“The Room on Rue Amélie” by Kristen Harmel

A truly magnificent novel. Set in World War II, it tells the journey of two remarkable women, the men in their lives, and the paths they lead together and individually.

It is heartwarming, heart wrenching, realistic, and a novel I could not put down.

Based on one woman’s life and much research into this time period, the author brings the storyline and characters to life in a way that touches the reader and make each person in the novel, minor or major, an important one. An emotional read that will touch all readers no matter what age or gender. “The Room on Rue Amélie,” is a definite must read.

Rating: 4.8
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


** I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the book for someone who wants one third historical fiction, and two thirds romance. Before world War II Paris was an artistic and intellectual feast but after the Germans occupied the city, and most of the country, the lights were dimmed. This historical backdrop surrounds Ruby, Marcel, Thomas, Charlotte, and Lucien. Living with the secrecy of the resistance, the fear of discovery, the hidden pilots create the tension. The plot even with its twists and turns, was not especially complicated considering the turmoil of life at the time. It is a good read, just not on the level of other books set in World War II.

The Room on Rue Amelie was a wonderful historical fiction.

First off, I LOVE when WWII fiction doesn't focus on the holocaust. Not because the holocaust isn't historically important (it is) or because it isn't interesting to read about, but because it's rare for a good historical fiction to pull of a poignant look inside life during WWII without relying on a holocaust theme. The Room on Rue Amelie does such a great job of this.

You've got strong a strong female protagonist, the Paris resistance, stranded RAF pilots, and a young orphaned jewish girl who defies all odds to stand up against the oppressive Nazi influence closing in around her home. There's romance that doesn't make you cringe, harrowing stories of survival, and a shocking twist that I did not see coming.

It's gorgeously written and riveting from beginning to end. If you like historical fiction, this is a book you won't want to miss.

In my last post, I mentioned that I ended up reading/listening to two different WWII books at the same time which I usually try to avoid. This one was by one of the authors I heard speak at the Christamore Book and Author Luncheon last Spring (and now I have read all of them). Of the two, this one was by far my favorite of the two. In her talk, Kristin said that she had learned about an underground system in Paris that assisted getting Allied pilots who had been shot down back to their units which gave her the idea for this book.

The main character in the book is an American named Ruby Henderson who falls in love with a Frenchman named Marcel Benoit, and she follows him to Paris after they marry. When the Nazi’s occupy Paris, Marcel secretly starts helping with this underground. He keeps Ruby in the dark, and their marriage begins to crumble. Meanwhile, Ruby, who has lost a child in a miscarriage, starts to befriend the Jewish girl, Charlotte, who lives next door. Charlotte catches Marcel one night secretly hiding a pilot behind a secret door in the hall of their apartment building and lets Ruby know. Marcel won’t let Ruby get involved, but after he is caught and the Germans come for Charlotte’s family, Ruby begins hiding Charlotte and other pilots herself. The story also chronicles the experience of one of the English pilots who eventually is hidden by Ruby, and they form a relationship.

I found this book to be compelling with good characters and an exciting story with a little bit of a twist on a by now familiar war. I loved the strong female characters in both Ruby and Charlotte, and I was engrossed in the story. Occasionally the dialogue didn’t ring entirely true to my ears, or I found it odd that Ruby shared so much personal data with someone so much younger than she, but that was a minor distraction. The story moves along at a good pace making it an easy read.

This is my first read my this author and overall I enjoyed it. I like my historical fiction to have a hint of true story like feel and this one surely did as Ruby's character is loosely based on a real life person. I thought the structure of alternating chapters between Ruby, a Bristish RAF pilot and a neighboring Jewish girl worked for the story although for me personally I prefer less perspectives.. The tone of this WWII historical fiction is lighter and more hopeful than others I've read which worked for the flow and pace of the story. While the events were often frightening and tension filled, the way the author handled writing about them felt less heavy.

The Room on Rue Amelie by Kristin Harmel is a lovely story set during World War II. After an American woman marries and moves to Europe, she quickly discovers that nothing is what she thinks it is. This is a story of hope and resilience, of overcoming despite the odds. I highly recommend this book to readers who love World War II novels. This one is for you! I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher. These opinions are entirely my own.

Note: I received a free Kindle version of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I'm not even sure why/how I found The Room on Rue Amelie on NetGalley since I typically choose science fiction or fantasy Young Adult novels over on that site and The Room is an adult historical fiction. But every so often I really do enjoy reading a historical fiction novel and so I recently finally got around to reading it. And it was great!

The Room on Rue Amelie is mainly set in Paris during the years of World War II and is centered around three main characters who are very different but end up very close by the end of the story.

Ruby is an American girl who ends up marrying a French man and moving to Paris with him only to find the city occupied by the Nazis just a few short years later. This puts an even bigger strain on her already strained marriage. Even though her life hasn't turned out how she'd hoped, she is a fighter and wants to do everything she can to help the Allied cause.

Charlotte is Ruby's next door neighbor, a young Jewish girl who finds that her life just keeps getting more and more complicated. Charlotte is an old soul who truly cares about her friends and family and grows up far too soon.

And then there's Thomas, a member of the British Royal Air Force. When he's shot out of the sky he discovers a secret organization of people helping pilots like him and finds more than he ever thought he would after being shot down.

I don't think it's much of a spoiler to tell you right now that the three main characters end up running into each other but I want to add some more details because it does get all coincidental by the end. So...

*********************SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT******************************

Part of the reason why Ruby's marriage dissolves is that her husband starts harboring downed pilots as they make their way through France to safety and even though Ruby swears she understands the risks, he refuses to let her help. But then her husband gets caught and shot and Ruby takes it upon herself to harbor the pilots he'd been helping. Eventually her husband's "handler" as you might call him agrees and Ruby helps a whole slew of pilots, including Thomas, who she almost immediately falls in love with.

A few of the coincidences that made the story a bit too well wrapped up for me...

Ruby happens to hear the police come around to collect Jewish families and warns Charlotte's family who asks her to take Charlotte in. The fact that she noticed the commotion and quickly realized the families they were targeting only Jewish families AND had time to warn the family was a bit too convenient.
Even amidst the war Thomas and Ruby end up falling for each other after their first meeting and continue to think of one another even as they're fighting for their life. I know I've heard that war can make you a bit crazy but it seemed like they'd barely gotten to know one another? She had other pilots that stayed with her for quite a bit longer...
Charlotte's parents ask Ruby to keep Charlotte and, since Ruby is part of the escape line she is able to get someone to force documents saying Charlotte is related to her. It all kind of falls into place.
Thomas manages to survive getting shot down not once but twice and finds Ruby again even though she's moved because Ruby just so happens to walk next to her old building almost in hopes that just such a thing happens.
Not only does Ruby fall pregnant and manage to keep the baby growing in her belly during crazy rationing but she even gets sent to a work camp and manages to last there. (Though the fact that she landed a factory job certainly helped.) It's said that she more or less wastes away but upon escaping and giving birth the baby turns out healthy. And then she dies, more or less on the day that France is liberated. As does Thomas because of course he survives multiple crashes just to die in a non-combat accident.
Ruby's parents are notified of what happened and manage to get to France, get the baby and Charlotte and get back to the United States. 
I did end up really liking the characters and it was an emotional read but everything got a little convoluted at the end. But if you like historical fiction and romance it's definitely a great choice.

“How extraordinary to find love in the midst of war.”

Ruby is an American who found herself in France married to a man she once loved, but hardly sees anymore. As war approaches, she finds herself alone, but not wanting to leave France. Her only “friend” is the girl who lives next door – a Jewish girl. When the girl finds herself alone, too, they decide to stick together, but have to decide what risks they are willing to take – hide or fight.

I was able to request Room on Rue Amelie through NetGalley and was given a free copy in exchange for a fair review. I have not read any of Harmel’s other books, but Room on Rue Amelie was compared to The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, which was a great historical fiction book. Historical fiction is my favorite genre as I get to delve into a story, but also learn something along the way.

Ruby’s husband dies and the girl’s parents are arrested. Ruby takes Charlotte into her care and then discovers her husband was working with The Resistance to help downed Allied pilots get back into friendly territory. There is even a secret compartment in their building where he hid them, which she only discovers when a pilot shows up at her door. Thomas is the first pilot Ruby helps and he stays longer than most due to a reworking of the network after her husband’s death. The bond created between the three of them will cement them together for life, and possibly beyond.

Lovers of historical fiction will really enjoy this book. The characters were different than most WWII historical fiction I’ve read and were more complex. Books like Room on Rue Amelie are a good reminder of what has happened in the past and how a single person can be brave and make a huge difference.

The Room on Rue Amelie by Kristin Harmel takes place during World War II in Paris and tells the story of an American woman, a British pilot and a young Jewish girl whose lives come together.
I thought this story was a great idea and parts of it held my interest. I have never heard much about the war in Paris and so it was interesting reading about what Paris was like during that time. But I felt the tone was really simple and I never felt very connected to any of the characters. They would go through hard, sad things but I just didn’t really care. I have found I really like good character development and feeling drawn into the characters and their lives and I just didn’t feel that with any of these characters.

There seems to have been a rash of historical fiction books written lately about either the Holocaust or WWII. The Room on Rue Amelie is one of the latest entries into this already crowded bookshelf and does little to distinguish itself. The Room on Rue Amelie tells the tale of Ruby, a young woman caught in France at the cusp of Nazi takeover. Ruby finds herself is Paris, bound by her sense of loyalty and soon-to-be-questioned love for her dashing French husband, Marcel. When Marcel unexpectedly dies, Ruby discovers a side to her husband that she never knew existed and finds doors of opportunity, risk, and even new love.

Let me start by saying do not read this on a plane. Not that it has anything to do with flying, it’s just that when you start uncontrollably crying the flight attendants wonder about you.

This was a fascinating story. The characters were very likable and believable, but I felt a bit of the story was lifted right from The Nightingale. The writing is not as rich as that in The Nightingale; in fact it feels a little more young adult in its depth and delivery.

I thought it would be predictable, but it was not. It was an emotional journey and I’m glad I spent time in The Room on Rue Amelie.

I received this as an advanced preview copy from Net Galley.

If you are in the mood for the genre of historical fiction set in Nazi-occupied Paris during WWII, then the recently released The Room on Rue Amélie by Kristin Harmel might be a good fit. It follows the paths of three characters whose lives unexpectedly intersect during that moment in history: Ruby, an American woman who married a Frenchman and ended up in Paris, Charlotte, a Parisian Jewish teenager, and Thomas, an RAF pilot who is shot down over France. The novel is told in alternating chapters from their points-of-view and I quite liked that. It caputured my attention and made me want to read to the end.

The novel was actually inspired by a real Florida woman named Virginia d’Albert-Lake who married a Frenchman in 1937, moved to Paris, and ultimately worked with the French Resistance sheltering pilots shot down in 1943 and 1944 before her arrest and imprisonment at the infamous Ravensbrück concentration camp. But this novel is no recreation of her actual life.

It is very much fictional. I enjoyed the book, and the two female characters were particularly well delineated, and the novel touched my heart. I also did not want to put it down at the end. But, make no mistake, this novel is definitely written as a romance as well as historical fiction. Too much so at times I thought—and that detracted from it being stellar historical fiction.

The book opens:
“March 2002
She sleeps beside me, her narrow chest rising and falling, and already I miss her.

The sand in the hourglass is running out, flowing relentlessly toward the end. There’s never enough time, not when a person has become a part of you. We were lucky to survive the war, my wife and I, and not a day passes that I don’t think of those we lost. I know it’s greedy to want just one more week, one more month, one more year with her when we were already given so much time. The last half century has been a gift we never expected, perhaps a gift we never deserved.

Still, I can’t let go. I can’t imagine my world without her, for my life didn’t really begin until the day we met. But I’m as powerless to protect her in this moment as I was all those years ago in Paris, though both then and now I tried to fool myself into believing I had some control.“

So, if someone likens it to The Nightingale, then I would disagree. It has nothing in common except a strong female lead character in that era of history who helped escapees. The Nightingale was NOT a romance, and portions of this novel laid the romance on a little too heavily. ( I think The Nightingale was a good novel but it had some historical inaccuracies that marred the novel slightly. Ditto this book.)

If someone likens the book to the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, set during the era, there is no comparison. That novel was superb. So beautifully written,. So moving. So historically accurate. ( If you have never read that book prioritize doing so! Stellar WWII novel! Run don’t walk to the nearest bookstore or library. Download it on your Kindle today!)

But, this was an enjoyable if slightly flawed book, and I thank Gallery Books and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy of this novel and for allowing me to review it.

Excellent historical fiction. Loved the connection between the american woman and the jewish girl.
Really atmospheric, and emotional book. Recommended

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I needed to take a moment before writing this review. This story is a lot to handle for so many reasons and I loved every moment of it. Kristin Harmel does a wonderful job of illustrating the trials and tribulations of daily life in Paris during WWII. Having read the author's note before reading the story, I knew that while the characters were all fictional, Ms Harmel did a ton of research to bring it all to life for us.

Ruby is such a lovely character. Her struggles and her strength are inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time. We get to watch Charlotte blossom as the story progresses, which is such a treat. I had trouble with Thomas a little because he seemed to be lacking the same depth as the other characters but all in all, it was a wonderful cast.

On a personal level, this was an uncomfortable and eye-opening read. My grandparents fled occupied Belgium and arrived in the United States in the summer of 1941. Each chapter in this story starts with the month and year so I was able to track the dissolution of society in Paris, knowing it was worse in countries further east.

This was a fantastic read and I would recommend it to everyone. Just everyone.

4.1 - another WWII perspective from a fierce woman working in the Resistance; interesting and insightful, and well-written

Another excellent book written by Kristen Harmel. I love "The Nightengale" and this book is as good if not better. The three main characters are Ruby, Charlotte and Thomas. Thomas is a pilot and when his plane is shot down he is rescued by Ruby. She hides him from the Germans and helps him find his way back to his base. There is a lot of suspense as Ruby also hides many other pilots. She is also hiding Charlotte, a Jewish child when her parents are captured. Great book.

This review is going to be rather short. I still haven’t come to terms with everything I’m feeling.

The Room on Rue Amelie is the survival story of Ruby Benoit and Charlotte Dacher. Ruby is an American born wife living in Paris with her husband. When World War II arrives in France, Ruby’s husband Marcel joins the resistance. But when Marcel is caught and killed, Ruby is left to continue what her husband started.

With help from Charlotte, Ruby assists Ally fighter pilots along the underground escape line. When Germans enforce strict regulations on the Jews, Charlotte begins to worry about her family. The deportations soon begin and Charlotte is left in the care of Ruby. Together they are determined to complete their job and help end the war.

Things get interesting when British Pilot Thomas Clarke arrives unexpectedly on Ruby’s door step. Thomas’s time in Paris is short, but he takes to the skies again with a renewed purpose in fighting the Nazis.

I cried. I cried so hard in this book. My heart was brutally torn to pieces in the best way possible.

I read The Alice Network last month and I loved it for its brutal reality of the women spy network. I loved The Room on Rue Amelie because of the emotional levels the war brought to so many people.

Told in the perspectives of Ruby, Charlotte, and Thomas the story was that of love, loss, and healing. My own heart ached and rejoiced with each of these characters. This story is so beautiful.

The Room on Rue Amelie by Kristin Harmel receives 5 heart wrenching stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a review.

I was afraid this book was going to be saccharine, gratuitously use the plight of French Jews during the war, and/or use the French Resistance as a convenient romantic plot device, but I should have known better - it's Kristin Harmel. This book was beautiful and moving. Heart-wrenching, really. She gives so much detail that the streets of Paris flow out of the page, and the daily struggles of her characters felt personal to me - I felt frustrated and helpless in the face of their numerous and often insurmountable challenges. The past comes alive in all its ugly, bleak reality. So no, not a sickly sweet wartime romance. While there is a romantic element, it does not take over the other important themes of prejudice, perseverance, and the like. Plus, by using the characters she does, the reader gets a multifaceted look at the war instead of the tunnel-vision we often get. Here there is a young Jewess, a widowed American whose French husband got her involved in the Resistance, and a British Airman. Nor does this three-dimensional snapshot end entirely conveniently-ever-after, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. Maybe it's a tad over the top towards the end, but I think a little hope is called for among all the tragedy. Anyway, I highly recommend this book. It's a surefire recommendation for Sarah's Key fans, at the very least!

American Ruby Benoit is newly married and living in Paris with her French husband, but instead of the romantic bliss she envisioned, she finds the tension of a pending Nazi invasion marring her new marriage. Her husband, Marcel, has changed from the adoring man she married into someone who broods and disappears for hours and sometimes days with no explanation. Ruby takes comfort in friendship with Charlotte, the young Jewish girl that lives next door.

When the Nazis roll into Paris, life changes as the Jews are required to wear a yellow star. When a British man comes to Ruby's door looking for Marcel and she then understands why Marcel is gone so much; he's part of the resistance effort to help downed Allied pilots get out of enemy territory. Ruby is determined to join the resistance and do her part instead of moving back to the safety of America. When Charlotte's parents entrust Ruby with looking after Charlotte right before the Nazis arrest them for deportation, she finds another dangerous way to resist.

Thomas Clarke is a fearless RAF pilot with no one to live for, that is, until he's shot down and finds his way to Ruby's door on Rue Amelie.

This novel left me emotionally exhausted (in a good way) by it's conclusion. The risks that Ruby, Thomas, Charlotte and others take in order to resist and fight back from within Nazi held Paris holds you captive and had me turning the pages. You get a sense of how hard it must be to have hope where it seems there is none. The characters go through a range of emotions and turmoil; questioning why God would allow this to happen one day and then the realization that there was a purpose to life the next. (Though this is not Christian Fiction) When the likelihood of not surviving is ever close, it seems there is nothing to lose in the risks they take to resist. Novels like this always make me think; what chances would I take in a life under tyranny? This was such a great read!

What a good read this was. It took me a bit to get in to it, but then i read it through. Very well written and well researched. I like her style of writing. Good book!