Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada,  June 6, 2023

Format: ebook

Pages: 384

Rating: 5/5 stars

Summary (Goodreads):

From the bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.

Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change.

When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life—her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it.

More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble—and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time.

My Review:

Read if you like: WW2 fiction/after the war
–
Elise and Juliette become friends when they both give birth to daughters at the start of the war. But events force Elise to leave her daughter with Juliette, and after the war they vanish and Elise must try to figure out what happened to her daughter.
–
This book kept me engaged throughout the whole book. I really loved the exploration of these two women’s experiences. Please be aware that there is mention of the death of a child, which can be difficult for some people to read about. I really loved this book and recommend it if you like WW2 historical fiction!
–
Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for the copy of the book!