Review: A Sparkle of Silver by Liz Johnson

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About:

Ninety years ago, Millie Sullivan's great-grandmother was a guest at oil tycoon Howard Dawkins' palatial estate on the shore of St. Simons Island, Georgia. Now, Millie plays a 1920s-era guest during tours of the same manor. But when her grandmother suggests that there is a lost diary containing the location of a hidden treasure on the estate, along with the true identity of Millie's great-grandfather, Millie sets out to find the truth of her heritage--and the fortune that might be hers. When security guard Ben Thornton discovers her snooping in the estate's private library, he threatens to have her fired. But her story seems almost too ludicrous to be fiction, and her offer to split the treasure is too tempting to pass up . . .

Get ready for a romantic escapade through dark halls and dusty corners that will have you holding your breath and sighing with delight as two charming characters get caught up in the adventure of uncovering the past and finding their way to an unexpected future.

My Thoughts:

In A Sparkle of Silver author Johnson took me on a journey in the past right before the great stock market crash of 1929. A young innocent girl, Ruth, gets an elite invitation to stay at the mansion Chateau for the summer with people who are filthy rich and out of her social league. We get Ruth’s story through her diary that her great-granddaughter, Millie, has found.

In the present time we meet Millie who is trying to find a new care facility for her Grandma Joy, who has dementia, and she needs to find a new place quick. We also get to meet Ben who is holding down three jobs to try to pay for past sins of a loved one. Both Millie and Ben need some quick cash and fast, so they strike up a tentative partnership and become treasure seekers.

I really enjoyed this story its sensitive treatment of Grandma Joy and her dementia. The struggles that broken families can face and the sins of the “fathers” that can be passed down to their children were shown thoroughly in this book. Both Ben and Millie think money will solve their problems. I did cringe a few times wondering if either one really did think through their plans or what would they actually do with the treasure if they found it. Their romance was sweet to watch unfold and I chuckled a bit as Millie being a reader wondered why after a while the heroes in the books started to look a lot like Ben. I thoroughly enjoyed all the ways the author tied everything together, from past to present and more.

This was an endearing story of past secrets, with a bit of mystery, and a couple of sweet romances that we get to watch unfold. I believe this is my favorite Liz Johnson book to date and I look forward to more in this series.

I was provided a copy of this novel. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.