This book took me forever to read. I enjoyed parts of it which were informative, but historicals are not my favorite.

Pam Jenoff uncovers another untold story of WWII in a Paris department store that housed captured Jews. These same people were forced to sort and prepare the belongings taken from their fellow Jews to be stolen by or sold to German officers.
Louise finds a necklace that she's convinced she remembers from the war and sets out to explain how it is connected to the death of her friend. Seeking out the owner and history behind the necklace takes her from England to Paris and forces her to face her past.

I can't decide on my final rating but it's between a 3.75 and 4 stars.

I enjoyed the historical fiction and I was always drawn to books about the Holocaust and WWII. Louise's quest and determination to find the owner of the half hearted necklace captured my attention to follow her on this journey. I like that she was also rediscovering herself as she follows her heart to uncover the mystery of its connection to Fanny. I was surprised by the connection in the end as well as who the real traitor was.

Pam Jenoff wrote this historical fiction at a comfortable pace and I like following both Louise's and Helaine's side of the story. I liked how it wraps up nicely in the end. I do prefer a well rounded ending compare to an open ending. However, the chapters were a bit long for me to read but in the audio book it didn't feel as long. Overall, it was a good read.

Pam Jenoff writes an interesting story based back during the WWII era and the early 50’s It moves around in time and character. Both the current book era with Louise's unquenchable thirst for closure in finding the owner of a necklace she is sure she saw once while helping during the war. The other character was Helanie and her experiences during the Holocaust in Paris.
I both read and listened to the audio of this book. The narration done by Thérèse Plummer; Saskia Maarleveld, was better for me as a listener because the pronunciation of names and places was accurate and not my interpretation. It helped keep in the mood of each character. The book was harder to differentiate the switches from one character and era to another it it left me confused at times. The narration was done extremely well and made the story for me.
The story portrays the war-torn Paris and its atrocities to a small degree, (it was not overly descriptive that might trigger a reader), and the way it affected the folks of Paris plus the transformation that was happening to the women's place in the home in the early ’50s
I do recommend this book but caution it's not my normal type of genré and it seemed to drag for me. I could not relate at first and that is another reason I tried the audio as it kept my interest more.
I appreciate the chance to read and listen to this book this is my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Audio, and Harlequin Trade Publishing.

This was my first Pam Jenoff novel, but it certainly won’t be my last. Jenoff masterfully blends real historical elements into the WWII-era setting of France, bringing the past to life. The story unfolds across a dual timeline, set ten years apart. We follow Helaine, a Jewish girl who falls in love with a cellist while navigating a strained relationship with her parents. Later, we meet Louise, a former Red Cross worker who discovers half of a necklace that once belonged to her best friend. Their stories intertwine with the real-life history of the Levitan department store in Paris, which was used to house prisoners during the war.

I was fascinated by this fresh perspective on WWII, shedding light on a piece of history I hadn’t known before. Jenoff weaves a powerful narrative around a lost necklace, love, and the resilience of the human spirit in the darkest of times. The novel highlights the extraordinary bravery of ordinary people who made a difference. The Last Twilight in Paris stands apart from many WWII novels with its more uplifting tone, and I highly recommend it.

This is my first book by Pam. And I loved it so much that I’m going to pick it for my Monday night June Bookclub.
It’s a historical friction novel. Written in two different time frames..
Helaine , a Jew in Paris, who gets captured and ends up a prisoner, working in a department store, where the Germans have confiscated things of value from the Jewish homes. One day she even comes across a tea set that came from her parents home.
Louise, lives in London and she’s a housewife that works in a thrift store. One day while going through one of the donated, boxes, she comes across a necklace that she is positive belong to one of her friends during the war. her friend Franny was said to have been hit by a car. But she never believed that story . This is always been on her mind and now ,she knows she just cannot let it go. She needs to find out what actually happened to her friend Franny.
I was very intrigued by the story and by the will of Louise to find out what happened to her friend. So much so that she leaves her husband and children behind and takes off on her quest to find answers.
If you like stories about the war. This is one that I’m absolutely sure that you are going to love.

Last Twilght in Paris by Pam Jenoff
Historical fiction WWII. Multiple timelines.
Louise finds a necklace in a secondhand store in London in 1953, or rather, half a necklace. The box is marked from a once glamorous department store, Leviton. She knows she’s seen the necklace before and she gets help from an old friend in trying to track down its history. The store has a dark history as being a Nazi prison location during the war. Helaine was one of the prisoners in the store. She was imprisoned when her husband was forced to play with a small group of musicians to entertain the German elite. The prisoners in the store were forced to help resell items to the Germans that were confiscated from Jewish homes.
In a mix of stories between two women, the necklace leads them both down an unexpected path.
This story is primarily about the store and Helaine from one timeline, and Louise, working backwards to find her. It’s sad and poignant and at the same time brave to try to tell the stories of the lost. I know it’s fiction but I’m also sure the story represents the situations most will never hear about.
I enjoyed the interwoven pieces that led to the connections to complete the story.
Mesmerizing.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley.

I loved this book so much. The dual timelines within the same war experience was so interesting and kept me so invested in the story. 5 stars

With a title like Last Twilight in Paris, this book could have been about so many different things. The way Pam Jenoff weaves the stories of these women over different locations and time frames is fantastic. You will find yourself drawn into their lives and wanting to know more. There is the mystery of the necklace, and the people who handled it, but that isn't enough to keep us reading, the personal relationships and relatability of the characters will keep you turning the pages right up to the end.

This was a slow start for me but an enjoyable WWII historical fiction with a perspective different than I have read before!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff!

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing for the copy of this book.
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Read if you like: dual timelines/perspectives
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The book follows two timelines, Louise in 1953 London finds a necklace that looks like the one she saw in Germany during the war and she starts tracking the history of the necklace. Then we have Helaine, a young Jewish woman in Paris, and we read about her experiences during the war.
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Overall, this book was interesting and I liked reading about Helaine's story and was curious about the mystery. Louise and Helaine did some silly things that frustrated me though, so it was hard to get into the story fully.

In her latest WWII historical fiction novel, Last Twilight in Paris, Pam Jenoff uncovers the dark history surrounding Lévitan, an upscale department store in Paris.

During the war, Louise worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe. When we meet her in London in 1953, she is now trying to adjust to her postware life as a housewife. While at a secondhand shop, Louise spots a familiar necklace in a box marked Lévitan and becomes convinced it’s her friend Franny’s necklace. Franny died under mysterious circumstances during the war and Louise is convinced this necklace and Lévitan are the keys to finding out what really happened to her, and becomes determined to learn the truth.

Jenoff also crafts a second timeline that is set during the war and follows Helaine, a young Jewish woman who is living in Paris when the Nazis occupy the city. She and her husband Gabriel, a talented cello player, are trying to build a life together but are forced apart when Gabriel is sent to another country in Europe to play in an orchestra for the Reich. Through Helaine, Jenoff vividly portrays the challenges of living as a Jewish woman in Nazi-occupied Paris, including how her French citizenship does not protect her from being sent to Lévitan but how her inner strength keeps her going no matter how hard things get.

So what is Lévitan’s dark history? It housed Jewish prisoners during WWII and the prisoners had to sort through and sell all possessions confiscated as Jewish families were removed from their homes.

I was thoroughly engaged by both Louise and Helaine’s stories and flew through the pages waiting to see how their stories would ultimately become connected & solve the mystery of Franny’s death.

I really liked the Last Twilight in Paris. It's the story of two women, Louise, an Englishwoman, and Helaine, a Jewish Parisian and their lives in 1943 and 1944, before & during WWII, and again in 1953. Post war, Louise works in a thrift shop and finds a donated necklace that is one half of a heart. She has seen this necklace before when she did volunteer work for the Red Cross during WWII. It starts her on a journey to find the owner. Helaine is arrested during the war and put to work in a department store that dealt in goods stolen from Jewish homes and sold to Germans in Paris, which is based on the actual department store in Paris, the Levitan. Helaine had a necklace that belonged to her grandmother that was half of a heart. Her husband, Gabriel, had the other half. He was arrested in Germany and was in a POW camp. The thing that I found the most profound about Helaine's story is that while she was working at the Levitan and wondering where her husband and her parents were, one of the other prisoners pointed out that the Germans were very intent on cataloguing all the items they were "liberating" from the Jewish households, but the people, not so much. It emphasized to me how much of WWII was basically a looting. I really enjoyed the book and it's the first I've ever read by Pam Jenoff. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advance e-galley to review.

I tried really hard to get into this one, but unfortunately I really had to push myself to finish. I just couldn’t get really into either storyline, and I wasn’t a really big fan of the writing either.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin trade publishing for the opportunity to read an ARC of the Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff.
This is a dual timeline novel based in WWII Paris as well as in 1950s Great Britain. Helaine is a Jewish woman separated from her husband and found trapped in a furniture store, Levitan, in the heart of Paris, where she sorts through cases of stolen purged Jewish goods daily. Louise is a wife and mother trying to sort through her own haunted WWII past after serving as a Red Cross volunteer during the war. The two stories are tied together by a necklace, which Louise is trying to find its rightful owner.
3 stars, dual historical fiction timeline

The Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff is a beautifully written novel that captivated me from start to finish. Set against the backdrop of World War II and its aftermath, it follows the intertwined lives of two women in the heart of Paris and a quest to unlock a decade-old mystery, all while navigating love, loss, and survival in the chaos around them.

We can always count on Jenoff to write a story full of historical detail, making the period feel real, with characters that are deeply relatable. The story moves seamlessly between past and present with a balance of suspense and heartache as we learn about the true history of a Parisian furniture store where French Jews, held captive, were forced to sell the belongings stolen from other deported and imprisoned Jews to occupying Nazis.

This is an unforgettable story of resilience and friendship. Highly recommended for fans of historical novels that think they know about the stories of WWII but realize there is so much more to learn.

If you read my blog, you know I LOVE the writing of Pam Jenoff. She writes amazing stories of resilience and resistance in WWII with strong female protagonists. I loved this story, which had parallel tales in two time periods (my favorite structure for a historical fiction narrative!).


Here’s the scoop:

Last Twilight In Paris

By Pam Jenoff

On Sale: February 4, 2025

About the Book:

“A fast-paced and vibrant wartime tale of holding on to love against the odds and learning to fight for the truth.” –Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter

A Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman’s quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this riveting novel of love and survival, from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff

London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe —and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war.

Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history. The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France.

Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the department store and Franny’s death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever. Inspired by the true story of Lévitan, Last Twilight in Paris is both a gripping mystery and an unforgettable story about sacrifice, resistance and the power of love to transcend in even the darkest hours.

Stories of World War II are a dime a dozen, so it’s a pleasant surprise when an author unearths a truly new to me part of the history and weaves an interesting story around it. In this case, it’s the true history of a Parisian furniture store where French Jews, held captive, were forced to sell the belongings stolen from other deported and imprisoned Jews to occupying Nazis. Rather than a straightforward recounting of life in this prison camp through the eyes of Helaine, Pam Jenoff concocts Louise, who volunteered with the Red Cross during the war and 8 years later is unable to let go of promises left unkept.

Splitting the story between the horror (though much less than other WWII Holocaust stories can be) and the mystery Louise tries to unravel adds a balance to Jenoff’s novel. I’m not always a fan of lightly fictionalized histories, which can feel like someone getting fanciful while writing a history textbook, and in this case the 1953 plot line made this feel true rather than historical. I did find myself tempted to skip ahead during Helaine’s parts, though they weren’t bad, just less interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Park Row for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin trade publishing for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review. Told in a dual time line of only ten years 1943-1953 the story centers around a necklace and its history from Nazi occupied London and Paris.
The two main characters of Helaine a Parisian Jewish woman who was imprisoned in a Parisian dept store selling stolen possessions to the Nazi soldiers and Louise a British Red Cross volunteer. The women's lives become entwined with the discovery of a necklace and the search for its owner.
Louise is haunted by this quest as well as the tragic death of her dear friend during her time as a Red Cross volunteer. Each of these characters is portrayed in a fascinating narrative. Once again Jenoff is able to bring to light a little known tragic part of WWII in such a touching way. She explores this history as well as the marriage and friendship during one of the most horrific times in history.
I highly recommend this historical fiction novel as an unforgettable read that will touch your heart.