Audio: The Lost Girls of Paris - Pam Jenoff

Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Henrietta Meire, Candace Thaxton

Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 01-29-19

Language: English

Publisher: Harlequin Audio

Thank you Harper for this copy!

Historical fiction

My Thoughts

This one has 3 POVS and takes place in 1944 and 1946.

In 1944 Eleanor Trigg gets permission to starts a women's division for "spies" to be sent to France. Women can blend in more than men can at that time, but even though she wants this she also wants to make sure the women can take care of themselves.

Marie is one of the women that gets sent to France. She is unlikely to make it and we follow her to a dangerous time. Oh Marie, some of the decisions she made. 

In 1946 Clare finds 12 photographs and tries to find out what happened to those women.

It's not the first book I read about female radio operators, messengers and saboteurs in France. And Germany's Nacht und Nebel program. So I knew it would be sad. But there is always hope and I kept that hope until the end.

Considering Clare's pov was only 2 years later that felt weird. Sure things were fresh in everyone's mind, but, oh I do not know. Maybe cos the author wanted to mention other things still going on then. I also felt that Clare should have made another decision at the end, no spoilers ;)

The France bits were obviously exciting. The training they had to have to make it. I still remember this other book were a woman looks the wrong before crossing the street and gets taken by the Germans that way. I could sure not have done it.

Conclusion:

A good book that reminds us that men were not the only ones fighting in the WWII

NarratioN
Elizabeth Knowelden, Henrietta Meire, Candace Thaxton
I liked that there were 3 different narrators. That did make it see the povs clearer. They all did well and had different voices that fitted their characters

Blurb

1946, Manhattan

Grace Healey is rebuilding her life after losing her husband during the war. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, she finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.

Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a ring of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.

Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war, and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances 

The last embrace - Pam Jenoff

August 1940 and 16-year-old refugee Addie escapes Fascist Italy to live with her aunt and uncle in Atlantic City. As WW2 breaks, she finds acceptance and love with Charlie Connelly and his family.

But war changes everything: secrets and passions abound, and when one brother’s destructive choices lead to the tragic death of another, the Connelly family is decimated, and Addie along with them.

Now 18, she flees, first to Washington and then to war-torn London where she is swept up with life as a correspondent. But when Charlie, now a paratrooper, re-appears, Addie discovers that the past is impossible to outrun. Now she must make one last desperate attempt to find within herself the answers that will lead the way home. 

My thoughts:

This is the story of Addie, who flees Italy to go live with her aunt and uncle. Her family is Jewish, and even if she does not know the fate of them, the rest of us sure know what could happen.

In Philadelphia she meets the Connelly family, and feels like one of them. She also has a crush on one of the sons. 

We get to see pre-war USA and the tensions it causes. Not to mention how she as a Jew should stick to her neighborhood, and not go to the Irish one. People do not mix.  Only with your own kind, race, country.

But that is only one part of the story. There is also Washington after a tragedy in Philly. And London later on. I liked the London part as it took us closer to the war.

As for Addie. She loved and never forgot. But this is not a romance. I never even knew who I wanted her to be with. First love is good, but true forever?

Conclusion:

There is this other Jenoff book I want to try now, it sounds so good, and I do enjoy her style.

Cover

Nice

Paperback, 384 pages
Expected publication: August 13th 2015 by MIRA
Historical fiction
For review