Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, July 19th, 2022

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 448

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

A powerful portrait of war and retribution. A beautiful story of love and forgiveness.

“Words are power. They can bring you down, lift you up, make your heart soar, make you fall in love. Or make you hate.”

Paris 1944. Elise Chevalier knows what it is to love . . . and to hate. Her fiancé, a young French soldier, was killed by the German army at the Maginot Line. Living amongst the enemy, Elise must keep her rage buried deep within.

Sebastian Kleinhaus no longer recognizes himself. Forced to join the Third Reich and wear a uniform he despises, he longs for a way out. For someone, anyone, to be his salvation.

Brittany 1963. Reaching for the suitcase under her mother’s bed, eighteen-year-old Josephine Chevalier uncovers a secret that shakes her to the core. Determined to find the truth, she travels to Paris where she learns the story of a forbidden love as a city fought for its freedom. Of the last stolen hours before the first light of liberation. And of a betrayal so deep that it would irrevocably change the course of two young lives life forever.

My Review:

Thank you Grand Central Publishing for the copy of this book.
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Read if you like: WW2 fiction, forbidden romance, France setting.
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This story fully engrossed me from the beginning. Josephine learns about her identity and her father in a suitcase that her mother had hidden all of these years. She goes to Paris to learn about her mother’s past. Elise had lived in Paris during WW2 and does her best to survive the German occupation. But when her path crosses Sebastian, a translator who rejects Nazi ideology and is looking for an escape, things don’t go as planned.
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I found the forbidden romance trope great and it is a favourite trope of mine. Elise as a character was great too. She was willing to do whatever it took to protect her daughter and her family. I also liked the multiple perspectives, which to me keeps the plot moving.
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CW: war, violence, imprisonment, anti-semitism, pregnancy and birth.