The Girl You Left Behind: A Novel
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars and the forthcoming Someone Else's Shoes, a sweeping bestseller of love and loss, deftly weaving two journeys from World War I France to present day London. Paris, World War I. Sophie Lefèvre must keep her family safe while her adored husband, Édouard, fights at the front. When their town falls to the Germans, Sophie is forced to serve them every evening at her hotel. From the moment the new Kommandant sets eyes on Sophie's portrait--painted by her artist husband--a dangerous obsession is born. Almost a century later in London, Sophie's portrait hangs in the home of Liv Halston, a wedding gift from her young husband before his sudden death. After a chance encounter reveals the portrait's true worth, a battle begins over its troubled history and Liv's world is turned upside all over again.
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Community Reviews
I'm not a big fan of historical fiction, but Ms. Moyes won me over with this book! Very cleverly constructed to weave the old in with the new! I think I'll give more of her books a chance in the future!
I'm going to bet a nickel and a dime that a lot of people have read this book or plan on reading this book because of their fondness for [b:Me Before You|15507958|Me Before You|Jojo Moyes|https:d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1357108762s/15507958.jpg|17763198].
Let's come right out with it.
This is no Me Before You.
It will not give you the same "crying like all the periods in your lifetime are rolled up into one day" feeling. If you think you would be a whiny-pants and compare the two, you would probably be better off skipping it. This is from the same author, yes, but this is not a series. These are two completely separate books. Therefore, as I review, even if there are some similarities, I will not say, "As it was in Me Before You (you know - that amazing book that knocked my socks off and made me do the ugly cry)..." Me Before You, you had your turn.
Now on to:
THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND!
I never considered myself a fan of historical romance fiction. I thought that genre would be either a real snoozefest or too hokey-lovey-dovey. I admit that I had no real evidence to back this up except that the covers often look gimmicky.
I was less than enthused to read a story set during WWI; I couldn't fit a thimble with everything I know about WWI. Imagine my delight when I became completely entranced by Sophie's story set during WWI!
As many other reviewers have provided pretty detailed synopses, I'll just give the the long and skinny:
Sophie Lefevre is a young French woman whose husband is away at war. She lives with her sister, Helene, and her sister's children. She is everything you want your protagonist to be - bold, funny, loving, hopeful, spunky. The Germans are occupying her town and decide that Sophie and her sister will provide them with warm, evening meals at their family owned hotel. Although she boils with hate and distaste for the Germans, Sophie forms a semblance of a relationship with the Kommandant. There are flashbacks during this time in which Sophie recalls better times with her husband. I gobbled up these little memory snippets; these were never overdone and had me swooning all the same.
Then there is this business with the painting of Sophie done by her husband. No big deal. It's just the little orb that everything else revolves around. I liked the concept of a piece of art meaning so much but only to a few people. There was something unpretty about it to most but it was life changing to others. I think that is true of the very best art - it doesn't affect all, but it deeply affects the few.
So there I was, enjoying reading about a girl I could have been good friends with a hundred years ago, and...
CUE ABRUPT STORY/TIME/CHARACTER CHANGE.
Whoa! Wait a minute! WHO THE HELL IS LIV AND WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO SOPHIE?!
Rude.
So, enter Modern Day Liv who lives in a giant glass house and lost her husband and meets a new friend and new main squeeze and goes to trial over the Sophie painting that found its way to her home. Yes, it really does all make sense believe it or not.
Unfortunately, I just didn't love these modern day parts as much as the Sophie/WWI parts. It wasn't that the Modern Day Liv bits were uninteresting. They just weren't as interesting. I just didn't care about them as much. And I started to resent Liv for taking up so many pages while Sophie got so few. I did, however, appreciate how everything came together and was relevant. It was certainly no Gillian Flynn, but it was still a nice little puzzle. I really liked the ending and felt no dissatisfaction once I finished.
I won't read this one again, but I will definitely read more Jojo (see? I liked it enough that we are on a first name basis now). I love her characteres, her writing style, and her (believable) story lines.
And I think I will probably be giving that whole historical fiction thing a shot, too.
4/5
Let's come right out with it.
This is no Me Before You.
It will not give you the same "crying like all the periods in your lifetime are rolled up into one day" feeling. If you think you would be a whiny-pants and compare the two, you would probably be better off skipping it. This is from the same author, yes, but this is not a series. These are two completely separate books. Therefore, as I review, even if there are some similarities, I will not say, "As it was in Me Before You (you know - that amazing book that knocked my socks off and made me do the ugly cry)..." Me Before You, you had your turn.
Now on to:
THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND!
I never considered myself a fan of historical romance fiction. I thought that genre would be either a real snoozefest or too hokey-lovey-dovey. I admit that I had no real evidence to back this up except that the covers often look gimmicky.
I was less than enthused to read a story set during WWI; I couldn't fit a thimble with everything I know about WWI. Imagine my delight when I became completely entranced by Sophie's story set during WWI!
As many other reviewers have provided pretty detailed synopses, I'll just give the the long and skinny:
Sophie Lefevre is a young French woman whose husband is away at war. She lives with her sister, Helene, and her sister's children. She is everything you want your protagonist to be - bold, funny, loving, hopeful, spunky. The Germans are occupying her town and decide that Sophie and her sister will provide them with warm, evening meals at their family owned hotel. Although she boils with hate and distaste for the Germans, Sophie forms a semblance of a relationship with the Kommandant. There are flashbacks during this time in which Sophie recalls better times with her husband. I gobbled up these little memory snippets; these were never overdone and had me swooning all the same.
Then there is this business with the painting of Sophie done by her husband. No big deal. It's just the little orb that everything else revolves around. I liked the concept of a piece of art meaning so much but only to a few people. There was something unpretty about it to most but it was life changing to others. I think that is true of the very best art - it doesn't affect all, but it deeply affects the few.
So there I was, enjoying reading about a girl I could have been good friends with a hundred years ago, and...
CUE ABRUPT STORY/TIME/CHARACTER CHANGE.
Whoa! Wait a minute! WHO THE HELL IS LIV AND WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO SOPHIE?!
Rude.
So, enter Modern Day Liv who lives in a giant glass house and lost her husband and meets a new friend and new main squeeze and goes to trial over the Sophie painting that found its way to her home. Yes, it really does all make sense believe it or not.
Unfortunately, I just didn't love these modern day parts as much as the Sophie/WWI parts. It wasn't that the Modern Day Liv bits were uninteresting. They just weren't as interesting. I just didn't care about them as much. And I started to resent Liv for taking up so many pages while Sophie got so few. I did, however, appreciate how everything came together and was relevant. It was certainly no Gillian Flynn, but it was still a nice little puzzle. I really liked the ending and felt no dissatisfaction once I finished.
I won't read this one again, but I will definitely read more Jojo (see? I liked it enough that we are on a first name basis now). I love her characteres, her writing style, and her (believable) story lines.
And I think I will probably be giving that whole historical fiction thing a shot, too.
4/5
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