No Light but the Stars

Two women in Cornwall are separated by centuries and united by secrets in this haunting historical novel about hope and a love so powerful it transcends time, persecution, and war.In 1941, Violet Rookwood and her mother flee war-torn London for a Cornwall farm owned by their family. There, under the floorboards of her bedroom, Violet finds a journal written by a Catholic woman more than three hundred years ago, confessing to a forbidden love. In 1606, on this very farm, Maria Wolveden sheltered Jago Carlyon, a fugitive priest sought for treason. In a time when all Catholics were suspect, Maria’s protective love for Jago grew stronger, as did the mortal dangers of harboring a wanted man.Violet knows all about secret passion, having lost her own forbidden love, Taslim, in the London Blitz. Haunted by visions of Taslim and of Maria, Violet soon finds herself at a crossroads that eerily parallels that of Maria’s when she gives refuge to Francesco Marelli, an Italian POW whose life is threatened for collaborating with the enemy.With her family’s lives at stake, Violet not only comes to understand Maria’s desperation more deeply but feels uncannily connected to her spirit—as if guided on a journey that Maria travelled centuries ago. It’s also giving Violet the hope she needs to see her own secrets through to their courageous end—and, perhaps, to find new love.

Lindsay Jayne Ashford is the bestselling author of the historical novels Through the Mist, A Feather on the Water, The House at Mermaid’s Cove, The Snow Gypsy, Whisper of the Moon Moth, The Woman on the Orient Express, and The Color of Secrets, as well as the Megan Rhys con¬temporary crime series. The first woman to graduate from Queens’ College, Cambridge, Lindsay earned a degree in criminology and was a reporter for the BBC before becoming a freelance journalist, writing for a number of national magazines and newspapers. She lives in a late-medieval farmhouse in Wales with her husband, Steve, and their dog, Pablo, and has a writing cabin among the trees that she shares with a pair of tawny owls. When she’s not writing, she enjoys dancing and gardening. For more information, visit www.lindsay-jayne-ashford.com.