Capturing Your Heart

The Lost Story Of Sofia Castello by Siobhan Curham is a totally gripping dual timeline novel that I adored. It is set in 2000 and during the war years, mainly in Portugal.

We see that secrets that have been kept for over fifty years now need to come to light. Fact is stranger than fiction, and I confess to reading with dropped jaw as the book sped towards its conclusion.

The war years were a time of fear and suspicion. There were agents and double agents, and the Gestapo, all lunching in plain sight. As Siobhan Curham sets the scene, my heart rate and pulse rate rose.

We see that friends are born in adversity as a young singer puts aside all thoughts of personal safety in order to rescue a young Jewish girl from the clutches of the Gestapo.

There are all the wasted years as we ponder on what might have been.

Portugal is a vibrant place, even in times of war. The golden sands and the heat contrast sharply with the grey London skies.

Characters maintain their joi d’vivre even into their eighties, persuading others to abandon their straight way of thinking, throw caution to the wind, and dive into life.