Cover Reveal of The Collector of Burned Books
It’s Time!
For Another Cover Reveal!!
Guys, I am SO EXCITED for this book, and equally excited to share this AMAZING cover with you!! Because for one thing, when you have the word “books” in the very title, you know what’s going to be on the cover, right??
My original title for this story was The Library of Burned Books, and I knew then the “library” was going to HAVE to be visible. Even though we changed the name to avoid confusion with another, very similarly titled book, those “books” were bound to stay!
The Collector of Burned Books is set in Paris of 1940, all about the power of words and what they represent for a free society…and how they’re the first things to be attacked when freedom is subverted. Ready to learn more? Let me introduce you to my characters, and then I’ll share the cover, my thoughts, and the official back cover description!
Let’s meet…
Corinne Bastien
Corinne Bastien may constantly be mistaken for a student, but she is in fact a professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Sorbonne, one of Paris’s most prestigious universities. Having made her home for the last seven years beside the German Library of Burned Books, she has secrets irrevocably yoked to that library, full of every book the Nazis hate…secrets meant to aid the Allies in reclaiming the city she loves…secrets that could get her killed by Paris’s occupiers if anyone discovers them.
A man who isn’t what he appears to be…
Christian Bauer
Christian Bauer has been an enemy of the Nazi Party longer than most of the world knew to fear them. But when Goebbels sends him to Paris to “relocate” France’s libraries, he knows refusing would mean being sent to a concentration camp. So he dons the hated Nazi uniform and sets up his headquarters at the Library of Burned Books. Though determined to help all those he can while in Paris, Christian walks a dangerous line. Because if his superiors discover what he’s been hiding and where his loyalties really lie, a concentration camp is the best he can hope for.
An evocative setting
Paris, 1940
The City of Lights suffered only one small bombing during the early days of World War II. When the Nazis marched on the city, the government surrendered and fled, declaring Paris “an open city”–meaning the Nazi army was free to enter. While General de Gaulle called for every French citizen to continue to resist, a puppet government was soon set up in Vichy, urging the French to collaborate with their new occupiers, claiming “German” was the new “European.”
But within weeks, a Resistance began to operate. And individuals went about intelligence gathering and espionage in many quiet ways, even before they knew how to get any information they gathered into Allied hands. While the Nazis began systematically dismantling much of Paris’s culture–its museums, its libraries–many Parisians clung to an idea set out by one of its writers. There was “a France which could not be invaded.” A France that lived in the hearts of the French. And that France was worth defending at any cost.
Roseanna’s first
World War II Romance
This high-stakes, fast-paced story explores the power of words, the heart of society, and what happens when it becomes illegal to live according to your morals.
Ready? Here it is!
The cover of The Collector of Burned Books!
What do you think??
I LOVE this cover! I was actually given a choice between TWO covers, both of them beautiful, but there was no contest between them in my mind, largely because the second, while gorgeous, didn’t look like my heroine, Corinne, LOL. This one absolutely does!
I love that we have the library, framing a window through which we get that hint of the setting. Now, is the Eiffel Tower actually visible from the library in the book? No. But I am 100% in favor of ignoring that fact for the sake of immediate setting-recognition. 😉 I love the fall colors (the book spans June through December of 1940), I love that back-view of Corinne, and I REALLY love that we even have a glimpse of Christian. This is the first time I’ve ever had my hero on the cover!
Early endorsements
from some authors you know and love.
“With her signature blend of page-turning storytelling, fascinating historical details, and enduring themes, Roseanna M. White draws readers into the dark days after Paris falls to Nazi occupation. Corinne and Christian shine in their undaunted determination to preserve books threatened by a regime that seeks to extinguish truth. The Collector of Burned Books is a stirring and inspiring tribute to the powerful bond between literature and freedom.”
~ Amanda Barratt,
Christy Award-winning author of The Warsaw Sisters and Within These Walls of Sorrow
~*~
“Courage, honor, and sacrifice born of great love overflow the pages of The Collector of Burned Books. Rarely have I read a book with such perfect tension. Meticulously researched, intellectually and spiritually stimulating, compelling and beautifully written, Roseanna White has written a book I could not put down, one I will not forget.”
~ Cathy Gohlke,
Christy Hall of Fame author of This Promised Land and Ladies of the Lake
~*~
“The Collector of Burned Books is a heart-pounding historical that kept me riveted from beginning to end. Roseanna White, a brilliant storyteller, weaves together a gripping plot about the many dangers of distributing prohibited books during the Nazi regime. As her cast of heroic characters secretly fight for freedom, they risk their lives to spread the truth and protect those they love. The Collector of Burned Books should be read by every lover of a life-changing book!”
~ Melanie Dobson,
award-winning author of Chateau of Secrets and The Curator’s Daughter
The Official Description
In this gripping World War II historical about the power of words, two people form an unlikely friendship amid the Nazi occupation in Paris and fight to preserve the truth that enemies of freedom long to destroy.
Paris, 1940. Ever since the Nazi Party began burning books, German writers exiled for their opinions or heritage have been taking up residence in Paris. There they opened a library meant to celebrate the freedom of ideas and gathered every book on the banned list . . . and even incognito versions of the forbidden books that were smuggled back into Germany.
For the last six years, Corinne Bastien has been reading those books and making that library a second home. But when the German army takes possession of Paris, she loses access to the library and all the secrets she’d hidden there. Secrets the Allies will need if they have any hope of liberating the city she calls home.
Christian Bauer may be German, but he never wanted anything to do with the Nazi Party—he is a professor, one who’s done his best to protect his family as well as the books that were a threat to Nazi ideals. But when Goebbels sends him to Paris to handle the “relocation” of France’s libraries, he’s forced into an army uniform and given a rank he doesn’t want. In Paris, he tries to protect whoever and whatever he can from the madness of the Party and preserve the ideas that Germans will need again when that madness is over, and maybe find a lost piece of his heart.
But he hadn’t bargained on meeting a beautiful Parisian scholar who is clearly keeping as many secrets as he is. As Christian and Corinne try to discern each other’s true loyalties, forces beyond their control are making plans that could destroy everything they hold dear.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.