About the Book

Title: The Secrets of Paper and Ink
Author: Lindsay Harrel
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Release date: February 26, 2019
Publisher: Thomas Nelso

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.

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My Thoughts:

First off, I think that The Secrets of Paper and Ink is my favorite book title, ever. There is just something so mysterious about it and as I read the story within, the title kept running through my head. What are these secrets? Do they have some sort of power? Do they change someone’s destiny?

This story is about three women, the lives they have lived, the ones they have dreamed about, and the reality. Two present day women who meet each other at pivotal moments of their lives and gain a beautiful sisterly friendship. The third woman is from the past. Her name is Emily and her story has been found and it has enraptured the attention of Sophia Barrett a counselor who has been through some very traumatic life moments. Sophia is a lover of books, stories and she has decided to take a long overdue break from her life and do something out of the box to distance herself from her past, business, and memories. She decides to rent a room at a bookstore in Cornwall and help out by working in it.

Ginny Rose is the bookstore owner, who is living her husband’s dream not hers. She is an American who came as a newlywed with stars in her eyes and a deep love for her husband. And then he changed his mind.

As Ginny and Sophia become friends each open up about what is going on in their lives. Their men in their lives give this story a touch of romance and a hope for new beginnings when previous dreams have been shattered. What really pulls this group of people together is saving the bookstore and Emily’s forgotten story. I really enjoyed going into the past Cornwall and seeing the trials that Emily had to overcome in her family and the hard choices she had to make about love.

This story ended the only way it could, beautifully and is certainly one for the keeper shelf. Full of heart and friendship and deep abiding love, it is one that will stick with me for a long time.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions 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. Connect with her at LindsayHarrel.com.

Guest Post from Lindsay

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.