I didn't care for this book. I almost put it down at 25% and then again at 41% then I was really happy about 60% of the book and then it dived again. Just couldn't keep my interest.

Jessica, Patrick and Vonda are best friends and roommates. Jessica and Patrick are especially close. After a fateful decision, Jessica ends up in the hospital and being comforted by her best friend Patrick and Vonda ran home back to the states. Jessica and Patrick decide to continue their France trip and some things are revealed. Jessica refuses to have her parents love and help but she turns to strangers after a mental breakdown. Jessica find a rare treasure and ropes her new stranger friends into helping her trace the family line and wow she falls in love.

It was so boring and just slow and had paranormal aspects and just wasn't my type of book. I hate to be ambiguous with this book but I can't give spoilers. I would pass though.

I started reading this while on vacation and could not remember what it was about, which turned out to be a good thing. I was in for a pleasant and enjoyable read with no preconceived expectations.

The main character, Jessica, is a survivor of a terrorist attack in Paris and as she deals with PTSD, she finds herself on a mission to uncover the story of a French Huguenot family who became separated in the years after The Edict of Nantes was overturned.

The owners of the Bed & Breakfast where she is staying help her to overcome the PTSD and to find out what happened to the Baillard family after they fled from France.

I love family history, so the historical storyline was very appealing to me. It also piqued my interest in reading more about the French Huguenots.

The modern day storyline was also appropriate for our times and Michele Phoenix did an excellent job in merging the two together. The story was full of kind-hearted characters, which was refreshing. It’s a wonderful message of hope and resilience.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson--FICTION for allowing me to read an advanced copy and offer my honest review.

Please get in touch with.publosher. I feel unable at this time to review this book, so ignore the stars below, it forced me to put some to move forward.

Wonderful story of healing after terrible loss, of courage during persecution and learning to have faith through it all. God covers over the darkness with light.

Michelle Phoenix has written a heartfelt message in The Space Between Words.
Where courage, wisdom, and faith can heal the most traumatic life events.
Definitely worthy of five stars.

The Space Between Words is a complex, thought provoking and emotional book that encompasses historical as well as modern day tragedies. This book is one that will stay with the reader to ponder after reading the last word. It is hard to give an idea of all that this story is about because it seemed like a long journey to me and really it is. It begins in Paris.

Jessica and Vonda are on vacation visiting their roommate Patrick while he is spending time in Paris. On the last night of their stay in Paris, the two girls go to a concert while Patrick has other plans. Tragically, terrorists attack the concert goers where Jessica is shot. Vonda sustained no injuries but she is so shaken up that she went back to the states shortly afterwards. After leaving the hospital, Jessica decides to travel to the south of France on a previously planned treasure hunting trip. While staying in a cottage on an estate owned by an American named Mona, Jessica, she finds a handmade sewing chest at a flea market. The sewing box has a false bottom containing pages of an old bible and papers written in 1695 in old French by a Huguenot woman, Adeline Baillard, telling of the persecution her family endured at the hands of the French king because of their Protestant beliefs. Mona's brother, Grant, is very interested in the papers in the chest and happily helps Jessica translate the story. As Grant and Jessica unravel the story of the Baillard family, the two, along with Mona and her son Connor, follow the story of the Baillard family on an exploration trip to England. Some of the Baillard family leave France for England as did thousands of other Huguenots during the years of persecution.

Jessica is dealing with nightmares, fear, anger, bitterness and lack of desire to face what she has been through and what she saw happen to so many people at the hands of the terrorists who yelled support for Syria. She wonders how God would allow this to happen when He could prevent it. Grant has his own issues from his life in California. They both strongly want to follow through and get answers to what happened to the Baillard family. Did they reach England or did the king's dragoons get them? Jessica, Grant and even Mona are touched by what they find out in England. Jessica and Grant are drawn closer as they work through the story and their own issues. There is a side story of Patrick that you will need to read the story to hear.

This emotional story of persecution and horror shows how one's faith and courage leads them through whatever happens with God's strength. The historical background of the Huguenots was very interesting and I would like to research them more. As with other martyrs, their faith was amazing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this great story.

A very enjoyable historical fiction. Jessica survives the Paris concert attacks and wants to go back to the US as quickly as she can. Her best friend and roommate Patrick convinces her to go on the trip they’d planned through the French countryside looking for treasures for him to sell in his shop. At an Airbnb, Jessica is forced to try and overcome and accept what happened in Paris. She finds a sewing box with hidden writings from a young Huguenot women in France in the late 17th century after the Edict of Nantes was withdrawn and persecution of Huguenots was at a heightened frenzy. I enjoyed both aspects of the story and learned a bit about this period of history. I found Jessica to be a highly engaging character and the story drew me in with its unique premise and storyline.

Jessica was talked into going to a concert at The Bataclan Concert Hall in Paris with her friend, Vonda, instead of to an art show with Patrick, and it proved to be the wrong choice.

Jessica and her friend were caught in the terrorist attack at the 2015 Concert Hall, but thankfully Jessica and Vonda were only harmed.

After Jessica was released from the hospital, her parents insisted she return home to the United States, but Patrick insisted more heavily that she stay in France and go on their planned trip.

While staying at a bed and breakfast and as she was antique hunting, a sewing box caught Jessica's eye.

As Jessica pried the bottom of the sewing box off, she noticed a piece of red yarn sticking out from under the box's bottom and found pages torn from a Bible that triggered something in Jessica’s mind that she couldn't understand.

The Bible pages turned out to be a marvelous treasure with secrets of their own and also something that brought Jessica to a reality she hadn't been aware of.

I was intrigued when Jessica found the sewing box and the pages of handwritten notes. I love finding out origins of things and especially diaries or notes from a real person.

The pages from the Bible spurred the characters to do research and find family members who fled France during the time in history when The Huguenots were forced out because of their religious beliefs.

THE SPACE BETWEEN WORDS moved from present to past telling the story of the Huguenot persecution and their flight out of France. This is another part of history I had heard about but never studied.

I didn't know what to expect when I first started to read THE SPACE BETWEEN WORDS, but the story line quickly went from an OK read to a WOW read as the characters uncovered more history of the handwritten notes in the Bible pages.

THE SPACE BETWEEN WORDS also addressed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

If you enjoy historical fiction, finding treasures at flea markets, a marvelous story line, and detailed character description, you will not want to miss THE SPACE BETWEEN WORDS.

Ms. Phoenix paired two horrific historical events and created a marvelous book that will stay with long after you turn the last page.

4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the author, the publisher, and NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I can't even begin to put into words the way that this novel captivated me. I couldn't put it down, and there was never a section of the book that I had to "push myself through" in order to get to the rest of the book.
This book begins with you meeting three friends in Paris, two who came for a weeks vacation and one who is temporarily a student there. They decide to attend a concert at the Bataclan when it is attacked by terrorists causing multiple deaths and injuries; this includes the main character Jessica and her closest friend Patrick. Jessica was able to have surgery and recover physically but mentally she is tortured by what she has endured, including the death of Patrick.
As Jessica tries to overcome her mental torment, she finds an old sewing box which releases a story from the late 1600's, and she finds a family of sorts that is willing to investigate the past and help her heal.
This is a must read for anyone who loves a good mystery. I also loved how the story was intertwined with real events.

This book is a story within a story, a book of resilience, a look at friendships, tragedies and the ability to continue on.
The book starts out in 1695 where Adeline Baillard, is telling the story of her families struggle of being protestants and being persecuted in France for their religion. A risky place to live and where, they could only meet in secret to pray and express their faith. Some would escape the country, but others had to live with the consequences of being caught.
Then we come into the present day, where Jessica and Patrick, close friends, who had finally made it to Paris on vacation, but where on their last night in the city, Tragedy strikes. Jessica and another friend, chose to go to a concert, and Patrick decided to go to an art opening. Horror breaks out at the concert, where a terrorist group has started killing innocent people and a terrifying night is shown to us through Jessica's eyes.
Waking up the next day in the hospital, Jessica wants nothing more than to leave the country as soon as she heals some from her wounds, but Patrick finally convinces her to continue the trip they had planned through France in search of treasures, meaning great finds in antique stores, something he loved to do., and hoping that this will be a way for Jessica to start her recovery.
When reaching one of their destinations they come upon a wonderful place full of treasures and where she finds a beautiful old sewing box, and some hidden pages from a rare bible, under one of the drawers, with part of a personal story written on its pages. With the help of new friends at the B&B where she is staying they all go on a trip of discovery, searching for more about the life of the Baillard family.
A theme throughout this book is :
Endure with courage
Resist with wisdom and
Persist in faith
This is a really good story, with some interesting twists.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the ARC of this book.

For those who believe in an almighty being, there never is an end to life. The spirit goes on and lives within words, sounds, and breaths. For Jessica, a young woman living for a time in France, with her very good friend Patrick, life is good. She has friends, she is living in The City of Lights, and she has her independence. However, that is taken away from her by a horrific terrorist attack at a concert she attends with a friend. She is left devastated, fearful, shot, and suffering from PTSD.

Life changes and as Jessica awakens in a hospital, she begins a torturous recovery process. She is urged by the ever constant friend Patrick, to go on a trip that they had planned looking for "treasures" in old barns, antique venues, and towns. She with Patrick's aid, finds an old sewing box dating back to the sixteenth century. Concealed within the box are old papers which are written in old French which are in need of translation.

These papers turn out to have belonged to a young girl named Adeline Baillard. Adeline and her family, being Huguenots in Catholic France in the sixteen hundreds, are condemned because of their beliefs. They and others suffer religious persecution but refuse to deny their faith. What happened to Adeline and her family? Did any of them survive and if they did where did they go? These questions plague Jessica and she resolves to search out answers.

Jessica with the help of a family she meets and stays with on her trip, decide to find what she can about the Baillards and this quest helps Jessica heal from the horrible events she witnessed and was a part of. They travel from France to England in search of answers.

This book offered historical insight into the Huguenots and I learned about a group that although I had heard of, really knew nothing about. It was also a step back into a time where religion formed the basis of all lives and when religious freedom was not a guarantee.

It was sad that lives were crushed because of a religious choice. Just as Jessica feels her life was crushed when the terrorists attacked and wantonly murdered innocents, the Huguenots were also attacked because of their belief in God.

While the book has many positives, it did have a few holes within it. Jessica, for one although likable, at times seemed not as convincing as she could have been, Also somewhat awkward was the romantic element that seemed to have been thrown in as an aside and frankly did not work within the confines of the story. Another point that bothered me was after Jessica was hurt and suffering she seemed to ignore her parents who offered her help and solace. She tells them not to come to her bedside and they acquiesce. As a parent, though nothing would have sopped me from coming to my child at a time like this.

So, although this was a well written book which I liked, I did find some things that just did not help with the flow of this novel.

Thank you for NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of this book for an unbiased review.

Jessica likes exploring through the different stuff at flea markets. When she finds a document about a family, she is intrigued. She is on a quest of finding this family to see if they are real.
I enjoyed this book. It was very entertaining. The characters are true to life. I would definitely recommend this book.
5 stars

When I requested a copy of The Space Between Words, I was not aware that it was Christian fiction. Had I been aware of the heavy religious themes, I probably would have passed on this book. However, I am still glad I read this book and will be reviewing its literary merit as a piece of Christian fiction. Don't get me wrong--I consider myself a Christian. However, I simply prefer my moral teachings to be more implicit than explicit when I read.

The plot of The Space Between Words was intriguing, and although the attack at the Bataclan in Paris is still a fresh wound for most, Michele Phoenix handled it well and without any sense of sensationalism or insensitivity. Instead, the story surrounding the attack focused much more on the PTSD that the main character, Jessica, obviously suffered through as a result of what she witnessed that night and the survivor's guilt she felt. As someone who has not experienced PTSD, I cannot say whether Phoenix's portrayal was accurate, but I do know that it was heartbreaking and well-written. As Jessica began her journey to healing in France, her discovery of documents hidden in a sewing box by a young woman living in France during a time when her religion was a crime set her on a quest to solve the mystery of what happened to that young woman and her family. I found myself anxious to see what she would discover next and intrigued by her growing closeness to Grant, the American who owns the cottage she rents while in France.

Phoenix did an excellent job of allowing the mystery of the fate of the religious refugees to unfold and introduced several interesting characters along the way. Connor's presence was delightful, and the twist near the beginning of the book was completely unexpected and absolutely heartbreaking. As Christian fiction goes, this was a heartwarming read with very genuine lessons. Not only were Jessica's questions about God completely reasonable after what she had endured, but the responses she received as a result were helpful in a way that did not feel neither overbearing nor cliche. The lessons in The Space Between Words are powerful, and Jessica's journey to understanding felt very real.

OK, this gave me goosebumps. I didn't read the blurb about it so had no idea what it was about...just loved the title. Turned out it was (what I call) a "God thing" that led me to it. 😊Something put in your way at a specific time and place in your life by God because He knows you needed it. I laughed, I cried, I was horrified but ultimately I was indelibly touched by this story. A blend of an historical story (a French Huguenot family's persecution and perseverance in the late 1600s) and a modern tale that I won't give specifics on to spoil the plot. However dissimilar they may first appear, the stories end up being connected in a myriad of ways. Highly recommend. Out September 5.

The Space Between Words is easily my favorite book this year. I was immediately drawn into the storyline and the lives of the characters. Michele Phoenix was able to intertwine the historical with the present to create a story that left me breathless. This is a book that I could not put down.

This book was great...not at all what I was expecting. It took me a couple of chapters to get into it, but I didn't want to put it down after that. The story jumps around with current day and the life of a family from the late 1600's. Persecution, faith, family, terror, grief, and loss and how a women finds her way. The secrets of a sewing kit and how it helped Jessica heal. Set amidst two historic events, the Huguenot Persecution and the much more recent Paris Terrorist attacks.. M Phoenix does a great job of pulling the two together with a lot of twists and turns.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley.

I found this to be a most unusual book. It is not at all what some would consider typical Christian fiction. No preaching, no sermonizing, no overt "Christian" behavior by the characters, and no faith crises resolved and wrapped up neatly with a ribbon and a bow at the end of the book. Rather, a character who has been through a horrific trauma and is questioning everything.

American Jessica is visiting Paris with friends when she is shot and wounded during a terrorist attack. After she has recovered enough to travel, rather than running home to Denver, she embarks on a road trip into the French countryside. She buys an antique sewing box at a flea market, finds some centuries-old diary pages hidden inside, and at that point begins a search to find out what happened to a persecuted Huguenot/Protestant family over 300 years earlier.

The plot included a couple of "what?!?" moments that I will not spoil here, and no explanations were given. This did not detract from my enjoyment of the book, which I blew through in just two sittings because I couldn't put it down. I will definitely be looking to see what else this author has written.

This is a poignant and mysterious story. The author displays a fine understanding of the Huguenot's plight three centuries earlier. As Jessica tries to recover from the Paris terrorist attack, she is buoyed by Patrick's determination and spirit to uncover the plight of the Ballard family.

This novel bridges two tragedies from different time periods, but without any sci-fi elements. It was done beautifully, with heart. Both time periods have their own mystery and challenges that keep the reader engaged till the end.

Michele Phoenix has written a beautiful new novel. It is heart-warming story of courage, survival, grief, loss, fear, hope, healing and forgiveness. The ‘Space Between Words’ was not at all what I expected. The window into the main characters life is unexpected and at times will leave you absolutely stunned. It allows you to journey through the unimaginable. It reaffirms that life requires courage, and resilience. That ‘God layers the good over the bad’.

Michele Phoenix had me so glued to this book that I finished it in two sittings. Every so often you will find a book that entwines your mind and heart so deeply that you cannot walk away from the ending unchanged. The ‘Space Between Words’ will leave you re-examining your life and priorities as well as looking at the relationships of those close to you.

What an endearing, well written piece of literature. If you love historical fiction this book will not disappoint. A must read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Michele Phoenix, and Thomas Nelson for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review