"But what does any of it matter now? Over time, Paris has become my hiding place, my cocoon, my escape from the pain of the past. I blink back tears. And now? Does he really think he can just waltz in and expect to behave as if nothing happened? That everything should just magically go back to the way it was?”

From the intro it may sound like Caroline is suffering from a romantic breakup but her life is a lot more complicated than that. She is soon involved in an accident that wipes her memory and as she visits places near her apartment she realizes that she may not have been a very nice person given how others react to her. If only she could unlock her memories.

The narrative takes the reader back to the same street of Caroline’s apartment but during Nazi-occupied Paris. Celine, her young daughter and father live comfortably and own a lovely flower shop but the menace of war is all around them and soon they won’t be able to escape the enemy.

I admit I was much more interested in the war time setting than the modern day. I also found a few things that just didn’t add up in Caroline’s story but overall did I was totally entertained by this book and would certainly read another by this author.

Thank you @randomhouse and Ballantine books for my free copy via @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
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It took me a while to get into this one. It’s told in a dual timeline, Caroline in present day and Celine in German occupied France during WW2.
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I found both stories interesting and I thought the author did a good job of tying them together at the end. The last part of the book was very emotional and I loved how touched Caroline was by Celine’s story.
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If you’re a fan of WW2 historical fiction and enjoy a sad, but also hopeful story, then I would suggest picking this one up.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
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Have you read this one? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Swipe to see content warning ⚠️ ➡️
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Caroline is furious. She had dated some but it didn't go great. She feels like a ghost floating through life. She is upset and doesn't want to forgive someone. I couldn't get invested.

I really enjoyed this book! Historical fiction (especially set in WWII times) is one of my favorite genres. I also really enjoy dual timelines with one timeline set in present day and one set in the past. Add in that the two timeline stories intersect in someway and I am sold! This book included all the elements and I am so glad I read it. It did start off a little slow for me, but picked up the more I read and I got so engrossed in both of the women's stories that I stayed up way too late reading it in order to find out how it all played out. The author did such a good job of weaving both timeline stories together and including the messages of thankfulness, forgiveness, and love in it that it is a book that will stick with me for awhile. I am looking forward to reading more from this author!

A rather fine book. This one was just right.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.
I thank you, Netgalley.

Hallmark movies are made of this and reader's of historical fiction looking for the next Sarah's Key will be disappointed.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

I am so incredibly grateful that the publishers of this book allowed me access to it! I can't recommend this book highly enough! Below is my Goodreads review:

“But I have come to learn that we can never lose what we love deeply and truly. It becomes part of us.”
All. The. Feels. What a fantastic book! The characters, the connections, the heartbreak, the redemption...oh so highly recommended!

Paris, present time; Caroline has just left a Parisian café in anger. Angry because she found her ex husband there. Still angry she sets off on her bike to home. Not knowing that a few moments later she has choose to go left or right. Left where a mother and daughter are walking on the sidewalk, right where a truck is coming her way. No matter what she chooses, there is going to be a crash.
When she wakes up in the hospital, she doesn't remember anymore who she is or anything about her past. Her past that, as the reader learns later on in the story, make her leave her home in San Diego after a tragic accident where she lost her daughter, and the divorce of her husband. During the story, she spends a lot of time in the bistro Jeanty down the street where she meets the waiter Victor, which turns out into a romance and she tries to find her memory back, and learns more about the posh Paris apartment on the Rue Cler she lives in, and what happened there during the war. Her romance with Victor..there is something about him, and Caroline can't put her finger on it, but is she in danger, or is Victor the key to her lost past?

Back in the 1940's in Nazi-occupied Paris, Céline runs a typical Paris flower shop with her father. She has a young daughter, Cosi. When their half Jewish ancestry is found out, life takes a turn for the worst for them. It all starts when a German officer walks in to the store when Céline's father is alone, and he is attacked, then the officer comes back with something more threatening; he shows interest in Céline and blacmails her to become his mistress for the sake of the safety of her family. the love of her life Luc, the son of the owner of Bistro Jeanty is send to the south of France by the army. Then the windows are tainted with a big yellow star, making them lose all their customers. When she goes to bistro Jeanty to asks Luc's mother is she has a job in the bistro for her, she overhears Madame Jeanty talking to the German officer about Celine and her family and that they are planning to arrest them in the next days. Their try to escape fails a few days later, when Celine is separated from Cosi and her father during a raid in rue Cler and while Cosi and her father are loaded into a leaving Nazi truck, Céline is taken as a prisoner by the German officer in his apartment, and she has to undergo a lot of physical torture. But not before she has found out Cosi escaped the hands of the Germans and is standing in front her in the hall of the apartment, and which she now has to try to hide as long as possible in her room for the German officer finds out..but how do you hide a young child in a small room in silence, when she also is now expecting a baby against her will? Celine has to make difficult choices to protect herself and the one she loves most, will the war be over in time to save her and Cosi?

This book just completely blew me away. I have read the previous books by Sarah Jio, and they all are very good, but this one totally stood out.I really like the switching between the main character, and she just switched to the other one that the story of the other became quite thrilling or made you wonder how this would continue, which really keeps you on the edge of you chair as a reader and made it a page turner. Especially Céline's story was beautiful, moving, entertaing but so heartbreaking and even horrifying in the end. Caroline's story was also entertaining, but I would have liked it even more if there was an even stronger link between her and Céline in the end, like some kind of lost family link or something. This was was also good, and all the dots where connected, but it wasn't the most interesting groundbreaking link between her and Céline. What did connect for her was her own past, which was quite an unbelievable link between her and Victor. I totally didn't see that one coming! And the author did a great job to to highlight the third main character in the book; Paris. You really, especially if you've been there yourself, see Paris coming to life in this book, and everything in it is just totally correctly true Paris.

Without giving away too much more spoilers than I already did, I can ony say more that All The Flowers in Paris is one of the best books of this year, truly recommend to put this one on your reading list, or to treat yourself on a copy of it and just read it right away!!

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I am slowly falling for historical fiction so I was excited to read All the Flowers in Paris. While it takes me awhile to work through historical fiction, I was always eager to pick it back up and read a few pages. Great characters and plot!

This is such a wonderfully written historical fiction. I really enjoyed the alternating narratives and timelines and thought it added a lot to the story. While I wasn’t all the invested in Caroline’s love story, I did enjoy how her memories were pieced together and how she discovered Celine’s story. I would definitely recommend.

Beautiful and haunting. This book was a tale of forgiveness and the strength of the human spirit. The story of Celine will pull you in. Caroline's mystery keeps you guessing as to if she will find out who she truly is and the way the two women's lives intertwine with each other will leave you amazed.

I'm a huge fan of dual-timeline books, particularly those set in WWII, and ALL THE FLOWERS IN PARIS by Sarah Jio did not disappoint. While both Caroline's story and Celine's story each kept me engaged, it was Celine's story that really had me turning the pages, rapt with attention (and emotion).

As so many dual-timeline plots have the present-day character's search for the history of the other as the primary plot point, it was refreshing, too, that Caroline had her own personal path to travel, alongside of her search to learn more about her apartment.

This is my first Sarah Jio book and I absolutely loved it! It is set in two different time periods both in Paris but one is the current day and the other is 1940's wartime. The main characters are Caroline, Celine, and Celine's daughter Cosi and the common tie between the two women is an apartment. It almost seemed like this could have been 2 different books however I felt that both stories were woven together seamlessly. I would recommend if you like historical fiction. Time for me to find another Sarah Jio book! Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballentine for the free copy.

Two beautiful stories during ocupation in Paris.
Beautifully written. This author is one that should not be neglected for its writing and plot.

This book follows a dual timeline between occupied Paris and the present of 2009. Both Celine and Caroline's stories were intriguing, but as often happens, I wind up preferring one over the other. Caroline's temporary amnesia and the secrets that entailed were more riveting than the war. Generally I enjoy WWII stories, but I thought Celine and her father seemed awfully naïve for so long into the occupation of Paris. I enjoyed the rue Cler as a character of sorts in both of the timelines, it was interesting to see what and who survived to present day.

This is my first book by Sarah Jio. I'd heard so many great things about her writing so I was excited to get to review this book. I also thought I was burned out on WWII fiction and then read this book. Alternating timelines in Paris between Celine in 1943 and Caroline in 2009. Caroline is suffering from memory loss and is trying to piece her life back together. Celine is in Paris during the Nazi occupation trying to keep her and her daughter alive. Though some of the story seemed contrived I still really enjoyed the story. I would definitely read more by the author.

All the Flowers in Paris
A Novel

by Sarah Jio


Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine

Ballantine Books

Historical Fiction , Women's Fiction


Pub Date 13 Aug 2019


I am reviewing a copy of All the Flowers in Paris through Ballantine Books and Netgalley:


This powerful novel shifts from modern day paris where Caroline wakes up in a hospital unable to remember the life she had before, or even who she was, slowly at first little things start triggering her memory, she is confused to learn she lived a sad and reclusive life in a sprawling old apartment on the rue Cler. She begins to have vague memories of a man and a child. She is determined to put the pieces of her life back together, but as the past becomes clearer she learns of a tragedy that led her to that sad reclusive life. A budding friendship with a chef, ultimately leads to the painful truth of her past.


Celine is a young widowed woman in Nazi occupied France. She is trying to build a new life for herself and her daughter by working in her Father’s flower shop, and is hopeful that she will find love again. But a ruthless German officer discovers her Jewish ancestry, and she finds herself having to play a dangerous game in order to keep her family safe, her Father is taken to the camp but her eight year old daughter escapes the transport truck, and finds her Mother imprisoned in the expansive apartment. Under the bed, they find a loose board and under that a dark room where she hides her daughter Chrissy.
Repeated brutal rapes lead to a pregnancy, and ultimately she goes into labor, dying only days after she is captured all the while calling out her daughters name, to weak to tell them of the secret room under the bed where Crissy is hidden.


Just as she can no longer fight, Crissy is rescued and ultimately raised by her Mother’s fiancé.


After Caroline discovers the letters hidden in what was once Celine’s closet, Caroline comes to realize that not only does the apartment harbor dark secrets, but she has more in common with this woman who was held captive in the prison long before Caroline was born.


All the Flowers in Paris is a Story of crushing heartbreak, of abject depravity but it is also a story of healing and hoped, as Celine comes to learn of Celine and Crissy’s story and comes to realize fate had brought her into Crissy’s path, before she knew who she was.


All the Flowers in Paris is one of the best Holocaust Novels I have ever read, and I find it worthy of five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

All the Flowers in Paris has an interesting premise. The story revolves around two women, Caroline & Celine. Celine is a single mother living in Paris during WWII. Caroline is a woman who awakes from a coma in a Paris hospital and does not remember who she is. Celine tries to save herself and her daughter in occupied Paris despite her great grandmother's background. Caroline's story is one of her trying to find herself and remember her past. The thing that ties these women together is the apartment that Caroline is renting on Rue Cler.

I loved that this was a historical fiction that did not revolve around soldiers or spies. I also liked that the modern portion of the book was not about someone in search of an ancestors story but in search of their own. I would definitely recommend this one.

I really enjoy reading Sarah Jio's books. She always has a way of grabbing my attention and almost always bringing me to tears. This book was no exceptions. Both of the storylines, Caroline's story and Celine's story, kept me hooked in this book. I do have to say that I wanted to read more about Celine than I did Caroline. I think that is because I could see where Caroline's story was going very early on. Once it is revealed what happened to the characters I was definitely sad but did enjoy how the storylines merged.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.