Sylvie is excited to have a holiday in Nice with her new husband, Trevor. 30 years her senior, his daughter, Harriet is childish and resentful around Sylvie and her hostility is evident. Sylvie looks forward to a nice time away from this and hopes it will energize their romantic relationship. Trevor has friends in Nice that they are going to stay with, but unfortunately, they aren?t home and they stay in a hotel, unsure what happened to his friends. After a romantic dinner and a walk on the beach, Trevor gets ahead of Sylvie and when she gets to the hotel, she is told that her husband has collapsed and is enroute to the hospital. Sylvie is prohibited by the doctors from visiting until morning and when she arrives at the hospital, she is told that he has died. When she goes to the morgue to identify him, she sees that the man there isn?t her husband. The hospital is searched, and apparently his body is misidentified and he is cremated. Harriet comes to Nice, but acts strangely, so Sylvie feels she has no ally.

Three years later, Sylvie has started a new life, works in an art gallery, and starts to have romantic feelings about one of the artists who is doing a display soon. This artist takes photographs to remember the details in his paintings, and while looking at one of the photographs that was recently taken, shows Trevor on a beach in Nice. This is not only upsetting, but she wonders if Trevor could actually be alive.

The story is fairly well-written, but has some holes that will leave readers wondering. For instance, after seeing the photo with Trevor in it, Sylvie goes back to the gallery and finds the photograph missing. The artist assures Sylvie that he has the negatives, but they are confiscated by a police officer, so she can?t recheck the photo. There isn?t really an explanation of who did this (one surmises later), and it could have been clearer in the story. It also seems that the story is surreal; the characters don?t act like we would expect. Harriet and her hostility seem a bit over the top after Trevor disappears, especially since she and Sylvie have gone through the same loss. While in Nice, Harriet doesn?t seem to be upset that her father is dead, but that isn?t explained. It seems that Harriet must know something that Sylvie doesn?t.

All told, this is an interesting story, but some of the parts could use better explanations. Although readers find out what happens in the end, it is a disappointing ending.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

A Spell in France by M. S. Clary I found this book an easy read and a good one for a holiday quick read. This book was nothing special and did not grip me. I began to miss pages and hoping it would get better.
I did like th way the author wrote about the South of France as I love France. But I was expecting more from this book
Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book

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i enjoyed this book. It was quite atmospheric with some fantastic descriptions of the South of France - an area which I love. The first part is narrated in first person by Slyvie, a young woman married to the older Trevor. After a small argument while on holiday in Nice, Trevor collapses with a heart attack. The novel then moves forward three years and switches to a third person narrator. This is the only negative of the novel for me. I much preferred Sylvie as a narrator, but I quickly got past this as the story carried me along.
I was captivated by the mystery of the rest of the book.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book

Had high hopes for this book. It sounded great. Like the perfect summer read. It did start off that way. Sounded amazing. Was really enjoying it but then it became rather dull, and lost its attraction. Shame as it started off on a high note

A beautifully written easy read. A relaxing way to spend a rainy afternoon. When Sylvie's husband dies she is forced to build a new life for herself. But all is not as it seems. How well did she know Trevor? This is an interesting story. I wanted to know what secrets Trevor had and I wanted a happy ending for Sylvie. This book is fairly short but there is a lot of action packed into it.

The teaser for this book was intriguing, but it promised more than it delivered. The story was ok, certainly had its share of mystery: an abrupt disappearance, mistaken identify, suspect behavior by lots of people. While it was interesting to try to figure out what happened, the eventual revelation was a bit of a disappointment. The characters were a bit predictable and several distinctly unsympathetic.
The settings were lovely, the south of France, London, and the descriptions were nice. A very light read, fast and not quite as mysterious as I might have hoped.

This book starts out strong with the mystery of Sylive's husbands sudden death and disappearance of the body. A few years later Sylie and Trevor's daughter are living somewhere else when strange happenings begin. Did Sylvie really see Trevor? Why are investigators digging into his finances? It's suspenseful at first but the ending is just too abrupt for my liking.