“Change Your Life for €1,” the headline had read

When she was at her lowest emotionally, Skye saw a competition to win a cottage in Greece for one euro and entered. How she won and how the paperwork was completed quickly and without publicity requires some suspension of disbelief but, why not, every book needs a plot, and apparently this is an actual thing:

Following similarly successful schemes that had been launched in France and Italy, the municipality of a remote Greek island was offering six individuals the change to buy a house for one euro. There were stipulations, naturally. The new owners must commit to spending a minimum of two years on Folegandros and must renovate their properties – all six of which had been abandoned since the end of the Second World War – in a manner that was in keeping with the traditional village setting. Demand was expected to be high, and in order to give every person an equal chance of winning, there would be a lottery.

When Skye arrives, she finds a house in understandable disrepair but Andreas, a local contractor, greets her and offers to help restore her new home, and he will clearly be her new love interest, although at first she just wants privacy and finds him intrusive. Soon the other winners arrive: an extroverted artist, recently widowed, from Australia; Theo, born in Greece but raised in England, and his special-needs son, whose wife/mother abandoned them; Adam and Victoria, who came from New York; and three sisters from Britain and their deceased mother’s dog. The sixth house has not yet been allocated.

I liked the sense of community and found family among the five households that have uprooted themselves from all over the world. All of them are trying to rebuild their lives and the friendship of the others helps them get there. Skye is too afraid to tell anyone what she is hiding from – which is understandable until one needs help. And as an experienced reader, it is a truism that someone on the run should not allow her picture to be taken as it will inevitably be seen by her pursuer. That was true even before social media – at least in fiction!

Andreas finds a bunch of letters as he is renovating the house. Of course, they are in Greek so he and one of the neighbors have to translate them for Skye. The letters tell the story of Katerina, a young woman who lived in the house during World War II, and fell in love with Stefanos, a visitor to the island. After Stefanos and her brother-in-law leave to fight in the Resistance (Greece was occupied by Axis powers from June 1941 to October 1944, first by Italian soldiers and then by Germans), Katerina wrote to him (she must have had a good education for a peasant girl on a remote island but who’s quibbling), even when she could not send the letters. The dual timeline tells Katerina’s story, her romance, and her determination to help her neighbors survive the occupation by Italian soldier who steal what little they have and are brutal to those who resist.

As is often the case in dual timeline novels, one heroine and storyline are more vivid than the other. Skye, vulnerable and afraid, and unable to hide it, is a less appealing character than the warm and bold Katerina. It is obvious from the beginning that Skye is escaping from an abusive relationship and the reader knows it is only a matter of time before he finds her. The contrast of the present day characters and the rebuilding of their lives with the war-torn WWII setting is very effective, as sisters, Katarina and Leni, and their neighbors, suffer through the occupation of their island and deprivation. Two mysteries are revealed – why Skye fled from England and why the six houses were abandoned. In the process, Skye gains the self-confidence to stand up for herself, which she apparently lost after her father died, thus providing at least one happy ending.  This is not Mary Stewart or Susanna Kearsley by a long shot but it was enjoyable.

Title: The House of Hidden Letters
Author: Izzy/Isabelle Broome
Publication: Berkley, hardcover, 2026
Genre: Dual timeline/mystery
Source: Library

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Cloak and Dagger Challenge 2026
• Historical Fiction Challenge 2026

This was one of the 2026 historical novels I forecast in January.

Spoiler: I was sure Andreas would turn out to be Katerina’s grandson but that did not happen. Maybe it would have fit too neatly but I would have liked that symmetry and he did say she moved away and never returned.