February 1, 2019
The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff
Genre/Categories: Historical Fiction, WW11, Spies, Women’s Fiction
Thank you #netgalley and #parkrowbooks for my free copy of #thelostgirlsofparis in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own. *This post contains affiliate links.
Summary:
Fans of Pam Jenoff (The Orphan’s Tale) will enjoy her newest histfic release, The Lost Girls of Paris. This engaging page turner tells the story of a courageous and brave ring of women spies in WW11. Told from three perspectives and two alternating time periods from 1943-1946, the story revolves around three women: Eleanor, leader of the British secret agents; Marie, a young mother turned spy; and Grace, an inquisitive young woman and Manhattan resident. One day in Grand Central Station, Grace stumbles upon a mystery surrounding the fate of twelve female British spies who never returned home from WW11. Based on true events, the story shines a light on these women of valor.
My thoughts:
Pam Jenoff doesn’t disappoint! She’s one of my must-read-her-newest-release authors.
Well Researched. This story is filled with intrigue and is engaging from the first page, and the details Jenoff uses to describe the training and the dangers demonstrate her meticulous research. Jenoff strikes a good balance between fast paced story telling and including sufficient research to satisfy those who read for historical interest. I appreciate this histfic story for expanding my knowledge about the role women played in WW11 and their little known sacrifice. Even though the story is well researched historical fiction, parts of the story read like women’s fiction (in my perception), so I think it could be considered a mixed genre.
Themes: Important themes include heroism, bravery, friendship, determination, sacrifice, and courage.
Recommended. A women/s fiction/histfic mix, this story of intrigue is recommended for fans of WW11 histfic, for readers who appreciate stories of strong and determined women facing the hardest of circumstances, and for fans of The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.
Find my brief review of Pam Jenoff’s previous novel, The Orphan’s Tale, here.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Meet the Author, Pam Jenoff
Pam Jenoff is the author of several novels, including her most recent, The Orphan’s Tale, an instant New York Times bestseller, and The Kommandant’s Girl, which received widespread acclaim, earned her a nomination for the Quill Awards and became an international bestseller. She previously served as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. State Department in Europe, as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon and as a practicing attorney at a large firm and in-house. She received her juris doctor from the University of Pennsylvania, her masters degree in history from Cambridge University and her bachelors degree in international affairs from The George Washington University. Pam Jenoff lives with her husband and three children near Philadelphia where, in addition to writing, she teaches law school. Pam would love to skype with your book club or library group!Let’s Discuss!
I didn’t know too much about women spies in WW11 until I read books like The Alice Network and The Nightingale. How about you? Do these stories of women spies intrigue you? Do you read histfic?
Have you read The Orphan’s Tale by Jenoff?
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Links
This is important information! Why getting lost in a book is so good for you according to science!
I’ll be updating my Winter TBR as I read and review selections. So check back often!
Don’t miss my Most Memorable Reads of 2018 post here.
In Movie News….
For Fredrik Backman fans, Britt-Marie Was Here will be a movie! (I also heard that a Beartown series is being produced for Europe HBO…so maybe soon in the US?)
Reese Witherspoon to produce “Where the Crawdads Sing” and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
And….here’s the trailer for Where’d You Go Bernadette starring Cate Blanchette.
(You might consider adding these four books to your ‘want to read list’ in preparation!)
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Unless explicitly stated that they are free, all books that I review have been purchased by me or borrowed from the library.
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Lynda Cohen Loigman grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a law degree from Columbia Law School. Lynda practiced trusts and estates law in New York City for eight years before moving out of the city to raise her two children with her husband. She wrote The Two-Family House while she was a student of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. The Two-Family House was chosen by Goodreads as a best book of the month for March, 2016, and was a nominee for the Goodreads 2016 Choice Awards in Historical Fiction. Her second novel, The Wartime Sisters, will be published on January 22, 2019.
Heather Morris is a native of New Zealand, now resident in Australia. For several years, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, she studied and wrote screenplays, one of which was optioned by an Academy Award-winning screenwriter in the US. In 2003, Heather was introduced to an elderly gentleman who ‘might just have a story worth telling’. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed both their lives. Their friendship grew and Lale embarked on a journey of self-scrutiny, entrusting the innermost details of his life during the Holocaust to her. Heather originally wrote Lale’s story as a screenplay – which ranked high in international competitions – before reshaping it into her debut novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Antonio Iturbe lives in Spain, where he is both a novelist and a journalist. In researching this story, he interviewed Dita Kraus, the real-life librarian of Auschwitz.
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Amy Harmon is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times Bestselling author. Her books have been published in eighteen languages, truly a dream come true for a little country girl from Utah.
