First Chapter Fun – Episode 312 – ASHTON HALL by Lauren Belfer
Listen to bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan read the description and opening pages of Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer, which is available now!
About Ashton Hall: “How many lives can you imagine yourself living?”
Or so Hannah Larson wonders. When an uncle falls ill, Hannah and her young, neurodivergent son, Nicky, decide to join him for the summer at Ashton Hall, a historic manor house outside Cambridge, England. Hannah gave up her academic career to raise her beloved child, and she's grateful to escape her life in New York City, where her marriage has been upended by a devastating betrayal.
Soon after their arrival, ever-curious Nicky finds the skeletal remains of a woman who had been walled into a forgotten part of the manor, and Hannah is pulled into an all-consuming quest for answers, with Nicky close by her side. Working from clues in centuries-old ledgers and the personal papers of the long-departed family, Hannah begins to recreate the Ashton Hall of the Elizabethan era in all its color and conflict. As the secrets of her own life begin to unravel, and the rewards and heartrending complications of being Nicky's mother come into focus, Hannah realizes that Ashton Hall’s women had lives not so different from her own. She confronts what women throughout history have had to do to control their own destinies and protect their children.
About the author: Lauren Belfer is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels – CITY OF LIGHT, A FIERCE RADIANCE, AND AFTER THE FIRE, and her latest, ASHTON HALL. She’s the winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Lauren lives in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, where the palpable sense of history inspires her every day.
Connect with Lauren:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorlaurenbelfer
Instagram: www.instagram.com/laurenbelfer1
Twitter: www.twitter.com/laurenbelfer
Website: www.laurenbelfer.com
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Happy reading everyone.
Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!
Hank & Hannah x
Note: read with the author’s and publisher’s kind permission
