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viktoriya's review against another edition
4.0
This book was almost perfect. Almost...
The story is told in dual timeline: Paris, during the Nazi occupation and ten years later, in New York.
Our main character, Charlotte (Charlie) is a young widow and in labor as the Nazis are marching into Paris. She is trying her best to survive during the occupation and to provide food for her small daughter. One day a German officer walked into her bookshop and Charlotte's life changed...
Ten years later, Charlotte is living in New York City, working in a publishing house and is raising her teenage daughter. One day Charlie receives a letter she never expected to see and her daughter starts asking questions Charlotte is not yet ready to answer...
I loved this book,up until the end...Actually, it felt like there was no end. I wish there was an epilogue because I needed some closure.
The story is told in dual timeline: Paris, during the Nazi occupation and ten years later, in New York.
Our main character, Charlotte (Charlie) is a young widow and in labor as the Nazis are marching into Paris. She is trying her best to survive during the occupation and to provide food for her small daughter. One day a German officer walked into her bookshop and Charlotte's life changed...
Ten years later, Charlotte is living in New York City, working in a publishing house and is raising her teenage daughter. One day Charlie receives a letter she never expected to see and her daughter starts asking questions Charlotte is not yet ready to answer...
I loved this book,up until the end...Actually, it felt like there was no end. I wish there was an epilogue because I needed some closure.
energyrae's review against another edition
4.0
Told in alternating timelines of Paris during the ‘40s, and New York in the ‘50s, we follow Charlotte's unwavering protection of her daughter, Vivi, during the war and her desire to protect her from the past a decade later. Those who worked with the Germans faced harsh repercussions from their fellow man. Charlotte is doing what she thinks is best to feed her daughter, who is withering away by the time that part of the story starts. But it’s a dangerous business working with a German officer, no matter how good that man’s intentions may seem.
In the book’s present-day, Charlotte doesn’t want to face the past and what she did. She hides in shame for her actions. Actions we might not see as shameful but weren't in her position to judge. Vivi is a good daughter, and she’s incredibly smart. She desires to know more about her father who lost his life to the war. She wants to know more about her heritage, which her mother would rather keep buried.
I enjoyed this one more than others, and perhaps it’s because I read a lot of WW2 historical fiction that I’m able to enjoy Charlotte’s unique voice. Feldman gave us Charlotte’s life during the war, which didn’t wholly reflect that of others. It doesn’t show fully what is happening to the Jews, and that’s okay. The big story here is a mother’s fierce protection of their child and living with the guilt that comes with Charlotte’s situation. I find her guilt raw and honest. Part historical, part romance, this is a well-written, enjoyable read. Thank you, St. Martin's, for sending this along!
In the book’s present-day, Charlotte doesn’t want to face the past and what she did. She hides in shame for her actions. Actions we might not see as shameful but weren't in her position to judge. Vivi is a good daughter, and she’s incredibly smart. She desires to know more about her father who lost his life to the war. She wants to know more about her heritage, which her mother would rather keep buried.
I enjoyed this one more than others, and perhaps it’s because I read a lot of WW2 historical fiction that I’m able to enjoy Charlotte’s unique voice. Feldman gave us Charlotte’s life during the war, which didn’t wholly reflect that of others. It doesn’t show fully what is happening to the Jews, and that’s okay. The big story here is a mother’s fierce protection of their child and living with the guilt that comes with Charlotte’s situation. I find her guilt raw and honest. Part historical, part romance, this is a well-written, enjoyable read. Thank you, St. Martin's, for sending this along!
quiche12's review against another edition
4.0
This is a different take on WW II fiction. I enjoyed the exploration of occupation and survival guilt. It also asked questions about identity and collaboration.
lee's review against another edition
2.0
This is a difficult review for me to write, as I really wanted to like this book, but there were just too many things wrong with it, to the point that the negatives ended up outweighing the few positives. I was initially drawn to this book because of the premise and also the genre of historical fiction being one of my favorites. The first chapter actually started off okay, but unfortunately, the more I read, the more I found it difficult to get into the story – my attention would start to wander and next thing I knew, I was skimming pages rather than actually reading.
The biggest problem I had with the story was its structure. Going into this, I was expecting an alternating timeline between wartime Paris and 1950s New York as mentioned in the premise. I’m fine with alternating timelines, as I read a lot of historical fiction and am used to seeing that with the genre. Usually, with dual timelines, there is an identifier that clearly differentiates the past from the present – be it separate chapters with the timeframe indicated at the start, or, if within the same chapter, a marker of some sort or even a transition sentence or two. For some reason, none of that existed in this book, at least not in the copy I received. There was no clear delineation whatsoever between the two timelines, no transition or anything – each chapter seemed to start in the present, but then a few paragraphs in, it would seemingly jump to the past and then later jump back to the present. For example – there would be a scene where the main character Charlotte is talking to her daughter Vivi, who is 14 years old in the present (1950s New York), about something, then in the next paragraph, Vivi is described as being asleep in the back room of a store while there is some drama going on in the front room...it took me a bit to realize that paragraph was actually describing something that occurred 10 years ago when Charlotte was still in Paris and Vivi was only 4 years old. There was no transition sentence or even a few words to indicate that Charlotte was thinking of a past memory – in fact, the entire sequence would be written in the same present tense voice, which made it feel like everything was happening in the same timeline when they obviously weren’t. This made the story very confusing and extremely hard to follow. Not only that, it also made it hard for me to connect with any of the characters, as I was too distracted trying to sort out the timelines and ended up not paying as much attention to what was happening with the characters.
Speaking of the characters....as if the timeline thing wasn’t confusing enough, the way some of the characters were written was a bit all over the place. There were some sections where a character would be referred to by their first name, but had not been introduced or mentioned previously, making it feel like the character was randomly dropped into the story without explanation of who they were – a few times I actually had to go back and re-read previous sections to see if I may have missed something. Interestingly enough, there were also some sections where the opposite occurred – there would be paragraph upon paragraph describing someone doing something or interacting with someone else, but the entire time, only the gender pronoun (he or she) would be used and no name would be mentioned.
I also had an issue with the way the historical elements were incorporated into the story. In some of the chapters, a historical situation would be brought up and the description of it would go on for pages and pages, sometimes to the point that it felt disconnected from the rest of the plot. Basically, the historical elements didn’t blend well into the story, which made me feel at times that I was reading a fictional story with random history lessons haphazardly inserted in places where it didn’t make sense. But then in other sections, there would be no historical element at all, just some soap opera-ish drama and/or back-and-forth dialogue between some of the characters.
Overall, this book was a chore to read, as the serious flaws with the execution made it mostly not work for me. Unfortunately, the basic structural issues were too overwhelming and therefore hard for me to ignore, which is a shame, as I felt the story did have potential. With that said, I’m a bit of an outlier here, since there are plenty of positive reviews for this book, so I would suggest checking those out as well for a more balanced perspective.
Received ARC from St. Martin’s Griffin via Edelweiss.
The biggest problem I had with the story was its structure. Going into this, I was expecting an alternating timeline between wartime Paris and 1950s New York as mentioned in the premise. I’m fine with alternating timelines, as I read a lot of historical fiction and am used to seeing that with the genre. Usually, with dual timelines, there is an identifier that clearly differentiates the past from the present – be it separate chapters with the timeframe indicated at the start, or, if within the same chapter, a marker of some sort or even a transition sentence or two. For some reason, none of that existed in this book, at least not in the copy I received. There was no clear delineation whatsoever between the two timelines, no transition or anything – each chapter seemed to start in the present, but then a few paragraphs in, it would seemingly jump to the past and then later jump back to the present. For example – there would be a scene where the main character Charlotte is talking to her daughter Vivi, who is 14 years old in the present (1950s New York), about something, then in the next paragraph, Vivi is described as being asleep in the back room of a store while there is some drama going on in the front room...it took me a bit to realize that paragraph was actually describing something that occurred 10 years ago when Charlotte was still in Paris and Vivi was only 4 years old. There was no transition sentence or even a few words to indicate that Charlotte was thinking of a past memory – in fact, the entire sequence would be written in the same present tense voice, which made it feel like everything was happening in the same timeline when they obviously weren’t. This made the story very confusing and extremely hard to follow. Not only that, it also made it hard for me to connect with any of the characters, as I was too distracted trying to sort out the timelines and ended up not paying as much attention to what was happening with the characters.
Speaking of the characters....as if the timeline thing wasn’t confusing enough, the way some of the characters were written was a bit all over the place. There were some sections where a character would be referred to by their first name, but had not been introduced or mentioned previously, making it feel like the character was randomly dropped into the story without explanation of who they were – a few times I actually had to go back and re-read previous sections to see if I may have missed something. Interestingly enough, there were also some sections where the opposite occurred – there would be paragraph upon paragraph describing someone doing something or interacting with someone else, but the entire time, only the gender pronoun (he or she) would be used and no name would be mentioned.
I also had an issue with the way the historical elements were incorporated into the story. In some of the chapters, a historical situation would be brought up and the description of it would go on for pages and pages, sometimes to the point that it felt disconnected from the rest of the plot. Basically, the historical elements didn’t blend well into the story, which made me feel at times that I was reading a fictional story with random history lessons haphazardly inserted in places where it didn’t make sense. But then in other sections, there would be no historical element at all, just some soap opera-ish drama and/or back-and-forth dialogue between some of the characters.
Overall, this book was a chore to read, as the serious flaws with the execution made it mostly not work for me. Unfortunately, the basic structural issues were too overwhelming and therefore hard for me to ignore, which is a shame, as I felt the story did have potential. With that said, I’m a bit of an outlier here, since there are plenty of positive reviews for this book, so I would suggest checking those out as well for a more balanced perspective.
Received ARC from St. Martin’s Griffin via Edelweiss.
darladark's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved the storyline of this book and am absolutely addicted to wartime historical fiction. The research is fantastic in its informing of the story. Sometimes I found it hard switching between timelines and narratives.
noble_editorial's review against another edition
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this story. It was good overall, and well-written, but I found that the parts set in the 1950s lacked tension and the characters fell a bit flat. The glamour of the publishing industry wasn't really captured and the chemistry between the characters wasn't always believable.
afpena's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, and War
maryemmer's review against another edition
Maybe the style of writing in this book is just not for me. It's just not grabbing my attention. Can't make it past page 46.
kgormley's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this story. It's a bit different than the other WWII novels that seem to be quite popular these days. This book jumps between occupied Paris and New York a few years later. The story of Charlotte and Viv, how they survived and ultimately escaped from occupied Paris, then how those decisions and events affected the rest of their lives was interesting and engaging.
There were times when this book was hard to read ... most of us {thankfully} have never lived through anything like this, and hopefully never will. Although this book was very good, I would not consider it a clean read. On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being squeaky clean, I'd give it a 3.75!
I read an Advance Reader's Copy made available to me through NetGalley.
There were times when this book was hard to read ... most of us {thankfully} have never lived through anything like this, and hopefully never will. Although this book was very good, I would not consider it a clean read. On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being squeaky clean, I'd give it a 3.75!
I read an Advance Reader's Copy made available to me through NetGalley.