This was a very fun thriller that I read in only a few sittings. Though I did find it mildly predictable, there were a few surprises thrown in as well. The main character was well-written and I loved the combination of stewardess next door and international femme fatale. I love a good cat and mouse game and this definitely delivered. Nothing mind-blowing or new but nonetheless entertaining and fun.

3,5 stars

Read my full review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6438281212

I'm always a fan of a Kimberly Belle thriller, and this one was no exception. Stella is married to Adam, who she believes to be a nice, normal guy and enjoys a stable and secure life until there is an explosion in a town square in Paris, and Adam goes missing. As police investigate, it appears that Adam was involved in the illegal dealing of stolen antiquities and has many criminal associates. Stella is blown away by this realization and can't move on and leave Paris before knowing the full story of Adam and what happened. This was fun ride! This was incredibly fast-paced and I ate it up- finishing it in one sitting during a cozy afternoon. I enjoyed the twists, however a few seemed a bit far-fetched to be plausible, however if you suspend disbelief, this was highly enjoyable. I'd give it 4/5 stars and recommend to anyone wanting a fast-paced and addictive thriller.

🔪𝕋ℍℝ𝕀𝕃𝕃𝔼ℝ 𝕋ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕊𝔻𝔸𝕐🔪

"𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒖𝒑. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒉 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔. 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏. “𝑴𝒂𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒆, 𝑰 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆.”"

Special thanks to @kimberlybelle #parkrowbooks & @netgalley for the #gifted eARC.

➡️ swipe for synopsis 👉🏼

𝙈𝙔 𝙍𝙀𝙑𝙄𝙀𝙒:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️ [4.25]

How is this my first solo Kimberly Belle book?!

This one was a fast paced cat and mouse story of a wife just trying to find her husband, uncover secrets, and not get killed. Seems simple right?! Especially after they were just enjoying a 21 day vacation across Europe. Then 💥BOOM💥 everything is shattered. What you thought you knew , is no more.

This was such a good read, I need to read the back list of Kimberly, because this was great.

𝙋𝙐𝘽 𝘿𝘼𝙔:
June 11, 2024

ℚ𝕆𝕋𝔻 ❓️⁉️❓️ Have you ever been to Europe? If so, where have you been? If not, where is your dream vacation?

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#mysteryandthrills #thrillersandsuspense #thrillerfriendsunite #thrillerlover #thrilleraddict #thrillerjunkie #thrillergirlie #bookbuzz #kimberlybelle #thepariswidow
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A thrilling dual time line book! Adam and Stella are at the end of their trip when something horrific happens and Adam is feared dead. As Stella soon finds out Adam is not who he says he is she finds herself in danger. I love Kimberly Belle’s books because they always offer the unexpected. No one is who they say they are and nothing is as it seems. I devoured this book in a few hours!

3.4 rounded up
Stella and Adam are married. They tell each other everything right

Adam is an antique dealer
There's nothing to hide there

Everything is going well, and they are in love in Paris. That is until Adam forgets his sunglasses at the cafe and runs back to retrieve them, and then the cafe blows up
Adam was hiding something, and Stella soon found out that he wasn't who he said he was
Now Stella is left in Paris trying to figure out what she is going to do without the love of her life to go back home to
But Stella isn't who she has always known to be either
And she was definitely hiding a past from Adam he never knew about

This book started off okay but I feel like there was just too much going on. It felt overly dramatic to me for being a thriller book.

Excellent mystery. I loved the premise and the surprises throughout. Great character building and plot development.

Stella and Adam have spent their lives exploring the world, but this time, they're about to embark on a thrilling journey across Europe—together. After an idyllic lunch at a quaint French bistro, their peaceful trip takes a sharp turn. Rushing back to the hotel to check out, Adam realizes he’s left his sunglasses behind and heads back to the restaurant while Stella continues ahead.

Unfortunately, an explosion rocks the city, just blocks away from Stella—and in the direction of the restaurant where Adam went. Frantic, Stella plunges into the chaos, desperate to find him. But Adam has vanished without a trace.

As Stella digs deeper, she uncovers more than she bargained for. The bombing may be just the tip of the iceberg, and the closer she gets to the truth, the more dangerous her search becomes. Is she next in the line of fire?

Kimberly Belle delivers yet another heart-pounding thriller, packed with tension and twists that will leave you breathless. From the first page to the last, this novel is a wild ride you won’t want to miss.
Thank you to Belle, the publisher and Netgalley for this edge of your seat thriller 4.25 explosive stars

Oh man… I got sucked in and couldn’t put the book down! I enjoy a good mystery read that sucks you in right from the beginning. Kimberly Belle did a wonderful job building Adam and Stella characters in “The Paris Widow”. I also enjoy the little quotes that were dropped throughout the story.

** Thank you NetGalley, Harequin Trade Publishing, and Kimberly Belle for an eARC copy of “The Paris Widow”

Stella and Adam are on vacation in Paris when a bomb goes off in the middle of the city.
Stella will stop at nothing to find Adam and make sure he’s okay.

While searching for Adam, Stella learns he may not be who she though he was.

My first bookish love is historical fiction and "The Paris Widow" reminded me of why I love this genre as much as I do.

If you love historical fiction with high drama, you'll be drawn into the intricate web of secrets and lies in "The Paris Widow". The slow-burning tension and the way the truth slowly unravels, revealing a complex and sinister plot keep me reading long into the night. I was captivated by the Parisian backdrop and the dark underbelly of the art world in this novel.

I enjoyed this “popcorn” thriller. Not a perfect book, but held my attention and was quite a page turner. I liked Kimberly Belle’s other books a bit better. One of the big twists was predictable, but also well executed.

nice thriller. not gonna set the world on fire by any means (although it did set Paris on fire) but definitely cool

On the tail end of a 21 day vacation, Stella and Adam eat at a Parisian cafe that Stella loves. On the walk back to the hotel, Adam realizes he forget his sunglasses and tells Stella to wait back at the hotel for him. Stella soon sees commotion coming from the cafe and people are running away from the smoke..She is unable to find Adam anywhere and frantically searches. Stella even tells her sob story on a news station to see if anyone can find Adam. Things become much more complicated as the search continues.
Just as Kimberly's other novels do, this one keeps you glued to your seat till the end. The way the story gives you a little bit of crumbs each time is so addictive. I just loved it.

The Paris Widow was a fast-paced thriller that was full of mystery and intrigue.

The Paris Widow was a quick read. At under 300 pages, I read this one in a day. I think the length of the book helped with the pacing. Had it been longer, I think the story would have dragged.

What would you do if your husband turned out not to be the person you thought him to be? Our main character, Stella and her husband Adam, are on a dream vacation throughout Europe. Just as they are heading back to the US, Adam is missing, presumed dead, in an explosion. Stella can't leave Paris until she knows what happened to Adam and why police think Adam is involved in the trafficking of stolen antiquities.

The Paris Widow is a gripping look into the dark side of the art world. One where the very wealthy buy stolen art and artifacts for their own private collection, and they'd do anything to keep their secrets. This puts our main character in grave danger, as she works to figure out what happened to her husband.

As I said, this was a quick read. It was a novel full of murder, intrigue, and organized crime. I did enjoy it, but I think you have to suspend belief a little bit and just go along for the ride. At times, it did seem a little fantastical.

Overall, I'd recommend this book. Especially for fans of stories where an innocent main character is on the run from the nefarious underworld.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

This one got some mixed reviews but I really liked it. I found it suspenseful and fast paced. There was a ton of action packed into a sparse 304 pages. But honestly…I don’t feel like anything was missing. I think the author did a great job of giving us all of the information needed to make this story intriguing without filling the pages with fluff simply to add words to the word count. There are lots of secrets and lies but it was a little predictable at times. I pretty much figured out Adam’s situation from the start but it really didn’t impact my investment in the story. I also sort of suspected who the woman was in the prologue but I didn’t anticipate how it was going to play out. It was a little anticlimactic. I thought the characters were well written, complex and showed growth throughout the story. You get little actual interaction between Stella and Adam but you still get the feeling that their relationship is solid and their connection is strong. All-around solid read!

This was a unique thriller and the premise was unlike anything I’ve read before. I enjoyed the writing style a lot and was thoroughly intrigued the entire time!

I really enjoyed this book!
Wild ride. Never a dull moment. I never knew what was happening and was surprised at every twist and turn. I have recommended to everyone!

I'm so torn. I wanted to love it because it reminds me of my favourite movie (even one of the twists was the same!), but I also struggled not to roll my eyes every other chapter. More notes to come.
- lol @ the mention of Stella not living beyond her means. You own a house and travel around the world. You're not as frugal as you think!
- the men all seem so handsome??
- I didn't find the Adam chapters all that useful
- admired the amount of actual French phrases, but it was obvious it was not coming from a native speaker. Not a true depiction of the language
- I can totally picture this as a movie

I've read a few of Kimberly Belle's books and looked forward to reading The Paris Widow as I love her mysteries. The Paris Widow starts with a female transporting goods and you get the view that this would be a smuggling book. The book then jumps to our couple Stella and Adam who are married and spending a honeymoon travel trip in France. Adam has some business to do and Stella is sightseeing. What happens though when they head to spend time in a small cafe only for a bomb to go off? Stella managed to get away but there was no sign of Adam. Is he among the dead, as she searches the death registers and rubble, there is no sign of her husband. What happens though when Stella gets a visit from the police who start mentioning Adam's business and she soon discovers that he is not who she thought he was. Can Stella get to the bottom of this and find Adam or will she find herself running for her own life when she discovers that there are people after Adam and since they can't find him, she is the next best thing. The Paris Widow was a good thriller that checks out the underworld of antiquities.