I love Kristin Harmel and I loved this book. Also- I cried.

Thank you so much to Gallery Books, NetGalley and Edelweiss for my advanced copies. I requested from both places because I have no chill and this was one of my most anticipated books of the year.

This book did not disappoint.

What I loved-

The Dual Timeline- I am a sucker for a dual timeline. This book flips back and forth between 2005 and wartime France. (WWII-1940's)

The Story- I love me a WWII Novel. There are just so many stories to be told. I am fascinated and will never be tired of reading this sub-genre. The Book of Lost Names is based on a true story and is one very unique to anything I had read.

The Writing- Kristin Harmel continues to write books that I cannot put down. Her books are always beautifully written and easy to follow.

The Characters- most were likeable. Eva's mother was difficult but her character was well developed and the reader begins to understand why she is the way she is. The characters in this novel were very vivid and real to me. I was invested and cared what happened to them.

Overall- highly recommend. This is one of Kristin Harmel's best. She is an auto-buy author for me and I already cannot wait for her next book.

Loved the book. Forgers, French resistance, Catholics, Jews, and Nazi's. Children needing false papers to escape. A whole town helping.

This journey back to the French Resistance efforts during WW II is a story of faith, courage, and stepping outside your comfort zone. Eva is a multi-dimensional character who values and loves books on many levels.

The description of the town brings so much of visible charm. I was also enchanted by the invisible charm of the closeness of people working together, being part of a network which helps hundreds of innocent children, who some lost their parents, to escape the injustice inflicted upon them.. Unsettling and yet very powerful..

This is a book that is hard to put down once you start reading. Wonderful historical fiction! So believable that I found myself looking to see if there really was a book of lost names. It serves as a reminder of the horrific times that people in Europe and especially the Jewish people endured during WWIi. Truly unimaginable the suffering people endured at the orders of Hitler. I won't report the book as the cover has adequate detail of the story. You won't be disappointed. Characters are very realistic and you might want to yell at the overly prideful mother and tell the daughter ''please don't go back into danger''. You are transported in time and are with them as events unfold. Excellent read!
I was provided an Advanced Reader Copy of the book and was under no obligation to provide a review.The opinions expressed are my own.Thanks to the author,publisher,and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The Book of Lost Names is an amazing work of historical fiction. It's beautifully written, the characters wonderfully drawn and complicated. Based on a true story, it's the tale of Eva Traube Abrams, a Jewish woman, who records the names of Jewish children fleeing the Nazi's. The novel is full of love and loss, betrayal and loyalty. The Book of Lost Names will make you cry, but also give you faith in the good of humanity.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel will leave you hopeful, sad, smiling, laughing out loud, and crying, but mostly it will leave you amazed at the bravery and the resilience of the human spirit. The book follows Eva, a young Jew from France whose father is taken. As she is trying to save her mother, she stumbles on a way to save others too. In a small mountain town, she helps others who forge documents to get children to safely. They record the names of the children in code in a book at an old Catholic church. Over fifty years later, the book turns up and Eva begins a journey to the book, remembering who she was in the process, remembering what war costs and how it shapes us. This was a great book. Anyone who loves reading historical fiction will enjoy this one. Not just a good book, but a book that will bring you closer to yourself and those around you.
I freely offer my opinion for this story. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the chance to read it.

If you love historical fiction, stop everything and pick up “The Book of Lost Names” by Kristin Harmel. I cannot say enough about this book. I loved every single page and couldn’t put it down.
Set in France during the German occupation, this book follows a Jewish girl named Eva who is forced to flee Paris and in doing so finds herself as part of the French Resistance. While the characters are fiction, Hammel does an amazing job of shedding light on the people who forgery did during World War II.
The story is incredibly moving and will have you wanting to pass it on immediately to your friends and family.

This is a great book. The only thing that I didn't like was that Eva was a little dense when she was supposed to be strong. Other than that, I loved the characters. It was haunting and heartbreaking at times.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this novel. I always struggle with books around this time period, they are so tragic and it is so heartbreaking to know that it really happened. I absolutely loved this novel. Eva and Remy’s love story is so perfect and real. I loved reading about the forging that they did to help hundreds of French Jews escape into Switzerland. It was inspiring to read about. Knowing they were doing this was incredibly dangerous, yet they felt compelled to make a difference and help these people. Then Remy and Eva are separated, then reunited, then separated again. The war ends and they both go on thinking the other is dead. But the very last chapter left me in happy tears. Excellent WW11 read!

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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Eva Traube Abrams is an elderly librarian with a secret past that not even her children are aware of. When Eva stumbles upon a news story about an old book, she immediately recognizes it as The Book of Lost Names. The reader is transported to Paris during WWII. Eva is a young Jewish woman who must flee Paris with her mother after the arrest of her father. Eva and her mother find themselves in a small French town in the Free Zone, close to the Swiss border. A sympathetic landlady takes them in after recognizing their forged documents. However, the fakes are so good that they get the attention of a local priest who is running an underground mission out his church. The priest recruits Eva for an important project: forging documents to help smuggle orphaned Jewish children into Switzerland. When the Nazis come to town, Eva must risk everything to continue her mission.
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I love historical fiction, but I have a rule: for every WWII-centric story I read, I need to read at least two stories set in different time periods. The historical fiction market is saturated with WWII stories, and they were all starting to run together in my head. It’s for that reason that I haven’t read a WWII-centric story in quite awhile. The Book of Lost Names is excellent, and I’m glad I gave it a chance! I was immediately drawn towards Eva’s bravery and spirit. Every character is well developed, though not all are likable. The plot is solid and contains just enough suspense to get you through the slower parts. One can consider this to be a dual-timeline story, though most of story is told from young Eva’s perspective with a few short chapters from elderly Eva’s perspective. I knocked a half star off because I found the ending to be a little too clean to be believable. Make no mistake, though; this is a wonderful story that I enjoyed quite a bit! Thank you @gallerybooks @kristinharmel and @netgalley for my advanced reader’s copy. The Book of Lost Names is out now!

This book was so fantastic, it is one I plan to read again. I highly recommended to anyone who enjoys historical fiction!

The story unfolds as Eva and her mother (Jewish) are accidentally spared from being taken away by German soldiers during WWII. They escort her father from their apartment, and Eva and her mom escape after Eva forges documents for them.

This story is a journey of their struggles, the horrors of the war, the kindness of strangers, the resilience of humankind, and the braveness of so many who fought the war without ever setting foot on the battlefield.

It's extremely well written and kudos to the author for her extensive research for this book!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book. I plan on purchasing my own copy so I can read it again.

Wow, what a great story!

Eva has to think fast to help herself and her mother escape after her father is captured by Nazis. She happens to be very artistic and is able to do enough with fake documents (and some help) to get them to safety. She finds herself quickly pulled in towards some sympathetic and helpful people in her new city.

She struggles with her mother’s anger towards her, but when she is recruited to help save Jewish children escape she has to accept. She forms a little community with her fellow forgers, a kind priest, a book seller and an inn keeper. She makes forged documents to help the children escape to safety.

Her mom accuses her of trying to erase her own Jewish roots because she has taken on a false last identity herself. She’s spending a lot of time in a Catholic Church and her fellow forger Remy. In part because of her mother’s words, she decides to save the children’s old names in a book. She has to encode the names and hide the book, so the children’s new identities are never tied to their old ones. When it is safe, the record can be brought out again.

This story mostly takes place during WWII but also spends a bit of time in 2005. In that timeline, Eva is 86 years old and has seen the book of lost names in a newspaper. She hasn’t seen the book in decades. She decides to get on a plane and fly out to see it.

I don’t want to risk saying anything that could be a spoiler. I just wanted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I enjoyed it so much that I will definitely seek out this author’s previous and future books.

I got an early ebook edition from NetGalley and saved it a little while before reading. Thanks for sharing it with me!

Thanks to NetGalley & Gallery Books for an e-ARC of Th Book of Lost Names.

Kristin Harmel's latest historical fiction, The Book of Lost Names, immerses us in the world of those who specialized in forging documents for Jewish people in World War 2. Through their efforts, many children were saved and escaped to freedom.

Eva Traube and her mother have escaped Paris after her father was arrested, and in a small town in southern France she becomes skilled in replicating official documents, giving Jewish children new names and identities. She and her fellow forger, Remy, develop a coded system to keep track of the former names of the children, and the book they use becomes the Book of Lost Names. Decades after the war, Eva, widowed and living in Florida, sees a news article of a Parisian trying to return books stolen by the Germans to their rightful owners, and she heads to Paris to claim the book.

Ms Harmel is able to take her research and weave such interesting characters and sties for us. As with her previous work, The Winemaker's Wife, I appreciated learning about the French Resistance. I'd recommend this book to those who enjoy historical fiction.

What a charming read! I loved this WWII story.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES by Kristin Harmel is a beautifully written novel with well-developed characters and an extensively researched subject that, when combined, will enchant you. Inspired by the heroics of a female forger in WWII, the talented Harmel weaves a tale that will stick in my heart and makes me want to learn more about the real-life people behind the story.
Told with a dual timeline, we meet Eva Traube, former graduate student and daughter of two Polish Jews who immigrated to Paris for a better life. When Germany occupies Paris, her father is arrested, and, thanks to arrangements he made, she and her mother are able to flee to the Free Zone, where she finds her purpose working with Rémy forging papers for Jewish children fleeing France. Determined to ensure the children don’t lose their identity completely, she and Rémy find a way to record the names in a code only they can read. As the two work together a friendship and more evolves.
I love watching Eva come into her own and grow as a person, despite her mother’s displeasure with her choices, and vocal distrust for those Eva works with. I hated watching how her Mother changed but could understand the reasons for the changes. I also love the way Rémy developed as a character. It was interesting to see the differences between Eva of present and Eva of the past and how much her family did not know about her past. The story touched my heart and I read the last quarter with tears in my eyes. There were a few twists and the ending was unexpected and very satisfying. THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES was, for me, a wonderful way to escape to a different time and place. One I got started I couldn’t put it down and flew through the pages. The only time I was disappointed was when I read the last word.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
#thebookoflostnames #kristinharmel #gallerybooks

Thank you NetGalley Publisher & Author for this gifted E-arc.

Summary
Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

Review
This is a historical fiction book. Normally not my got go to but genre but this one sounded so good.
And boy was it fabulous! This book will bring you into the horrors of WWII! This book was so well written, and I was shocked I found myself scanning through the pages.
This was a beautiful book of heartbreak, love, survival.

This was my first Kristin Harmel book but it definitely isn't my last.

Rating
4/5

Wow!!! What a book! It gives me all the feels. I love historical fiction taking place during WWII and have read many fiction and non-fiction books regarding this subject. Kristin Harmel's research and dedication are reflected in this book. She is one of my favorite authors so I was excited, but a little anxious, to see if she could, yet again, write another best seller. Guess what? She did!! Doing it among many good authors writing about this time period.

The first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful book cover! Then, after reading just a few pages, I was fully captured by The Book of Lost Names.

Eva, a captivating main character is an experienced librarian. As all librarians do, Eva was shelving books one day at work when she came across a book titled The Book of Lost Names, a book she had not seen in 65 years. The book contains secret code and Eva is the only one that understands it.

Eva, Remy and Pere tell the story of the lives they have saved during WWII. They are everyday ordinary heroes during a dark time and wanted to make sure that others weren't forgotten or abolished from history. Their names are forever captured in The Book of Lost Names.

A BIG thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for this magnificent ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#TheBookofLostNames #NetGalley

Man, do I love a good historical fiction. Kristin Harmel takes us deep into World War II, following a heroine who helps Jewish children escape the Nazis.

Besides the ancients, World War II is one of my favorite periods to read about, and Kristin Harmel did it justice in The Book of Lost Names. It was just so beautiful. Written from two different timelines, the story kept moving. I'm an emotional reader, but the ending definitely got me.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel is a wonderful must read novel. This is my second book by Kristin Harmel and she did not disappoint. Ms. Harmel is a best selling author who spends an enormous time in research for her books. As the author states : "one of my favorite things about writing about the war [WW2] is that I'm able to dig deep into subjects many of us may not be familiar with."

The Book of Lost Names is a thought-provoking World War II historical fiction novel. The characters are so well crafted that you feel that you know them. You feel their hurts, fears and cheer for them when something good happens. The dialog between the characters is very well done. The setting begins in 1940’s Paris when the Germans take over the city and shortly moves to Aurignon, France. The description of the settings is phenomenal. You can easily picture yourself right with the main character sitting next to her and seeing what she sees. There are two time lines here but much of the book is spent during the war. The rest of the book occurs during 2005 with our older main character reflecting on her youth and the choices she has made. The main character is smart, thoughtful, brave, strong and resilient.

I don’t like to delve into the plot line as I like other readers to find out the treasure which lies before them. This book really stands out among one of my favorites in this genre. I have read about the French Resistance but this book
delves into something that brave people like our Heroine did for the Resistance’s cause. I couldn’t put this book down. If you fell in love with the Lilac Girls you will love this one. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us next.

I would like to thank Kristen Hamel, Gallery Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the the first book that I read by Kristin Harmel and I thought it was excellent. Several of her other books have sounded interesting to me and made it onto my TBR, but it took a NetGalley deadline to get me to actually read one. I am so glad that I finally did and I look forward to reading more of her work soon.

I thought young Ava started out a bit naive. She made a couple of decisions that made me think that she was going to be one of those main characters that was foolish and I wouldn't be able to relate to her. However, she quickly became a brave woman that I could admire.

I thought the writing was engaging and had just the right amount of description. The feel of the story reminds me a bit of The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. There is romance and danger, betrayal and loyalty, family and obligation, and most of all love. If you enjoyed The Nightingale, you will likely enjoy this story as well. If you thought that story was too light and focused on the romance, you may have a similar opinion of this story. For me, it was just right.

I enjoyed this touching, WWII story set in France and was all-set to give it 3 stars until the ending...any book that brings me to tears deserves an extra star.

I've read many fictionalized WWII stories, some of which are very dark, intricately detailed, heavily researched, and just plain heavy. This one tells the story of a young Jewish girl who escapes Paris with her mother and discovers she has a talent for forgery that can be used to save the lives of those who find themselves in need of a new name in order to escape to Switzerland. It is a well-told story, that moves along quickly with a few twists here and there, though not terribly unpredictable, made for a good story. The characters were enjoyable, though not as developed as I tend to gravitate to. It was a good story and I would recommend.

I received a copy of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review