The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
Gallery Books | Simon & Schuster (June 17, 2025)
Historical Fiction/WWII Fiction
How far would you go to bring your sister’s killer to justice? What would you sacrifice to uphold your family’s legacy? For Colette Marceau, the indomitable heroine at the heart of New York Times bestselling author Kristin Harmel’s electric new novel, THE STOLEN LIFE OF COLETTE MARCEAU, the limit does not exist.
Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.
But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.
Seventy years later, Colette—who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations—has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.
BUY LINKS
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau – Kristin Harmel
REVIEW
An engaging historical fiction novel set in dual timelines—Nazi-occupied France during the 1940s and “present time” 2018. Colette’s past and present meet when a missing bracelet from her childhood resurfaces and is the key to the unsolved death of her sister. Filled with rich detail and interesting characters. I loved the idea of stealing from the cruel and giving to the needy.
Reviewed by ComfyChairBooks/Lisa Reigel (May 27, 2025)
eARC provided by Gallery Books via Netgalley
Purchased copy via Brenda Novak Book Box (September)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kristin Harmel is the New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling, and #1 international bestselling author of The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Book of Lost Names, The Winemaker’s Wife, and a dozen other novels that have been translated into more than 30 languages and are sold all over the world. Many of her novels have been optioned for film and television. The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau is coming this June.
Kristin has been writing professionally since the age of 16, when she began her career as a sportswriter, covering Major League Baseball and NHL hockey for a local magazine in Tampa Bay, Florida. In addition to a long magazine writing career, primarily writing and reporting for PEOPLE magazine (as well as articles published in numerous other magazines, including American Baby, Men’s Health, Woman’s Day, and more), Kristin was also a frequent contributor to the national television morning show The Daily Buzz. Her first novel was published in February 2006.
Kristin was born just outside Boston, Massachusetts and spent her childhood there, as well as in Worthington, Ohio, and St. Petersburg, Florida. After graduating with a degree in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from the University of Florida, she spent time living in Paris and Los Angeles and now lives in Orlando, with her husband and son. A breast cancer survivor, she is also the co-founder and co-host of the popular weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction.
https://www.facebook.com/KristinHarmelAuthor
https://www.instagram.com/kristinharmel/
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