Paris, 1942. Suzanne Belperron is known as one of the most innovative jewelers of her time. Elsa Schiaparelli and the Duchess of Windsor are just two of her many illustrious clients. What no one knows is that Suzanne and her dear friend, American socialite Dixie Osgood, have been helping transport hundreds of Jewish families out of France since the war began. But now, the war has come to Suzanne’s front door—the Nazis have arrested her business partner and longtime lover, Bernard Herz.

New York, 1986. Violine Duplessi, an appraiser for a boutique auction house, is summoned to visit the home of Paul Osgood, a scholarly lawyer and political candidate who aspires to take over the Senate seat of his recently deceased father. Paul has inherited everything inside Osgood Manor, from the eighteenth-century furniture to the nineteenth-century Limoges china. But a vintage Louis Vuitton trunk is what calls to Violine, with the surprising but undeniable thrum of energy that can only be one thing: the gift passed down to her by La Lune, the sixteenth-century courtesan.

Since childhood, Violine has been able to read an object’s history and learn the secrets of its owners by merely touching it, but she silenced her psychometry when it destroyed her last relationship. Why has it returned now?

While inspecting the trunk, she senses it holds a hidden treasure and finds a hoard of precious jewels that provoke nightmarish visions and raise a multitude of questions. Who owned these pieces? Why were they hidden inside the trunk? Were they stolen? Could their discovery derail Paul’s campaign and their burgeoning attraction to each other?

So begins a search that takes Violine to Paris to work with the Midas Society, a covert international organization whose mission is to return lost and stolen antiques, jewels, and artwork to their original owners. There, Violine will discover both her and Paul’s surprising connections to the trunk—and to Suzanne Belperron, who silently and heroically hid an amazing truth in plain sight.

Told through Violine’s first-person account and Suzanne’s diary entries, The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams is a riveting story of magick, mystery, romance, and revenge. Inspired by the real-life legend Suzanne Belperron, it marks yet another masterpiece by New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author M.J. Rose.”

The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (Audible.com) (AbeBooks) is the latest book by prolific writer M.J. Rose. I’ve enjoyed so many of the author’s previous books like #NetGalley ARC Review #TheLastTiara by M.J. Rose, I just went out and purchased this book on publication day earlier this month.

I absolutely love the way Rose weaves historical fact into fiction, this time with a magical twist. I’ll admit that I wasn’t crazy about the use of psychometry simply because I didn’t understand it at first, but as the book progressed, it became clearer. And I love that the author uses jewels to tell the story of history. Just a few months ago, my sister and I went through my mother’s extensive jewelry collection, and I remember some of the stories of a piece of jewelry’s provenance; those were the pieces I picked over the more modern baubles.

I love dual timelines and appreciate the fact that the “modern” timeline was the 1980’s, when many people who survived World War II were still alive. Sometimes when you read dual timelines, one of them is lacking, usually the more modern one. I loved Rose’s writing in making both worlds come to life and the 1980’s timeline was as vibrant as the 1940’s one.

In the author’s notes, the reader finds out that Belperron was a real person, well-known to those who know jewelry, and her work is seen as some of the best of the time period. Interesting to note that her apartment was left intact after her death, and all her designs and drawings were found in 2007.

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