I could not put this down. Kristin Harmel has done it again with The Paris Daughter. It is another heart wrenching page-turner that does not disappoint. What does a woman do when she has lost everything, her family and her livelihood, during WWII? How does she respond to those around her? Does she live in the past, or make a future for herself? Juliette, Elise, and Ruth all have experienced great tragedies, but their responses to those events vary greatly.
While it is a sad story, it is also a story of great love and hope. It is a story of family lost and eventually found. From a fountain of research, Kristin forges a story that one will not soon forget. I do not give many 5-star reviews, but this book deserved one. I was able to read an ARC on #NetGalley. Put this on your "must read" list.

I loved The Book of Lost Names! To have the chance to read and review another outstanding historical fiction novel by Harmel was a complete dream!

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel is a very emotional novel set in Paris, 1939.
Our brave characters who are young mothers Elise and Juliette who quickly become friends. Find themselves making hard and unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.
Our characters are so genuine and so endearing. My heart broke into pieces.
The characters in this book will fill your heart with their bravery and resiliency.
This book was so powerful. I devoured it in one sitting.
Kristin Harmel’s excellent writing was so compelling.
A breathtaking and gripping historical fiction read that’s full of courage and bravery.
Fans of Kristin Harmel and historical fiction are going to fall so in with this story. I know I sure did!

It was an honor to read The Paris Daughter!

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

Thank You NetGalley and Gallery Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

It’s 1939, and Juliette and Elise become quick friends after a chance encounter. With the war slowing entering France, everyone is on edge, but when Elise’s husband is caught and murdered for fighting with the resistance, Elise must make the hardest decision of her life. She must flee and her daughter cannot come with or they will both surely end up dead. So she leaves her precious girl with Juliette. Years later when the war has ended she returns to find the bookstore Juliette and her husband owned reduced to rubble and Juliette nowhere to be found.

Damn. Most of you know I have struggled with historical fiction in the past few years, life seems to have enough thrown at us daily that it’s been hard to read the struggles of the past. When I got Kristin Harmel’s new book however, I knew I needed to make it a priority. I can tell you that Harmel once again blew me out of the water. This book had me on the verge of tears (and ok maybe in tears) several times, yet it also infuriated me at times. Like spoke out loud to myself in fury at certain characters. This book explores a mothers love and the grief that comes from losing your family, as well as from war. If you have enjoyed Harmel’s books, or enjoy WWII fiction, I highly recommend this book!

There are lots of WWII novels on the market today, but this is a particularly heart-wrenching entry. Kristen Harmel has captured the ethos and the depth of rising concern in Paris prewar and into the war itself through two women and their families. My reaction to just the first thirty percent of the book is, “What could it be like to see your world crumbling around you, to see and to have no hope?”

There is a lot of focus on mothers who left their children in the care of others. Ruth, who let a charitable group place hers in safe families. And Elise, who left her daughter with Juliette, a good friend and the mother of another toddler of the same age. I do think Juliette is rather hard on Elise in her absence (and almost morbidly obsessed with a child of her own who died an infant).

There is a bombing in Paris, and only Juliette and her daughter Lucie survive. They move to New York to pick up the pieces of life that had been shattered. But Juliette seems unable to go and lives in the past, in a recreated bookstore.

When Elise returns to Paris to find Mathilde, she discovers instead the ruined bookstore and the new graves, one with her daughter’s name on it. This is a very hard book to read.

I confess that I do not understand all of the thoughts and emotions that Harmel attributes to her characters. It strikes me as sad to think that someone would begrudge another mother for leaving her child with a supposedly dear friend when, in fact, not to do so would have surely spelled her doom.

Clearly more than one of the characters in this book is living with ghosts. Mourning is important but the kind of mourning that the author attributes to these women is not all together healthy. It’s rather tragic. Quite frankly, I didn’t find the character Juliette likable at all. And perhaps I was not supposed to.

I pushed through to finish the book despite fact that I think the characters lack compassion. It struck me that a number of the characters in this book were playing “my pain is greater than your pain.” The books ends with a reunited mother and child, but it felt improbable. With apologies to the author, I’m afraid this book must be intended for an audience other than me. But I am grateful to the publisher for the chance to read it.

Kristin Harmel writes such wonderful historical fiction. She writes in such a way that I am able to put myself in the setting of the story. I can almost smell the books at the Foulon's bookstore. I can see the view out of Elise's apartment. This is a great book and I hope you enjoy ti, too.

“‘I think,’ he said slowly, ‘that sometimes, the roads we don’t know we’re walking are the ones that lead us to exactly where we’re meant to be.’”


Well, shoot. If this book doesn’t just rip your heart out. I had thought I was incapable of crying lately, but this book did me in.

You would think reading another WWII novel would be just like any other, but the way Kristin Harmel wrote these mother characters and the impossible choices they had to make during the war so poignantly, you couldn’t help but feel their pain in a unique way.

And also I’m a mother and things like this just cut right to my heart.

This is a beautiful story of motherhood, friendship, art, grief, and hope.


Allow me to give you a better description of the premise here:

This is the story of three mothers and friends— Juliette, Ruth, and Elise— living in Paris right before the German invasion.

Ruth, a Jew, makes the heart-breaking decision to send her children away through an organization that will give them new identities and places to live in order to protect them from capture. But she may never see them again. (Read Harmel’s book The Book of Lost Names for more on this story… plus there’s a smidge of crossover into this book.)

Elise, US citizen living in Paris and wife to a well-known artist who is part of an underground communist group, is in danger after her husband is captured and killed by Nazis after he gives them her name instead of his compatriots. She is forced to leave her two-year-old daughter with Juliette with false identity papers and escape the city in order to protect them both.

Juliette, US citizen living in Paris, now caring for her own family and Elise’s daughter— who is the same age as her own daughter— has already experienced the loss of a baby earlier in life and then experiences another incredible loss as a result of a wayward bomb. It hits her home and more of her family dies. With nothing left for her in Paris, she travels back to the United States to pick up the pieces of her life and find a way to hold onto all that she has lost.


That’s the first half of the book. The second half picks up after the liberation of Paris and the end of the war. Ruth and Elise are trying to reunite with their children. Juliette is nowhere to be found.

We see the anguish of Elise, not knowing what happened to her daughter.
We see the trauma of Juliette and how it turns into bitterness, resentment, and a strong grip on the past.
We see the strength and resilience of Ruth, who, though she experienced suffering, has found a way to move forward, and desires to help her friends do the same.

“‘So what do I do? How do I close the door on the life I had when I don’t know what happened to my child?’
‘That will come in time,’ Ruth replied. ‘Until then, my friend, you must keep putting one foot in front of the other. You must live, and one day, you will realize that the future lies ahead of you, and it is time to let the past go.’”


I really liked that this book goes beyond the war and explores how people move forward after such a painful time. Because life does keep happening and people must figure out how to continue living— how to just do the next thing.

Most WWII novels tend to stay within the confines of the war-time period; the exploration of grief in this book required Harmel to take it further and see how people can be shaped by the past but still face the future.

And what can happen when we clutch onto that which we no longer have. Though the depth of Juliette’s grief is understandable and we can hardly blame her, we see that grief can easily turn into bitterness and cause one to miss out on the beauty life can still hold even after incredible loss. That others can be deeply affected by our inability to move forward or see what’s in front of us.

“I want you to realize that you’re ignoring the present and throwing away the future.”

“There was a difference between honoring the past and being trapped by it.”

This was the basis of my only qualm with the book— the way Harmel resolved Juliette’s story. I don’t know if I liked it. I don’t know if I felt enough character change for the better by the end. Maybe that was intentional. But I wanted to see her move forward from her grief not just escape it.


I also really liked how Harmel delves into the aspect of ‘guilt’ that parents feel when they make hard choices for their children. Mom-guilt is real and the guilt these three women faced was immense. It is no easy choice to do what’s best for your child when it requires separation for safety.

“Being a parent is not about doing what is right for ourselves, is it? It’s about sacrificing all we can, big and small, to give our children their best chance at life.”

I just can’t even imagine the pain of that choice, yet it was one so many mothers made during WWII. The future was so uncertain. Harmel did an excellent job capturing this struggle and the feelings that came after it was all over.


Lastly, I enjoyed the incorporation of art in this book. Elise is an artist— painting and wood sculpture. Harmel describes Elise’s journey through her grief through her art. It also becomes a connection point between mother and daughter in a beautiful way.

I’m not an emotion-driven artist, but I can still appreciate the way that art evokes emotions in a lot of people and can be an important form of expression.

Harmel did a lot of research on carving and it showed in her descriptions. In the author’s note she suggests THIS WEBSITE of carver Mary May who answered a lot of her questions and even offers classes for wood carving. I’m not super familiar with wood carvings— especially of people— so some of that art in the book was harder to visualize than the paintings. I’m amazed how people can create such likenesses from carving a solid block of wood.


When I read historical fiction I always enjoy reading the author’s note to see what aspects were true and how they went about researching for their book. I appreciate all the legwork authors put in to make their books true to history as much as possible. Since apparently I didn’t retain much from my history classes in school, I always enjoy learning new things.

Something interesting Harmel shares is that the ocean liner her character sails on to the US— the SS United States— was a real ship built in 1950. It crossed the Atlantic in 3 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes. breaking the previous record by 10 hours. And it still holds the record for fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. That’s crazy to me! You’d think with new technology and building materials/methods we would be able to create something faster, but passenger travel by ship across the ocean is no longer in demand with the advent of air travel so it’s probably not a profitable endeavor.

Another historical thing worth mentioning was the errant bombs that were dropped in Paris like that in the book. Harmel shares that hundreds of citizens were killed and injured as a result of bombs that missed their targets. It reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Bomber Mafia, which talks about the invention of bomb sightings to ensure less missed targets and less citizen deaths. That precision bombing was an invention that changed the way war was waged and pointed to a more moral way to do it. Although it is weird to say that precision bombing is moral…


Recommendation

I would definitely recommend this book. I have a feeling this is going to make my list of best books in 2023. It is such a captivating story that you will become so invested in. The way she writes to evoke emotion in the reader is superb.

It’s not just ‘another WII' novel’ in my mind. It’s unique and beautiful and reminds us that grief, though deeply painful, does not have to be the end for us. There is a way to move forward. And the support of friends and loved ones is vital. It’s a tribute to all the mothers out there who sacrifice for their children.

Harmel says,

“I hope that when reading books like mine, you’re reminded that managing to pick ourselves up and put one foot in front of the other is always a victory— and that there is always light in the darkness, even if that spark is sometimes hard to see.”

The Paris Daughter is, as Harmel had hoped “another powerful affirmation of the human capacity for goodness, strength, and faith in the face of adversity.”


[Content Advisory: no f- or s-words or sexual content; trigger warning for child loss]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel is a wonderfully written book about friendship, love and loss. It follows two women that are both from the United States living in Paris, France, married to French men. Elise is a sculptor and her husband Olivier a famous painter. Juiette and her husband Paul own a bookstore that caters to all their patrons. By a chance meeting Juiette and Elise become fast friends and soon their daughters are also best friends. When the Nazi's invade Paris Elise has to leave under a false name and has to leave her daughter behind. Juiette and Paul takes in Mathide and soon Juiette becomes a second mother to her. Ruth is also a mother of two and they are Jewish. In order to save her choldren Ruth sends them away with an underground group that are hiding Jewish children from the Nazis. When a bomb falls on the book store Juiette and Lucie are the only surviors of her family. Juiette and Lucie soon move back to the United States and Juiette soon remarries, not for love but for stabilty. Lucie feels that she is never good enough for her mother who holds her dead family on a pedistal. Lucie loves to draw and paint and is forbidden to do so by her mother. Juiette is living in the past and even recreates her Paris Bookstore in New York. Elise survives the war to find her daughter is dead however, in her heart she feels that she isn't. This book has so many twist and turns and you feel for Juiette and all that she has lost but, you also learn to hate her for how she is treating her only surviving daughter Lucie. Elise never gives up hope and just wants to know how her daughter spent the last days of her life. This book has historical facts that are mixed into the storyline. A must read for all!

This WWII story was amazing! As always Kristin Harmel out did herself.

A true bond between mother and daughter. This book would make a great Mother’s Day gift.

Thank you to NetGalley
This is my honest review.

The Paris Daughter is a heart wrenching and heartbreaking story that takes you back to World War II and occupied Paris, France. Kristin Harmel weaves a tale of mothers and the situations they found theirselves in during the war. Harmel's writing makes you feel as if you are there living through these times with Elise and Juliette. It was a book I could not put down and one that I cried multiple times while reading.

Elise an American artist is married to a famous French artist and living in Paris, France when World War II finds her and her little family she has built. She becomes close friends with another American woman who owns a bookstore close to Elise's favorite spot in the world, the Bois de Boulogne. They are both pregnant and due about the same time. They form a bond that is stronger than most, however they have no idea how much the encroaching war will change both of their lives. Elise is forced to make a difficult decision in what she sees as the best interest for her daughter. She leaves her daughter with Juliette and her family while she runs for her life.

Elise returns after the war to her daughter but learns something that breaks her to her core. It seems like Juliette is broken to the core too. Or is she wrecked with guilt over something? What could that be?

Wow! Kristin Harmel intrigues the reader with a fascinating story of love, trust, and forgiveness from World War II. Thankfully, I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from #netgalley.
The story unfolds the friendship of two American-born women, married to French men and living in Paris. Through a random meeting in the Parisian Bois de Boulogne park, Juliette and Elise form a friendship that will be tested through extraordinary circumstances.

The two women have daughters born within weeks of one another and enjoy the comfort that their friendship provides. Talk of war begin to circulate in Paris and Elise’s artist husband is arrested for his political beliefs. Under duress from the Nazis, he betrays his wife, making American-born Elise an easy target for the enemy. She understands that for both she and her daughter to survive the war, she must leave occupied Paris and go into hiding. She entrusts her daughter’s safety to her dear friend Juliette, asking her to protect her child and ensure her survival.

Juliette and her husband take in Elise's daughter, raising her alongside their own children. While Elise is in hiding, the unthinkable happens and bombs from the Allied forces kill everyone in Juliette's family aside from herself and one of the young girls. Elise and Juliette, long separated by war and grief wrestle with ideas of guilt, motherhood and finding a way to cope with the past.

The Paris Daughter is a must-read for fans of historical fiction and anyone who loves to be engrossed in a story. It examines the effects of war among those who were left behind. It is a powerful reminder of the enduring strength of the human spirit and the importance of forgiving others in order to move forward. Kristin Harmel has crafted a truly remarkable novel that will stay with readers long after the story ends.

4.5 stars

Kristin Harmel reliably writes amazing historical fiction books, and The Paris Daughter is no exception. This story starts in Paris in 1939, where two young mothers, Elise and Juliette, become friends. When Elise learns that she is on the Nazi's radar, she asks an unimaginable favor of Juliette-- to take her daughter and keep her safe-- as she flees Paris. However, nowhere is safe during the war, and when a bomb falls on Juliette's neighborhood, her whole world crumbles with her bookstore. After the war, Elise returns to Paris in hopes of being reunited with her daughter, only to find the bookstore in ruins and Juliette nowhere to be found. Elise is left with so many unanswered questions, desperate to learn what happened to her friend and her daughter.

As with all of Harmel's books, this was an extremely well written and well researched book. I did catch onto how things would pan out, which lost a bit of the "wow" factor; however, it was still emotional to read. In particular, I liked how a lot of this book was set after WWII-- just because the war was over, didn't mean that people weren't still haunted by trauma. Harmel captured this very well.

Thank you Gallery for my ARC.

Omg this book was incredible!
Juliette and Elise meet in the streets of Paris both pregnant and right before the war. Elise married to a famous artist and Juliette a bookshop owner when Elise husband is caught going against the Nazi, Elise life is in danger and has to flee leaving her daughter behind to say her life with her dear best friend. Juliette life is destroyed with a bomb and move back to America. The war is over and Elise goes back for her daughter but sees she isn’t there now she sets out to find her best friend and the truth about her daughter.

This book warmed and hurt my soul a must read!

Definitely not my favorite Kristin Harmel, but was a good solid book. A bit slow to start. I enjoyed the middle and end much more than the beginning of the book. I didn't like how it skipped large sections of time (i.e., the middle of the war, years after the war, etc.) and the reader just ended up 10, 15, 20 years ahead. It was a bit confusing. But, overall, would recommend!

The Paris Daughter
Kristin Harmel
Pub Date: June 6, 2023

I’m going to have a difficult time starting a new book after finishing The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel. I didn’t think she could top The Book of Lost Names, but I was wrong! This book was flawless! I am speechless, but will try to find some words to attempt to do this book justice. The Paris Daughter is a beautiful story about motherhood, love, friendship, strength, and resilience.

Elise and Juliette are two American born women living in Paris in the late 1930s/early 1940s. They meet and bond over their pregnancy, and form a beautiful friendship after both having baby girls. Juliette, married to Paul, and the owners of a bookstore, have three living children, and one who passed away after only a couple weeks of life. Elise, with her first child, is an artist, and married to a famous painter. The two women find comfort in one another at a very uncomfortable time in history, and their daughters, Elise and Mathilde, are also best of friends. After Elise’s husband finds himself in trouble, Elise is forced to leave town and must leave Mathilde with Juliette and her family, and Mathilde must take on the role as an adopted cousin. Tragedy strikes after Elise leaves and, and Juliette is forced to continue on and stay strong for her remaining family. Decades later, the two women are reunited in New York City, while Elise looks for answers to what happened in April 1943.

This book brought me to tears and made me hug my children multiple times while reading it. I just adore the way Harmel writes and how she can transport the reader back in history. I loved reading the Author’s Note at the end, to get a glimpse at the writing process and research that went into writing this book. Harmel continues to amazing me and she will forever by my favorite Historical Fiction author.

This book will no doubt be in my top 5 of the year!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Favorite Quotes

“Under these stars, fate will guide you home.”

“Being a parent is not about doing what is right for ourselves, is it? Ruth Levy had said the previous summer, before sending her children away. It’s about sacrificing all we can, big and small, to give our children their best chance at life.”

“I’ think’, he said slowly, ‘that sometimes, the roads we don’t know we’re walking are the ones that lead us to exactly where we’re meant to be.’”

“I also hope that when you read my books, you’re reminded of our incredible human capacity for love, resilience, and survival, even in the midst of terrible times. We all go through dark periods in our lives. We all know anguish, just as we all know joy. But I hope that in reading books like mine, you’re reminded that managing to pick ourselves up and put one foot in front of the other is always a victory—and that there is always light in the darkness, even if that spark is sometimes hard to see.” -Kristin Harmel, Author’s Note

Thank you to Kristin Harmel, Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Paris Daughter!

Posted on Instagram on April 26, 2023 (Currently Reading): http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
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**Posted on Instagram (full review) on June 6, 2023: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Instagram (mini review) in late May 2023: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on June 6, 2023
**-will post on designated date

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel had my full attention from page one! This is a beautifully written novel that is heartbreaking, yet very hopeful centered around a friendship of strength and a mother’s love. Very well researched incorporating many historical events during and after the World War II. Elise and Juliette who become friends both suffer from devastating losses struggle separately to move forward in their lives. Their daughters Mathilde and Lucie quickly become two star characters in the book for me, giving the storyline such great emotion.The ending was a masterpiece and this quickly became my favorite book of the year so far.
Thank you Netgalley and Gallery Books for the advanced readers copy of this book in exchange of my honest review.

The heartbreak of leaving behind a child with a family friend for their safety, as well as one's own, is a decision I would never ever want to be in the position to make.
From war torn Paris to New York City this heart wrenching novel brings you through all the emotions as you experience the friendship of Elise and Juliette and the decisions they make to move on from the war. This is one of Harmel's best novels in my opinion. Be sure to grab a copy......you'll surely enjoy it!

My thanks to #NetGalley and Gallery Books for the pleasure of reading and reviewing this wonderful and powerful story. This opinion is my own.

While I am definitely a Kristin Harmel fan, her latest novel, The Paris Daughter, did not work for me. There were a few things that were great about this book - such as the great sense of place in both the Paris and New York City scenes, as well as the heartbreaking questions all mothers ask... am I doing the right thing for my child? Though we may not ask these questions in the face of war, I think all moms can relate to this. It was heartbreaking to see how Juliette, Elise, and Ruth asked this question in their own way as they lived through World War II. The women were all such complex, nuanced characters that I adored (or was utterly annoyed by at times).

That being said, once the "twist" started being hinted at, this book started to become predictable and almost like a crash course towards a painful ending. I meant that figuratively, but there's also a literal aspect to that as well. The ending was also abrupt and unsatisfying for me. I think this book will certainly have its fans but it was a bit of a miss for me.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

I love Harmel’s stories, so I was a little surprised by this one. For most of the story, it didn’t feel like there was a lot happening, but the ending was done so well, I did feel like the story was worth it.

Title: The Paris Daughter
By: Kirstin Harmel

Genre:
Historical Fiction, World War II

Favorite Excerpt:
“Under the Stars, Fate will Guide You Home.”

Summary:
It’s 1939, in Paris, France, and Elise, Juliette, and Ruth, begin building a motherly bond in Juliette’s bookstore. Their children spend time together playing games, and quickly becoming fast friends. The darkness looms over the lives, as war quickly spends across Europe and into their own towns. Elise’s husband has put her and their sweet baby girl in danger, and Elise needs to runaway to save her life. But worse than that, she has to do the unthinkable, leave her beautiful girl in the hands of Juliette’s family. As Elise does, she promises Mathilde she will return and Juliette promises to keep the spirit of Elise alive for Mathilde by always talking about her. Mathilde is devastated by the loss of her mother, but grateful for her connection with Juliette’s daughter Lucie. This book has potential for spoilers throughout, and someone else’s review ruined part of that for me, so I will say no more.

Review:
I love all novels by Kristin Harmel! She does historical fiction the best and The Paris Daughter is no different. She establishes strong female characters, undoubtable relationships, and her personal research connects the reader with the highest roller coaster of emotions. In this storyline, Harmel weaves grief, undoubted hope, the perfectly portrays the unforgettable bond between a mother and her child. The plot focuses on despair, the power in letting go and the importance of moving on. At times this read is heart wrenching, all while somehow healing. I highly recommend this read!

Thank you to Kristin Harmel, Simon and Schuster, and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

#reluctantreaderreads
#kristinharmel
#netgalley
#advancedreadercopy
#simonandschuster
#theparisdaughter

I've read several Kristin Harmel books before, and was really looking forward to read this book.

It starts in 1939 France, where young mothers Elise and Juliette become friends as they meet when they are both pregnant with baby girls. Their friendship deepens as the threat of war becomes a reality.

I can't say much more about the plot without giving so much of the story away, but this story contains so much. The realities of war, how unimaginable circumstances alter life, and how people deal with life. This book had so many emotions in it. I will say, I was a little confused where the story was going in the first part, it seemed to jump time a lot, and not dig too deeply into what was going on in the war, but after reading the whole story, I get it now. I recommend reading this story.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and am so glad I was able to read it.