I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing author Adele Parks for the Storytime in Paris podcast on the Paris Underground Radio podcast network, which features interviews with authors who have a French connection.

One Last Secret on Apple Books ‎One Last Secret on Apple Books

During her career Adele has lived in Italy, Botswana and London. Now she lives happily in Surrey, UK with her husband, son and cat.A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France – it should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning and discreet escort and Daniel has paid for her services before. This time, all she has to do is convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a front. And wouldn’t you know it, one look at her bruised, abused face is all it takes for her bestie Evan to propose marriage. They’ve never had sex – it’s been refreshing for Dora to have a friend without benefits in her life – but they are as intimate as two people can be without it. They share nearly everything with each other – Evan is one of the few people who knows just what Dora does for a living, and he loves her anyway. Dora knows all his foibles and hangups, too – and loves him anyway. They come from two different worlds – she’s the daughter of immigrants who had to flee their wartorn homeland, and he’s the son of one of the richest and most powerful men in Britain, but that has never mattered. Several years into their unexpected friendship they’ve found they connect more with each other than they do with their so-called peers. They’ve been circling the idea of taking their relationship to the next level, but Dora is pleasantly surprised and delighted by the fact that Evan is willing to skip the in-between steps of dating and living together to head straight to the altar. She says yes, and just like that, they’re engaged. Evan does demand she quit her job, however, worried there could be another incident like the one she just lived through. Dora also fears a repeat of that experience and is happy to hang up her stilettos and start planning a wedding. Dora is an high classed escort who happens to fall into a doting relationship with her friend Evan. They get engaged. He knows her history and feels nevertheless that they would be a good match and Dora is pretty OK about getting married. It would be such a novelty to be loved for her and not admired, for the services she provides.

One Last Secret: From the Sunday Times Number One bestselling One Last Secret: From the Sunday Times Number One bestselling

It didn’t take long for me to invested in Dora’s story. As a ‘lady of the night’, Dora’s frank, blunt narrative is very honest and it felt like she was talking directly to me as a reader. Like a confessional, Dora makes it clear that her life is not glamorous and that she accepts the criticisms behind her profession. However, money is the driving force and Dora shows she is not embarrassed by what she does: she is embarrassed because she does not know what she would do instead with her life. Her fiancé shows up at the murder house. Dora explains little about what happened and her fiancé is confused about his dad. He leaves the room, seeing to agree to MURDER HIS FIANCÉ because his dad says so. Her captor gets drunk and explains everything while her fiancé is out of the room. She stabs dad, who falls into the pool and drowns because she and fiancé can’t swim. Fiancé has overheard drunken dad confession. Dora and fiancé cover up murder and/or self-defense homicide by burning down mansion which was also fiancé’s family summer home.That is more than enough. From here it needs to be a blank canvas. We learn alot about Dora, her past life and her decisions that have shaped the way she lives today. The story is told mostly from her point of view and she is very open about her work and lifestyle. And she makes some good points on how her profession is viewed in society. This is told mostly from the first person account of Dora/Teodora, who is a high end escort/sex worker. She isn't ashamed of the way she earns money, but when a client gets too rough she decides it's time to leave the business. Dora can't resist but take one last job as a favor to a client, a weekend away at a luxury home, yet what happens there is not what she was expecting.