Thank you to Leah Johanson and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour for Paris Never Leaves You! I received an advance copy of the book in exchange for my honest review!
This book is told in two parts, Wartime Paris and 1950s New York. The story is told by Charlotte and we learn what it was like to live in Paris during the Nazi regime. The detail that encompasses this book was unreal and I felt like I had stepped back in time when Charlotte flashes back to those times.
She currently lives in New York with her boss. He was a friend of her father and he took her and her daughter in when they fled from France. The relationship between the two of them is delicate and unique and has you questioning it throughout the whole book. The dynamics were definitely eyebrow raising.
Parts of this book were hard to read and even though this is a work of fiction, the things this book describes absolutely took place. Sometimes it is hard to wrap your head around everything, but that’s the truth in wartime history. This will be a great story to read for those of you who enjoy World War II fiction.
I did find it hard to follow along in parts of the book as suddenly it would jump scenes without a break. Once I figured out what was happening I could get back into the reading, but it did make it a little more difficult for me. There is a romance story line, which is a little odd at first, but everything weaves together and makes much more sense in the end.
4 stars. The tale this tells of Charlotte and her adventure to safe herself and her daughter is one that I didn’t quite see coming. As a mother, I don’t blame her in the least for what she did and I wish she saw things the same way.
Author Bio
ELLEN FELDMAN, a 2009 Guggenheim fellow, is the author of Terrible Virtue, The Unwitting, Next to Love, Scottsboro (shortlisted for the Orange Prize), The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank (translated into nine languages), and Lucy. Her novel Terrible Virtue was optioned by Black Bicycle for a feature film.
Buy Links
Amazon
BN
IndieBound
BAM
Apple
Kobo
Google
Title: Paris Never Leaves You
Author: Ellen Feldman
Genre(s): Fiction, Historical Fiction, WWII
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: August 4, 2020
Find it here on Goodreads
Donna's Reading Chair 