A Marais Tea Room Prequel
Eighteen months a widow, Margaux Beaumont is about to put her late husband's name in gold letters over a door in the Marais.
Antoine left her a tea room she never asked for, a black cat with a white chin, and fourteen notebooks full of teas she has never tasted — and cannot yet bring herself to open. Before the first body, before the first question, there was the threshold. This is that story.
~6,000 words
Short story, one sitting
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— The First Notebook, A Marais Tea Room Prequel
Continues for ~6,000 words
Want to find out what Antoine wrote?
Get the full story — freeMeet the American translator the quarter will come to rely on — eighteen months a widow, opening a tea room out of pure stubbornness and grief.
Antoine left her a year of teas labelled by mood and fourteen black notebooks she has never opened. The series begins with what's inside them.
Pernod knew before she did. The first thing he ever set down on the saucer behind the counter — and the start of a small, faithful habit.
A blue cellar door, an iron padlock, and a key that is not on any ring Antoine left her. Some things in the Marais wait for their hour.
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You'll get an email within a few minutes with a link to read "The First Notebook" as a PDF. Check your spam folder if it doesn't arrive — and add sophie@sophielavigneauthor.com to your contacts.
It's not required — Crumbs at Number 7 works perfectly as a starting point. But the prequel gives you Margaux's backstory, the tea room, and the fourteen notebooks, so the references in Book 1 land harder. Most readers say they're glad they started here.
You'll receive the story, then occasional notes from me about new releases, the Marais, and the odd tea or recipe that didn't make it into the books. I write them myself. They're short and (I hope) worth your time.
Yes — the PDF is compatible with Kindle. Save it, then email it to your @kindle.com address or use the free Send to Kindle app, and it appears in your library.
Also from Sophie Lavigne — a bakery, a borrowed cat, and a village in the south of France.
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