As the Nazis march toward Paris in 1940, American ballerina Lucie Girard buys her favorite English-language bookstore to allow the Jewish owners to escape. Lucie struggles to run Green Leaf Books due to oppressive German laws and harsh conditions, but she finds a way to aid the resistance by passing secret messages between the pages of her books.
Widower Paul Aubrey wants nothing more than to return to the States with his little girl, but the US Army convinces him to keep his factory running and obtain military information from his German customers. As the war rages on, Paul offers his own resistance by sabotaging his product and hiding British airmen in his factory. After they meet in the bookstore, Paul and Lucie are drawn to each other, but she rejects him when she discovers he sells to the Germans. And for Paul to win her trust would mean betraying his mission.
Master of WWII-era fiction Sarah Sundin invites you onto the streets of occupied Paris to discover whether love or duty will prevail.
My Thoughts
Sarah Sundin is one of the many reasons that WWII is my favorite historical time period, no one writes this genre quite like she does!
Sometimes I forget just how long WWII was brewing in Europe before the US joined and I’ve been really appreciating the way Sundin has been highlighting what things were like in those early days in this book and her last novel.
Paris isn’t my favorite city for books to be set in (don’t come at me) but it was also fascinating to see how things progressed in the city of love as the Germans invaded.
Lucie was such a bright soul, seeing beauty wherever she went. But she also had a strength and resilience to her.
Paul was much more on the serious side, seeing life through rules and order, but had a good heart and a desire to see good prevail.
Paul and Lucie fell for each other hard and fast, they were like puzzle pieces fitting together, each having what the other needed to balance them out. They didn’t have an easy road though and they had to fight countless battles to be together.
I greatly admired the way both of them did their part to help the Allies even at great risk to themselves and their livelihoods. They stood strong under pressure and thought quickly on their feet in ways that I just don’t think I could.
This book had me on the edge of my seat, anxiously turning pages to see what would happen but also had many sweet and romantic moments to balance it out.
Overall this was another hit from Sundin and I cannot wait for her next one!
Sarah Sundin is the bestselling author of When Twilight Breaks and several popular WWII series, including Sunrise at Normandy, Waves of Freedom, Wings of the Nightingale, and Wings of Glory. She is a Christy Award finalist and a Carol Award winner, and her novels have received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, and have appeared on Booklist's "101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years." Sarah lives in Northern California. Visit www.sarahsundin.com for more information
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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