his paperback edition includes a new bonus chapter, ‘A Water Ritual at the Avallon’, and questions for book clubs.
*
The hotel was a hidden paradise. Until they went to war…
In 1942, June ‘Hoss’ Hudson runs the finest hotel in the Appalachian Mountains. The Avallon, owned by the wealthy Gilfoyle family, is a world away from the war in Europe. But when Edgar, the eldest son who June has loved since childhood, strikes a deal with the State Department, June finds herself playing host to three hundred foreign diplomats.
Nobody at the Avallon wants to serve caviar to the enemy. As tensions rise among staff and guests, dark alliances and unexpected desires begin to crack the hotel’s polished veneer. Not least between June and Tucker Minnick, a government agent listening through the walls for secrets, whose watchful eyes both unsettle and attract her.
For June is guarding a secret of her own — one she has risked everything to keep.