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The Lost Girls of Paris

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Member Reviews

The Lost Girls of Paris is an engrossing, sometimes frustrating, work of historical fiction. In 1946 widowed Grace Healey is living and working in New York. On her way to work one day she comes upon the aftermath of a car accident where a woman was killed. So as not to be late for work, Grace takes a shortcut through Grand Central Station and finds a suitcase shoved under a bench with the word, “Trigg,” written on its side. Opening it, she finds an envelope containing photos of twelve women, which she hurriedly shoves in her purse, and then scurries off to work.

In 1943 there’s a big problem. Agents in France are being captured and drastic measures are called for. Eleanor Trigg, assistant to the Director of Special Operations Executive in London, convinces her supervisor to allow her to set up a women’s sector to train them to become field agents in France. What follows is a story that travels back and forth in time between Grace’s fixation with the women in the photos and in particular, one named Marie and Eleanor’s tireless work handpicking and training these women and following, or trying to follow, them as one by one they leave the safety of London for their work in the field. She, too, has, if not a fixation, a particular fondness for Marie.

My only complaint, if it can be called one, with this novel is the author’s insertion of romance. I found it unnecessary and quite honestly, added nothing to the story. The characters are interesting and strong in their own right. The little bits of romance seemed elementary and not as well written as the rest of the book.
That said, Pam Jenoff has written a good novel, showcasing a different side of WWII and the role the Allied Powers played in the final outcome, the use of women as agents to aid partisans in the field in France.

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The Lost Girls of Paris is yet another testament to why author Pam Jenoff continuously stays at the forefront of the historical fiction genre. In her capable hands, us readers are gifted with a story that while, still fiction, reflects the genuine emotion and range of such a time in history.
Fan girl always.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2417322359

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I nearly quit when Grace Healey spent an interminable number of pages deciding whether to pick up, open, look at the contents, agonize over the contents, close it again, and take this “abandoned suitcase” half-hidden in Grand Central Station away with her. So much for killing any opening suspense with a surfeit of useless prose.

I was then tempted to toss this when I encountered the Polish—or half-Polish woman—whose first name is Eleanor. Don’t writers do even basic research with regard to proper names for a specific era, nationality, and so forth? Apparently not.

The almost-but-not-quite “abandon hope all ye who enter here” moment came with the tale of Marie, the idiotic, inane, and utterly foolish—not to mention far-fetched—radio girl literally dropped into the middle of a small French village to begin her dangerous work. She does so without a legitimate, even slightly plausible cover story. Obviously, this author is clueless about the insular and definitely suspicious-of-strangers characteristics of small French villages that exist today in many areas, and were absolutely present during the highly dangerous and often fatal atmosphere of the occupation in the north and in Vichy France. Therefore, I thought Marie’s tale was not only unbelievable in the historic sense but also ridiculous in the ways in which she allegedly carried out her alleged “spy duties.” She should have been called out by the villagers or shot by Germans by the fourth paragraph after her “landing.”

The depressing lack of research is evident here: no grasp of how MI5 trained spies—see the movie “Charlotte Grey” for that aspect, or read the book, which is over-full of details; and no idea of the geography, customs, and atmosphere of small-town France. As a result, this read like a novice’s attempt to write a riveting spy novel full of danger and peril and betrayal and all sorts of related issues.

None of these characters stand out, from Grace who finds the suitcase and then apparently spends every waking hour trying to find out about the twelve women; no mention is made of what she does about her job with that nice immigration attorney. Allegedly Polish Eleanor is also a cipher—no discernible personality, but she manages to switch at lightning speed from what the author thinks is the cold detachment de rigueur for spymasters and the smothering concern of a den mother. Marie is also a bundle of ridiculous clichés, none of which serve to explain why she volunteered to be a spy, or how she behaved in France. For that matter, none of the other women are more than afterthoughts, and the men are straight out of WWII central casting.

I was underwhelmed from the beginning and throughout this book, wherein almost nothing happened until the halfway mark, and even then I found not much to like or much to engage my interest. I definitely had the feeling the author was jumping on the WWII bandwagon in rather a hurry, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of some recent WWII novels. The haste shows.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. But I'm still waiting for a really good, accurate, gripping, and gritty WWII novel with real characters, some of whom actually die rather than fall in love, and settings bearing some semblance to real geography, culture, and sensibilities. If y’all know of one, please let me know.

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One day in 1946, during the aftermath of World War II, Grace Healey finds a suitcase in Grand Central Terminal while taking a detour to work. Inside she finds twelve photographs of women who were secret operatives in France in 1944. Intrigued by the photos, Grace takes them and leaves the suitcase. As Grace investigates the owner of the photos and what happened to each of the girls, she will help uncover a horrible betrayal while finding out what she should do with her future. Told from the perspective of Grace, Eleanor (the owner of the photos), and Marie (one of the operatives), this story reconstructs what happened in France two years earlier.
I enjoyed this book very much. The narrative drew me right into the story, and I sympathized with all three main characters. The ending was not what I was expecting, but it also seemed very realistic. I didn't care for the profanity and thought that it was unnecessary to the story. That being said, this very compelling and heartbreaking fictional account was well written and definitely makes me want to read more of the author's books. I love books that delve into war spies, operatives, mysteries, and political intrigue. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and suspense.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. A positive review was not required, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

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I absolutely LOVED this book! I have read quite a few novels in the historical fiction genre and this one is by far one of my top favorites! It presented some topics and areas that I haven't read about previously and I was captivated. I love that the focus was on women and what role they had, other than staying home with the children while the men and husbands were at war. The characters were beautifully portrayed and I wholeheartedly cheered them on, especially the women that were part of SOE, the ones who endured brutality, disrimination, sexism, and doubt; yet still demonstrated their strength, courage and determination. Though set in the past, there was a tone of the present which, to me, made the story flow even more easily. I flew through this novel and hated that it ended. This is, by far, one of my top favorite books of all times.

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An enjoyable historical fiction story about British women serving in the SOE in France before Normandy. The story is told from three perspectives and all three women have strong, unique voices.

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The Lost Girls of Paris
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was excited to get this book because I have read and enjoyed Pam Jenoff’s previous novels. This one didn’t ring true for me at all. I couldn’t understand why Grace took the pictures from a stranger’s suitcase in the first place and why she needed to go to all the trouble to find out who they were and what their story was. Marie’s story also felt far fetched to me, why would she leave her daughter and sign on for a dangerous life risking assignment with minimal training. Both of the romantic story lines, Grace’s and Marie’s were predictable and unrealistic. Overall, this book was a disappointment for me, no more than three stars.
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and Pam Jenoff for the advanced copy.

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What an amazing story of incredibly brave courageous women during World War 2. Eleanor Trigg is in charge of an all female spy group sent to France to help the war effort as couriers and radio operators. Marie is one of Eleanor's spies who is sent to be a radio operator. She quickly becomes friends with Josie. Josie is only 17 years old. The strength and braveness of the women are simply incredible. They know at any given time if they are caught by the Germans they will be killed. After the war, 12 of the women are missing and feared killed. Eleanor is in New York when she is killed. Grace Healey finds Eleanor's suitcase in the train station and becomes obsessed to find out what happened to the women. The story is told during the war and what the women endure and after the war as Grace is trying to find out information. I loved the characters in this book. Marie was my favorite. She goes from an unsure young woman to a brave and courageous woman. This is an amazing story of friendship, bravery, courage, and above all hope. I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Harlequin Park Row. All opinions are my own.

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The narration of how a few young people, some in their teens, served as agents behind enemy lines during the German occupation of France is fascinating. They were in constant danger yet sometimes they just had to let loose with a few hi-jinks. The overlaid story of a young widow shortly after the war ended has some great angles too. She has escaped from the dulling propriety of her family and works for an altruistic immigration lawyer in a tiny office where he does his best for a flood of truly needy clients. This is also a romance novel but the relationships were somewhat undeveloped.

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The story starts in 1946 Manhattan with the story of Grace, a woman who lost her husband in a tragic car accident during the war.  She's already late for work and finds her route blocked by an accident; a woman has died aftering being hit by a car.  Grace takes a shortcut through Grand Central Station where she trips over an abandoned suitcase under a bench with the word Trigg written in chalk.  She opens the suitcase to search for identification and finds photographs of twelve different women, which she takes on an unexplained impulse.

Throughout her day she looks at the women and finds their names written on the back of each photo.  Grace feels compelled to learn the story of these women and finds herself drawn in to their story when she discovers the woman who died in the accident that morning was a British citizen named Eleanor Trigg.  The suitcase -- the photographs -- had belonged to Eleanor.

Eleanor Trigg worked as a secretary for Special Operations Executive (SOE), an agency created to sabotage the Germans by sending agents in to the field to collect information and set up special operations.
Trigg has earned the trust of the Director with the skills and knowledge she has displayed and gained the role of an advisor, though most of the men seated at the table with her are skeptical.
She makes the bold suggestion of recruiting and training female agents to deploy because the Germans would not expect female spies.  To her surprise, Trigg's suggestion is not only approved but she is placed in charge of recruitment and training.

One of the women recruited is Marie, a single mother who has left her daughter in the care of an aunt as the dangers of air raids rages on too close to home.  Marie is approached by a man impressed by her French and he leaves her with a card for Eleanor Trigg, promising important work and excellent compensation.

Marie not only immediately respects Eleanor but trusts her too, leading Marie to say yes to the offer.  She finds herself one of several women under Eleanor's leadership to be deployed to Paris as a radio operator.

In alternating chapters from the perspectives of Grace, Eleanor and Marie, we learn the fate of the women in the photographs Grace found in the suitcase.  

The Lost Girls of Paris is an incredible tale inspired by the true story of Vera Atkins and the female SOE agents during World War II.  Jenoff did a fantastic job of finding a balance between fact and historical fiction, creating a sense of urgency for readers and delivering a captivating story of bravery and betrayal!

Thanks to Park Row and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  The Lost Girls of Paris is scheduled for release on February 5, 2019.

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I’ve read several nonfiction books about the SOE, and several novels featuring the organization. The SOE was an organization set up to facilitate sabotage and chaos behind Axis lines, to set Europe “on fire.” Even with all the reading I’ve done, it was a confusing organization. Apparently, it had many sections and subsections and was constantly changing in its organization and leadership. You might read a book on the SOE and it barely mention the women that were involved with the organization at all, then read another and it sounds like sending women spies to Europe was its chief activity.

The Lost Girls of Paris is an excellent addition to this body of historical fiction. Through the lives of several fictional women, it tells the story of the betrayal of the women radio operators in France in 1944, which continued to operate after it was clear that it had been infiltrated. There have been several theories about who was responsible; one of the major ones is that the British knew the spy network was compromised, but sacrificed their own agents to protect the secret of the coming invasion. This novel takes this view. The organization of the SOE is much simplified for the book, but there are some satisfying details, such as how a character exactly included “checks” in their radio messages: she encoded the 35th character as a “p” and substituted a “k” for every other “c”. I’ve seen “checks” mentioned many times in relation to radio messages, but have never been given concrete examples.

I was a bit disappointed in the ending. Confusingly, the 1946 character gives her lover $10K and tells him it’s for the funeral of another character; it’s unclear why she thinks he would be in any way able to pay for this woman’s funeral better than herself, especially since the dead woman had been killed weeks earlier. Also, two characters formerly associated with SOE had been killed in car wrecks, and I thought the book was going to grow into a murder mystery – someone’s killing the survivors of the SOE, but no, it just ended.

Thanks to #netgalley for an advance copy.

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“The Lost Girls of Paris” is a novel of historical fiction that weaves two stories together to look at the brave and courageous women of the SOE, and their treatment by the British government. The SOE was a British operation created during WWII to disrupt the progress of German Army in such ways as blowing up bridges, destroying train tracks etc. While the women, for the most part, were to be telegraph operators they often ended up doing much more than that and often much more dangerous work. I struggled with two aspects of this book. The first was the premise of the story, that of a woman finding what appeared to be an abandoned suitcase in a train station, opens the suitcase and then actually takes photographs out of it. This seemed like a real stretch for me, who would steal photographs from someone else’s suitcase? The second thing that I found was somewhat disappointing was that the book seemed very light on history. It seemed like the author used a very broad brush historically without much historical detail. I was surprised by the very few historical references cited at the end of the book. Because of this it almost seemed that this should be classified more as Women’s Fiction (or "Chick lit"), than historical fiction. I think if I had known that up front I would have approached the book differently. That being said, I enjoyed “The Lost Girls of Paris” exploration this very interesting British government operation which until very recently was unknown to me. And regardless of my hesitation, I was thoroughly engaged in the book and the intersecting journeys of the main characters kept me reading well into the night! No doubt, Pam Jenoff is a gifted storyteller! I was honored to receive a free copy of the book by NetGalley and the Publisher, HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

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The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff is Historical Thriller Fiction set in World War II and just after. I loved this book as I have every book Pam Jenoff has written. The characters and settings are well written, the reader is immediately drawn into their world and lives. This book has non stop action, thrills, tragedy, mystery and love. The girls work in conjunction with various groups and citizens to thwart the Nazi forces.. It is a story of their strength, bravery, hardships and sorrows that they endured. I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. My thanks to the author, the publisher and netgalley for the privilege to read, review and enjoy this book.

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After reading the stellar reviews for this book - and it's comparison to Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale - I thought this was a sure win for me.

*Spoilers ahead!!!*

Sadly, it was not a win for me.

I *liked* this book. I thought the premise of the Women's Division of the SOE to be intriguing. That being said, I felt there lacked something in the execution of this book.

Why bring Grace into this story at all? The whole story could have been told from Eleanor's point of view, beginning with her landing in NYC to look for Marie (and not getting hit by a car), simply by starting from the beginning when Marie was recruited, to the end, where Eleanor sees Marie again and asks about the other girls. It would have been a much less confusing story in my opinion. All of Grace's story was unnecessary, and yet I know I am in the minority here.

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Beautiful and haunting. I believe that through the space of time we forget about the hardships of war and those that are lost. Definitely younger generations (including my own) don't understand this fact because so few of us have gone through it. This book beautifully tells the story of the brave women who helped during WW2 as spies/saboteurs.

I received an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

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I enjoyed reading this book. The characters were engaging and I became interested in their lives and their backgrounds. The book begins in New York City the Second World War has just ended. As the main character Grace is rushing to work and comes upon an accident. A woman has just been struck and killed by a car. As Grace takes a different route to work, she finds an abandoned suitcase, which belongs to the deceased woman. Inside the suitcase, she finds a packet containing pictures of young women in their twenties. The rest of the book is spent unraveling their identities and the roles they played during World War II.
Grace discovers the owners of the suitcase is named Eleanor and that she is a British citizen. With the help of a friend and love interest, she is able to discover the woman was the director of a group of female spies/radio operators that played important roles in defeating the Nazis.
The book jumps back and forth in time as we learn the backstory behind the photos of the girls and how each one lost their lives while serving behind enemy lines.
It’s is a book about friendships, loyalties, strong and brave women. It also shows us the horrors that people endure during war. This book is much more than just another historical fiction book about World War II. It is also a mystery, a book about betrayal, a bit of a love story and book about finding inner strength during impossibly dark times in life. I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down.

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The Lost Girls of Paris is a fictional story about strong women, filled with conflict, yet tied together with a cause so important, they overcome many obstacles. This well-researched historical novel is set in a dual timeline fashion.

It begins in 1946, with Grace, a woman working with European refugees, and trying to deal with the grief of losing her husband to the war. While going through an abandoned suitcase, her curiosity draws her, and me as a reader, into wanting to figure out what the strange contents mean and who is the mysterious owner of the luggage.

The contents inside is full of mysterious photographs, a pair of baby shoes, and other seemingly unrelated things. Grace digs deeper, and learns about the life of a female secret agent and how she headed a group of women like herself in clandestine operations during WWII. Though it’s a fictional story, these types of brave female agents existed, though sadly, were left out of most history books.

The story constantly drew me in, with no lags in the storyline. Both timelines are stitched together seamlessly. I admire the strength and bravery of all the women, including Grace and Trig, my two favorites. For any fan of historical fiction, this is a must read!

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

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I love dual-time period stories! The Lost Girls of Paris portrays the lives of secret agents during WWII. Women secret agents! Their lives are intertwined and create a wonderful story. I was drawn in immediately, when Grace finds an abandoned suitcase and seeks the mysterious owner.

Each of the characters had their own place in my heart, but I mainly identified with Grace. I love how this story was told and that so much research went into this book. I had no idea how the secret operative was established or that women were even selected (at that time) as agents. I also love how heroic and brave these women were. I didn’t want the story to end!

I received a complimentary copy of this book.

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A book about women and their roles during WWII - count me in! The Lost Girls of Paris was an engaging read that had me flipping through the pages late into the night to see what happened to the women.

Recruiting women to go into occupied France to be a W-T was no easy task, nor was overseeing the entire operation but Eleanor seemed more then up to the task. Clearly she is an intelligent, fiercely independent woman who was not afraid to stand up to the men who do not believe she nor her recruits were capable of the work. While those qualities made me admire her they weren’t what drew me to her character. It was her utter devotion to the cause and the women she sent over that did. Eleanor did not have an easy path in life, but she certainly made the very most of it.

I have to admit I struggled with Marie. She to had a difficult life and was trying to better her life for herself and her daughter - but she was just so naive. How do you go into Occupied France after rigorous training and make some of the choices that she did. I became frustrated with her and with Julian - as it just didn’t make sense to me.

Grace, oh Grace, she is the character I really enjoyed reading about. Yearning for something more then what was arranged for her she decided to do things differently. And by doing so created a whole new life for herself. I really admired her spirit and determination.

And the ending - it just felt like the right ending for this story and I am so glad that it wasn’t neat and tidy.

Overall, this was a four star read for me. If you enjoy historical fiction featuring strong capable women getting it done then this is the book for you.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin for the opportunity to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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I have read and loved all of Pam Jenoff’s books and this one is no exception. It is a WWII story of a female spy ring, their friendships and their courage..I thought it was well researched and beautifully written, as are all of her books. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories of Grace, Eleanor and Marie and highly recommend to fans of historical fiction, especially lovers of WWII books.

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