I felt Belinda was no more than padding for the story, and we are told in a couple of sentences that she finally agreed to a divorce. Come sempre, l’autrice costruisce la sua storia su basi storiche solide e documentate, regalandoci uno straordinario romanzo e un viaggio entusiasmante tra Malta e il Devonshire.

It showed Rosalie’s tenacity and strength to fight for what she believes in as injustices to others are being served. Florence Baudin had escaped France, thankful for her life, but sad to be leaving her sisters, Helene and Elise. The relationship all of the sisters had with their mother Claudette was strained and I was glad to see this was explored in much more detail. With thanks to Harper Collins and Random Things book tours for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The story will thankfully continue in the final volume ‘Night Train To Marrakech’, which is due to be published later this year.This book is mainly about Florence who escaped to England in 1942 leaving her two sisters in France. Staying in a small cottage in Devon, England, belonging to Jack, a man she and her sisters had met in France, before visiting her mother, Florence regained her strength and made the journey.

I enjoyed her story so much, from her stifling life in Paris to the excitement and danger of her life in Malta.

The Tea Planter’s Wife is so much more than a conventional love story, with all its twists and turns and guilt and betrayal. The only clue Florence had was that Rosalie was a dancer and was to join one of the clubs on the small island of Malta.

I enjoyed reading of her transition to Malta and although I could sense deep down that leaving Paris in the way and on the terms that she did was not what she truly wanted she knew that to be independent and follow her dreams she had to forge her own path without the support of her family. This meant that the beginning seemed rather abrupt and it took me time to discover the nature of the relationship between Florence, who had escaped war torn France, and her saviour, Jack. Riva discovers the seedy side to Malta, young girls arrive from Russia, they vanish and she puts herself in danger by asking questions. The Hidden Palace has a dual timeline, it's told from two points of view, and it alternates between 1923 and 1944. Her mother begs her to travel to Malta to see if she can try to find Rosalie, her mother’s younger sister who ran away from Paris to be a dancer in a Maltese club.She seemed to pop up whenever the plot required her to but her storyline wasn’t taken any further so it felt disjointed. Things for Rosalie are not all smooth sailing and romance, danger, secrets and tragedy all feature for her amidst the street of Valetta. Almost as soon as she arrives, her mothers says she has a request – she wants Florence to find out what happened to Rosalie (Claudette’s sister) who ran away from Paris twenty years before and might be in Malta. In this sequel to Daughters of War, the story focuses mainly on the youngest daughter, Florence and her mother's aunt, Rosalie.