The Lost Girls of Paris

Author: Pam Jenoff
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Park Row Books, 2019
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: 1946, Manhattan

Grace Healy is rebuilding her life after losing her husband during the war. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, she finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs - each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.

Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a ring of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the woman in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor, and betrayal.

Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brace women of the war, and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood, and great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances.

Review: The market is inundated with novels set during World War II, and I always feel exhausted after finishing one. For that reason, I've basically sworn them off. However, I will make exceptions for books that come highly recommended, and for authors I read in the last and loved.

The Orphan's Tale was the best book I read in 2017, and when I saw the author had a new release, I had to read it. I wasn't wowed by The Lost Girls of Paris, but it is good, AND it's different premise than a lot of books about this era. 

I can't pinpoint what it is exactly, but I was never fully sucked into, or vested, this this novel so I give it 4 stars and not a full five. That said, it felt a lot shorter than 384 pages. The plot is compelling, and I found the characters to be relatable.