Reviews

Den franska fotografen by Natasha Lester

emjen16's review against another edition

3.0

This had all the things I love about a Natasha Lester historical fiction novel: a little romance, two timelines, believable characters. She excels at writing real, tangible characters that I have a tendency to fall in love with.

However, I found so much of the plot to be BORING. I love her writing style, but this one was way slower than I needed it to be and I felt the plot stalling as I read. The last few chapters wrapped up so quickly and suddenly I wasn't quite sure it was over when I read the last page.

Nonetheless, this book covers important and often overlooked pieces of history. I love reading historical fiction for just that reason and I enjoy authors who actively work to tell a hidden, time-forgotten story.

paddlefoot55's review against another edition

5.0

Oh my, Natasha Lester knows how to write amazing stories.


Before you start reading, google Lee Miller Hitler bathtub for a bit of an idea of what kind of woman our leading lady, Jess May is inspired by.

I just started singing Pop Musik by M as I was writing this, as our story takes us from New York and all across Europe during the last couple of years of WW2.

I was drawn right into this story, and swept away with Jess and the other female war correspondents, who tackled not only war, but misogyny and sexism every day.

She caught the beauty of war, along with the pain and suffering and horrors - I found myself googling people and places as I was reading, as I needed to get more of a visual of the places she was writing about.

Told both in the 2000s and during the war, it was wonderful to see the links form and get uncovered between The Photographer of today and of the amazing people surviving the atrocities.

I couldn't help but turn each page to find out where she was next, what she was capturing, what emotion I was going to feel next.

This story has also made me interested about reading more of the ladies like Martha Gellhorn, Lee Miller and their ilk.

Thank you Ms Lester for another amazing story.
       

mackeylime's review against another edition

3.0

Strong characters, but the way the ending sorts itself out is a bit much

tirritirri_reads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

ilehim's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense

5.0

_ariana_00's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

rowan21's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

oliviagracea's review against another edition

5.0

Gut-wrenching, eye-opening, tear-jerking, hopeful, raw. Perfect. This book is everything it could ever be. Captures the ugly side of love and war that no one wants to discuss, but it never loses its keen sense of hope and heart.
If I could give it more than 5 stars I would in a heartbeat. It sets the bar for the genre (and from me that is high praise).
Yes I did stay up too late to finish those last 75 crazy pages.

shannasbooksnhooks's review against another edition

5.0

I feel like I need a millennium to recover from this book, but then I’d never get a review out. Holy lord almighty this book hit me hard with emotions and feelings like no book has before. I am SERIOUSLY not kidding. This book was so well written, and the story takes you on one of those really enjoyable roller coasters that has A BUNCH of twists, turns and flips. I was not expecting a lot going into this - partially because of how I felt about Anne Rice’s The Mummy and Margaret George’s The Confessions of Young Nero. This book is heart wrenching like no other that I’ve read. I actually TEARED UP at the end.

annathebookish's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.25