It’s amazing the will that people have to survive. The things that people, especially women had to endure during WW2 and the time afterward is hard to swallow sometimes. This book really puts you in the shoes of those people as you watch them struggle and overcome the pain of such a brutal war.

I will post my review to my blog and Goodreads closer to the release date.

I enjoy historical fiction, particularly WWII-era stories. I especially like when they take place in multiple settings, such as this one (New York and Paris). Love and survival are key themes, as is figuring out who you are. I've never read anything by this author, but I'm likely to check out future books, as I liked her writing style.. The characters were well-developed, and the scenes were descriptive. The reader may be left wondering what they would do if they were in the same position.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this copy of Paris Never Leaves You in exchange of a honest review.

This novel is everything I love about WWII stories —a main character, Charlotte, whom I did not agree with the many choices she made throughout the story, a woman far from perfect, a mother who does what she thinks is best for her child, who is ready to do anything to save them both. I woman I despised and grew fond of simultaneously. How could this be possible? I blame it on Ellen Feldman’s exquisite writing that kept me on my toes throughout. Her use of perfectly adequate words, her talent to throw us right into the next scene without lengthy, unnecessary introductions, her creation of intricate and imperfect characters you grow to love and accept despite their many imperfections.

This book was a piece of art that will definitely be on my 2020 Top 5. I am planning on reading it again right before its release, June 2, 2020 because I know I missed a lot of details, subtleties that will make me enjoy the story even more than I already have.
If you love atmospheric novels, historical fiction, and a good dramatic love story, this book is for you. Add it to your TBR right now!

3.5
Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman is a quick reading page-turner filled with conflicted characters who are damaged survivors of WWII.

In occupied Paris, Charlotte runs her family's book shop. A war widow, she struggles to keep her baby daughter Vivi alive. A German army doctor visits the shop and takes an interest in her baby daughter, secreting in food and medicine. Charlotte reluctantly accepts his gifts and trust and friendship grow, putting them both at risk.

Years later, Charlotte's choices come back to haunt her in her new life in New York City where she works for a publishing house. Teenaged Vivi is pressing to know more about her father and heritage. Charlotte's boss, a paraplegic, knows that war destroyed the enlightened man he had been. Charlotte has been trashing the unopened letters from the German doctor.

I appreciated how Feldman incorporated less known WWII history, including the privations of occupied France and post-war retaliation against collaborators. Her handling of the character's moral struggles was of special interest to me. There are several strong romance stories that will appeal to readers of women's fiction.

Surviving the war brings guilt for having survived, their decisions and actions kept secret. Admitting their shameful truths brings healing and the possibility of a new life

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Paris Never Leaves You is a story with a different perspective on surviving WWII in Paris . It's about a young mother and her daughter trying to survive . Ellen Feldman does a great job bringing the reader into the mother's life of hardships, love, and survival. This is the first book by Ellen Feldman that I have read but plan on reading more.

Paris Never Leaves You is the story of a French woman who survives the German occupation of Paris during WWII, doing everything she can to provide for her daughter, then has survivor's guilt for the things she did and for things she did not do. This novel is really close to being great, but just didn't quite reach that mark for me - just a little too jumbled. But it has great things to say about the cost of the choices we make, and learning to really live. I particularly enjoyed the look at life from the viewpoint of what others might call a "collabo/collaborator," as I have not read any others like that. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Griffin. 3.75 rounded up to 4 stars for originality.

I did not like this book at all and found it very poorly written. The book switches in time and place as do many books these days. This one does so very awkwardly. So much so that I had a lot of trouble figuring out what was going on! The main character and her small daughter ended up in Auschwitz - reason unclear! And then she ended up in the US - reason also unclear. I gave up on the book at about 80%. A very disappointing read! Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. I enjoyed this WWII era novel set in France with dual timelines. Unlike other books with dual timelines, this one is only ten years apart and is told through the main character. Survivor guilt is a main theme of this novel with several hidden secrets coming to light asthe main character keeps her daughter Vivi alive in Paris under Nazi regime. This novel was ok for me. The two timelines being so close and by same person was a bit hard to follow at places.

Beautiful cover! I always struggle with dual storylines in historical fiction. I always end up liking one more than the other or just feeling like the storylines don't flow, and that was the case with Paris Never Leaves You. At the end of the day, this is a story (WWII in France) that has been done to death and if you want to read about that, there are better choices out there.

A great way to refresh your vocabulary while learning about occupied Paris, France during WW2.

Charlotte Foret and her friend Simone run a bookstore. When the German army begin banning books and enforcing their rules, Simone, a Jew, likes to defy them in small ways. Charlotte has a 4 yr old daughter to feed and protect. She does her best to tolerate the German officer who frequents their store. As the occupation deepens, then the allies advance, the French turn on each other when there are no visible Jews to sacrifice. Charlotte & Vivienne manage to survive and land in NYC under the care of an old family friend, Horace Fields and his wife Hannah. Ten years after the end of the war old exploits are in demand and Charlotte finds herself facing her past, as now teenage Vivi wants to learn about her heritage.

A novel full of in-depth characters put in stressful and precarious situations. Research details at the end of the book are quite interesting.

The only criticism I have is the flipping between time periods: scenes were not clearly marked and sometimes I had to go back a page or two to confirm what era I was in.

This book missed the mark with me.
I just couldn't get into the characters. And the alternating timelines didn't mesh together very well. I thought it was going to be a Women's Lit but somehow it morphed into a romance that seemed forced and awkward.
I am positive that other people will enjoy this book. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary copy for an honest review.

This was a very interesting historical novel. I read it very quickly over our Christmas vacation. The book was a bit of a gut check for me personally because the main character has a little girl named Vivian who they call Vivi, and so do I. And considering the novel takes place during WWII era, that tells you everything you need to know about the state of this little girl's life and it wrung my heart out. On the positive side, this novel had a completely different plot and surprises than the typical WWII/Holocaust novel. I don't want to ruin anything, or do spoilers, but I do have to wonder how the story's events would be received by the Jewish community. Which is sort of why she keeps it a secret in the novel too I guess. I didn't find the main character particularly likable, which is rare for me. Typically I can't help but like every character whose head I find myself inside! But maybe that was the issue... she kept her secrets from everyone... the reader included.
I'd recommend to people who enjoy WWII era novels, and would appreciate a departure from the usual plots of those novels.

Post WWII era novel that speaks to the way some women survived during that time. Not heavy on the brutality of the time, more about her survival and what she did to survive and get out of France and keeping secrets from her daughter and friends. Characters were generally likeable and one could relate to the main character as a mother. A light reading historical novel for that time period.
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an unbiased review.The opinions expressed are my own.Thanks to the author,publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Started this one with my Traveling Sister Lindsay, she finished and I am leaving Paris in these pages before it never leaves me.

This just wasn't the right book in the bookshop for me. The two timelines didn't weave together well for me and the story felt disconnected along with the characters. After Lindsay finished this one I decided not to. My rating is based on when I was reading it. So please take my review of what I read lightly and reads a few more.

A story about a girl and her daughter surviving the last part of the war. This is set with dual time lines. I found both stories interesting. Each chapter alternating back and forth. At times I did get a bit confused as to which time period I was in. The chapters were numbered ,perhaps list each as Paris and New York would have been better. Historical fiction fans will like this! Thanks to Netgalley for the early copy

2 stars:
I wish I could have liked this novel but it didn't do anything for me on many levels! I figure I have a good grasp of the English language, but I was having to look up so many words, that it got really annoying. I found the first 100 pages very disjointed - going from present to past - and ended up putting the book down to read something else!. It can take me 1-1/2 days to read a book this size - this book took me 2-1/2 weeks! I was about 2/3 into the book for it to pick up and grab my interest - waiting for that big finish, - only to fizzle to the end! One thing I did take away from this book: there was one historical fact that I had not come across before that I found interesting! The characters, in my opinion, were average except for one: Julian! I had such empathy for him and his life story!

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased report of this novel

Such a great story of Charlotte and her infant daughter,Vivienne, during WWII in Paris and Charlotte and her daughter,Vivienne, in NYC during the 1950's. Vivienne wants to know more about how they survived the war with her mother running a bookstore in Paris. Charlotte has survivor guilt and is not wanting to tell her daughter the details. A very humanistic take on survival and war and the aftermath of living with the reality of what was done to survive. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Historical Fiction/Women’s Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pub. Date: June 2, 2020

When did Women’s Fiction morph into Romance Fiction? Or is it just me who feels the shift? Traditional women's fiction focuses on a woman's lifetime journey. There is frequently a love interest. A romance novel focuses entirely on a woman’s romantic relationships and usually has a happy ending. This novel has two timelines: during and post WWII. Our heroine has a romance going on in both—just not necessary. One love interest is understandable. The survival of her child and herself depended on it. The other feels like an add-on simply to keep romance readers happy.

During the war, our protagonist works in a tiny bookstore in occupied Paris. In the next decade, she works in a NYC publishing house. Although unhappy with the feel of a romance novel, there were parts of the story that I did enjoy. As a reader, I was delighted to find myself reading a book about books. I read to learn and to be entertained simultaneously, which is why historical fiction is my favorite genre. I applaud the author’s research. I did learn something new regarding WWII German soldiers. I cannot say more for it would be a spoiler. I thought she did a good job of showing the impossible choices the mother needed to make, during the war, to keep her child alive. As well as capturing the woman’s’ overwhelming sense of survivor’s guilt once she was safely living in the States.

Still, I do not think that “Paris” will pose any threat to other WWII historical fiction books. In the classic, “Sophie’s Choice” the good versus evil smacks you in the face. In this novel, it feels colorless. The character Sophie also has a romance when she is out of Nazi Germany and is living in Brooklyn, NY. Hers is a violent relationship, which she accepts due to her posttraumatic stress from the war years. Unlike this novel, that romance enhanced Sophie’s tale. Maybe I was expecting too much. Ellen Feldman is a 2009 Guggenheim fellow, which lead me to believe I would be reading a literary novel. The book held my interest in the author’s moral analysis of her characters. However, I am simply not a fan of contemporary romance. If you are, and you enjoy historical fiction this one is for you.

At first I was a little skeptical about this book because it is not in the usual genre that I read about but wow I’m glad I did! I will say the main character was really a force to be reckoned with and the author did an excellent job and having her personality come through.

An poignant novel about a survivor of the Paris occupation a dozen years after resetting in New York with her now adolescent daughter Vivi, whose memories if her life during the war and the brief time they spent in a concentration camp are dim. Charlotte wants to keep them that way.She's never told anyone the secrets of her past, not even the publisher, a friend of her late father, who offers her a job as well as an apartment in the brownstonee he owns with his wife , a psychiatrist; Charlotte, a deeply repressed woman, is propelled in the course of the novel to come to terms with her history, her authentic identity, abandons the narrative she has constructed of her life. A rewarding read in every respect.