I read a lot of historical fiction and am especially drawn to lesser-known events. This book pulled me in from the beginning. I thought all three main characters and their stories were equally interesting. The author does a good job building tension. I could have done with the romance, but it was a minor distraction to an otherwise excellent story.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this 3.5 🌟 book that WWII historical fiction fans will surely enjoy. Inspired by the true stories of the brave women who went undercover during the war

Thank you Net Galley and Harlequin for allowing me to read this advanced copy. I've read a number of books on this subject. but was not aware of the British SOE. I thought the book was well written, but was a little slow moving in places. I am a fan of Pam Jenoff's books. I would definitely recommend this author.

I loved this book...from the very first page to the very end, I couldn't put it down.

In 1946 New York, a young widow finds a suitcase under a bench in Grand Central terminal. Grace is a widow, having lost her husband in a tragic accident. Unable to recover at the family home she finds herself in New York, working as a assistant to an attorney who helps refugees. In the suitcase Grace finds photographs of young women, and can't help but wonder who they are, and what happened to them. What are their stories? Did they survive the war? Where are they now? Drawn despite herself into their lives, Grace begins to investigate.

Eleanor Trigg was part of SOE in the early 1940's. In preparation for D-Day, Eleanor is tasked with doing something that has never been done...putting together a team of women to drop into occupied France to as radio operators, to sabotage and spy on the Nazi occupiers. It had never been done, but Eleanor was determined to succeed. She recruits, trains and manages a team of woman, and worries over every one of them. When they start to go missing, and messages sound suspicious, Eleanor does everything she can to protect her girls.

The Lost Girls of Paris tells the story of those girls, alternating between Eleanor and the girls stories, and Grace's story as she learns the truth of what happened to the lost girls. It's a wonderful story of courage and love of country and true unselfishness. I highly recommend this book!

Women warriors--unsung heroes!

Gripping story of the Women's Branch of SOE, Special Operation Executive, "charged [by Churchill] to “set Europe ablaze” through sabotage and subversion " during World War II.
It's 1946. A young widow, Grace Healey, finds a suitcase in Grand Central, New York. Puzzled she opens it and takes out a bunch of photos of a young women. Why? Even as I was taken aback at that action, it's from here the story springs. Struck by the inanity of her action, Grace tries to return the photos to the suitcase. It's missing! Her determination to find the suitcase and its owner and return the photos leads her on an extraordinary journey.
A journey that casts us back to 1943. Things "had started to go wrong, [SOE] agents [were] arrested in increasing numbers. And so the Women's Branch was created. Eleanor Trigg was charged with selecting and training the women, and that's where the story take an intriguing leap forward and swings between 1943 and 1946, told from Grace's search point of view and that of Eleanor and a young woman she trains Marie.
The action catapults us from war time Britain and France to post war New York with a side trip to France and Germany.
We are with the young women in their training and then their harrowing times behind enemy lines in France.
I was caught up in Jenoff's meticulously researched storyline that translates into an amazing story of a particular group of women's strength and courage under duress, of their involvement in espionage, of the struggle of clandestine operations, and of betrayals from unexpected quarters.
And I mustn't forget the young widowed Grace Healey. Being at Grand Central was a huge step for her. And in her search for the suitcase and its owner she begins to find her way back from her grief and guilt to healing and as yet unknown future.
I found myself totally immersed in this story, metaphorically flicking the pages over in my haste to uncover each truth.

A Harlequin ARC via NetGalley

I lOVED this book so much!! I would give it 20 stars if I could. Pam did such an amazing job telling a story that was not only interesting but compelling. She kept the tension up throughout the whole book. I couldn't read it fast enough.

My goodness, this is a good book. Historical Fiction books about the roles of women in WWII are definitely having their time in the spotlight now. I’ve read several of them, all good, but The Lost Girls Of Paris distinguishes itself as one of the best.

The story is inspired by true events in WWII occupied France. It’s the story of a small group of women who worked for the SOE as spies/saboteurs. The story unfolds in 1946 when Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase in Grand Central Station. She embarks upon a journey to discover the owner of the suitcase and the reason it contains pictures of a dozen women. The stories of Grace and two of the women are the focus of the story. It is told in an alternate chapter format that beautifully reveals their friendships, trust, and courage. There is enough action to move you to the edge of your seat on occasion but not enough to overshadow the women’s stories. This story itself is well constructed and it moves at a smooth pace.

If you like historical fiction or books about WWII, you will like this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row/Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read and advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

All warfare is based on deception.

That is what Sun Tzu said in The Art of War. In The Lost Girls of Paris, we learn that deception can carry a high price.

New York, 1946. When an accident blocks her usual route to work one morning, Grace Healey is forced to cut through the bustling concourse of Grand Central station, somewhere she normally actively avoids. In her hurry, she fails to notice the corner of an abandoned suitcase sticking out from under a bench and trips over it; telling herself she’s merely looking for information about the owner, Grace surreptitiously opens the case and is surprised to find it contains dozens of photographs, each one of a different woman. Jolted from her inspection by the sound of sirens outside and feeling guilty for being nosy, Grace tries to put the pictures back – and when that proves impossible, shoves them into her purse and hurries away, once more intent on getting to work.

Later that evening Grace learns that the suitcase and the accident which forced her to race through Grand Central are related. The woman who owned the luggage – British citizen Eleanor Trigg – was killed in the crash that had blocked Grace’s way to work. Heading to the British embassy in the hopes of connecting with Eleanor’s next of kin, Grace instead finds a conundrum. Everyone seems unhelpful except those who seem conniving. Caught between the possible options of handing the pictures to someone who will simply shove them in a drawer or giving them to those who seem nefarious, Grace takes them home and launches her own investigation into what exactly happened to Eleanor – and why.

Moving back and forth in time between 1944 and 1946, the narrative establishes both Eleanor and Grace as independent young women trying to find their place in the world. The strong, driven Eleanor has a harder time of this since she is not just looking for a place but a place of power, a position which fully utilizes her strengths and talents. She finds it in 1944 at SOE (Special Operations Executive), a British WWII initiative which specializes in espionage. Initially, Eleanor becomes indispensable to the Director as an aide but when male agents in France begin to stand out simply for being civilians at a time when most men are in service, Eleanor proposes and receives permission to head a women’s unit. Eleanor was excited about “her girls” and the good she knows they will do for the war effort. Until something strange starts to happen. Something which just might jeopardize the very lives of the young women Eleanor has sent into war torn, Nazi held Paris.

Grace has always been the good girl, the obedient daughter and loving wife, but after her husband’s death she seizes the opportunity to finally gain a small bit of independence. Living on her own in glamorous post-war New York, she works at a law office helping refugees from the conflict to build new lives. It can be a heartbreaking effort but it’s also deeply rewarding. Because resolving problems has become second nature to her, she finds herself picking up the puzzle of Eleanor with ease, determined to bring justice to whatever odd situation surrounds the mysterious woman. She’s aided in the endeavor by Mark, an old acquaintance who has recently taken up a new position in her life. The ladies are in many ways two sides of the same coin but Grace is the kinder, gentler version of Eleanor. She is every bit as smart, focused, dedicated, driven and morally pure but she has a warmth and liveliness that her British counterpart lacks.

A third character, Marie, one of Eleanor’s ‘girls’, weaves in and out of the story, giving us a brief glimpse into the espionage work being done in the France of 1944. Marie is a fully realized character, a young woman with a daughter and complex romantic background who finds herself falling in love in the least likely of places at a most inconvenient time. While we are given a thorough understanding of who she is, her storyline is one of the weakest points in the narrative because we get only brief glimpses of what she is doing. Her job – espionage – is crucial to both the war effort and our tale, but the scenes we are shown of her doing said work are more baffling than enlightening. They simply don’t make sense in either the context of history or our narrative.

As a result of that and some issues with the resolution of the mystery, I felt the story never coalesced into a truly satisfying whole. The Lost Girls of Paris is a good read but it had a great, truly intriguing premise that it never quite lived up to. Fans of the author and lovers of the era will probably want to give this a read but newcomers to WWII fiction or Ms. Jenoff’s work will want to check her back list, which contains several stronger novels.

Grace Healey finds herself adrift. World War II is over, her husband is dead, and she is unsure what to do next. As she walks through Grand Central Station, she happens to see a suitcase hidden under a bench. When she opens it, she finds photos of female operatives and decides to find out what happened to these women. A few years earlier, Eleanor Tigg was given the task of finding and training women who would be dropped into Nazi-occupied nations as spies. One of those women was Marie Roux, who was delivered to France to work under an enigmatic spymaster and send back information via radio.

I have a weakness for World War II stories. I just can't resist reading another when I see it offered for review or sitting on my library's shelves. But I often find myself disappointed and unfortunately, The Lost Girls of Paris did not work for me. The story follows Grace, Eleanor, and Marie, but none of the characters had much depth. Historically, the Allied military was very reluctant to utilize women as operatives, but if this story was any indication, they might have been right to be concerned. Marie does so terribly in spy school that it is difficult to fathom why she was sent into the field. Once she is actually in France, she disobeys orders and often makes terrible choices that put her and her colleagues at risk.

The wonderful thing about historical fiction is that most authors write multiple books set in the same era. While I didn't love this story, Pam Jenoff is beloved by many readers. If you enjoyed her books The Kommandant's Girl or The Orphan's Tale, you might enjoy The Lost Girls of Paris too.


The Lost Girls of Paris
By Pam Jenoff
Park Row January 2019
384 pages
Read via Netgalley

Thank you so much for this ARC!

I love reading WWII historical fiction and this story did not disappoint. It was equal parts history and spy with an appropriate amount of romance thrown in. I loved and admired all three women and found myself thinking about them (and real women during that time) when I was not even reading.

Totally recommend. Beautifully written.

Historical fiction that is not a feel good book. I have been reading a lot of historical fiction lately and I am finding that authors are now inserting contrived romances or chemistry that feels disingenuous to the plot line. Wondering if this is an attempt to lure the romance reader.

Librarian: This is a brilliant historical fiction novel, perfect both for those who like historical fiction and those who like spy novels. World War II is such a heavily saturated topic that it can be difficult to find books that approach it from a new perspective. This one doesn't wholly succeed, but it does do better than most, and I think that readers will enjoy it, especially, considering that Jenoff is already an author that many of them trust.
Reader: I've mentioned before that I have a love/hate relationship with historical fiction. This one fall fairly squarely on the love side of that equation. It has all of the elements that I look for in good historical fiction, compelling characters, an interesting premise, and a new or innovative approach to the topic. I haven't read Jenoff's books, before but I think that I'm going to have to go back and read them, because if this book is any indication I'm going to enjoy them.

4.5 Stars. I was super excited to score and advanced reading copy of this book and it did not disappoint. Thank you HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing and Net Galley. I never saw the ending coming. I loved the way this book bounced back and forth between 1944 and 46 to put all the pieces of the timeline together. I admire the courage of these women and think the author told their story beautifully. I will definitely be reading more historical fiction novels that Pam Jenoff has written.

This book took some getting into, on my part. Initially I loved the concept of the story, but the character development just lagged for me. I’m glad that I stuck with it, because as the story grew, so did the girls. They went from young inexperienced girls into brave strong women, especially Marie. She was so annoying, asking too many questions, rash and unthinking in her decisions. But, she became much more than that, with experience and time, providing valuable support to her colleagues and excellence to their cause. Grace is a inquisitive woman that comes along a couple of years after the wars end, trying to find out what happened to the girls of the SOE and their leader Eleanor.
This is another untold story of the brave woman that fought the war in their unique way, along with pilots, Red Cross workers, canteen girls, and the factory workers at home. Pam Jenoff is a talented writer of historical fiction, and she has done it again. My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Harper Collins for the opportunity to review this novel.

The Lost Girls of Paris follows 3 main characters and 2 timelines that are within a few years of each other. As a reader you see Grace who finds a suitcase containing 12 photographs and starts a journey to find out who these photographs are of and the stories behind them; Eleanor a SOE secretary that starts a women's division from the ground up to infiltrate different occupied territories during WWII; Marie one of the women who joins the SOE.

I was enthralled with the story of these three women.. Even when I wasn't reading, I was thinking about them. This book will hook you with the discovery of the photographs and continue to pull you into Grace's investigation and the lives that Eleanor and Marie lived in order to fight the Germans in France. I really enjoyed how Jenoff decided to tell these stories and intertwine them. Her writing made the plot flow flawlessly and as a reader I didn't want to put the book down. I highly recommend to anyone looking for historical fiction, WWII, strong women, or just a great story.

Pam Jenoff is giving us a look at a horrible time in history, and using mainly women, and while the story is fiction, in the author’s notes she gives us a glimpse into the inspiration for this story.
We take our freedoms for granted and this read lets you see the sacrifices that were made to let us keep them. We put faces on some of these individuals and walk in their shoes for a while, be careful as you blow up a bridge, yes, this book has action.
Come and see how a chance find in Grand Central of a suitcase and being curious leads to some surprising answers, and a look into the life of a young woman who has also lost, but finding answers just might lead to some healing for many.

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Harlequin, and was not required to give a positive review.

This book was such a great read! I found myself unable to put the book down and was reading it every free moment I had.

The book is told from multiple points of view and I loved each story line. There’s Grace in 1946 who is trying to rebuild her life after the recent death of her husband. One day on her way to work she finds an unattended suitcase and her curiosity gets the best of her. She opens the suitcase and finds photographs of young women with their names written on the back. She decides to keep the photos and ultimately sets out to learn who these women were and what happened to them.

Then there’s Eleanor. Eleanor is a secretary for the Secret Operations Unit (SOE) in London and works closely with the Director. During a meeting Eleanor boldly states her belief that women would be most helpful in their energies to destroy German efforts in France. The Director ends up allowing Eleanor to pick woman and train them to be part of a prep team who ultimately become spies. The idea was for the women to blend in after being dropped off in France and while there they would transmit information back and forth from London to their locations in France.

The third point of view is from one of the women who is picked for this prep team, Marie. Marie leaves her daughter with a relative to become a part of this team. After being trained she is ready to go to France. Once she is dropped off in France, she makes it to the safe house. Things run smoothly for a little while for her and the other women, but trouble quickly develops for them. There appears to be issues with the transmissions, but the women and Eleanor are not quite sure what is happening and who is interfering with them.

I really loved this book. The book is about friendship, love, bravery and much more! I am curious now to learn more about the true events that this book was loosely based on and the brave women who were spies in WWII.

Thank you to Netgalley, Harlequin - Trade Publishing/Park Row, and Pam Jenoff for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Inspired by actual events during WWII, this is the fascinating and dramatic story of young British women who were recruited to serve on the ground as couriers and radio operators in Occupied France. It is told through the eyes of three women: Eleanor Trigg, who came up with the idea and was responsible for the recruitment and operation of the network; Marie, one of the brave women who undertook this dangerous mission; and Grace, who found a dozen photographs of the female operatives in a suitcase at Grand Central Station after the war had ended and was driven to find out what happened to them.

<i>The Lost Girls of Paris</i> was one of the most engaging and exciting pieces of historical fiction I have read recently. Not only was it a carefully researched look at this relatively unknown piece of history but it was as tense and dramatic as many fictional thrillers. It is a story of incredible courage, friendship, loyalty, and betrayal.

Highly recommended historical fiction that is both edge-of-your-seat engaging and informative. Be forewarned - don’t expect to be able to put it down once you read the midpoint!


FYI - I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Girls Of Paris by Pam Jenoff. This is a very good historical novel. I am glad I was never in the situations these women were in. Life is difficult enough with out having to carry the problems of those women. Most of the women never got to be wifes or mothers. I liked them trying to find who the women were in the pictures. The story was interesting and has you captivated from the start.

Interesting historical fiction set in and just after World War II. This book alternates between three perspectives - Eleanor, who creates and runs an operation of undercover female agents in France; Marie, one of those agents; and Grace who is in New York in 1946 and happens upon photos of some of those female agents and tries to figure out who they are and what happened to them. It was a little slow to get going but was a good read. This is the first book by Pam Jenoff that I've read but I will definitely check out her others.