2.5 stars rounded upward. I was invited to read and review this novel by Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press.
World War II fiction is a crowded place, and I have left it, for the most part, having had more than my fill. I am initially interested in this story because it takes place in 1950s New York, and that’s a setting I haven’t seen much. However, this setting alternates with the protagonist’s memories of Paris during the war, and so there I am again, back in Europe during the war.

Charlotte is a young widow, working in a bookstore to make ends meet. Her infant daughter, Vivi, is often with her. A German soldier is drawn to her, and she snubs him repeatedly, but when he brings food and milk for her starving child, she caves. When Vivi becomes sick, he smuggles in medication. Yes, this is one of those I-hate-you-but-I-love-you stories. This isn’t new; I’ve seen plenty of forbidden love stories, especially with regard to German soldiers. I’ve also seen plenty of love-hate romances.

But what strength I see in this one is in the grey areas. Is it all right to fraternize with the soldiers that are responsible for the deaths of loved ones, if those you’re befriended by can save other loved ones, particularly children? Is it all right to let someone think you’re Jewish, once the war is over, if that means they will save you? Is it acceptable to be Jewish, whether inobservant or otherwise, but pretend you are not, if it increases your odds of survival? What if that means taking other Jews prisoner, serving your enemy?

I’ve said this before in other reviews, and I’ll say it again here. It irritates the bejesus out of me, this World War II forbidden-romance storyline that is always, always, always between a Caucasian European, or Euro-American, and a German. Maybe someone has been wildly creative and included an Italian, but I haven’t seen it if they have. What do we never, never see? Ever? Never? (I could go on all night like this, and don’t provoke me or I’ll do it!) We never, ever see a WWII relationship between a Caucasian civilian from an Allied nation and a Japanese soldier. Or civilian. Or anything. It’s almost as if there’s a whispered subtext that insists, “It’s okay. After all, we’re both white, and that’s what really matters.” And authors that are far too progressive, too modern, too civilized to use any of the zillion ugly epithets that were common usage at the time by Allied service people and citizens toward Germans and Italians, nevertheless decide it’s somehow acceptably authentic to use the J word for Japanese. You know the one I mean. And Feldman is a serious offender here.

Because I was having trouble plodding through this story’s text, I visited Seattle Bibliocommons and borrowed the audio version. (Laurie Catherine Winkel does a fine job as the reader.) I had listened to about seventy percent of this story when Charlotte has a conversation with her landlord, sponsor, etcetera about his own war experience, and boy does he pour it on. I think I must have found the J word on damn near every page, sometimes more than once. I nearly stopped reading, and I nearly gave this book a single star. I fast-forwarded a bit, and when the passage involving this veteran’s way-too-long speech ends, I don’t hear the word again, so I take a deep breath and forge onward to see how it ends.

The ending is bittersweet, and it’s not formulaic.

So there it is. This book is for sale now, but my advice is to either give it a miss, or read it for free or cheap. And if another forbidden WWII white-on-white romance turns up in my inbox, it’s going straight to my round file. Stick a fork in me, cause I am done.

Paris Never Leaves you is the first book by Ellen Feldman that I've read I enjoyed her writing style, but there were things about the book that I didn't quite like, nothing dealing with the plot or the details of the war. But about some of the choices that the main character made in Paris towards the end of the war and after. As well as choices she made in New York. I can understand the choices she made to keep her daughter feed but the whole letting people her daughter included that I didn't care for. I mostly picked this one up because I've been on a WWII fiction lately, but I have to say that this one was my least favorite. However, I still want to read Ellen Feldman's other works as I enjoy her writing style but Charlotte was not a likeable character.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

Charlotte is a widow with a small child in Paris during the Second World War. During this time, food was scarce and Charlotte’s child is malnourished. A German officer becomes a patron of the book store where Charlotte works and begins to help the family by providing food.

Years later, in New York, Charlotte struggles with the guilt she has regarding those war years.

This story goes back and forth between the two time periods and we learn more about Charlotte’s relationship with the German soldier.

This story was a great story that will stay with me for a long time. It was interesting to hear about the human side of the soldier and that maybe they weren’t all enemies.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I've heard I need to go back and read more of Feldman's work, but this one fell flat for me. It's getting increasingly more difficult to review books in this time setting, because I constantly wanted more...and maybe that's not Feldman's fault, but the genre in general.

Paris Never Leaves You is a story of survival unlike any I have previously read. The author, Ellen Feldman, does a nice job of weaving the past and present throughout. Also, it was enjoyable to read a storyline that slowly unfolds yet doesn't skimp on the emotions.

Thank you St. Martin's Publishing, NetGalley, and Ellen Feldman for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this ARC,

This book surprised me. I went in expecting one thing and was delighted to find something I wasn’t expecting. It was told in duel timelines; during and after the war.

The main theme of this book is guilt. Survivors guilt, guilt over for who we fall in love with, guilt over the lies that are told to survive. I’ve read a lot of WWII historical fiction and this one was unique in some aspects, especially pertaining to that guilt.

I felt this book was really well done. When I was finished reading, I found myself thinking about it and wanting to read more. Obviously there wasn’t anymore to read, but that is a true testament to a good story. I will be reading more of this author in the future.

The timelines felt jilted, like two books were slapped together. This just wasn't the book for me. It doesn't help that there are so many euro-centric WWII historical fiction books, so if it doesn't grip me, it's just not worth finishing.

i really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the time period in the book.

I am not really sure what it was about Paris Never Leaves You, but unfortunately, I fail to connect with the characters or the story. The circumstances and some of the events that occur are dire but fail to elicit an emotional reaction. In fact, the characters come off as somewhat self-centered and unlikable. I feel like the premise and the story is one that should have resonated, but unfortunately, it just does not for me.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/01/paris-never-leaves-you.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

i liked this, but wanted more. i've read the author before and prefer her earlier novels (the boy who loved anne frank). the characters just didn't ring true or stick with me.

I found the dual timelines a little confusing, but this novel paints a picture of wartime Paris, with Vivi attempting to run a little bookshop with a huge Nazi presence in her city. The more current timeline was harder to follow, and I felt the antiSemitism encountered was a bit forced. On the whole, a good read, though.

Paris Never Leaves You is a heartbreaking story that follows Charlotte in the 40s during World War II in Paris and then in 50s in NYC. This novel highlights how much your life can change in decade, but also have the past forms who you are. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to friends and family.

Thank you to Ellen Feldman, St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Paris Never Leaves you is a powerful, thought provoking historical fiction. Set in the 1950's in NYC, with reflections and memories of WWII, this book gave a new prospective of unusual circumstances, mixed with tough choices. Wonderful characters making amends with their past. Told in a gentle voice, this book was great. Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the e-reader for review. All opinions are my own.

This novel by Ellen Feldman is a bit different than most WWII fiction novels. Instead of just looking at the main character during the war, the book is set in 1954 in NYC and the main character is remembering what went on in her life in Paris during the war and also feeling survivor's guilt that she lived and so many others didn't.

Charlotte and her daughter ViVi live in New York City. They managed to get out of France right after the war and Charlotte is now an editor at a very important book publisher. She doesn't tell her colleagues anything about her past life and the only person that knows anything is Horace who sponsored her and is the owner of the publishing house that she works at. As Charlotte goes through her days, there are many reminders of being in Paris during the war. Her daughter has continuing questions about what life was like in Paris and what happened to her father. Charlotte worked at a bookshop in Paris and loved it but business was slow and food was scarce and she could barely find enough food to keep her daughter alive. She met a German doctor in the bookstore and he began to help her. The thing she is wondering about as she remembers this time is how much a person has to give of themselves to help their children survive?

This is a story of the lengths that a mother will go to protect her child. It's a story about love, guilt and survival. Many WWII books only give the story of the person during the war but this one went much further and told us the story of how the war affected life after the war.

I am a huge historical fiction fan and this book did not disappoint. The novel takes place in Paris during World War II and also in New York in the 1950's. This novel was a perspective on World War II that I had not experienced in my reading. Ellen Feldman does an excellent job with her character development which made me have strong feelings for the main characters. This novel is heartbreaking and makes one think about what you might do to survive and keep your family safe to survive in time of war.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It appears that I have, by chance, read several WWII novels this year and Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman is at the top of the list with five well-deserved stars. During the four-year German occupation of Paris, the lives of the citizens were turned upside down. They had to learn to live with hunger, terror, fear, cruelty and mistrust. Charlotte managed a bookshop and cared for her infant daughter, Vivi. When the German troops were finally pushed out, Charlotte and child emigrated to New York where she found work and friendship in the publishing world. But her memories of the war were ruining her new life. The story alternates between the forties in Europe and the fifties in America. What happened to Charlotte during the war that is haunting her still? Will her daughter be told the truth? This novel has interesting characters and a well-developed storyline. Highly recommended. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and Ellen Feldman for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

<Charlotte and her young daughter Vivi have lived through the occupation of Paris, France during World War II. Her husband killed during the war, Charlotte barely makes end meet as she works in a bookshop in Paris. She desperately tries to live under the radar of the Germans to protect herself, but especially her toddler Vivi. They barely have anything to eat, and Vivi is sickly, probably due to the lack of nutrition.

When a German doctor begins to come into the she shop regularly and begins to show interest, she must make a few hard choices. Does she, for the sake of Vivi, accept his assistance? But is this choice really for the sake of her daughter or for herself?

Fast forward to the 1950's and Charlotte and Vivi are now living in New York. Charlotte is an editor at a publishing company, having been taken in by the owner who was a friend of her father's from years ago. Horace is wheelchair bound after an accident during the war which he refuses to talk about. Charlotte and Vivi live in an apartment downstairs from Horace and his wife Hannah. Charlotte is a hard worker who lives for her daughter Vivi.

Suddenly Charlotte's past becomes her present when she receives a letter concerning her German doctor. At the same time, Vivi begins to question their Jewish heritage and why Charlotte does not want to celebrate the holidays. She also begins to want to find out more about her dead father and his family. It is then that Charlotte must decide how to answer these questions which she knew at some point would come. But then she would also have to explain secrets she has held close to her heart all these years. She had always dreaded telling Vivi these secrets. She just wanted to live in a bubble with Vivi pretending everything would always be just the two of them and perfect.

But with the memories of her German doctor flooding back and all she has carried from her time in Paris and in the camp they were liberated from, Charlotte must begin the process of letting go of her past demons and guilt and setting herself free. But also fearful of what others will think if she reveals them.

With love and tenderness, Feldman weaves a beautiful story of a strong woman who would do anything to protect and save her daughter, who would repress the love she felt guilty of having and can barely think about to try and make peace with her past so she can once again live and love in the present.

Thank you #NetGalley #Griffin/St.Martin'sPress #ParisNeverLeaveYou #EllenFeldman for the advanced copy.

This was a story about surviving World War II, family, and love. Charlotte and her young daughter Vivi are lucky they escaped Paris during the War. It is years later and they are living In New York and renting an apartment above a couple. Charlotte feels guilty about the choices she has made and the things she has done. As the years go by, Vivi wants to know more about the past, her father, and what happened. She wants to understand their background and their religion.

Survival, Sex, and Self-Loathing:

How far would you go to save your child? That’s the central question in Ellen Feldman’s new novel, “Paris Never Leaves You.”

Drifting backward and forward by a decade between the Nazi Occupation of Paris and the publishing world of New York City, this deeply internal novel follows Charlotte Foret, war widow and mother of Vivi, as she faces down the privation and humiliation of the war only to be haunted by the peace.

A refugee sponsored from her father’s American publisher friend, Charlotte has built a new life in America for herself and Vivi. She has a comfortable apartment, friends, a congenial job as an editor of fine books. The prologue lets us know this story will hearken back to the war, but still – when I was barely settled into the New York story – I was caught off guard by the swift setting of a hook that, in retrospect, more than delivered on its initial promise.

When a letter from Bolivia is delivered to Charlotte’s New York office, her confrontation with her Paris past seems inevitable. The tension rises from that moment, sending Charlotte into flashbacks as she grapples with how much to tell her daughter about her war years, and Vivi’s parentage. The landlord, a military veteran with his own wartime secret, recognizes in Charlotte a similar terror of facing her own shadows. As they gradually open up to each other, the secrets exposed reveal more secrets beneath, each layer both intensely personal and achingly understandable.

Threaded through the plot are revelations about the status and struggles of Jews not only in Hitler’s Europe but in post-war America. The character of Vivi allows a glimpse into the uneasy maturation of survivor children, too young to remember the Holocaust they were born into and yet affected by its shadow every day. Yet this is not the now-classic tale of camp horror and fresh starts that seems foreshadowed at the start. It explores lesser-known devils’ bargains made for survival by ordinary people across an entire continent, and the psychic scars those bargains impose on the survivors in their post-war lives.

A taut, and fraught, tale of the depths a mother must plumb to protect her child in a world gone mad.

Hardcover, 368 pages
Published August 4th 2020 by St. Martin's Griffin
Paris Never Leaves You
ISBN 1250759897 (ISBN13: 9781250759894)
#ParisNeverLeavesYou #NetGalley #amreviewing #amreading #bookstagram #Paris #WW2 #motherhood

{Thank you so much to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review}

Paris Never Leaves You is a WWII-era historical fiction that centers around a young woman’s life in Paris with her young daughter during the Occupation. It features a split timeline to also show Charlotte and Vivi’s life about 15 years later in New York City.

This is a tough review for me to write because there were parts of the story that I did enjoy, especially the parts with Charlotte and the German officer, Julian, but so much of the story was a struggle. Charlotte was not a character that I liked. I understand that she was a complex character that was operating in a survival mode while in Paris, but a lot of her motivations and thoughts just did not make sense to me. The shift between the two timelines was also very blurry and would sometimes happen in the middle of chapter and ended up confusing me for some reason.

I would recommend this book to a reader that enjoys WWII historical fiction with a female lead, but it ended up being a miss for my tastes.

2.5 stars!