SPORTOCHICK’S MUSINGS:  A 5 STAR emotional dual-timeline story about loss, love, and regrets from Colette’s perspective.

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The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
by Kristin Harmel

Pub Date Jun 17 2025
Gallery Books

DESCRIPTION

Kristin Harmel, the New York Times bestselling author who “is the best there is at sweeping historical drama” (Kelly Harms, author of The Seven Day Switch), returns with an electrifying new novel about two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris, and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder.

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.

REVIEW

The prologue opens with the detailed explanation of the twin bracelets that become the cornerstone of this book’s storyline. It sets the story up with perfection.

An emotional dual-timeline story about loss, love, and regrets from Colette’s perspective the story begins in Paris, France with Roger and Annabel Marceau, and their daughter Colette, age six, in the middle of World War II and leads the reader through the devastation of the Nazi’s and the effect of the havoc they caused.

Colette is almost ninety as she reflects on her childhood; learning her trade of stealing from the Nazi to give to the poor and the present day now stealing from neo-Nazi to support her various charity foundations and The Boston Center for Holocaust Education where she does volunteer work. She also finds something that brings her closer to discovering what really happened to her baby sister.

I love how the author takes you to the present day and with finesse takes you to the past as Colette’s memories overcome her. It gives the reader a very clear understanding of what formed her character and why she does what she does. It will also fill you with such sadness, pain, and loss for all the lives taken by the cruelty of the war.

Filled with so much mystery, unresolved deaths, and finally resolution, you can’t help but love this book as you cry your eyes out. It’s a very emotional read with a stellar storyline.

This book deserves 5 STARS for it’s emotional impact while telling a deeply moving story.

I received this book for free from Gallery Books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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