The Echo of Old Books: A Novel

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And her beautiful imagination, not to mention her artistic way of words to open your mind's eye to see exactly what she wants you to see, to feel, to understand her words that make this a wonderful read! Our features are original articles from our print magazines (these will say where they were originally published) or original articles commissioned for this site. But if something tragic happened in a book, you could just close it and choose a new one, unlike real life, where events often played out without the protagonist’s consent. With no trace of how these mysterious books came into the world, Ashlyn is caught up in a decades-old literary mystery, beckoned by two hearts in ruins, whoever they were, wherever they are. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the nearer she comes to bringing closure to their love story—and to the unfinished chapters of her own life.

This is an excellent book, and you’ll especially like it if you’re a historical fiction fan and enjoy the time period leading up to WWII.I loved how Barbara Davis used “Regretting Belle” and “Forever and Other Lies” to weave together the lives of so many people. The story does focus on two books, but the author apparently throws in a woo-woo factor in all of her books, so there's that.

She became quite proficient at this skill and was often commissioned to do restoration work on rare and old books. And the way that the story spools out, at first being a whole lot of Belle and Hemi with only hints of Ashlyn, carefully shifts over the course of the story to less and less of the past – even as it gets more searing and races towards its seemingly inevitable denouement – and more of Ashlyn and now Ethan’s presents.I took my time reading this story, savoring all the beautiful sentences, because I didn’t want it to end. I found this book interesting and compelling enough to keep reading but I had not yet reached the point where I couldn't wait to get back to it. Finding a couple of old books with curious inscriptions, Ashlyn goes on a hunt to find the origin of their stories.

HNS Awards have helped discover and launch the author careers of Michel Faber, Ruth Downie, Hilary Green, Martin Sutton, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, Nikki Marmery, Margaret Skea, Warwick Cairns, Katherine Mezzacappa and Elizabeth Macneal. I like epistolary novels, and this novel has big chunks devoted to the mystery lovers relating events in the past from their own perspectives. Davis is the master of breathing a bit of magic into her characters in a way that is so subtle and charming it becomes believable. It appears Hemi and Belle's books went unpublished, yet packed an intriguing story of their forbidden love, regrets and betrayal.Originally a Jersey girl, Barbara has lived in Florida, North and South Carolina, and New Hampshire. History lovers will really enjoy these two tales that are woven together perfectly by Barbara Davis. This wonderful book features well-drawn characters who will reach into the crevices of readers’ hearts, as they did mine. She spent more than a decade as an executive in the jewelry business before leaving the corporate world to pursue her lifelong passion for writing.