I always talk about my “Reading Eras" in this column. I have shared, perhaps over-shared, my current love of romantic comedy and my time spent devouring dystopian fiction as a young adult, and I have told you all how I went for years reading so many thrillers that I couldn't keep them all straight. At one time, I spent months with my nose stuck firmly in all things Game of Thrones, and I have gone through a similar phase where it was all Outlander all the time. Despite my current obsession with spicy comedy, I have been doing my best to mix it up a little bit this week. Several years ago, I was reading a ton of historical fiction set during World War II. There is certainly no shortage of interesting stories from this period to keep readers and authors busy forever, and this book is one of the good ones.
“The Paris Daughter” is a gripping and heartbreaking new release from a favorite author in this genre, Kristin Harmel. “The Paris Daughter” begins in 1939 and is the story of two young mothers, Elise and Juliette, living in Paris when the shadow of war falls over their idyllic lives. When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she is forced to make the impossible decision to leave her daughter in the care of Juliette and her husband while she goes into hiding. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it. More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to Elise’s daughter? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time.
“The Paris Daughter” will rip your heart to pieces and put it back together simultaneously. It is a story about mothers and daughters, friends and sisters, and the grit it takes to survive a horrific war that no one escaped from without losing a piece of themselves. This book is well-researched and blends actual events seamlessly with fictional ones. Several twists and turns within the story will keep you guessing and turning pages. “The Paris Daughter” is another win from Harmel, the author of fan-fave “The Book of Lost Names.” If you are a lover of historical fiction, you will love anything from this author for sure.
That's all for this week – back into the stacks I go, possibly to find my new reading era, possibly to rekindle an old one. Only time will tell. If you want to follow along, you will find me reading and rambling my heart out over on Instagram @allison.the.reader as usual.
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