Award-winning author, Michèle Phoenix, weaves an unforgettable tale of hope and survival in The Space Between Words. “Several scenes in The Space Between Words will leave readers without words, the ability of speech replaced by the need to absorb all the feels.” –RT Book Reviews, 4½ stars, TOP PICK! “There were seconds, when I woke, when the world felt unshrouded. Then memory returned.” When … returned.”
When Jessica regains consciousness in a French hospital on the day after the Paris attacks, all she can think of is fleeing the site of the horror she survived. But Patrick, the steadfast friend who hasn’t left her side, urges her to reconsider her decision. Worn down by his loving insistence, she agrees to follow through with the trip they’d planned before the tragedy.
“The pages found you,” Patrick whispered.
“Now you need to figure out what they’re trying to say.”
During a stop at a country flea market, Jessica finds a faded document concealed in an antique. As new friends help her to translate the archaic French, they uncover the story of Adeline Baillard, a young woman who lived centuries before–her faith condemned, her life endangered, her community decimated by the Huguenot persecution.
“I write for our descendants, for those who will not understand the cost of our survival.”
Determined to learn the Baillard family’s fate, Jessica retraces their flight from France to England, spurred on by a need she doesn’t understand.
Could this stranger who lived three hundred years before hold the key to Jessica’s survival?
“An unforgettable portrait of courage and reclaimed hope.” –Kristy Cambron, award-winning author of the Lost Castle series
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Tearful
I received a copy of this book from The Fiction Guild. I was not required to give a favorable review. This was a beautiful story. It tells a story about a horrific shooting in Paris and the lives of people who survived and died. But it is also a history lesson on the Huguenot persecution in France in the 1600’s. Jessica is visiting with her friend Vonda her friend Patrick who is also their roommate back in Denver. He has been studying artwork. He owns a shop in Denver that sells antiques. When the opportunity to go to a concert the girls go instead of the art show with Patrick. But then the attack happens, Jessica is shot, Vonda is safe, but the loss of Patrick does something to Jessica that she can’t except he is gone until she arrives in France at a B&B run by an American family. She finds a sewing box that belongs to someone who died and goes on a search for the story behind the rest of the family and it brings her closure on the loss of her friend, the beginning of new beginnings of her and Grant, and the wonderful story of overcoming bad things in your life with God’s guidance.
I enjoy the way Michele writes. Her words go together in such a way as to draw you into the story, making you feel you are a part of it. Her description of the survivors of the Paris attack at the
Bataclan gave me such a different perspective on how a person’s life is changed by any kind of trauma. The way she tied that horrific event to the attempted destruction of the Huguenots was really a master stroke. Chapter 30 was such a great wrap-up for the story. It tied it all together in a God glorifying manner. Read this. You will not be disappointed.
I absolutely loved this book. Powerful, meaningful, and moving. Don’t miss it!
I wish I could say that I did not get as emotionally involved with this book as I did. but I would be lying if I told you otherwise! Powerful story of survival, grief, dealing with violence in our world, time travel (!), PTSD, religious oppression and freedom to worship, mental health issues, divorce and its aftermath…..this book began simply enough, but evolved into a masterpiece I couldn’t put down that left me in tears, both of joy and sadness.
There were moments of laughter and smiles, too, but the book also transports you back in time to the early days of the French Protestants who stood against tyranny and abuse to flee the dragoons sent to convince them to deny their faith. Add in a secret treasure, blissful scenery in France and Europe, and ladies and gents, you have a keeper of a book.
This is my first time reading a Michele Phoenix book but trust me when I say this will not be my last.
The Space Between Words is utterly compelling, characterized by gorgeous prose and a layered story line. Jessica, an American traveling with friends in France, is a survivor of the November 2015 terror attacks in France. Her path to recovery is physical, but more long-lasting are the emotional and mental injury of having experienced such a horrific thing.
Though this story does deal with tragedy, I never felt the tone to be hopeless. The author speaks eloquently about tragedy, more in a way to honor those who lost their lives to senseless violence and those who survived, having to make sense of their life a world that no longer felt secure or safe.
Along with the contemporary story, there is also the story of Adeline Baillard, a young woman living in France during the time that the Huguenots were brutally persecuted for their faith. Jessica can’t help but feeling she was supposed to discover Adeline’s letters and to figure out what happened to her and her family. This desperate desire to know Adeline’s fate becomes irrevocably tied to Jessica’s mental and emotional health as she struggles to find good in a world like hers and a world like Adeline’s.
It’s the way of certain stories that move me deeply to give me the most trouble describing, and that is certainly the case here. Through prose that is simple yet full of depth and a keen understanding of emotion, The Space Between Words is a beautiful reminder of finding goodness and beauty and hope when there appears to be none:
“For all its scars and strife, this world still speaks the beauty of its Maker. I rise each morning seeking glimpses of his heart…He is our hope and refuge still. Though our lives have been dismantled by the cruelty of man, God in his faithfulness has scattered flecks of gold amid the debris of our loss.”
Loss will never go away, and it makes it extra hard to see the good, but it’s there, all the more precious because it’s been fought for at great cost. And in the world of 1695, the world 2015, the world of 2018, the world of whatever is to come, is there any more important reminder that we can carry with us?
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a review, positive or otherwise, and the opinions expressed here are my own.
Wonderful book!
The Space Between Words is really the story of two women, Jessica and Adeline, and the tragedies they faced in their respective times. While both stories are interesting in their own right, I found the bouncing back and forth to be a bit distracting. Add Jessica’s flashbacks of surviving the Paris attacks along with an almost separate story of her resistance to romantic relationships and the story becomes quite busy. The story has a good premise and the characters are very well developed, but with so much going on, I found it hard to stay focused. The author seems to be making a comparison between the Huguenot persecution and the Paris attacks, but I failed to see the connection, other than the fact that both women faced extreme circumstances. I actually laid this one aside several times and came back to it, determined to finish and see where Jessica’s journey would lead and I suppose the book does have a fitting ending, but it felt like it took a meandering route to get there.
The Space Between Words by Michele Phoenix
This book is a story within a story, a book of resilience, a look at friendships, tragedies and the ability to continue on.
The book starts out in 1695 where Adeline Baillard, is telling the story of her families struggle of being protestants and being persecuted in France for their religion. A risky place to live and where, they could only meet in secret to pray and express their faith. Some would escape the country, but others had to live with the consequences of being caught.
Then we come into the present day, where Jessica and Patrick, close friends, who had finally made it to Paris on vacation, but where on their last night in the city, Tragedy strikes. Jessica and another friend, chose to go to a concert, and Patrick decided to go to an art opening. Horror breaks out at the concert, where a terrorist group has started killing innocent people and a terrifying night is shown to us through Jessica’s eyes.
Waking up the next day in the hospital, Jessica wants nothing more than to leave the country as soon as she heals some from her wounds, but Patrick finally convinces her to continue the trip they had planned through France in search of treasures, meaning great finds in antique stores, something he loved to do., and hoping that this will be a way for Jessica to start her recovery.
When reaching one of their destinations they come upon a wonderful place full of treasures and where she finds a beautiful old sewing box, and some hidden pages from a rare bible, under one of the drawers, with part of a personal story written on its pages. With the help of new friends at the B&B where she is staying they all go on a trip of discovery, searching for more about the life of the Baillard family.
A theme throughout this book is :
Endure with courage
Resist with wisdom and
Persist in faith
This is a really good story, with some interesting twists.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the ARC of this book.
OK, this gave me goosebumps. I didn’t read the blurb about it so had no idea what it was about…just loved the title. Turned out it was (what I call) a “God thing” that led me to it. Something put in your way at a specific time and place in your life by God because He knows you needed it. I laughed, I cried, I was horrified but ultimately I was indelibly touched by this story. A blend of an historical story (a French Huguenot family’s persecution and perseverance in the late 1600s) and a modern tale that I won’t give specifics on to spoil the plot. However dissimilar they may first appear, the stories end up being connected in a myriad of ways. Highly recommend. Out September 5. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!
The Space Between Words by Michele Phoenix is a wonderful read!
I will not post spoilers but there is a bit of a twist I just did not see coming. Jessica has suffered a gunshot to the abdomen during the Paris Attack and wakes up in a hospital. Her only comfort is her friend Patrick, who is with her to encourage her to stay in France and not rush home to Denver. Her best friend Vonda who was at the club with her during the attack is leaving to return to the states. Jessica is in a turmoil as she is trying to heal and seems to have lost her faith. She wants to forget the horrors she experienced and saw during the attack.
Later she decides to accompany Patrick on the trip through the country hoping it will ease her sense of loss. Patrick loves to pick through flea markets looking for hidden treasures in old items others would never notice. During one shopping and picking trip Jessica finds a very old wooden sewing box with the letters CSF on the bottom. She is drawn to this 17th century box and is about to embark on a quest which will help her to heal.
The search for answers about the secrets in the sewing box will lead Jessica to learn about the persecuted French Huguenots. As she is drawn further into the story of a family and a particular young woman fleeing her country, Jessica learns about having courage, wisdom, and faith.
An excellent book!