Oh my goodness! What a good book! It's based in the year 1944 during the German occupation of Paris, and in the year1953. It is the story of two women: A French woman by the name of Helaine, who was a Jewish woman married to a cellist by the name of Gabriel, and a British woman by the name of Louise. Helaine's is the 1944 story where she was imprisoned in a defunct department store called Lévitan. Gabriel played with the symphony and was later commissioned to go to Germany to play for the POWs. Helaine's mother had given her a two-part heart necklace. When Gabriel left for Germany, she gave him half of the necklace and she kept the other half. Gabriel was working for the resistance, and when that became known, he was arrested and placed in a POW camp.

Louise was the other key player in this story. In 1943, she went to work for the Red Cross. They put together care packages to be distributed to POWs In Germany. Ian was her boss, and she went with him to Germany to distribute the care packages. A celebrity singer, Franny, went with them as well to entertain the POWs and German officers. Gabriel was the cellist that accompanied her. One night, Louise saw Franny over at the POW camp talking to the cellist. He had given her his half of the necklace that he wanted her to deliver to his wife. First, Franny asked Ian to deliver the necklace and he refused. And then she asked Louise to deliver the necklace and she too refused. That night, Franny went for a walk over by the camp where she was found dead.

In 1953, Louise worked in a charity shop in London where they received crates of goods for resale. They received a crate from Lévitan where she found half of the necklace. She recognized it immediately. Her mission then was to find out the truth behind the necklace and to also find out the truth about how Franny died. She left her husband, Joe, and her two children to go to Paris to see what she could learn. Ian had left the Red Cross and was there in Paris working for the government. He had promised Louise that he would help her learn the truth, so when she got to Paris she looked him up. Unfortunately, he stole the necklace from her and skipped town. His truth came out in the end.

There was a lot that transpired in this saga and the author did a marvelous job telling the tale. The characters were extremely well developed and the plot was such that I couldn't put the book down. I would love to read more by this author. I gave this book five stars. I wish I could have given it. 10.

Even though I felt it was’t very realistic that the necklace finds its way to Louise after seeing it ten years earlier just before the death of her friend, the story was still compelling enough to thoroughly enjoy it. I loved Gabriel and Helaine’s romance, and even though I thought their ending a little far-fetched, I was still relieved and happy. I love historical novels that compel me to look into the history a little deeper, and I enjoyed reading another article about Lévitan that included some pictures. I’ve read so many WWII novels, but had never heard of this store before, so I found it fascinating. Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for providing a complimentary ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the Advanced Readers Copy of this novel.

The story is told through multiple perspectives during and after WW2. Which is what drew me in. The alternating storylines are connected by a mysterious necklace and the story it represents. Although the premise of the book was intriguing, I didn’t get an emotional connection to any of the characters.

Overall, the book was well told with a lot of history embedded. But, it didn’t hit the “must read” criteria I look for to recommend to friends.

A beautiful love story entangled in one of the worst eras in History. With the Holocaust, it is interesting how the author creates a balance between history and fiction. This author is talented at how she captured two timelines 10 years apart and tied it together flawlessly.
The story of the Levitan store in Paris, which was known for its exquisite displays on every floor of the massive building was later used during the war as a labor camp. In 1953, after the war, a crate labeled Levitan was found containing a gold half-heart charm on a chain with the words inscribed "Watch" "Me". Louise worked by sorting the discarded items. When she discovers the charm, she sets out on a remarkable journey to find the lives behind it. She thinks she has seen it before and knows the person it belonged to.
During WWII, Louise had a fascinating history working with the Red Cross delivering first aid packages to POWs. She once traveled with Franny, a famous singer and performer for the prisoners. Louise's Red Cross boss and former romantic interest, Ian, and Franny play a huge role during the war. Franny dies in a controversial death that will haunt her for years without knowing what caused her death. She remembers a cello player that played at the camps who wanted to give Franny a necklace to return to his wife. Then Franny died. She sets out to retrace her steps and the people involved.
During the war, Helaine left the comfort of her home and wealthy parents to marry the love of her life and move to a harder and simpler way of living. Helaine, as a Jewish young woman, her life became more difficult and dangerous. As her German husband was on tour, she was captured and imprisoned in the Levitan store to sort and sell the Jews' belongings to German soldiers.
An outstanding research and conglomerate history of the Levitan store where over 800 prisoners considered of privileged status were starved, worked diligently and if a crime was committed they were sent to concentration camps to work until their death.
It is a reminder of the horrors and reality of millions of innocent people sent to their death under the orders of Hitler and his Nazi soldiers. This depicts the families torn apart during war and the people that turned their back to the helpless to save their own lives. It never gets easier to read, but always fascinates me the many that risk their lives to save others.
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/ Park Row for this incredible ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Books that move back and forth in time are intriguing, and that is how Pam Jenoff chooses to tell this new story inspired by the true story of Lévitan, a posh department store in Paris! The story centers on a woman named Louise, who served with the Red Cross as a young girl in World War II and is now married with a couple of kids, and her early sweetheart, who came out of combat, a rather silent and changed man. She has found a half necklace that she was sure she saw the other half in a terrible time when serving Allied soldiers behind the German lines. That time meant the loss of her friend, Franny, whom they declared that she had been hit by a car. Louise knew it couldn't be true, but she was forced to leave by her boss, Ian, with whom she had some attraction, both to save herself and others. Now, it's the fifties, and this necklace, amazingly, has appeared again!
Louise races to Paris, to find out as much as she can, beginning with asking Ian for help and pushing to discover more about that department store. Well, that store has a dark past, was a Nazi prison where the prisoners unloaded all the goods from Jewish homes that had been confiscated and then arranged them like a store for Nazis to come to shop and acquire.
In between these stories, Louise also tells of her time in the war, working for the Red Cross and the missing piece, a young woman named Helaine with the saddest past until it all changes when she finally breaks out, falls in love in a cellist, and leaves her home, unblessed, perhaps never to see them again.
You can imagine the layers of emotion in these lives, mixed in with strange events and love in numerous guises that no matter what the reader believes is true, it is not, or first it's not, then it is! The book is worth a look for being a many-plotted thing!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital ARC.
*expected publication date: Feb 4th*

I loved this book and I learned a lot about wartime Paris from reading it. I had no idea that the Lévitan department store was used as a form of prison camp for Jews where they were not only imprisoned but forced to sell the goods plundered by the Nazis from Jewish homes.

Told from a couple of different POV in a dual timeline, this took me a few chapters to get into as the timeline flipped between 1953 and wartime but once I had established who was who/ where in time, it was a fast read that I couldn't put down.

I was invested in the characters and the twist at the end I did not see coming. My first book by this author by not my last.

This was another well written book by this author.
Three timelines tell this story set during WW2. It’s a good story with a little bit of a mystery. It’s a must read for all historical fiction fans

A good story that wins on many counts and loses as to believability at some parts. I want the story to be what I read, yet I have a hard time with the passion of a family that dares a parting and goes into what could be a perilous search for information on a past encounter when the most involved person had died. I struggled to believe a woman would leave her husband and kids and make this kind of trip. It kept me reading, and I liked the book, but kept wondering…really? Can she make this trip and not ruin her married family life? The historical fiction will draw many readers, and I feel confident they will read it, and probably pass it along to friends.

The story of Louise (a Red Cross volunteer) and Helaine (a young Jewish woman) during WWII is captivating. I didn’t like Louise as a person so much, but I really appreciated being shown this side of the Red Cross in history (not always as wonderful as we think) and learning about the Levitan was fascinating. I really like when historical fiction authors grab a nugget from the past that we don’t know about and build upon that.

The writing in this one was just okay for me - I feel that having such a strong plot really helped. There are a lot of short choppy sentences, and while the character development is there, emotionally I wish I had gotten a little more attached. It ended very patly, which seems to be a rare occurrence for Holocaust stories. Without giving spoilers there are also a couple tropes that pop up. But there are two twists at the end, and boy I didn’t see one of them coming, which I LOVED.

Recommended.

I’m not sure where I’ve been to have never read any of Pam Jenoff’s books, but I will absolutely be picking others up. I loved this book so much! Loved how it toggled back and forth and the author does a great job of tying everything together at the end. Highly recommend for a different take on a WWII book.

Thank you to netgalley for an arc in exchange of an honest review.

Pam Jenoff writes about an event that took place in Paris during WWll that I have not heard or read about. I find it fascinating when there is something new to learn about. Last Twilight in Paris is inspired by the true story of Levitan, a department/furniture store in Paris that turned into a warehouse used to house everything that was stolen from the Jews. The items were unloaded by Jewish prisoners that were considered privileged. The items were cleaned and displayed and sold to German officers during the war. Many of the prisoners were later transferred to Drancy where they died. The story also delves into the Red Cross and the role they played visiting the camps, basically turning their backs and ignoring what was happening to the Jews.

It is a dual timeline that takes place in the 1940’s and 1953. I enjoyed that the timelines were close together. The story explores the roles of women before and after the war and celebrates their strengths. Louise and Helayne were both weak but found a strength they never thought could be possible.

The storyline is farfetched but the mystery component captures your attention and keeps you reading long into the night.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read a few of this author’s WWII fiction and this one might be my favourite. I really liked Louise and the mystery she is determined to solve and at first I had no idea how all the different pieces would connect they did come together quite well at the end

During WWII, spouses Gabriel and Helaine are separated. In looking for Gabriel, a cellist who was sent to play for the Germans, Helaine, a Jewish woman, is arrested and sent to a camp in an old department store in Paris. 10 years later, Louise, who worked for the Red Cross during the war, finds a necklace and is desperate to connect it back to its original owner.

This was a very captivating, well written story. I loved the dual POV between Helaine and Louise, as well as the multiple timelines that connected the women’s times during the war, and then after. I had never known about the prisoners at the Paris department store, as well as how the Red Cross went into camps. I wanted to feel more emotion while reading, but otherwise I really loved the story. I’m always amazed by the bravery and grit people showed during the worst times of their lives and I will continue to read these stories with a heavy but hopeful heart

I have read and enjoyed many of Pam Jenoff's books in the past. While I enjoyed her latest, Last Twilight in Paris, I don't think it quite measured up to the ones that precede it. Jenoff brings to light the use of a well-known Paris department store as a Nazi labor camp through the story of Helaine, a sheltered Jewish woman, who married a gifted non-Jewish cellist. The story, told in two time periods, also focuses on Louise, who served as a WWII Red Cross volunteer who is sent to France to help deliver food packages to POWs. As is the case with Jenoff's previoius novels, Last Twilight in Paris is based on the little known fact of the use of the department store by the Nazis to sort the many goods they plundered from Jewish families and subsequently distributed to German officers. There are too many coincidences and not enough depth of character analysis to satisfy me entirely, but the story is one that reads well and that will appeal to lovers of fiction set in WWII.

iked the back and forth between time periods. Most WWII books I've read have the perspectives from very modern times and during the war. I found it interesting to see it from the viewpoint of characters still healing from the war, less than ten years out. Liked how it ended and how the characters developed.

No One writes WWII historical fiction like Pam Jenoff and this book is another fine example of this. I always learn something from her books. The dual timeline works very well in Last Twilight in Paris. All of the characters are well-developed and there was just the right amount of mystery and history.

Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff is a historical fiction novel set in Paris during WWII as well as London shortly after the war in 1953. I enjoyed the dual timeline as well as how the two stories wove together as the book progressed. I thought the setting of a former department store where Jews were held prisoner in the midst of Paris was mind boggling and couldn’t believe when reading the author’s note that it did in fact happen during the war! I love that the author took a little known fact and used that as part of the premise of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this and will continue to read Pam Jenoff upcoming books as well as any of her backlist that I have missed!

Thank you to everyone for this gifted copy of Last Twilight in Paris.

I felt that this was a good historical fiction, and a book that would be a good place for someone to start if they wanted to get into the genre. The plot was easy to follow and the characters were well developed. The ending wrapped up nicely, I think I was just hoping for something that would make me feel a little more emotion.

Moving historical fiction wrapped in an espionage thriller set in France and England during World War II, focused on a small group of Jews imprisoned as workers in a grand Paris department store, the Levitan, to sort goods taken from Jews homes and put up for sale for Germans.

Two parallel stories converge: the first set in post-war London where Louise Burns works in a second-hand thrift shop and finds one half of a two-part heart necklace in a dropped off box. She recognizes the nicked necklace as one she came across while volunteering for the International Red Cross across enemy lines in Germany during the war. Her friend Fanny, a singer performing for POW’s after they dropped off supply boxes to them, had asked Louise to smuggle the necklace back to Paris for her. Louise, fearful, declines just before Fanny dies based on a suspicious car hit and run. Louise, mired in a suburban life with young kids and husband Joe stlll shell-shocked from the war, takes up the hunt to figure out the origins of the necklace for some sense of purpose and escape from the tedium her life has become.

The second story centers on Helaine Well, the only daughter of a wealthy, connected Jewish family in Paris who’s been homebound by overly protective parents in reaction to a childhood illness. Helaine yearns for freedom, ultimately falling in love with a celloist she meets when out walking the neighborhood. From her we get a emotive, powerful first person perspective on Paris as the Nazi’s eventually occupy the city and ship Jews to prison camps. Helaine ends up imprisoned in the Levitan department store, desperately searching for word of her celloist.

The mystery of the inter-connectedness of the stories rachets up tension, with an surprising and thought-provoking reveal that brings closure.
A great read!

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

I love Pam Jenoff’s books. She writes historical fiction based on real life events. Last Twilight in Paris story revolves around two women during and right after WW11. Helaine is a Jew from a predominant family.. And, Louise who volunteered in the Red Cross during the War. There is a necklace that brings them together. Helaine is arrested by the Germans and put into a camp located in the former department store Levitan. Both women are trying to find answers to what happened to the people they loved. I found it interesting looking at the war through Louise eyes going behind the lines in Germany. I thoroughly devour this book.

Thank you #NetGalley, #HarlequinTradePublishing, #PamJenoff and #LastTwillightinParis for the advance copy for my honest review.