WWII historical fiction continues to be an expanding field,for authors. Escobar writes of a young woman intent on saving precious words from the onslaught of the Nazis. The action was good. I did question some of the main character’s actions, especially when she was involved in confrontations. Most of what was depicted in the story would have gotten her shot in real life. It’s a decent read.

This is a story of how the Nazis occupied France and tried to destroy all books that they deemed subversive and how one library tried to save those books.

The Librarian of Saint-Malo by Mario Escobar

2 stars. Hmm. I almost DNF this one. But I trudged through. Reluctantly.

First off, I never took to Jocelyn. I got bored with her early in the book. And that colored the rest of the book for me.

Secondly, the characters would at times, tend to...monologue.

Which is sad as the setting of the book is interesting. It’s set in WWII, during the German occupation of France, particularly in Saint-Malo. And it’s about a librarian protecting the library, books, the French heritage/literature. Should be good yes?

But to me, this story fell flat. Sadness. I do have a nice picture posted of it as consolation. I think the cover looks good.

Thank you anyway, Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for the arc of the book.

While this book may have been a little slow to start, the characters are what kept me reading on and interested in this story. In a large market of WWII books, the library element of this story made it stand out to me as a fan historical fiction. The content and writing would make this a great adult crossover title for YA readers. I would most recommend this to anyone who enjoys WWII fiction, and The Paris Library fans in particular.

I love this book! What an achingly beautiful, heart-breaking story. I can't think of enough adjectives to describe the un-describable. To explain the intangible elements of this story. Not something to be held or possessed, just that certain something that comes along every once in a while when a book hits a certain chord deep within your heart! If your a reader like me you know what I am trying to say.
Jocelyn's story is a love story. A love story of not only the flesh and her love for her husband, but of her love for her country, her city in which she lives, her library which she so diligently presides over, and of the books-not simply the books themselves but the words, because without words, without naming things, there is nothing. Nothing exists with out being named, with out words.
Jocelyn tells her story and the story of Saint-Malo in a series of letters she secretly writes and has smuggled to Marcel Zula a Parisian author she admires and has never met. Jocelyn hopes that Marcel will take her letters and turn them into a book about her life and what went on in Saint-Malo under German occupation. She puts forth the belief that him, being a writer can do a much better job than she since she is only a reader of words and keeper of books.
Jocelyn's life is one tragedy after another and often she sees no reason to go on living. The books, and the library are to be her only anchors in a long turbulent storm. Losing everything but the library she seeks the reason for her life continuing when so many others have not. In the end she finds what has been just outside her grasp and the purpose for her life.
A very bittersweet story, told beautifully, this one made me cry. Anyone that loves words, books, libraries, and believes in the power of the written word, along with the true power of love must read this book. Just have some tissues handy when you do!
Thank you to the publishers at Thomas Nelson-Fiction and to Net Galley for the free ARC e-book version of this novel. I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

After reading The Librarian of Saint-Malo along with Mario Esccobar's other books I have come to the conclusion that his books just aren't for me. I just don't click with his writing style. But I feel that other readers who love reading about this time period will enjoy his books.

The Librarian of Saint-Malo
by Mario Escobar

There are so many books in print today about World War II and the Nazi invasion and occupation of a large part of Europe. Most are interesting, but after a while the reader finds them all running together with not a great deal of difference among them. This book manages to tell the same story, but with a new take on war, bravery, cruelty, cowardice, love, and most of all, words.

Jocelyn Ferrec is the librarian in the seaside city of Saint-Malo. As the story begins, she is just married to the love of her life, Antoine. But life is unkind to the young couple as Jocelyn contracts tuberculosus. As she is struggling to recover, her husband is called up to help defend France from the Nazi invasion. Thus begins the downward spiral of her life. With Antoine away and captured by the Germans, Jocelyn relies on friends for support, only to have them taken from her. Gradually everything and everybody she loves is gone and she is left to figure out what the meaning of her life is.

This is not a story with good triumphing over evil and a happily ever after ending. Jocelyn's friend Denis refers to it as a tragicomedy. But it is much more than that. It is a story about love and humanity and how the power of words can help us to overcome the the things that would rob us of our humanity. This is a very moving book that will have the reader pondering all the different facets of the many characters and trying to understand that we all have an angel and a devil within us.

"𝐌𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬."
Saint-Malo is a small village in France. It was a heart-wrenching story which revolves around Jocelyn Ferrac who is a librarian in Saint-Malo. She describes various events that took place during WWII in the form of letters to her favourite author. The day she got married to Antoine, the Germans attacked Poland and plunged the world into a merciless war. The characters in the story felt so real and I could feel as if all the characters are a part of my life. After their marriage, Jocelyn comes to know that she has tuberculosis and due to war, Antoine is called up to go for the war.

"𝐌𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞: 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐲, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝."
I could relate with Jocelyn to a great extent because she stood strong throughout the novel. Her husband, Antoine ws called up to fight but she was no less because when Germans were destroying French literature completely while on the other hand we have Jocelyn who tries her level best to preserve the French literature. She is one of those strong female protagonists who will never give up.

I was never into historical fiction but recently I have fallen in love with historical fiction and I would love to read more books from this genre. It took me a couple of days to finish this book and without any doubt this is one of the best books set during the time of WWII. It was definitely a thought provoking novel and I highly recommend this.

Jocelyn, a librarian in the village of Saint-Malo is a strong woman trying to tackle the Nazi censorship of valuable printed material. She does this by hoarding and removing these books. It is a courageous act to say the least. This book about the German occupation in a small town in France, held my interest. Not just about her work with the resistance but her personal life as well. Written in a unique style, mostly in letters, I thought the concept of this novel to be quite interesting as it explores the idea of censorship during WWII and the struggle of someone who values the written word. My thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Librarian of Saint-Malo is a brilliant fictionalized story of a librarian as the title implies who tries her best to protect the prized possession of the books at her library when Nazis occupy France in 1940. A slow paced novel this story is about an ordinary woman and her struggles as a friend of a bookseller, a librarian, a wife of a soldier, a resistance member and a widow. The author has done an amazing job of portraying the evilness as well as goodness of people during those horrific times. It takes a little time to get into the story but once you do it is engrossing.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Librarian of Saint Malo is a beautiful story of survival during the Nazi Occupation of France.
Jocelyn is the town’s librarian, who struggles in the absence of her husband while he is fighting for France. The story opens in 1938 on the day of their wedding. In the short time they have together, hardship and illness strikes. But it is during the years of the war, that Jocelyn is most challenged to mature, learn how to fight for her freedom, and how to survive the evils of humanity.
She hasn’t had an easy life, and it seems many of her dear ones are ripped from her, leaving her alone with the books in the library of Saint Malo, France. Jocelyn is young and at times naïve. She takes risks that have devastating effects on her friends, further isolating her from human contact.
As expected, a world war two story wouldn’t be complete without a ruthless Nazi officer. He plagues Jocelyn the entire novel. Then, there is the kind Nazi officer who rescues her more than once. What I appreciated about the secondary characters in this story is that each one is varied. There are German officers who struggle with the treatment of fellow man, young children who get swept up in the ideology, civilians who turn on their fellow countrymen while others defend the innocent. There are French Jews who are treated with disgust from German and French people, some becoming prisoners of war, part of the purge, or political prisoners.
The entire novel is told from a series of letters Jocelyn pens to a famous (fictitious) French author about her town and her experiences in trying to preserve France’s literary treasures. Though they are letters, the reader is drawn into Jocelyn’s world and only periodically is reminded of this fact.
I quite enjoyed this novel.
I received an ecopy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was surprised after reading the wonderful 'Remember Me' by the same author that I struggled through this book.

The story wasn't strong enough for me, nor were the characters. The leading character Jocelyn is naïve throughout and whilst at the start of the war this works, after years of occupation and various events happening to her friends, the same naivete doesn't really feel convincing. I also found the romances to be rather flat and underdeveloped.

The letter writing format also wasn't great. It didn't feel convincing - risking writing letters to an author you don't know under enemy occupation, and it didn't really have much of a point to it. I also felt that characters wouldn't talk to each other in the way that they did e.g. a German solider that speaks barely any French suddenly launching into a fluent family history.

There is also some incorrect historical detail that jumped out at me (which may be corrected as this is an ARC) but in the UK we had King George VI at this time, not the Queen, so no one would've sung 'God Save the Queen' and the sentence about only the Jews being systematically killed not the other groups isn't true. Romani deaths from the genocide have been estimated to been over 50% of their European population at the time. It may seem like a throwaway sentence but it is so important to get this right and not brush over that this happened.

I really did want to like this book and perhaps 2 stars is a little harsh, but the WW2 time historical fiction is so crowded it needs to be good to stand out.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publishers for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

THE LIBRARIAN OF SAINT-MALO

I received this on my Kindle from Net Galley for the purpose of review.

Saint-Malo is a small village in France and this begins in 1940-1944. Saint-Malo has a librarian who is truly devoted to her work and her village. Jocelyn and Antoine are not real people, but they are based on the story of love and suffering told Mr. Escobar in Spain on St George's Day 2017.

Some of the characters are real and others are indicative of the people living during this time. Germans. have entered Saint-Malo and are desirous of destroying all French culture-books, etc. Jocelyn loves books and is committed to keeping it open. Through many hard times; Antoine goes off to war, returns quite ill after being in German prison, Jocelyn fights the fight for the books and contents of her library. She is quite the loyal French citizen and even risks her life as a silent participant with the resistance.

The story was so well written I did not want to put it down. I also understood a little better the horrors of WWII. Blessed are those of us who have the privilege of living in the United States. Mr. Escobar describes a time that is hard to understand how a people can be so deceived and become so mean to their fellow man.

If you are not a student of history but want to read about WWII, I can highly recommend this book because it is accurate in its time and place in history.

#Goodreads #Net Galley #The Librarian of Saint-Malo

3.5 stars. I love all stories about libraries, war, and characters who are tested to the limits to survive. I found this book touched on these themes but I never connected too deeply with the characters, the tragedies or the emotion. The story wasn't unusual if you've read enough WWII books although the town on Saint-Mello was interesting to learn about.
I kept asking myself what was missing and why I was sometimes bored. I'm not sure but I think if the characters had been written with a deeper POV, I would have been more worried or cared more for their welfare. As it was, it felt like a floating-along story, with some interesting turns but nothing surprising.
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to read and review.

Prior to reading this new release, I decided that WWII historical fiction was no longer a favorite genre of mine due to the prevalence of cliché tropes, primarily in stories that focus on the European theatre. The Librarian of Saint Malo by Mario Escobar caused me to make a complete 180. First off, the story focuses on a librarian fighting to protect the power of words in the face of an oppressive, totalitarian occupation of France. Secondly, the story features several largely ignored events of WWII France such as the French complicity in the holocaust and the destruction of Saint-Malo. I particularly enjoyed the depth of detail into the characters' relationships with the Resistance as well as their Nazi occupiers, which reveal numerous grey areas and not traditional stereotypes. The Librarian of Saint Malo is the perfect read for bibliophiles who love books about books and think that the WWII historical fiction niche is overdone.

Just finished this great book. Historical fiction about the French resistance during world war 2 and a librarian trying to save her beloved books. Partially based on real happenings and the complete desecration of the city of Saint-Malo. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review this book. 5 stars from me.

Fascinating novel that documents the courage of French citizens dedicated to preserving their library at Saint-Malo during Nazi occupation.

Jocelyn is a librarian in Saint Malo, and her husband Antoine, a police officer. They marry on the very day that Germany invades Poland in 1939, and their young marriage is plagued by Jocelyn’s illness and then Antoine’s subsequent army draft and German capture. Jocelyn makes it her mission to protect the library from German plunder and destruction, hiding banned books and first editions, all the while trying to protect her friends too.

The Librarian of Saint-Malo is written in the form of letters, like a diary sent piecemeal over the years of the war. I had no problem with the form of the novel and felt like it flowed very well. Jocelyn is a well-rounded and likeable character who struggles with finding a balance between her natural melancholy and her will to survive, choosing love every time the going gets much tougher than she ever imagined. She is also very much human, making some questionable, even outright stupid choices, along the way, but always remains stoic in her mission to save the patrimony of the area. Some of the books that are in the library are priceless and she refuses to let them get in the hands of the Germans.

I also loved Jocelyn’s best friend Denis, I think he was actually my favorite character in the book! He was a real friend, dedicated to protect Jocelyn, and help her in her mission, despite the danger. I was less enamoured with some of the other characters, found the evil German Bauman to be a little stereotypical, and the kinder Hermann a little unbelievable. But all-in all the characterization worked well together, and Jocelyn shines through-out, pouring out heartfelt truths to a man she has never met. I loved that the author created a fictional account out of a real story told to him one day, and also used the representation of people who really existed amidst the fictional characters.

The Librarian of Saint-Malo is a gorgeously written novel that will bring a tear to your eyes, cause you to hug those you love extra tightly, and also Google pictures of the town of Saint Malo now and then. And yes, the destruction was absolutely terrible.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jocelyn is the librarian of Saint Malo when the small town in Brittany was taken by the Nazis. Her husband Antoine is in a German POW camp, the town is struggling, and now they've moved Nazis into her house. And, the loathsome Adolf is demanding that books be burned, Jocelyn documents history through letters to Emile Zola (an unusual choice but ok) and she works with the resistance. And, she has a relationship with Herrman, a German. I struggled with this last. A good setting and interesting characters make this a positive read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of WWII novels.

**I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own**

I've read quite a few historical fiction novels set in World War II, and this one stood out because of its unique perspective. It's not often that I read about librarians in that time frame, so for that reason above all others I was curious about how this story would be handled. The story was well-written, and I could very easily visualize Saint-Malo as if I walked its streets alongside Jocelyn. There were a few moments when I felt some points of the story were being rushed, but they weren't necessarily bad. (I can't elaborate as to their nature due to spoilers.) All in all, this was an interesting take on World War II from a French librarian's perspective.