A review by toobusy
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

5.0

When it comes to these two timeline/historical fiction books I often find myself disliking one of the story lines, that was not the case with this book! I genuinely enjoyed both storylines and characters. I adored the relationship between Odile and Lily. Odile was the much needed straightforward mentor that a young tween girl needs to help her realize what she does/says right now matter and hurt. I haven't done much reading into the occupation of Paris during the war so I found this really eye opening to the prolonged hardships of war on civilians and our humanity (feels really relevant and scary due to world events at the time I read it). Some of the ALP characters are based on real librarians who defended the library during the occupation which adds another layer of depth to this novel.

Towards the end of the novel I felt the pace accelerated to push us along to a conclusion, which did end up feeling a little jumpy. But that ending left me clutching the book to my chest with tears in my eyes.