Little Blue Box by Frances Dall’Alba is a suspenseful fictional story of fate, secrets, love and the desperate desire for a young woman to find her biological father.
Ella Harvey is part of a loving family. She lives with her mum and step-siblings and her step father has recently passed. Ella’s always puzzled over her birth certificate, which says “Father Unknown”. How could her mother not know who her father actually is!?
While cleaning the top of her mum’s wardrobe, Ella comes across a small cardboard box, yellow and stained, obviously forgotten.
She wonders if this will be a clue to her father. It wouldn’t hurt to have a tiny peek and then put it back.
Inside was a photo of her mum and another woman, a baby photo cut from a newspaper and a small blue box with a tiny baby bracelet inside with another name on it.
For 26 years Bella has been asking about the identity of her biological father. Every time she asked her mum she never got an answer.
The deep need to find her father has always been there and now she has some clues to start searching Maybe if she searched for the other woman in the photo, she might have information.
Zane Peden works as an investigator while studying criminology, he has six months to go before graduation. Fate brings Ella to Zane’s office. There is an immediate mutual attraction between them!
Ella shows Zane her minimal clues. Zane is shocked to find that his own family must have secrets too.
With a conflict of interest and no usable information, the case is closed. Zane works privately on the case.
Just how little or how much should he tell Ella? And how can he find the truth without upsetting anyone?
When Zane does find Ella’s biological father, headstrong and strong-willed Ella decides to confront him with no thought to the consequences.
What will the consequences be?
Will Ella’s family recover?
What will Zane find out about his own family?’
Will Ella’s and Zane’s love survive?
Should secrets stay secret?
This is an excellent story. One you can’t put down!
Great strong characters and some big secrets that keep you turning the pages.
A selection of our members are reading Little Blue Box. Read their feedback below, or add your own review.
I love to read, any book on any topic. I now love ebooks as they are easier to store, I was running out of bookshelves! My other interests are family, gardening and our beautiful King Charles spaniel dog who is my reading companion.
Such an enjoyable story, easy to read, with lots of secrets to unfold and explore. The characters are well developed and relatable as they struggle with their emotions which threaten to disturb and destroy the family dynamics underpinning the narrative. Overall a great little book to read while snuggled up in bed.
I loved Little Blue Box by Frances Dall ‘ Alba.
I don’t read many Ebooks but am glad I read this one. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I read it over two nights as I couldn’t put it down.
This story is set in both Queensland and in Boston. Ella and Zane are strong main characters who meet when Ella goes to him to help her find her biological father and their attraction is instant . Their relationship develops during the investigation but the discovery of many secrets could ultimately destroy this as well as other lives.
Dall’Alba has developed her characters really well and the ending is both a positive and welcome one.
One thing I would have liked to read more about was how she convinced her step siblings to move to Australia . I’m sure though this might be covered in the next book in the series. The Stone In The Road. Can’t wait!
I really enjoyed being taken on the journey of The Little Blue Box by Frances Dall’alba and the best part is that I already know there is another book available following on with some of the characters I was introduced to in this story! I didn’t know what to expect when I first started reading and was happily surprised with good, strong main characters, kind, caring secondary characters and a storyline that was different. There were many unexpected twists and turns along the way and it wasn’t the usual romance book- thank goodness. It was a journey that I was really invested in and I ended up reading the whole book in one sitting. Thank you Beauty and Lace for letting me review this book >:o)
The sign of a good book is when you read it in one weekend, and I was fortunate to have the time to read this in just a couple of sittings with a blanket on my lap. It was just the perfect reading material for winter relaxing.
The story of how Ella and Zane met and how they lives are interwoven was an enjoyable tale. A bit of mystery and family secrets added to the romance genre.
It was an easy to read ebook and I would recommend it to those who like Australian authors or romantic novels.
Thanks for giving the opportunity to read Little Blue Box Beauty and Lace – I will definitely read the next one in the series.
Little Blue Box follows the story of Bella, an engineer who discovers and tries to explore a hidden family secret. Bella meets Zane, a private investigator who helps her figure out this mystery and along the way discover their feelings for each other.
While the story was enjoyable to read and easy to get in to, I felt that some aspects could have been developed further while others left out. At times I struggled to match the character’s personalities with that of their emotional reactions and while I ended up overthinking some of their motivations, it took me out of the journey they were going on.
I would read more from Frances Dall’Alba and certainly would be interested in the future of these characters in subsequent stories.
Thank you Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to read this e-book.
I really loved this book as its unique story unfolded of secrets which unfolded and a romance that had me wondering if it would last. Great ending too which was surprising, yet heartwarming with a lot of growing to happen.
Thankyou so much for this one as I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I have mixed feelings about this book.
To me it tried to pack in so much, that it just didn’t flow, and the storyline was unbelievable due to this.
The character Bella, really irritated me, as she was so annoyingly immature. She was portraid to sound like someone much younger than she actually was.
The reference to Zane, and his ‘years’ as a cop and Private investigator, making him so knowlegeable, also unbelievable, as they are both only in their 20’s.
How did the 1/2 siblings suddenly up and move, when there was only a mention in 1 chapter of a not so nice first encounter.
The little blue box was big enough to have a photo in it, but was so small it was lost between chairs at the prison.
The story had good bones, and was a quick read, but sadly, I didn’t really enjoy it.
It needed to be a nitty cartel, bad boy storyline, OR a romance with a bit of intrigue, but to me the way it is, just doesn’t work. I will however, read any subsequent books that may follow, to see if it pieces the stoty together better.
Thank you Beauty & Lace for the opportunity to read and review Little Blue Box.
Thank you Beauty and Lace and Frances Dall’Alba for letting me read the first book in the Australians at heart series. I enjoyed this book so much and can’t wait to read the next two books in the series. I absolutely loved the events that got Zane and Ella to meet and loved watched the mystery unfold. I found the story flowed well and was easy to read. Some events I did find a bit unbelievable but made the story all the more interesting in my opinion.