First published 2021
Joachim von Hartmann arrives in Paris as a teenager with his German mother, leaving behind his identical twin in Buenos Aires. He trains as a butler and works in grand English estates, mastering the exacting standards of service. His twin brother vanishes into a criminal underworld. Years later, Olivia White loses her magazine after dedicating a decade to building it. Her mother's inheritance gives her one year in Paris to rebuild her life. She hires Joachim to help establish her new apartment. What begins as temporary work becomes months of collaboration as they discover they work well together. Joachim uncovers disturbing family secrets: a criminal grandfather who died behind bars, a wealthy father who abandoned him, and a twin brother who chose crime. As Olivia pieces her career back together, Joachim watches his carefully ordered world crumble. Employer and employee become friends as they shed their former identities. Two people from different continents find themselves in the same place, learning that their shared present matters more than their separate pasts.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Buenos Aires, England, Paris
Period: 20th-century
272 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press