I’ve read a lot of novels about people performing brave, heroic deeds during World War II (most recently Cara Black’s "Three Hours in Paris"), but "Paris Never Leaves You" is the story of an ordinary woman and the choices and compromises she must make so that she and her toddler daughter can survive. The book opens in the 1950s; Charlotte Foret is living in New York with now-14-year-old Vivi. She works at a publishing house and lives on the top floor of a brownstone belonging to her boss and his wife. For nine years, she’s led a comfortable life, and Vivi is thriving, but the memories of wartime Paris continue to haunt Charlotte.

In flashbacks, we find Charlotte, whose husband was killed in the war, working in a Paris bookshop during the German occupation. It is a time of enormous deprivation, when even queueing for food doesn’t ensure that you’ll get more than a few turnips and a sack of weevil-infested beans. One day, a German soldier walks into the store; he is polite and appears to have good taste in literature, though Charlotte is understandably suspicious of him, wondering if he’s trying to catch her selling banned books so he can have her arrested. (Charlotte’s friend and fellow bookseller Simone is constantly putting works by or about Jews on the shelves, despite the fact that they’re forbidden.)

The soldier becomes a regular customer, and one day, he offers Vivi a fresh orange. He starts clandestinely supplying Charlotte with impossible-to-find luxuries, like cheese and milk. She convinces herself that she needs to accept them, for Vivi’s sake. “She holds her tongue. Except to say thank you. Oh, you’re scrupulous, she chides herself silently. You keep him at arm’s length, except when you reach out to take the food he brings. But she does not argue with herself too vehemently. Vivi’s legs are no longer spindles. She is beginning to have a small belly. She cries, but not incessantly.”

Eventually, their relationship turns sexual, putting Charlotte in further danger; as the war draws to a close, women who consorted with Germans are branded as collabo, and if the mob turns on them, they can sometimes wind up beaten or even killed.

Although she manages to escape France, in many ways, Charlotte has yet to move on from the war, and this has continuing repercussions on her life in New York—she is keeping secrets from her daughter, and has a hard time forming relationships. That’s not too surprising, since during the war, there was always somebody ready to snitch on you, first for defying the occupying Germans and then for not being sufficiently loyal to the French resistance.

Charlotte’s long journey towards self-acceptance and away from shame are at the heart of this compelling story. Feldman writes beautifully about the gray areas that must be navigated when the lines between right and wrong aren’t always clearly defined.

This wonderful and sometimes challenging and heartbreaking book is about choices. Charlotte Foret and her teenage daughter Vivi live in New York in the mid-1950's. They didn't always live there. Vivi was born in Paris, in the early days of WW2 and she and her mother lived there throughout the German occupation. Charlotte made choices for her and Vivi to survive and then flee when they had the chance at the end of the war. Charlotte works as an editor for Horace, who also made choices, and is confined to a wheelchair after suffering injuries while fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. Charlotte and Vivi live in an apartment in the brownstone that Horace and his wife Hannah also live in. Horace and Hannah are like family, especially to Vivi, but for Charlotte they are also like family in that they have freely interfere and meddle.

Charlotte and her daughter are safe and healthy, but both Charlotte and Horace are haunted by events of the past. This amazing story explores how they live with themselves and the people they are because of the choices they made. Charlotte learns how to give her daughter the past and family she will never know, and Vivi becomes a strong and resilient girl with a bright future. The book ends with a journey to find resolution and healing, maybe there will be another book with what happens next. I hope so!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a different type of WW2 book focusing on survivors guilt The protagonist of this story does what she feels is necessary to survive the German occupation of Paris. I found the dual time line to increase the anticipation of the story as I flipped pages. The story flowed easily between time during the occupation and post war time in NYC. Highly recommended!
#stmartinspress #ellenfeldman #parisneverleavesyou #netgalley

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of a woman who survived WWII with her daughter and made her way to America. The story is about her coming to terms with how she survived the war. Not only with her daughter and good friends, but most importantly, with herself.

In America, her job is an editor. At one point she says it’s too soon to publish a book on the war. That line stuck with me as I feel like now there has been a floodgate of WWII books written and published - fiction and non-fiction. I’ve said this in past reviews, I feel jaded about the topic. I feel desensitized about the topic and it’s no different with this book.

I really liked Paris Never Leaves You. This novel will take you from Paris to New York and back while Charlotte tells her story about war torn France in 1944. As Charlotte struggles with the past she's also trying to raise her daughter Vivi. I loved Horace and Julian and the ending was great. Looking forward to reading more of this Authors work.
#ParisNeverLeavesYou #NetGalley

I give Paris Never Leaves You 4 stars for its interesting story.
I would recommend this book to Historical Fiction Fans.

Paris Never Leaves You is a beautifully written historical fiction from WWII France to 1950s New York. A fast-paced story that flows smoothly and makes for an enjoyable read.

Ellen Feldman's Paris Never Leaves You is a well-written, character-driven novel told through the thoughts of Charlotte Foret. The story alternates in time and place between German-occupied Paris in 1944 and New York in the 1950s.

In Paris, Charlotte is a young widow with an infant daughter, Vivienne. She runs a bookstore with her friend Simone who also has an infant daughter, Sophie. Food and goods are hard to come by in the occupied city, and most residents suffer from malnutrition. Arrests by the German soldiers for the slightest infraction are common, as are nighttime raids where people are pulled from their homes for no reason and taken away, or shot. The bloodlust of the soldiers seems to feed on itself and violence increases. The people in the occupied city face moral dilemmas as to what they are willing to do to survive. It is a horrific and fearful time.

In New York, Charlotte works as an editor for Gibbon and Field a prestigious publishing house. She and Vivienne, freed from a camp at war's end, were sponsored to come to America by Horace Field, a friend of her father, who is one of the owners of the publishing house. Charlotte and her daughter live on the top floor of the brownstone that Horace and his wife Hannah own. Now that she's older, Vivienne becomes more curious about her extended family, her faith, and what happened during the war. Charlotte finds that she cannot escape the past, particularly the guilt that plagues her for decisions she made so that she and Vivienne could survive.

Feldman is skilled at painting the scenes of both time periods, making the characters realistic, and covering a wide range of emotions throughout the book. There were some twists and surprises too. I particularly like that she shows moral situations from both sides during 1944.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it to others without hesitation!

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for allowing me to read an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All opinions stated here are my own.

Paris Never Leaves You is my first introduction to the talents of Ellen Feldman. After this, it will not be the last. I thought it was a pretty good read. World War II era books are becoming one of my go to genres lately and I was not disappointing with this story. I loved the historical details that made me feel like I was right there within the scenes and living with the characters. It was great to be transported back in time to see what it was like back then.

I am giving Paris Never Leaves You four and a half stars. I will be looking for more by Ellen Feldman in the future. I recommend this one for historical fiction lovers. It is most definitely worth a read.

I received this book from the publisher. This review is 100% my own honest opinion.

The problem with WW2 books being a whole sub-genre of the Historical Fiction genre is that there is a flooding of those books into said genre and not all of them are worthy to be there. Just because it is about WW2 of the aftermath does not make it a good book. And for me, this book falls close to that mark. It is not a horrible book and if you are new to the genre, you will probably enjoy it. But when you have read as many exceptional WW2 books as I have, you get to be pretty discerning and need it to step up to match what I have already read.

That said, this does have moments of an excellent story. While Charlotte and Vivi's story certainly isn't a new one, nor is how she survives the war, the twists that come ARE new [for me], and it made the book a three star read for me rather than a two star one.
I do get tired of Charlotte and her attitude of "martyrdom" and how she feels like she carries everything herself and doesn't seem to see all the others that also carry the world on them. She isn't the only one who survived the war, yet she carries on like she is. And that attitude gets old very quickly. And I am not a fan of the end of the book - how and what she chooses, just isn't my cup of tea [she has a tendency to think that the everything is always about her when it is not [and while I don't like Hannah, she isn't wrong when she calls Charlotte out on that]. The best parts of the story are done in the French flashbacks, even though that was disjointed in the reading [one minute you are in NY and then with no discernible break, you are in war torn France and it was very disorientating at times]. Charlotte and Vivi's story there was the realest part of this book and the feelings Charlotte has there are much more real and visceral than anything that happens in NY. That is another reason this is 3 stars instead of 2

Overall, this book is just okay for me, but again, it is because I have read a TON of this genre and it has to be a spectacular book to really engage me anymore. And unfortunately, for me, this was not that.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin Press/St. Martin's Griffin for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read a lot of historical fiction, particularly based in France during WWII and there is a definite trend about Paris staying with you despite the years and attempts to move on. Following the story of Charlotte Foret, the book switches between 1940s Paris and 1950s Manhattan. Charlotte struggled to take care of her infant daughter Vivi when the war arrived, leaving them both malnourished and living in constant fear. When a Wehrmacht physician walks into Charlotte’s bookstore and begins leaving small tokens of food and milk for Vivi, she grapples with remaining loyal to her country or feeding her daughter.

The decisions Charlotte faced while hiding out in the bookstore were so relatable. How can you not feed your child, given the opportunity, regardless of where the resources may be coming from? There is no justice in an innocent child dying because they are sick and malnourished in a war they had nothing to do with.

The scariest aspect of this story is how people’s ideas of you could affect your life in a time of war. It shouldn’t matter, but at a time when one little rumor can be used against you and everyone wants to assign blame, that tiny rumor is the very difference between life and death. Charlotte’s neighbors knew that she had grown sympathetic to a Nazi soldier who had begun visiting the bookstore. Seeing little Vivi begin to thrive, they knew Charlotte must be accepting favors of food and they hated her for it. When the war ended and Charlotte began seeing “collaborators” or women who had been rumored to have slept with a Nazi being violated and murdered. She knew she had to flee for her life.

Through her father’s past connections, Charlotte secures a sponsor and a job at a publishing house in NYC, where Vivi is able to grow up among Manhattan’s elite. The novel opens with Charlotte receiving a letter from a Rabbi in South America, bringing her memories of the war flooding back. When Vivi begins to question her upbringing, Charlotte can no longer hide from the past if she wants to keep her daughter.

Teenagers are tough and I loved fifteen-year-old Vivi. She had spunk and determination, especially when she wanted to know something, but Feldman also depicted the ups-and-downs that teenagers go through when someone at school is undoubtedly mean. Vivi was uninvited from a peer’s major party because she was Jewish. That, for me, was one of the more interesting storylines because I wouldn’t have expected such blatant discrimination once the war ended and the world saw how horrific the anti-semitic mentality was.

Charlotte’s self-deprecation began to wear on me as the novel went on, but then Vivi stepped in vibrantly to pull me back into the story and eventually help Charlotte face herself. In dealing with her past, Charlotte needed to revisit that time of her life in Paris to discover Paris Never Leaves You.

Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman is one of those books that you feverishly devour, and yet the big reveal leaves you with a “huh, I didn’t see that one coming” feeling. Not a mystery, but there is a skeleton in the closet, and those rattling bones kept me engaged and wondering.

Charlotte and daughter, Vivi, survive the Occupation of France and the Holocaust. They land in America after the war due to a sponsorship from a family friend. I was intrigued by Charlotte’s efforts to protect Vivi and ensure her survival through the occupation. The picture of life in Paris during the occupation is stark and scary. I could feel the weight of the daily dread, and I could hear the hunger in the bellies of every Parisienne. Equally engaging was Charlotte’s closed-off life in America working for a publishing house owned by her sponsor. A ghost from her past visits in the form of a letter, and that letter starts Charlotte thinking of the past and hallucinating in the present.

This book gives a very different perspective of the war and especially of life after the war. I found that I felt equally repulsed by the characters’ choices and compassionate toward their motives. There are strong messages of survivors’ guilt, and the long-term effects of war. The dual timeline of the story allows Charlotte to slowly divulge her experiences during the occupation as well as her struggle raising a daughter on her own. Her sponsor and his wife have become employer, landlord, and daycare providers, and yet there is tension.

A unique story that left me with strong feelings that keep jumping to the forefront of my mind. I loved the unique perspective and the very different twist on a WWII story.

The book world seems to be experiencing a superfluity of WWII fiction right now. Much of it is good, but there are those moments when one wonders, Is there anything truly new to be done with this subject? The answer to that question is "yes," and that something new is Ellen Feldman's Paris Never Leaves You.

At the beginning, Paris Never Leaves You reads like a fair bit of WWII fiction. It's set in two times periods and moves between them. It recounts the deprivations of living in occupied Paris. It contains a doomed love story. But these settings and plot elements take on entirely new forms under Feldman's pen. This book surprises—again and again—and those surprises don't feel contrived; they feel intrinsic to the narrative and characters Feldman offers us.

Even if you think you've had enough of WWII fiction, add Paris Never Leaves You to your reading list. It will give you a satisfying, moving, new experience in a genre that's been pretty thoroughly explored.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the free review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book had so much potential, yet it fell short for me. I did enjoy the 1950s storyline between Charlotte and Vivi. The mother daughter relationship was complicated, and the author took the time to explore the intricacies of their stories. However, the alternating timelines in this book were so hard to follow. I found myself having to reread over to figure out where I was in the story and what was going on. I also found that there are a lot of subplots in this story, which led to a lack of depth. 

I wanted more and less from this story. More exploration of the main plot and relationships and less subplots that distract from the main story. The ending also felt rushed and awkward to me. I didn't quite follow everything that was going on because of how jumpy the story was. There's a lot of potential here, I just didn't see it all fleshed out unfortunately.

I was thrilled to be chosen to be on tour for this book. I love historical fiction and this one was no exception.

Books about bookstores and libraries always intrigue me and this one was about a bookstore and a publishing house. Two winning story-lines, in my opinion.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

What would you do to survive WWII? The courageous Charlotte emerges alive with her young daughter Vivi, but is left with crushing guilt for how she did so. The often heartbreaking, utterly real story splits between 1940s Paris and 1950s New York City, and offers a compelling twist on recent novels set during the war. To be read with an open heart, a goblet of burgundy and a big box of Kleenex.

5 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 04 Aug 2020

Thanks to the author, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#ParisNeverLeavesYou

Paris Never Leaves You is one of those books that leaves you feeling both happy and sad, fulfilled but equally unfulfilled. It is a beautifully written novel with prose that I just wanted to swim in, and one that has left its mark on me. I have read many, many books set during WW2, both fiction and non-fiction, and a lot of those books were set in France, the country I grew up in, and the one that will always be home to me. What sets Paris Never Leaves You apart from many of the WW2-based fiction I have read is that the main characters are not your typical war heroes, Résistance fighters, or camp survivors. They are flawed (but likeable) every-day characters who tried to survive in any way they could.
The story takes place in NYC in the 1950’s (“now”), and in Paris in the 1940’s. Charlotte and her daughter Vivi live in NYC, in an apartment above Charlotte’s boss and his wife’s home. She works as an editor for Horace’s publishing house, and Horace and his wife Hannah sponsored Charlotte and Vivi’s visas to the US after Paris was liberated. Between the NYC present and Charlotte’s Parisian past we slowly learn what happened to Charlotte during the war, how she survived, and why she is reluctant to tell Vivi about her background, the war, and why she refuses to revisit the past.
I love how accurate the descriptions of wartime Paris are. I also loved how the author weaves the intrigue through the storyline, leaving crumbs for the reader to pick up along the way, guessing parts of the story, but not getting the entire truth until closer to the end. I also enjoyed the double romance storylines too, “now” and then, and how both of Charlotte’s choices are guilt ridden but also true to life - love is so often messy and never perfect. And as much as I pride myself on being super knowledgeable on all areas of Europe-related WW2 information, I have rarely read about Jewish men hiding in plain sight as Wehrmacht officers. It was a great addition to the novel, and I think the author really deals well with the topic of survivor’s guilt, as well as the judgment of others.
How would I have survived the war? I have no idea. Would I have made the same choices as Charlotte? As Horace? As Julian? As Simone? I don’t know. None of us know. Paris Never Leaves You leaves you with the lingering question which asks you “What would you have done?”
This is a strong 4.5 stars for me, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Ellen Feldman’s work as her writing style really is gorgeous.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. My review will be published on my blog and socials on August 4th, I will update this review with the links then!

Paris Never Leaves You was a lovely surprise. I’ve had this ARC for months because the publishing date was pushed out thanks to Covid-19, but it was finally next on my list! I thought it was very well-written.

I’ve read a lot of historical fiction set during and around WWII. I keep thinking eventually the genre might grow repetitive to me, but I’m amazed how each book holds something new to learn. Feldman has done a marvelous job creating realistic characters, characters the reader can sympathize with but still be surprised by. I read this one quickly, devouring it within twenty-four hours.

While the story alternates between Charlotte’s time in Paris at the end of the war and the early 1950s in New York, I never became confused. I enjoyed that the timelines weren’t too far apart. That was a newer experience for me.

And the settings of a bookstore in Paris and the New York publishing world of the 1950s were maybe the best part of the story. As a reader, I always appreciate any glimpses into other bookish worlds.

I’ve noticed other readers have read this story as more of a romance than historical fiction, but it didn’t seem that way to me. There are romantic relationships in the book, but for me they were not the main point of the story. The theme is endurance, and Charlotte’s determination to assure her and her daughter’s survival, no matter what. I thoroughly enjoyed this inspiring story.

PARIS NEVER LEAVES YOU • Ellen Feldman • ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 {rounded up}

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Brief Synopsis: Charlotte is not a victim — she is a survivor. She fought for her life and the life of her young daughter, Vivi, while running a Parisian bookstore during the height of WWII. She did what it took to stay alive. But can she survive the next chapter of her life? This book is a peek into what come nexts. After surviving, the trauma of the past does not just disappear. After all, survival never comes without a cost.

Recently it seems that the literary world has been overwhelmed by WWII stories. "Paris Never Leaves You" though is a different kind of WWII story. Unlike many historical fiction books focusing on WWII and anti-Semitism, this book is not about a hero, nor is it as detailed about the atrocities Jews faced during this time. This deviation from the normal WWII story made this book stand out, and gave thoughtful perspective to different moral questions that are not often called into question by similar works.

Along with being historical fiction with a unique twist, this book is also a story about identity, survival, romance, and the love between a mother and daughter who have been through it all. It will keep your interest and make you think a little bit. I heartily recommend this book to those who liked Heather Morris' works, and to those who like historical fiction and romance in general.

I've read a lot of WWII historical fiction but never one quite like this. I loved how it focused on what happened to people after the war and after they were in camps. It was interesting to follow not only a woman and her experience but her daughter's as well. I can't imagine how hard it would be trying to protect your child from the Nazis. I definitely felt for Charlotte throughout the book and resonated with Vivi's struggle to find out who she is.

The only problem I had with this book is the set up. I wish it would have more clearly marked the flashbacks to the war and then present day. Sometimes it would switch timelines in the same chapter and it was a little confusing to follow and distracted some from the story.

When we as human beings live through a time of extreme crisis, the moral choices that have to be made are not always clearly defined. Two people with identical backgrounds and beliefs can make totally different choices in the midst of war and chaos. Charlotte survived the German occupation of Paris along with her daughter Vivi. They were able to emigrate to New York City with help from a couple who sponsored them along with providing an apartment and a job. Why can't Charlotte move on? Is it the anti-semitism around her? What role do the mysterious letters coming from Colombia play in her unrest? If you had been in Charlotte's shoes, what would you have done? Ellen Feldman does a fantastic job of writing a story that leads to soul-searching for the reader. I will not soon forget Charlotte. How would her experience have been different had she been a woman of faith? That would be one of many issues a book group could discuss concerning this compelling set in WW II Paris and post-war New York City.

Thank you to St. Martins and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.