drawn into this story, trying to figure out just what Adam was involved with, and what was going to happen to Stella. It was an intense game of cat-and-mouse for Stella as she tried to get to the truth without getting caught up by husband’s dealings.
The pacing was perfect, and I finished this book in two sittings - I simply couldn't put it down!

Thank you to Kimberly Belle, Netgalley and HTP/Park Row Books for the ARC! “The Paris Widow” releases June 11, 2024. This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

From Atlanta to Paris to other dazzling cities in Europe Kimberly Belle weaves another heart-pounding tale of love, intrigue, deceit that I could not stop reading.

Adam and Stella seem the idyllic couple on an amazing trip across Europe. But one day an explosion near a cafe in Paris sends Stella looking for answers and running to save her life.

This book has so many amazing twists and turns and I loved every minute of it!!! Kimberly Belle is one of my favorites and she absolutely does not disappoint with this book!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin/Park Row Books for the honor to read and review this amazing book!!!

I'm a huge fan of Belle and this one kept me breathless all the way through! Stella and husband Adam are in Paris when an explosion rocks the city and Adam is missing. Is he dead or alive? And so begins a fascinating cat-and-mouse tale that spans years and takes us back to the beginning of their relationship. Stella knows Adam deals in expensive artifacts but she also comes to believe he is hiding something as there are too many unanswered questions about his disappearance and dodgy people seem to always know where she is. I loved every minute of it!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Publication date: June 11th, 2024
Page count: 320
Genre: mystery thriller
Setting: Paris
POV: Stella, Adam
Features: Paris, antiquity black market

Stella and Adam have been together for 4 years and just spent 3 weeks traveling Europe. Adam disappears when they are briefly separated and there is an explosion in Paris. During the investigation Stella discovers that Adam is suspected to be a dealer of black market antiquities, and works with very dangerous people. What happened to Adam? Is Stella safe?

The book is engaging from the beginning, and the fast pace kept me hooked. Although I am not typically a fan of international cat- mouse chases, I could not put this one down! The story masterfully unfolded!

Thank you to author, publisher, NetGalley for advanced audio copy. This is an honest voluntary review.

Kimberly Belle has written another thriller that drew me right in&kept me turning the pages.So many twists and turns s o well written the twists and turns kept guessing til the last page. #Netgalley # harlequin

I had plans to do many things this weekend but instead I started The Paris Widow and all those plans went out the window. It was worth it.
Stella and Adam are taking their time touring Europe, while finding antiques for Adam’s business, when there is an explosion in Paris and Adam goes missing. A devastated Stella refuses to fly home until she knows whether he’s dead or alive. A compulsive and suspenseful page turner with so many twists and turns you can’t keep track, keeping you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. A definite winner.

A totally engaging fast fast-paced thrill ride of a read. Kimberly Belle never disappoints and this book is no exception. Stella and Adam are on vacation when her husband is killed in a bombing, or is he? A perfectly laid out game of cat and mouse kept me turning the pages as fast as I could. Highly recommend.

Wow! This book had me hooked from the first chapter! The storyline isn’t something I normally would pick up, but Kimberly Belle is an auto read author for me, so I had to read it, and I’m so glad I did!
There was suspense, and twists and turns as well as a little romance. I loved everything about this. Highly recommend!

Wow! This book had me from the start and I could not put it down. Meet Stella and Adam. Stella is a former flight attendant who is head over heels in love with Adam who deals in antiques. Having lived a much more adventurous life, Stella loves the life she has with Adam now. Little does she know, all of that is about to change. They are vacationing in Europe and the final leg of their trip is in Paris. Right as they are getting to leave, there is an explosion and Adam is marked as a missing person. As the investigation unfolds, Stella is learning things about Adam that are worrisome. She is being told he is a dealer in blood antiquities. She isn’t sure who she can trust and she is not sure who her husband is anymore. As the investigation intensifies, Stella feels like whoever is after Adam is going to come for her next. This is a fast-paced book that had me staying up late and finding time to read during the busy Christmas season. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. It is another excellent read by Kimberly Belle. #NetGalley #TheParisWidow

Kimberly Belle’s latest is a unique, action-packed, fast-paced thriller set in Paris. Stella is on vacation with her husband Adam when an explosion occurs and he is presumed dead. This sets off a very strange turn of events in which Stella must come to terms with her past as she questions everything she ever thought she knew about Adam.

This was a different style of writing for Belle and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The twisty plot kept me turning the pages. Belle’s writing does not disappoint. For fans of Heather Gudenkauf and Kimberly McCreight.

Suspenseful and romantic story about a married couple as they traipse their way through Europe on vacation. All is well until the visit to Paris when the pair gets separated after eating lunch at a quaint outdoor cafe. What follows next is one spouse searches for the other after an explosion near the cafe. While on the search, secrets about the missing spouse are revealed and leaves the other spouse wondering if the secrets are true.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle. What a twisty wild ride this is - not to be missed!

I’m not sure if the publishing company did it on purpose but the release to netgalley for this book was done with perfection.

No cover.

That’s how half of us judgy wenches pick our books!!!

BUT

If you love mysteries as much as I do, you know this made my eyes light up my and my insides squeal .

If they were going to tease the cover well then I wasn’t going to read the description and I was just going to blindly dive right in.

I had 5 other books I had prioritized for this month but knowing I had this one sitting on the shelf was killing me. I had to know what was inside.

Was it going to be a story about revenge? Murder? Betrayal? Lies? Deceit?

Who knew? I sure didn’t

The Paris Widow

Going into this blind was probably the best way to do it. You know when someone says “I had the wind knocked out of me” ? That’s what this book felt like. When you don’t know what you are even reading about, the build up and anticipation has you holding your breath so when the twists start coming in it’s as if someone is punching you in the gut and quite literally “knocking the wind out of you”. Every surprise came out of no where. I never knew what to expect so every chapter was read cautiously .

I read this book in just a few hours on a lazy Sunday. I know it’s early to be saying this but I have a feeling this book is going to be amongst my favorites this year.

I mean it’s Kimberly Belle, did you expect anything less?

5 stars

I dare you not to read this next part but if you would like to check out a teaser, please look below :

A dream vacation turns deadly when secrets from the past catch up to a married couple in Paris in this new edge-of-your-seat thriller from USA Today bestselling author, Kimberly Belle.

When Stella met Adam, she thought she had finally found a nice, normal guy—a welcome change from her previous boyfriend and her precarious jetsetter lifestyle with him. But her secure world comes crashing down when Adam goes missing after an explosion in the city square. Unable to reach him, she panics.

As the French police investigate, it’s revealed that Adam was on their radar as a dealer of rare and stolen antiquities with a long roster of criminal clients. Reeling from this news, Stella is determined not to leave Paris until she has the full story. Was Adam a random victim or the target of the explosion? And why is someone following her through the streets of Paris?

An irresistible, fast-paced read set in some of Europe’s most inviting locales, The Paris Widow explores how sinister secrets of the past stay with us—no matter how far we travel.

Good book! I was pleasantly surprised by this one! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, Action packed, intrigue, mystery, murder, international theft, great plot twist, great romance, and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle!! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Embezzlement, an action-packed cat-and-mouse game in the wide, labyrinthine streets of Paris, intrigue, betrayal, greed, dirty secrets, heart-pounding tempo, an extremely building pressure, and a perfect climax with twisty revelations: this thriller is an underrated gem that you cannot put down until the second you get your hands on it—a must-read if you can't resist being on your toes for hours until you reach the finish line. I advise you to find a comfy couch, your refreshments, and your favorite snacks. Cancel everything in your life, including a frustrated husband who wants you to cook dinner instead of burying your head in your book (that’s what happened to me. Can someone invent a remote controller for pausing husbands when they’re bickering?) because this book will at least take up your half day without moving from the position you're in, demanding your entire focus, and don’t worry about it; it’s totally worth it!

Enter Stella Knox, an efficient caterer, once a flight attendant in the style of Kaley Cuoco, who made terrible choices with men, tested with betrayal, losing track of her life. But things changed when she met Adam: an antique dealer, knowledgeable about history and artifacts, a caring, safe, and sound man she could easily trust.

After a four-year-long relationship, they want to celebrate their happiness with a dreamy European vacation, which ends with a tragedy: a bomb explosion at the place her husband returned to for his forgotten sunglasses. Now he’s missing, and Stella finds herself in front of TV cameras asking for her husband, nicknamed as the "Paris Widow."

Her interaction with the French lieutenant colonel changes her perspective about her husband. The French lieutenant tells her that her husband is in a highly lucrative business: trading blood antiques, which is the third-largest international criminal activity. Stella cannot believe her husband has been involved in illegal activities for years behind her back, endangering their lives by making powerful enemies who may target him, going so far as to bomb a cafe with casualties.

Stella has to find the truth, learning who she is really married to. She has no intention of going back until she finds out what really happened to her husband. If he’s alive, she deserves an explanation face to face, even though as long as she resists leaving Paris, she also carries a target on her head.

This is a fast-paced, smart espionage, action-packed thriller that you will truly enjoy! It gave me much more thrill than most of the action movies I scroll through on Netflix. I highly recommend you to read it, as I grade it with my 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 Parisian stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Park Row for sharing this exciting book’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts

THE PARIS WIDOW was a great read - jumped immediately into the action and didn’t stop. Really enjoyed the characters and the weave of storylines and timelines. It was a seamless flow and easy to follow, plus added some necessary and intriguing context to the story.

Towards the end, it felt like there were some missed opportunities for plot twists - a couple were set up that never came to fruition and could have sent an already compelling story to the next level. Still enjoyed this one and will look for more from Kimberly Belle.

Thanks to NetGalley and Park Row for the opportunity to read and review THE PARIS WIDOW.

Stella and Adam love to spend their marriage traveling. When he goes missing during a bombing in Paris, Stella is panicked. Then the Parisian police notify her that he is a black market antique dealer and she begins being followed.

There were some real exciting moments in this and great suspense but for some reason I always find any mystery/thriller involving art dull. This is my own mishap because I run across it a lot. Paris fans will enjoy this novel, as the setting is vivid.

“Stolen treasures. Secret codes. A dozen scary scenarios float around the murky swamp of my imagination.”

The Paris Widow comes out 6/11.

Once again, Kimberly Belle knocks it out of the park! This taut thriller kept me on the edge of my seat, all while showcasing some of the best multi-layered - yet flawed - characters, that Belle does so well. You can always tell when an author is well traveled by the detailed descriptions of the locale, and I loved taking a mini-vacation in my mind with these characters.
This book was never boring, and I would definitely recommend - I would love to see this book made into a movie, or a series.

I've been genuinely lucky to have been able to read a few excellent books back-to-back, and this definitely continued that trend. I loved the love story between two flawed but good-intentioned characters, the foreign aspect of the plot, the writing.... just everything about this book was enjoyable, and I don't forsee not being able to recommend it to a wide variety of people who will, hopefully, love it just as much as I did.

A must read, really, right now. Go get this book and plan to spend the next day reading without putting it down. This book has it all- a unique story that takes place in foreign countries, intriguing relationships, bad guys in the art world, and a suspenseful storyline that keeps you guessing. Wow. I am so glad I chose this book. Looking forward to reading much more from this author. Thank you NetGalley for an ARC, but o would have gladly paid for this read.