I have read so much historical fiction that take place during WWII and its aftermath. This makes it easy to think that I could skip reading a new book set in that time period and you may think that as well but DON'T.  Paris Never Leaves You is an extraordinary novel.

From its visceral opening scene in which collaborators are shamed and attacked on a Paris street, and right on through the novel, this is an immersive, engaging and intriguing book. Within its pages readers will spend time with Charlotte and Vivi, a mother-daughter who survived the war and came to New York. The book is told in seamlessly interwoven timelines; there is one in which Charlotte works in a New York publishing house and Vivi is a fourteen year old school girl and a second that takes place during the war in Europe.


The characters in the novel are each brought to life from Horace, in a wheelchair, to Julian to so many more. The settings are also evocative. Readers will feel what it was like to scrounge for food and to reconsider moral stands in the Paris of the war. Book lovers will also enjoy the inside view of the world of publishing in the U.S.  that Ms. Feldman provides.

Early in the book, Charlotte is at a makeup counter where she is told that a certain product "will erase your past." But, of course, the past cannot be erased. Should it be? Another provocative quote is when Charlotte says that she was not Jewish until Hitler made her so. What does it mean to be Jewish? How do we form identities? These are just some of the issues to ponder.

I give this book a solid five stars and highly recommend it. Readers will be drawn in and the novel will resonate with them even after they have read the last lines.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review..

Here I am with another historical fiction book. I’m not exactly sure how this happens. I requested an advance reader copy of this book after reading the description. I should keep the descriptions so I can tell what caught my eye. I was given a copy of this book for my unbiased opinion.

For those of you who might be like me and a bit burned out on historical fiction books from the World War I or II eras, I hear you. I would say this book has a bit of a twist on the other books.


Paris Never Leaves You is written from Charlotte’s perspective. Charlotte is caught in Paris during World War II. As the book opens, Charlotte is watching a group of people denigrating women who had relationships with German soldiers who had invaded Paris. The townsfolk verbally assault the women and physically abuse them. While it is not completely clear, you get the feeling that Charlotte is afraid that she will be next.

Next we move to 1950’s New York. Charlotte is working in the publishing industry. The book moves between the war years and the 1950’s. We see Charlotte’s current life with her daughter. We learn what happened to them during the war. And we come to understand Charlotte’s regrets and fears.

While one does feel sorry for Charlotte and all she went through during the war, there is also a feeling that Charlotte takes the route through life that will get her through. I wouldn’t say that she takes the high road most of the time. She is a survivor and I feel a bit bad casting aspersions on her methods, but overall when you finish the book and think back on Charlotte, I think she comes up a bit lacking in moral fiber. She knows that she has done wrong but rather than admitting what she has done, she has tried to keep hiding it.

It is an interesting story, but if you are looking for a heroine that you can think “wow, she made it through that”, I am not sure you will be satisfied with this story. The thing is that she doesn’t change. Even at the end of the book, her decisions are questionable.

I will say that the time switches through the book are done well. It was easy to tell where you were in the story. It was and easy read and the story is presented well.

Thanks for reading!

This book had one of the more unique perspectives that I have ever read in historical fiction. I liked how it was set in the early 50s, because it allowed for the characters to have feelings and opinions that would be more reflective of just coming out of the war. I thought Vivi was an interesting character, and the author did a good job capturing the questions a young teen girl would have, as well as the impetuous nature of teenagers. It was uneven in some places, but could be due to formatting, as I read an ARC on my Kindle. For a detailed review, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks. 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars for the literary mentions (especially Betsy-Tacy). Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a digital ARC of the book.

Happy Publication Day. Thank you To St. Martin's Press for allowing me to be part of the blog tour for this novel.
The central theme of Paris Never Leaves You is survivor’s guilt. The book looks at three characters and how they dealt with what happened to them during and the aftermath of World War II. These are ordinary people who are thrust into the horrors of war. The main character is Charlotte Foret, who was a widowed mother during the German occupation of Paris. She manages her father’s bookstore after he fled the country. In the prologue of the novel, it is 1944. Charlotte and her four-year-old daughter Vivi are in a Jewish POW camp about to be freed.

Ten years later, Charlotte and Vivi are living in New York City in an apartment upstairs in the home of Charlotte’s employer Horace Field. Horace and his wife sponsored Charlotte to come to America after the war. Horace, who owns a book publishing company, is in a wheelchair from his war injuries. He is denied the Congressional Medal of Honor simply because he is Jewish. He has his own way of dealing with the atrocities he experienced. Horace’s wife, Hannah, encourages 14-year-old Vivi to learn more about her Jewish past against Charlotte’s wishes. This creates a tension between mother and daughter, which forces Charlotte to reveal her secrets.

The third character is Julian Bauer. He is a German officer in occupied Paris who befriends Charlotte at the bookstore. Because he is an enemy, they have a complex relationship. Julian has to keep a secret in order to survive the war. Once the war is over, his life becomes extremely difficult.

2.5 Stars Rounded Up

Charlotte and her daughter Vivi are survivors. They survived the Nazi invasion of Paris, uprooted themselves to move to the United States, and are rebuilding their lives together in their new home. But 10 years later, will they be able to survive the secrets of their past as they start to catch up with them?

You all know I love a good historical fiction! Especially one that takes place during WWII. What I appreciated about Paris Never Leaves You is that it focused not only on Charlotte and Vivi’s story during the war, but also 10 years later, which I thought was unique. The book was definitely a slow start for me, but picked up the pace about 1/4 of the way through. I also had a hard time with the transitions between the dual timeline. I had to do some rereading throughout to try and figure out when it jumped from one point in time to another. I would recommend this one to my die hard historical fiction loving friends!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my advance copy and for including me on this blog tour!

Paris Never Leaves You was a really different WWII novel than I’m used to reading. This book tells the story of Charlotte Foret and her daughter Vivi and alternates between their time in Paris where Charlotte worked in a bookstore during the occupation of France and 10 years after the war in 1954 in New York where they are making a new life for themselves. In 1954, Charlotte is working as an editor at a big publishing house and Vivi is now in school. Vivi is becoming more and more interested in knowing about her father who died during the war, her heritage, their time in a Nazi camp and why her mother refuses to talk about any of it. The bulk of the ways that make this book such a different type of WWII book is a huge spoiler so you’ll have to read it to find out. But I can say learning about life in occupied Paris was so interesting and you get a glimpse at the effects the Resistance had on the city too. I also really loved the storytelling style of this book. The alternating timelines weren’t announced but told in a way that felt like flashbacks or taking a peek into someone’s memories. We learn about Charlotte and Vivi’s past through these memories and slowly learn why Charlotte is so tight lipped.

The jacket description for Paris Never Leaves You does absolutely nothing for me. That said, the name on the cover stopped me in my tracks. I have associated Ellen Feldman with nuanced thematic stories since reading Next to Love and my appreciation for that novel made it impossible to ignore this latest release.

Fear and survivor's guilt are common themes in war fiction, but I have never seen them presented from a collaborator's perspective. Charlotte's desperation both before and after the war is easy to understand, but I found the context of the emotions she experiences compellingly thought-provoking.

Feldman's exploration of perception and identity are also worth mentioning. Charlotte, Julian, and Horace are all very conscious of the persona they project to the world, but they internalize those understandings in vastly different ways, and I thought that brought a fascinating dynamic to the narrative.

Feldman takes the concept of identity one step further in Vivi, a child too young to remember her own war experience and raised without genuine knowledge of her heritage or survival. Vivi builds her identity on lies, but her struggle for truth addresses a very real communication gap between the World War II generation and their children, and I genuinely appreciated how Feldman used Vivi to address the challenges associated with bridging that void.

Paris Never Leaves You is an eloquently sensitive novel that gets under your skin in ways you did not anticipate. It is not a page-turner, but its motifs captivate the imagination just the same.

Intense view of the long-lasting wounds of war

Paris Never Leaves You is a deep view of what people do during wartime and dealing with physical and psychological wounds. Our main heroine, Charlotte has had to make choices to keep her daughter alive, choices of actions and deceptions. Other reviewers have detailed these. I also wish to acknowledge the role of the German officer that saved Charlotte and her daughter, and his own deep wounds and subsequent actions. This officer, a Jew and doctor, found the safest place for him was the German army, however suffered both during and after the war. This book is such a sobering insight on survivors' actions and guilt. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to the publisher who lent me a time-limited e-arc via Netgalley. This review is optional and my own opinion.

My thoughts

Rating: 4

Genre: historical fiction

Would I recommend it ? Yes

Would I read more by this author? It would depend on the story

First off I want to thank the publisher St.Martin's Press as well as the author and NetGalley for inviting me to read and review this. And second how much surprised I was with how much I liked this book because to tell the tell I wasn't sure if I was actually going to like it but once I started reading it I couldn't stop because the author had away of telling her story that it was like it came to life right off the page the page and instead of reading a book you was watching a movie about identity and survival.And surviving most of WWII in Paris and what their time at the camps was like and after they was free . Its told in two different periods that you get a feel for both of them. Its also about family and what that means. And how strong you can be when you need to be.

I've read many books set during WWII, particularly about the experiences of civilians in Occupied Paris. It was a time of unthinkable choices, as people weighed their morals against their empty bellies. While this novel was a unique take on this kind of tale, I was conflicted by some of the twists in this story.

What I Liked:
Settings:
This story takes place in two place and time periods, Paris during the war itself, and then New York City in the nineteen-fifties. The author did a wonderful job of using details of foods, smells, and textures to convey a sense of time and place. All this helps the reader understand how challenging it was to get even basic food during the war, and then how overwhelming the abundance of America must have seemed.

Characters:
I actually didn't like most of the characters, with the exception of one character in the New York portion of the story. Horace is a WWII veteran who lost the use of his legs during the Japanese fighting in the War. Horace is fiercely independent and never speaks about his experiences in the war. He also has a very strained relationship with his wife, Hannah. Hannah is overly helpful, and rather condescending to Horace. She seems to enjoy being the nursemaid, and forgets being a wife. It's heartbreaking to see how their marriage is crumbling.

What I was mixed about:
Characters:
I really couldn't connect to any of the characters. While I could admire that Charlotte and Julian did what they needed to do to survive, I felt they were both cowards. Yes, that's harsh. But what they did was pretty reprehensible.

Julian, in particular, could have made other choices, but wound up supporting Nazis. We never find out definitely if Julian actively killed Jews, but he certainly did nothing when people were taken away to the concentration camps.

Charlotte thinks what she does is justified because she has a small child. But, by lying to make her way to America, she may have displaced a refugee who should have been allowed to immigrate to the United States. Her actions did have consequences for others.

What I Didn't Like:
Story:
Okay, I usually don't discuss spoilers, but I see no way around this (stop now if you don't want to know) in order to explain why I objected to this book. I really dislike the notion of the "good" Nazi. And I became more angry over the course of the novel when Charlotte actually falls in love with the Nazi soldier, Julian. The twist of what Julian actually is is apparently historically accurate. But that doesn't make it okay. This really is over the top.

Charlotte survived living in Paris during WWII with a young child. Now in America the past keeps coming to her. Told in past and present you revisit her life trying yo survive in Paris. This is an amazing story of finding yourself, survival, and love.

I enjoyed Charlottes story of survival and how she handled things in her bookshop. She did all she could to help her daughter. When she finally made her way out of Paris, she struggled with the things she had done before and who she knew before. I love all the relationships that formed, friends and lovers.

Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman is a fascinating novel. Charlotte is a young widow living in Paris and working in a bookstore during World War II. There is very little food and what food she has she gives to her baby daughter, Vivi. They survive the war, but Charlotte must cope with the memories of her actions that were the reason they lived. Charlotte and Vivi are able to emigrate to New York because they are sponsored by a family friend. The friend finds Charlotte a job in book publishing and a lovely place to live. Vivi has adapted well to America. She is now a teenager and has many questions for her mother. Charlotte must decide if she should tell the truth or continue to hide behind her life of lies. This is a unique WWII story with an interesting plot and amazing characters.

First off, I want to thank St. Martin’s Press for reaching out to me and providing a free ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me.

The story has a dual timeline - one in New York, the other in Paris. There is no clear delineation of the time jumps, and the two timelines read as if they are in constant conflict with each other.

The main character, Charlotte, once thinks that she hadn’t known her late husband very well. But, as a reader, I could say the same about her. You know of her survivor’s guilt, but because the story gives you only bits and pieces of her life in Paris, there is so little of Charlotte herself left for the reader cling to. The lack of characterization didn’t give me much to connect with, frankly. The other characters also lacked dimension, and because there wasn’t much of a plot, I felt like I was missing details critical to the story.

Because of this, I was confused for much of the story. Some of the plot didn’t sit well with me, but I can’t elaborate, since I’m not entirely sure what happened in the book. However, I do want to point out that I was not in the a mindset conducive to reading a story like this, which could be why I felt so disconnected to the story.

Despite the fact I was not impressed, again, thank you to St. Martin’s Press for this opportunity - I really appreciate it. The book goes on sale August 4, 2020.

Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman may be the first book I have read by this well-known author. I couldn’t find another book title in my collection by her, knowing I requested this one because of the WWII setting. It is a historical woman’s fiction with a strong element of romance. Since it is one woman’s journey through the war and later in the States it makes sense to include that part of her life too. It makes it a much more complete story looking at all of the relationships in Charlotte’s life. The relationship with her daughter was compounded by the earlier years in Paris. This felt real with the teenage years often being hard on mothers-daughters but now includes the war times too. Charlotte struggles with this as well as her daughter Vivi..

Set in a dual time period and setting this book examines survivor’s guilt, resiliency, and a mother’s love. Going from wartime Paris when Viv iwas a baby to ten years later when she is questioning teenager, the story focuses on Charlotte’s actions. There are some other characters who raised more question for me than Vivi’s questions did. However, I do understand her need to know family, to seek her identity from the past.

While some might compare it to Sophia’s Choice this is a much different book. Frankly, I like this tale better than that rather depressing one. Fans of The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah would be interested in this story.

An ARC of the book was given to me by the publisher through Net Galley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

While written against the backdrop of Occupied Paris during WWII, this story tells something different than ones I’ve read before. It is a dual timeline story that goes back and forth between Paris 1944 and NYC 10 years later. It is Charlotte’s story and what she has done to protect her daughter Vivi, and save her life. There are some truths revealed that were unexpected. The story is full of love, grief, and also what it means to be a family, even without blood relations.

This is an interesting take on a World War II story and the aftermath for a mother and daughter. This has alternating timelines between Paris during the War and American after. The setting for the novel is mainly in a bookshop or a publishing house although that isn’t really the focus of the book.

The main plot is really built around the relationship between a mother and her daughter. How far will a mother go to protect her child and what secrets will she keep from her?

There were some situations that I found out of place but overall, it was a good read.

Stars marking being a jew are being torn from clothing and spit on. Charlotte's and Vivis hair is falling out due malnutrition. Charlotte has been through a lot and has a good editing job now.She doesn't want to be found. The pacing was quick. I really liked Charlotte and Vivi. Vivi is still persecuted in America for being a jew although in lesser ways. I liked reading about the past and what Charlotte did to protect Vivi and Survive.

I’ve read a lot of novels about people performing brave, heroic deeds during World War II (most recently Cara Black’s "Three Hours in Paris"), but "Paris Never Leaves You" is the story of an ordinary woman and the choices and compromises she must make so that she and her toddler daughter can survive. The book opens in the 1950s; Charlotte Foret is living in New York with now-14-year-old Vivi. She works at a publishing house and lives on the top floor of a brownstone belonging to her boss and his wife. For nine years, she’s led a comfortable life, and Vivi is thriving, but the memories of wartime Paris continue to haunt Charlotte.

In flashbacks, we find Charlotte, whose husband was killed in the war, working in a Paris bookshop during the German occupation. It is a time of enormous deprivation, when even queueing for food doesn’t ensure that you’ll get more than a few turnips and a sack of weevil-infested beans. One day, a German soldier walks into the store; he is polite and appears to have good taste in literature, though Charlotte is understandably suspicious of him, wondering if he’s trying to catch her selling banned books so he can have her arrested. (Charlotte’s friend and fellow bookseller Simone is constantly putting works by or about Jews on the shelves, despite the fact that they’re forbidden.)

The soldier becomes a regular customer, and one day, he offers Vivi a fresh orange. He starts clandestinely supplying Charlotte with impossible-to-find luxuries, like cheese and milk. She convinces herself that she needs to accept them, for Vivi’s sake. “She holds her tongue. Except to say thank you. Oh, you’re scrupulous, she chides herself silently. You keep him at arm’s length, except when you reach out to take the food he brings. But she does not argue with herself too vehemently. Vivi’s legs are no longer spindles. She is beginning to have a small belly. She cries, but not incessantly.”

Eventually, their relationship turns sexual, putting Charlotte in further danger; as the war draws to a close, women who consorted with Germans are branded as collabo, and if the mob turns on them, they can sometimes wind up beaten or even killed.

Although she manages to escape France, in many ways, Charlotte has yet to move on from the war, and this has continuing repercussions on her life in New York—she is keeping secrets from her daughter, and has a hard time forming relationships. That’s not too surprising, since during the war, there was always somebody ready to snitch on you, first for defying the occupying Germans and then for not being sufficiently loyal to the French resistance.

Charlotte’s long journey towards self-acceptance and away from shame are at the heart of this compelling story. Feldman writes beautifully about the gray areas that must be navigated when the lines between right and wrong aren’t always clearly defined.

This wonderful and sometimes challenging and heartbreaking book is about choices. Charlotte Foret and her teenage daughter Vivi live in New York in the mid-1950's. They didn't always live there. Vivi was born in Paris, in the early days of WW2 and she and her mother lived there throughout the German occupation. Charlotte made choices for her and Vivi to survive and then flee when they had the chance at the end of the war. Charlotte works as an editor for Horace, who also made choices, and is confined to a wheelchair after suffering injuries while fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. Charlotte and Vivi live in an apartment in the brownstone that Horace and his wife Hannah also live in. Horace and Hannah are like family, especially to Vivi, but for Charlotte they are also like family in that they have freely interfere and meddle.

Charlotte and her daughter are safe and healthy, but both Charlotte and Horace are haunted by events of the past. This amazing story explores how they live with themselves and the people they are because of the choices they made. Charlotte learns how to give her daughter the past and family she will never know, and Vivi becomes a strong and resilient girl with a bright future. The book ends with a journey to find resolution and healing, maybe there will be another book with what happens next. I hope so!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a different type of WW2 book focusing on survivors guilt The protagonist of this story does what she feels is necessary to survive the German occupation of Paris. I found the dual time line to increase the anticipation of the story as I flipped pages. The story flowed easily between time during the occupation and post war time in NYC. Highly recommended!
#stmartinspress #ellenfeldman #parisneverleavesyou #netgalley