1st Place winner for best Young Adult/New Adult in the 2014 Chatelaine Awards, recognizing emerging new talent and outstanding works in women’s fiction and romance novels.
A Dissimulation of Doves is novel in the women’s fiction genre, set in York, England, in which a young Canadian woman in pursuit of lost family connections, investigates the mystery of her employer’s lost love, a soldier during WWII.
A Dissimulation of Doves:
Canadian Sophie Groenveld didn’t expect her rebellious summer jaunt to leave her stranded in England, without money, her passport, or the boyfriend who left her behind. At 23, Sophie had yet to learn whom she could trust.
With life spinning in unexpected directions, Sophie anchors herself to the shabby but quaint Aviary Hotel in York, as the new night desk clerk. Navigating complexities and roadblocks, she applies her energy and spirit to the old-world hotel and the labyrinthine lives of the eccentric but lovable staff, guests and locals.
Sophie begins to trust her internal compass once drawn into the tragic life of hotel owner, Ava Roxtoby, whose obsession with birds, both living and dead, may be an important link to the past. Ultimately, a surprise hotel guest provides an important road-sign, leaving Sophie to decide if she needs a guiding hand, or whether she’s ready to chart her own course.