I received an advanced copy of The Lost Girls of Paris from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pam Jenoff's newest historical suspense is centered around three women in the last days of WWII. In 1944, Eleanor Trigg has been tasked by the British SOE to create a team of trained spies, all of whom are women. They will go into the field undercover and report back intelligence about the German soldiers occupying France. One of these spies is radio operator Marie Roux who is sent to a small village just outside Paris to work with a team who is sabotaging the movement of the German army in preparation for D Day. While in France something inside the operation goes horribly wrong as someone has sold out the spy network to the German army who has quickly begun making arrests in the region. Can Marie and her team outwit the German's and survive the betrayal? The third character is, Grace, and in 1946 in New York City she comes across a lost bag containing photographs from the war. She soon learns that the owner of the suitcase is Eleanor and one of the women in the photo's is Marie. While avoiding her own heartbreak, she becomes obsessed with finding out who these women were and what happened to these women.

I was very excited to get a copy of Jenoff's new novel since I was a fan of her previous work, The Orphan's Tale. This is an enjoyable historical novel told from the perspective of the three main characters. The premise is loosely based on a real life team of women who had worked for the SOE in WWII. I would recommend this one because it is full of intrigue, romance and suspense and is an interesting story about a courageous group of women.

The Lost Girls of Paris is historical fiction storytelling at its finest.

It’s 1946 in Manhattan, and Grace Healey is late for work. She is starting over because her husband was killed during the war, and she has to keep this job to make ends meet.

As she rushes to work, things continue to go awry, when she happens upon a suitcase in Grand Central Terminal. Inside are a dozen photographs of women. In a moment of haste, she takes the photos with her.

Grace later learns the suitcase belonged to Eleanor Trigg…And Trigg’s job? Leading a ring of female secret agents in London during the war. They worked carrying messages and operating radios, all in the name of the resistance. However, these women never returned home, and it’s not known why.

Grace is determined to find out what happened to the women, and she is especially inspired by Marie, a young mother. I can’t say more because I don’t want to give anything away about the plot that isn’t already shared in the synopsis.

Gosh! These women were so brave and inspirational, and I’m so grateful Jenoff brought their stories to life. For a well-researched historical fiction title, The Lost Girls of Paris has substantial page-turning suspense. The pace is quick, and the writing is creamy smooth. There are three narrators, and I was invested in all three.

Overall, The Lost Girls of Paris is engaging, intriguing, suspenseful, and well-written. Fans of World War II fiction and wonderful storytelling will not want to miss this book!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

The Lost Girls of Paris is a tale of 3 incredible women set at the end of World War II. Grace is a New Yorker who finds a mysterious suitcase at Grand Central Station filled with photos of women. Across the ocean in England a couple of years before, Eleanor is part of a secretive government operative where she trains and sends women into France to hinder the Nazis. Marie is one of the women who works for her. The beautifully woven story explores the alternate viewpoints of each of the women and their roles in this pre-feminist society.

Like Lilac Girls and the Nightingale, this easily fits into the category of highly successful and recommendable World War II fiction. The plot flowed nicely and the added mystery caused just the right amount of suspense. I fell in love with each of these very strong and brave women and found myself rooting for them. Pam Jenoff is adept at writing historical fiction.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Park Row and Pam Jenoff for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wildly enjoyable, utterly heartbreaking, and impossible to put down.

I know it's early in the year to say so but The Lost Girls of Paris is going to be one of my favorite books of 2019. From the first page, I was emotionally invested in the story playing out before me and each chapter only sucked me in more.

Usually in a multiple point-of-view story, there are characters you just enjoy reading more than others but Marie, Eleanor, and Grace were all so life-like that each felt somehow familiar and new at the same time. Marie's strength, Eleanor's devotion, and Grace's gumption are all such endearing qualities that I was a bit sad to finish the novel simply because I enjoyed them each so much.

The details of each woman's past are seen throughout their actions and how they treat one another. I will say that this is related to my only criticism of the book. Eleanor in particular has such an incredible backstory and it was kinda just thrown in rather than sprinkled and inferred which I think would have been better for the mysterious tone of the novel. However, her past is so interesting that it didn't detract from the experience at all.

The way the story is told is incredibly engaging. The mystery is woven expertly, jumping between past and present in a way that feels natural instead of jarring. I read so much historical fiction and find it pretty easy to set down at the end of a chapter but this one is another story. The pacing is perfection with this slow but curious beginning that blooms into something so much larger and fraught with incredible danger.

I think the ending was rather perfect. It's not a happy story necessarily but the heartbreak is balanced by hope in the end. The emotional depth of the story was great in my opinion. There were great depths of grief, longing, regret, healing, triumph, and above all a bravery that seems confined to history. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It's a great story that I think any fiction reader would enjoy.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Harlequin, and the author Pam Jenoff for the opportunity to do so.

I read a lot of historical fiction and am especially drawn to lesser-known events. This book pulled me in from the beginning. I thought all three main characters and their stories were equally interesting. The author does a good job building tension. I could have done with the romance, but it was a minor distraction to an otherwise excellent story.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this 3.5 🌟 book that WWII historical fiction fans will surely enjoy. Inspired by the true stories of the brave women who went undercover during the war

Thank you Net Galley and Harlequin for allowing me to read this advanced copy. I've read a number of books on this subject. but was not aware of the British SOE. I thought the book was well written, but was a little slow moving in places. I am a fan of Pam Jenoff's books. I would definitely recommend this author.

I loved this book...from the very first page to the very end, I couldn't put it down.

In 1946 New York, a young widow finds a suitcase under a bench in Grand Central terminal. Grace is a widow, having lost her husband in a tragic accident. Unable to recover at the family home she finds herself in New York, working as a assistant to an attorney who helps refugees. In the suitcase Grace finds photographs of young women, and can't help but wonder who they are, and what happened to them. What are their stories? Did they survive the war? Where are they now? Drawn despite herself into their lives, Grace begins to investigate.

Eleanor Trigg was part of SOE in the early 1940's. In preparation for D-Day, Eleanor is tasked with doing something that has never been done...putting together a team of women to drop into occupied France to as radio operators, to sabotage and spy on the Nazi occupiers. It had never been done, but Eleanor was determined to succeed. She recruits, trains and manages a team of woman, and worries over every one of them. When they start to go missing, and messages sound suspicious, Eleanor does everything she can to protect her girls.

The Lost Girls of Paris tells the story of those girls, alternating between Eleanor and the girls stories, and Grace's story as she learns the truth of what happened to the lost girls. It's a wonderful story of courage and love of country and true unselfishness. I highly recommend this book!

Women warriors--unsung heroes!

Gripping story of the Women's Branch of SOE, Special Operation Executive, "charged [by Churchill] to “set Europe ablaze” through sabotage and subversion " during World War II.
It's 1946. A young widow, Grace Healey, finds a suitcase in Grand Central, New York. Puzzled she opens it and takes out a bunch of photos of a young women. Why? Even as I was taken aback at that action, it's from here the story springs. Struck by the inanity of her action, Grace tries to return the photos to the suitcase. It's missing! Her determination to find the suitcase and its owner and return the photos leads her on an extraordinary journey.
A journey that casts us back to 1943. Things "had started to go wrong, [SOE] agents [were] arrested in increasing numbers. And so the Women's Branch was created. Eleanor Trigg was charged with selecting and training the women, and that's where the story take an intriguing leap forward and swings between 1943 and 1946, told from Grace's search point of view and that of Eleanor and a young woman she trains Marie.
The action catapults us from war time Britain and France to post war New York with a side trip to France and Germany.
We are with the young women in their training and then their harrowing times behind enemy lines in France.
I was caught up in Jenoff's meticulously researched storyline that translates into an amazing story of a particular group of women's strength and courage under duress, of their involvement in espionage, of the struggle of clandestine operations, and of betrayals from unexpected quarters.
And I mustn't forget the young widowed Grace Healey. Being at Grand Central was a huge step for her. And in her search for the suitcase and its owner she begins to find her way back from her grief and guilt to healing and as yet unknown future.
I found myself totally immersed in this story, metaphorically flicking the pages over in my haste to uncover each truth.

A Harlequin ARC via NetGalley

I lOVED this book so much!! I would give it 20 stars if I could. Pam did such an amazing job telling a story that was not only interesting but compelling. She kept the tension up throughout the whole book. I couldn't read it fast enough.

My goodness, this is a good book. Historical Fiction books about the roles of women in WWII are definitely having their time in the spotlight now. I’ve read several of them, all good, but The Lost Girls Of Paris distinguishes itself as one of the best.

The story is inspired by true events in WWII occupied France. It’s the story of a small group of women who worked for the SOE as spies/saboteurs. The story unfolds in 1946 when Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase in Grand Central Station. She embarks upon a journey to discover the owner of the suitcase and the reason it contains pictures of a dozen women. The stories of Grace and two of the women are the focus of the story. It is told in an alternate chapter format that beautifully reveals their friendships, trust, and courage. There is enough action to move you to the edge of your seat on occasion but not enough to overshadow the women’s stories. This story itself is well constructed and it moves at a smooth pace.

If you like historical fiction or books about WWII, you will like this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row/Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read and advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up for this incredible novel!

Thank you to Harlequin for my advanced digital copy!

I absolutely loved this book! I was completely enamored from the get go and found myself completely transported throughout the story. I love WWII era historical fiction, and although I have never read The Lilac Girls or The Nightingale (I know I know, for shame) I have heard this one draws many comparisons.

The Lost Girls of Paris follows three women during and shortly after the war. Grace is living in New York City in 1946 and struggling with the loss of her husband. One day in Grand Central she finds an abandoned suitcase. In a fleet of the moment she looks through it and sees some photos of different women that catch her eye. She takes the photos with her and later learns that they belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg. She was a leader of female secret radio operators deployed out of London to France during the war. Twelve of these women never made it home and became the lost girls of Paris. Grace is determined to learn the truth and find out what happened to these women.

Aside from the narration of Grace, we also hear from Eleanor herself, and one of the female agents, Marie. I loved the back and forth between these powerful women as we quickly learn how their stories are connected. This is a story not only of bravery during terrible circumstances, but also about sisterhood and rising above what you believe you may be capable of. To say it moved me is a vast understatement. It swept me away into another world and showed me all we can endure as women. Eleanor fought for her girls and her determination to figure out what happened to them after the war was one of the most inspiring aspects of the book for me. That and Marie overcoming her fears and fighting for a better world.

If you love WWII historical fiction I think you will absolutely fall in love with this book. It will break your heart but will also have you looking to the skies, knowing there is always someone watching out for you.

All warfare is based on deception.

That is what Sun Tzu said in The Art of War. In The Lost Girls of Paris, we learn that deception can carry a high price.

New York, 1946. When an accident blocks her usual route to work one morning, Grace Healey is forced to cut through the bustling concourse of Grand Central station, somewhere she normally actively avoids. In her hurry, she fails to notice the corner of an abandoned suitcase sticking out from under a bench and trips over it; telling herself she’s merely looking for information about the owner, Grace surreptitiously opens the case and is surprised to find it contains dozens of photographs, each one of a different woman. Jolted from her inspection by the sound of sirens outside and feeling guilty for being nosy, Grace tries to put the pictures back – and when that proves impossible, shoves them into her purse and hurries away, once more intent on getting to work.

Later that evening Grace learns that the suitcase and the accident which forced her to race through Grand Central are related. The woman who owned the luggage – British citizen Eleanor Trigg – was killed in the crash that had blocked Grace’s way to work. Heading to the British embassy in the hopes of connecting with Eleanor’s next of kin, Grace instead finds a conundrum. Everyone seems unhelpful except those who seem conniving. Caught between the possible options of handing the pictures to someone who will simply shove them in a drawer or giving them to those who seem nefarious, Grace takes them home and launches her own investigation into what exactly happened to Eleanor – and why.

Moving back and forth in time between 1944 and 1946, the narrative establishes both Eleanor and Grace as independent young women trying to find their place in the world. The strong, driven Eleanor has a harder time of this since she is not just looking for a place but a place of power, a position which fully utilizes her strengths and talents. She finds it in 1944 at SOE (Special Operations Executive), a British WWII initiative which specializes in espionage. Initially, Eleanor becomes indispensable to the Director as an aide but when male agents in France begin to stand out simply for being civilians at a time when most men are in service, Eleanor proposes and receives permission to head a women’s unit. Eleanor was excited about “her girls” and the good she knows they will do for the war effort. Until something strange starts to happen. Something which just might jeopardize the very lives of the young women Eleanor has sent into war torn, Nazi held Paris.

Grace has always been the good girl, the obedient daughter and loving wife, but after her husband’s death she seizes the opportunity to finally gain a small bit of independence. Living on her own in glamorous post-war New York, she works at a law office helping refugees from the conflict to build new lives. It can be a heartbreaking effort but it’s also deeply rewarding. Because resolving problems has become second nature to her, she finds herself picking up the puzzle of Eleanor with ease, determined to bring justice to whatever odd situation surrounds the mysterious woman. She’s aided in the endeavor by Mark, an old acquaintance who has recently taken up a new position in her life. The ladies are in many ways two sides of the same coin but Grace is the kinder, gentler version of Eleanor. She is every bit as smart, focused, dedicated, driven and morally pure but she has a warmth and liveliness that her British counterpart lacks.

A third character, Marie, one of Eleanor’s ‘girls’, weaves in and out of the story, giving us a brief glimpse into the espionage work being done in the France of 1944. Marie is a fully realized character, a young woman with a daughter and complex romantic background who finds herself falling in love in the least likely of places at a most inconvenient time. While we are given a thorough understanding of who she is, her storyline is one of the weakest points in the narrative because we get only brief glimpses of what she is doing. Her job – espionage – is crucial to both the war effort and our tale, but the scenes we are shown of her doing said work are more baffling than enlightening. They simply don’t make sense in either the context of history or our narrative.

As a result of that and some issues with the resolution of the mystery, I felt the story never coalesced into a truly satisfying whole. The Lost Girls of Paris is a good read but it had a great, truly intriguing premise that it never quite lived up to. Fans of the author and lovers of the era will probably want to give this a read but newcomers to WWII fiction or Ms. Jenoff’s work will want to check her back list, which contains several stronger novels.

Grace Healey finds herself adrift. World War II is over, her husband is dead, and she is unsure what to do next. As she walks through Grand Central Station, she happens to see a suitcase hidden under a bench. When she opens it, she finds photos of female operatives and decides to find out what happened to these women. A few years earlier, Eleanor Tigg was given the task of finding and training women who would be dropped into Nazi-occupied nations as spies. One of those women was Marie Roux, who was delivered to France to work under an enigmatic spymaster and send back information via radio.

I have a weakness for World War II stories. I just can't resist reading another when I see it offered for review or sitting on my library's shelves. But I often find myself disappointed and unfortunately, The Lost Girls of Paris did not work for me. The story follows Grace, Eleanor, and Marie, but none of the characters had much depth. Historically, the Allied military was very reluctant to utilize women as operatives, but if this story was any indication, they might have been right to be concerned. Marie does so terribly in spy school that it is difficult to fathom why she was sent into the field. Once she is actually in France, she disobeys orders and often makes terrible choices that put her and her colleagues at risk.

The wonderful thing about historical fiction is that most authors write multiple books set in the same era. While I didn't love this story, Pam Jenoff is beloved by many readers. If you enjoyed her books The Kommandant's Girl or The Orphan's Tale, you might enjoy The Lost Girls of Paris too.


The Lost Girls of Paris
By Pam Jenoff
Park Row January 2019
384 pages
Read via Netgalley

Thank you so much for this ARC!

I love reading WWII historical fiction and this story did not disappoint. It was equal parts history and spy with an appropriate amount of romance thrown in. I loved and admired all three women and found myself thinking about them (and real women during that time) when I was not even reading.

Totally recommend. Beautifully written.

Historical fiction that is not a feel good book. I have been reading a lot of historical fiction lately and I am finding that authors are now inserting contrived romances or chemistry that feels disingenuous to the plot line. Wondering if this is an attempt to lure the romance reader.

Librarian: This is a brilliant historical fiction novel, perfect both for those who like historical fiction and those who like spy novels. World War II is such a heavily saturated topic that it can be difficult to find books that approach it from a new perspective. This one doesn't wholly succeed, but it does do better than most, and I think that readers will enjoy it, especially, considering that Jenoff is already an author that many of them trust.
Reader: I've mentioned before that I have a love/hate relationship with historical fiction. This one fall fairly squarely on the love side of that equation. It has all of the elements that I look for in good historical fiction, compelling characters, an interesting premise, and a new or innovative approach to the topic. I haven't read Jenoff's books, before but I think that I'm going to have to go back and read them, because if this book is any indication I'm going to enjoy them.

4.5 Stars. I was super excited to score and advanced reading copy of this book and it did not disappoint. Thank you HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing and Net Galley. I never saw the ending coming. I loved the way this book bounced back and forth between 1944 and 46 to put all the pieces of the timeline together. I admire the courage of these women and think the author told their story beautifully. I will definitely be reading more historical fiction novels that Pam Jenoff has written.

This book took some getting into, on my part. Initially I loved the concept of the story, but the character development just lagged for me. I’m glad that I stuck with it, because as the story grew, so did the girls. They went from young inexperienced girls into brave strong women, especially Marie. She was so annoying, asking too many questions, rash and unthinking in her decisions. But, she became much more than that, with experience and time, providing valuable support to her colleagues and excellence to their cause. Grace is a inquisitive woman that comes along a couple of years after the wars end, trying to find out what happened to the girls of the SOE and their leader Eleanor.
This is another untold story of the brave woman that fought the war in their unique way, along with pilots, Red Cross workers, canteen girls, and the factory workers at home. Pam Jenoff is a talented writer of historical fiction, and she has done it again. My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Harper Collins for the opportunity to review this novel.

The Lost Girls of Paris follows 3 main characters and 2 timelines that are within a few years of each other. As a reader you see Grace who finds a suitcase containing 12 photographs and starts a journey to find out who these photographs are of and the stories behind them; Eleanor a SOE secretary that starts a women's division from the ground up to infiltrate different occupied territories during WWII; Marie one of the women who joins the SOE.

I was enthralled with the story of these three women.. Even when I wasn't reading, I was thinking about them. This book will hook you with the discovery of the photographs and continue to pull you into Grace's investigation and the lives that Eleanor and Marie lived in order to fight the Germans in France. I really enjoyed how Jenoff decided to tell these stories and intertwine them. Her writing made the plot flow flawlessly and as a reader I didn't want to put the book down. I highly recommend to anyone looking for historical fiction, WWII, strong women, or just a great story.