The Paris Daughter

In all honestly I loved this book until the very end. But I had this guy feeling that Lucie was Mathilde and I just kept thinking that can't be right because it would ruin the book. As it got closer to the end I kept hoping that she would not make one last twist, but she did. Ugh!!! For me it just didn't work. Ruth and her kids didn't recognize her? She went along with it even as her mom was terrible to her? It just did not work and ruined a book that had been wonderful up to that point and would have worked without that twist!!

This Kristin Harmel didn’t grab me like her The Book of Lost Names did. I ranked that one a 10. For this WW2 book, saw the plot twist a mile away. Felt Juliet was poorly written and frankly, unrealistically focused on her lost family. How in the world she attracted Husband #2 is a mystery. Or, why he stayed with her, given her constant talking to dead people. Her complete about-face with Elise didn’t resonate. She was okay with Elise leaving Mathilde with her. Then grew bitter for a plot-contrived reason? Just didn’t gel. Elise was well-written. Mathilde, too. Glad there wasn’t too much carnage at the end.

I haven’t read a Kristin Harmel book I didn’t like — and this one does not disappoint! An emotional story about motherhood during one of the most inhumane times in history. Two American woman, Elise and Juliette, found love abroad marrying Frenchman. Diving into each of their stories, we see that their marriages are very juxtaposing to one another. Fate leads these women to cross paths in a park when Elise is having practice contractions and Juliette, a mother of three, takes her to her bookstore and calls a doctor. These two become fast friends deepening their bond when they both give birth to baby girls around the same time. Their girls grow up alongside one another developing a sister-like bond. One day Elise is forced into a difficult decision to flee for her safety and leaves her daughter Mathilde in the trusted care of Juliette’s family as her best chance to survive the war.

I found this story to dive deep into the unique perspective of mothers during WWII and the tough decisions they had to make for their children in hopes to keep them safe from the destruction of war. We also see the emotional struggle post war of what the journey was like to seek out your children not necessarily knowing where they ended up and the grief for families who were unable to locate loved ones. Through this powerful story we understand how powerful words are when we can share someone’s last moments to provide closure for a loved one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kristin Harmel, and Gallery Books for an ebook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Completely predictable.

Great story about events related to children during WWII. The characters were genuine and the plot held my interest. Ending was a real twist! The author used true life events as the backdrop for the novel.