Title: The Sea of Lost Things
Author: Kelly St-Laurent
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Charlotte Reynolds is no stranger to loss. After a car accident took her parents, she was raised by her maternal grandfather. Six months ago, she lost him too. At thirty-one, with no living relatives, Charlotte finds herself alone in the world.
That is until she opens the box.
Her grandfather’s possessions have sat in the corner, untouched since his passing. Inside, she discovers a letter, and in it a secret he kept for over seventy years. A love story, that began on D-Day, between he and a French woman, and ended with the birth of her mother.
With no one left to ask who the mysterious woman could be, Charlotte decides to drop everything and go to France to uncover the truth for herself. Soon after arriving, it becomes clear that her search won’t be easy. Things are complicated further when Jonah Emmerson shows up at the B&B. The handsome but arrogant Brit takes an almost instant disliking to her. A feeling, that she discovers, is mutual.
Charlotte vows to keep clear of him, but when he unexpectedly offers to help with her search, she finds herself accepting, a decision that sets them on an adventure across the quaint countryside and stunning coastline of Normandy. As they visit different townships for answers, an attraction builds between them, the tension thawing into something else entirely.
But with every step that brings them closer, the past follows. And while Charlotte may be searching for hers, Jonah is running from his.
Sometimes, looking back is the only way forward.
Jonah is such a charmer…
Keep reading to see the full Love Note!
My darling Charlotte,
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our trip to Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue. We were getting to know each other, and you asked about marriage, and kids, if that was something I wanted. I’d answered honestly. I told you that if those things were to happen then it wouldn’t be because of some preconceived plan. It’d be arbitrary. I believed it back then. But I can’t anymore.
The minute I saw you my future was decided. And it wasn’t some random choice. That moment I laid eyes on you, I knew nothing would be the same again. You came into my life like the touch of sunshine after a long winter. You made me believe. In us. In the future. And my love, I am so excited for our future.
As I write this, you’re downstairs playing the piano. It’s a song that’s come to be my favorite. You wrote it for our son who is due any day now. I can’t wait to meet him, to hold him in my arms. I walked through this life empty for so long, and now I’m overflowing with love, so much so I wanted to write you this letter. To tell you that it’s all because of you my darling.
If that day in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue I knew what I knew now, this is how I would have answered your question: when I fall in love, it won’t be by chance. It won’t be random. It’ll be because of you. It was always going to be you.
Whatever lives we’ve lived, I’ve found you in every one of them. I’ll find you in every one to come.
I love you.
Jonah.
From the moment when she believed that the worlds inside the television were real, Kelly St-Laurent has run away with her imagination.
Born in one of the most beautiful corners of the planet, she spent her childhood inspired by the mountains and oceans of New Zealand, constantly wondering about the places beyond the horizon. At age nineteen she decided to find out and hopped a plane to Canada. And, so began her love affair with the Great White North, that has come to be her second home.
Prior to writing her first novel in 2016, Kelly worked as a production coordinator in visual effects where she got to help bring fairies, dragons and monsters to life.
Kelly currently lives in Montreal with her husband Alex and their Shetland Sheepdog Bucky. When she isn’t writing, she’s often found re-watching her favorite films with a wine in hand.
She still believes the world inside her television is real.
