The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff is the fictional tale of women who were recruited and trained to become spies in Europe during WWII. It is a tale of incredible courage and fortitude in the face of overwhelming odds. Though the tale is fictional it is based on the fact that there were women that were spies during WWII.
This story starts in the U.S. shortly after the war is over. Grace Healey, a war widow herself, finds a suitcase in Grand Central station in New York City. She can’t resist the urge to open it and look through its contents. She finds a group of pictures of young women and this intrigues her. On a whim she takes the pictures and returns the suitcase to its hiding spot under a bench.
She becomes obsessed with finding out who the suitcase belonged to and who the women are in the pictures. As she works to gather information, the reader is introduced to Eleanor Trigg. Eleanor runs the organization in England that recruits, trains and handles women spies in German occupied Europe. Eleanor recruits a young single mother Marie Roux who is later sent to France as a radio operator for the French resistance. As Grace slows finds all the puzzle pieces and fits them together we see what really happened to these women.
My favorite thing about this book is the strong, resourceful, women characters the author has presented us. We normally think of women during WWII as entering the work force for the first time and doing men’s jobs in factories that would normally have been considered male only job. We tend to forget that women did play vital roles during WWII.
The story is told from three POVs, Grace, Eleanor and Marie. The author made sure the plot was seamless despite the changing POVs throughout. There was not tons of character development but there was enough to fit the plot. At first I thought this might be a flaw, but I in retrospect I think the author did this so on purpose. She gave us enough to connect to the characters but not enough to overwhelm the reader and bog down the plot.
The pace of the plot was good and there was plenty of intrigue to keep the reader turning the pages. I was hooked early on in the story and I wanted to see what actually happened. I also liked how everything wrapped up at the end. I wish I could elaborate further; yet, I don’t want to spoil the story for others. Let me just say that how the government handled things was spot on to what happens in real life.
I know from other books that the life expediency of a spy during WWII was very short. Therefore, the only thing I disliked about the story was the decisions made by Marie. I felt she was overly reckless and even a little naïve. Who would go off and become a spy knowing the odds of dying are very high and thus leaving a young child without a mother.
I highly recommend this book for readers of both Historical Fiction and WWII stories. I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I have been finding myself being drawn more and more to historical fiction, this book was beautifully written and drew me into every characters life. The author did an amazing job twisting each characters story line and winding them all together and it just took my breath away. The background of this book is historical fiction about woman working with the SOE as spies during World War Two. Eleanor Trigg is the woman who recruited and ran a ring of female agents, she is one of three woman included in this book. Eleanor is a very brave woman she would do anything for her agents and she can stand her own in a mans world.
Marie is a female recruit in Eleanor’s agency. She’s a single mother whose on her own and is interested in her job by the money it would pay her. When she signed up she was not fully aware all the dangers the job would consist of. She soon finds herself in Paris spying on German soldiers and transmitting intel back to London to Eleanor and the other agents.
Grace a recent widow her husband died in a Jeep accident during training for the war. While walking to work one day she stumbles on an abandoned suitcase at the scene of an accident. While opening the suitcase she discovers twelve pictures of woman. Soon she finds herself diving into the lives of of Eleanor and Marie while attempting to return the contents of the suitcase and discover what happened to the twelve woman whose pictures she’s holding. The book alternates from past and present. Present is Grace during 1946 investigating the photos. Past is Eleanor and Marie which shows training and recruitment and spying. I loved this book and it had me craving more! Highly recommend I give this book five glorious stars!

Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book. I am starting to realize that historical fiction is not a genre I typically love and I’m giving myself permission to stop reading books that I don’t love and look forward to reading. This book is well-written and interesting and I’m sure many people will love it. Fans of the Nightingale will devour this book. I hope to pick it up again one day and finish it, it just isn’t for me right now.

I was so EXCITED when I was approved for this title because Pam Jenoff is one of my favorite WWII era writers and I have devoured each of her titlesThe Orphan's Tale,The Winter Guest, and The Kommandant's Girl just to name a few. So it would be an understatement to say The Lost Girls of Paris is one of my most anticipated reads of 2019. It certainly lived up to my expectations.

Based on the true story of Vera Atkins ( see Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II and the many women that served as agents in France, Jenoff focuses her fictional narrative on Eleanor Trigg, leader of the operations network, Marie, one of the many agents Eleanor sends to France, and Grace Healey, an American woman, who in 1946 discovers a suitcase belonging to Eleanor in Grand Central station with photographs of different women. This sets Grace on a mission to find out who these women were and why Eleanor's suitcase was not with its owner.

Above all, this book is an emotional tale of friendship,betrayal, and making sure these types of stories are never forgotten. May all of us be little more like Grace Healey- searching for the truth and never giving up.


Review posted on Goodreads 26/01/19
Publication Date: 29/01/19

I work on Madison Ave, about 2 blocks from Grand Central Station in NYC and started reading this book on my way to work and felt as if I was walking right past our protagonist on her way to work as well!
It is a captivating story that ties in some little known historical facts about women involved with the resistance movement during WWII in Europe and is a very personable account of two women on either side of the Atlantic.
However, the personalities of Grace in New York and Marie in France are so similar that I kept mixing them up when reading their sections - I think they should at least speak differently. I mean, they both speak English, but they live in two different countries.
I think it would have moved the story along better if the two protagonists were more sharp and worldly, as Josie, but I understand that more readers would be able to relate better to Grace or Marie, as it would be fascinating to imagine yourself in their situations.

About 60 % in, the plot finally started to move along with the action in France.
I could have done without the romance in France and in New York - it kind of made the story more trite.
I would have preferred to have some sexual tension between the comrades in France, but not an actual love story, where they sacrifice themselves for the other person - the drama should come from a person sacrificing their own comfort and safety for the greater good for all the people in the mission.
Overall, I thought the story was great and was an exciting novel that really takes the reader back in time.
The following is a quote the author added - it signifies the feeling of togetherness felt by the characters in the book and how people feel when united by one cause:

From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember’d; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed that they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day."
Shakespeare

4.5 rounded to 5 stars.

I read a lot of WWII novels as I love a good historical fiction novel and find myself mostly drawn to this era. Rarely am I left disappointed and this novel definitely was not disappointing in the least. I did find that the ending is a wee bit flat but for the most part this book is very fast paced and I hated to put it down for a moment. Luckily I had a long flight and was able to devour this book pretty quickly.

This novel begins with Grace who finds an abandoned suitcase on her way to work. Unable to help herself, she peeks inside and finds a stack of photographs that she can't help but be drawn in by. From there the story is off following three main characters: Grace in the "current" time of the novel with Eleanor and Marie in the recent past during the war. Their stories are woven together beautifully.

While these characters are not actual people their stories are based on real events that happened. It's completely fascinating to see a fairly unknown sector of history be brought to life.

If you enjoy historical fiction and/or WWII books this will definitely be in your wheelhouse. Highly recommended!

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, therefore I was very interested in what this novel had to offer.

One summer morning, Grace stumbles upon a suitcase at Grand Central Station. Inside it, she finds twelve photographs of young women. Hours after the encounter with the suitcase, Grace learns that its owner, Eleanor Trigg, has been hit by the car hours earlier and died on the scene, right in front of Grand Central. But when Grace discovers another piece of information about the victim, she does unthinkable - she goes to Washington DC to investigate further into Eleanor's case and photographs she has found in her suitcase.

Two years prior, Eleanor formed a group of female secret agents that were sent to France to help with the resistance. A few weeks into the new operation, Eleanor noticed discrepancies in communication with her girls, and shortly after - the agents started to disappear without the trace. Eleanor was released of her duties as soon as she brought her suspicions to the Director of an agency. Two years later, her questions about the lost girls were not answered and Eleonor finally received a chance to follow their steps to discover the truth.

This is a great story about friendship and survival. I enjoyed each character, their determination to keep moving forward has inspired me. Thank you, NetGalley and Park Row publisher for a free and advanced copy of this book, and huge thank you to Pam Jenoff for an incredible story.

A story narrated from 1943 to 1946 jumping from one year to another and with the main focus three women named Eleanor, Marie, and Grace located in England, France, and the United States, respectively.

Grace one morning in Grand Central Station finds an abandoned suitcase, she full of curiosity decides to open it to find pictures of women with names and dates written in the back, Grace decides to take the photos and investigate who these women are. Eleanor works for the SOE by recruiting women in secret programs to be sent to France as radio operators in order to discover plans of the Nazis. And finally, Marie is a young mother who is recruited for speaking a perfect French language. Then Grace discovers that the pictures belong to Eleanor.

Inspired by true events, The Lost Girls of Paris is a story about brave women who risked their lives for the common good, accepting important roles during the war, heroines who acted as informants, decoders, and spies. But it is also a story about friendship, love and courage.

The Lost Girls of Paris is an excellent book, it is a story where the author manages majestically to put a face to important women who contributed to the war to end. It has its little suspense, rare in historical novels, is full of emotions, and I loved reading all the historical details collected by the author throughout the development of the book.

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. #TheLostGirlsofParis #NetGalley

I was excited to read The Lost Girls of Paris when I heard about it, and the beginning of the book did not disappoint. Pam Jenoff’s premise drew me in right away from the first page. Grace Healey is a widow living in NYC shortly after World War II ends. While late for work one morning, she stumbles upon an unattended suitcase under a chair. Inexplicably drawn to the bag with an unfamiliar name on it, she opens it up and finds a dozen photographs, all of women. Grace, perhaps feeling like she needs a bit of mystery and excitement in her life, begins a quest to find out who these women are and why their pictures ended up seemingly abandoned in a train station.

After the interesting start, however, the story seemed a bit thin for me. Maybe I expect too much from WWII novels because I’ve read so many of them, but I was expecting more in-depth explanations of the SEO program and more descriptions of Paris during the war. Instead of forming the basis for a sweeping historical novel that said something new about those tumultuous times, the war seemed like a mere backdrop for the mystery of finding out what happened to the women.

And that could have been a good story in itself, except that the characters seemed a bit shallow, and I questioned their choices. For instance, there seemed to be no good reason for Marie to leave her five-year-old daughter to undertake such a dangerous mission except to advance the plot. Likewise, I didn’t understand why she would also refuse to leave Paris when she was in imminent danger to help find a person she’d just met—and who was admittedly more experienced in the field. What help could she possibly have offered him? The choice was supposed to be suspenseful—choose to go home and be safe or stay and attempt to somehow save a man she’d just fallen for—but the moment failed to move me because I couldn’t stop wondering why her little girl wouldn’t automatically win in that situation.

The ending bothered me as well because it wrapped up too neatly, and everyone got the answers they were searching for in the end with minimal effort. I was expecting perhaps an interesting twist in the end, something to connect everything, maybe something that would help explain why Grace had felt drawn to the suitcase in the first place and had then felt compelled to search for the women. But it turned out that her ultimate motivation was, again, simply a device to move the story forward.

This book still could have stood out had it been beautifully written, but so much of it lagged because everything was over-explained. There didn’t seem to be any faith that the readers could figure out what was meant between two characters during a dialogue, so it was all broken down for us. Add to that some errors in geography and some very repetitive phrases throughout the book, and this was an overall dissatisfying read for someone who loves historical fiction in general and WWII fiction in particular.

4.5 rounded to 5 stars

Wow, this one was a real surprise. I had never read this author before, but was struck by the blurb as well as the title of this novel, and just look at that cover. These factors, plus the fact that several of my Goodreads friends gave it 4 or 5 stars, moved me to give this book a go. I was most impressed!

This WWII historical fiction novel is darker and a bit grittier than many of the other books of this subgenre. It revolves around a small organization of young women willing to risk their lives by being deployed to the war zones of France as radio transmitters. This is a facet of the war that I was unfamiliar with, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about these brave women and what they did. There are three narrators of this story, all women. My favorite was Eleanor Trigg, stationed in London, who is the (fictional) founder of this agency of women as part of Churchill’s SOE (Special Operations Executive). The mission of the SOE, which by the way was composed of nonmilitary volunteers, was to sabotage and subvert the Germans in any way possible. The other voices are those of Marie, one of the transmitters out in the field in 1944; and Grace, a young woman who found photographs of twelve of Eleanor’s “girls” in an abandoned suitcase in New York City’s Grand Central Station in 1946. As we follow Grace’s mission to figure out the significance of these photographs, we flash back to 1944 through the eyes of Marie and Eleanor.

This story is laden with tension. These women truly laid their lives on the line for the Allies. The plotline is gripping and emotive; my heart was in my throat on multiple occasions. There is a thread involving romance, but this is minor and not intrusive. There is deception, lies, betrayal, and treachery. We witness the strong bonds women form with each other. We see the true essence of individual human beings unmasked by war. I was glued to this compelling novel. At night I laid in bed thinking about the characters and trying to figure out how all the pieces could possibly come together.

I highly recommend The Lost Girls of Paris to all readers of wartime historical fiction, especially those who love the darker tales such as The
Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

My thanks go to Net Galley, Harlequin - Trade Publishing/Park Row, and Ms. Pam Jenoff for an advanced review copy of this novel. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS is my new favorite Pam Jenoff novel. Most historical fiction novels from WWII that use dual timelines are set a generation apart but this unique story is told in 1944 and 1946. This book is enjoyable and heartbreaking and really hard to stop reading once you start it. The character development, as always with Jenoff’s books, is perfection and you become as invested in figuring out what happened as Grace does after she finds the abandoned suitcase in Grand Central station. I think this novel has a good balance of romance and hardship and a lot of strength and mystery. Those that enjoyed Jenoff’s other books will definitely enjoy this one.

I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

When I heard that Pam Jenoff had a new book, I didn't even read the synopsis. I just KNEW it was going to be great and The Lost Girls of Paris truly is! Pam's beautiful writing and meticulous research shines through in this story! The Lost Girls of Paris is a must read!!

Set during and immediately following WWII and inspired by real life people and historical events, Pam Jenoff’s The Lost Girls of Paris is centered around the stories of three women and a ring of British female spies.

The story begins in Manhattan in 1946. It is here that we meet Grace Healey, who is trying to start over after losing her husband in an automobile accident. One morning while cutting through Grand Central Station on her way to work, Grace happens across an abandoned suitcase tucked under a bench. Only seeing the name Trigg on the case, she looks inside the case and finds a packet of twelve photographs, each photo a different woman. Captivated by the photos, Grace impulsively takes the photos with her but leaves the suitcase behind. When Grace thinks better of what she has done and returns to the station to put the photos back, the suitcase is gone. When Grace hears a news report mention a woman named Eleanor Trigg, she realizes this is who the suitcase and the photos must belong to and becomes even more curious about the women in the photos and all the more determined to get the photos back to their rightful owner. This is the start of quite an unexpected journey for Grace.

Eleanor Trigg is the second woman the story centers on. She worked for Britain’s Special Operations Executive during WWII. The SOE was a British spy ring that was operating in France to arm and help the French resistance against the Nazis. Since their male spies were being captured frequently, Eleanor proposes that they should start recruiting and training female spies to act as couriers and radio operators. She is put in charge of the female spy ring and sets out to handpick her recruits. Eleanor takes full responsibility for the girls she chooses and when twelve of the girls go missing, she makes it her personal mission to find out what has happened, no matter who tries to get in her way.

The third woman The Lost Girls of Paris centers on is Marie Roux, a young woman that Eleanor recruits to become a radio operator in her unit. It is from Marie’s vantage point that we see the recruitment process, the extremely rigorous training that the girls are put through, as well as the dangers of being deployed into Nazi-occupied France. We also get to see the spy operations up close and how adaptable agents have to be if they are going to survive.

Through the journeys of these three women, Jenoff paints an unforgettable story of courage, strength, resilience, friendship, and sisterhood.

My absolute favorite part about The Lost Girls of Paris are the well drawn characters, especially the girls who are recruited to work in the spy network. I just found them all to be such inspiring women, and to know they’re loosely based on real people and a real ring of female spies, just blew me away. These women are such brave warriors and I admired their determination to do their part to stop Hitler. Marie, of course, was phenomenal, but I was also drawn to a young woman named Josie, who although she was only 17, was the fiercest among them as well as the one who was most supportive when other girls like Marie were struggling and questioning whether they were good enough to do the job required of them. There just isn’t enough praise to do this group of women justice.

Eleanor was fantastic too. She’s stern and rather standoffish and most of her recruits don’t especially like her, but they respect and admire her. I liked her mother bear attitude when it came to both her girls and her mission.

A second element of the story that I enjoyed was the way the story was presented from multiple points of view. The details of the story unfold through the eyes of Eleanor and Marie during WWII and then from Grace’s point of view after the war. This three-pronged approach with its alternating chapters allows us to learn about all aspects of the spy ring, from recruitment and training up through deployment and the aftermath from Eleanor and Marie’s perspectives, while we backtrack from Grace’s point of view after the war to eventually learn what happened to the twelve women in those photographs. Those different perspectives and the moving back and forth between the two timelines added so many layers to the overall story and to the journeys of all three women.

The writing style and the overall pacing of the story worked very well for me too. Everything just flowed so smoothly and I loved the steady buildup to the girls’ deployment and then how the intensity picked up and the suspense built up once Marie and the other girls were on the ground in France. It took me a day or so to read the first half of the book, but then I devoured the second half in just a few hours because I so desperately wanted to know how things would turn out for them all.

For me, this story was about as close to flawless as it gets. I did have a couple of minor quibbles, the first being that it didn’t make sense to me why Grace would take the photographs from the suitcase in the first place. The photos are clearly the catalyst that set the rest of the story into motion as far as figuring out who the girls are, but Grace taking the photos just seemed like such an odd thing to do. It bothered me for a few pages, but then I got so engrossed in the rest of the story that I let it go and as you can see by my rating, even with my questioning Grace’s action, I still thought this was a phenomenal read.

The Lost Girls of Paris is one of those books that is going to stay with me for a long time. The writing is beautiful, the characters are unforgettable, and the fact that the story is inspired by real people and events just makes it resonate all the more. I’d recommend The Lost Girls of Paris to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, but especially to those who are fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and/or Martha Hall Kelly’s The Lilac Girls.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC ecopy for my Kindle.
Another great books about the involvement of women and the importance of their roles in WWII.
"The Lost Girls of Paris" were women who were radio operators recruited from different backgrounds and nationalities who were "sacrificed for the greater good" by "the powers that be" in England during the war. Because of the time period, women were not considered as worthy and as valuable as the men who also literally gave their lives to win the war and stop Germany's leaders.
Even though it's a sad story in the way women's roles were treated during this time period, it's also a great story of women's strength and courage., I think the readers enjoy this book and find the way the story ended helped to have closure for the women.
This is my favorite book, thus far, by Pam Jenoff!

Very few books are published about women involved in WWII outside of the factory jobs. Without historical fiction like this, we wouldn't know much about these important women. In our current state of affairs, where women are still fighting for equal pay, recognition, etc, books like these help the cause. The Lost Girls of Paris is very well researched, and captivated me from the beginning. I love reading stories about women playing important roles in historic events. Very well done!

The dual POV this book was told in kept the plot moving quickly. Each time you'd get a "juicy" piece of information from one perspective, the author would switch to the second and continue their timeline. This kept me reading because I wanted to know what was happening during each time period.


Thank you to HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada). for the advance copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS is a story I wanted to love. It's an excellent premise, with multiple POV and some overlapping timelines, of three women during and after the second world war. One a spy, another her commander, and a civilian who is compelled to pursue the truth of their story after piecing together their identities. It sounds amazing, right? If only.

Not only was the writing slow, dull, halting and unpolished (not something I think is to blame from an ARC format perspective), but the characters were.. kind of tossed about. They either felt completely out of their depth (the spy) or were compelled to move the plot forward for reasons that aren't very clear (the civilian) while both (well, all three, actually) drag around a bunch of backstory that is littered with hardships as if that was the only she could actually make them interesting. Despite the fact that one of them was a <b>spy</b> and should've been <b>awesome</b> because <b>lady spy in WWII</b>. But as a result of their lack of personalities, and abilities, I suppose I can see why the author made a point to give us something to distinguish them. Which, if you're curious, are the following : widower, survivor, and single mother.

Don't even get me started on the frustrations of sending someone to do a job that you don't fully believe they can do (which we get to witness when, as an example, the spy leaves her radio at the safe house, in Nazi occupied France, despite protocol saying she is to destroy it, and then actually returns to the safe house that she's fairly sure has been compromised to collect the radio because she left it behind. facepalm emoji), drag them all over the place and throw them into situations where they have little to no information, and then have a male character get <b>mad</b> at them for asking questions.. only for these two people to fall in love.

But it isn't restricted to just one POV/plotline, oh no. To make matters worse, there are <b>multiple</b> of these shoehorned in pseudo-love stories that seem to blossom over the course of, like, days, and take away even more credibility from the whole story.

The characters are painfully one dimensional, we have time-waster romances, and everything ends up reading really hyper dramatic or just completely unbelievable. Which I feel is a total disservice to this story and the real women, and true events, it is inspired by. I felt no emotional connection, no grief, no relief, no nothing. I was just bored or frustrated by the whole thing.

I thought this was probably going to be a two-star "well you tried" kind of read but in writing this review I've just annoyed myself beyond reason by thinking over all these bits I disliked so much, or was just mystified by, so, yeah. Here we are. This was my first read by Jenoff and while I have THE ORPHAN'S TALE on my bookshelf I'm definitely going to be reluctant to prioritize it after this experience.

I would rate this 4.25. A great historical fiction taking place during and soon after the end of the War. The novel focused on a handful of British women who were handpicked and recruited in secret by the British government in WWII to serve as spies gathering information for the upcoming invasion by the Allies in France, and in some cases conducting sabotage. They were not officially government employees but valiantly took the high risk to serve a higher purpose. I was not aware of this operation but what an interesting read. The story follows three such women with all of the harrowing risks to them and their families who stayed behind. A very mesmerizing tale with twists and turns. A wonderful read which is hard to put down. Another great novel by Pam Jenoff. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

LOVED this book. Liked The Orphan Train, but I feel that Pam Jenoff has come a long way with her character portrayals here. Bravo. I will look forward to her next book!!

4.5 stars!

This story is so interesting because it is about something that not many people know about WWII. The special operatives faction and even espionage, in general, are just so fascinating. We follow the characters of Grace, Eleanor and Marie, who each have their own stories. Right from the beginning, the reader is captured when Grace finds Eleanor's suitcase. You just need to know more.

The only thing that I wish was different about this book was more focus on Marie. I thought her storyline was the most interesting, and since not many people know about the special operatives it was fun to learn. The story is great, and I will likely purchase this for a friend when it comes out.

I am loving the trend of strong female characters in books. And The Lost Girls of Paris is yet another standout in this genre. The Lost Girls of Paris is the story of a group of young women chosen to be a part of the resistance during WWII. Josie, Marie, and a crew of other women are chosen and trained by Eleanor Trigg and sent out to the field.

This story in told from three perspectives. Marie, Eleanor, and Grace (a woman who finds their photos a couple years after the war). Though it took a little bit to get the hang of the characters, once I did I was hooked. Each of these women were strong and had such compelling stories. Each part could have been a book on its own. It’s rare for me to say that, as with multiple viewpoint stories one is usually stronger than the other.

This book was riveting. I could not stop turning the pages. And at points my heart was racing, wondering what was going to happen next. I loved the book even more when I read the authors note and saw it was based on a true story. If you are looking for a book with strong women and strong female friendships, check this one out. I am hoping that someone buys the right to it and turns The Lost Girls of Paris into a movie!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book!