The Stolen Life of Collette Marceau is dual timeline Historical Fiction with pure mystery elements that brought a unique feel. The mystery was what made this more than just another WW2 set story.
Kristin Harmel expertly paces her narrative to reveal the who, why, and how of it all. And by the end of the story we have asked ourselves if standing by and allowing these atrocities to happen are just as immoral as committing them.

THE STOLEN LIFE OF COLETTE MARCEAU is deserving of more than 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
The setting is Paris 1942 and Boston 2018. Kristin Harmel did an amazing job writing the timeline where the story flowed smoothly. Colette Marceau, the main character, is a strong woman throughout the story. She continues in her Mother’s footsteps of stealing jewels to help the Resistance, never stops looking for her sister’s murderer and always looking for the other bracelet to complete a Butterfly.
What I like best about this story was the different emotions I felt: sadness of the war, scare that Colette would be caught stealing jewels and finally happiness when Colette finds her sister and a husband at 90.
I received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review. This my honest review and I highly recommend with some tissues!

Beautiful cover, beautiful story, beautiful writing. Colette was such a well written character, I couldn’t put it down.

Colette Marceau is a nonagenarian jewel thief. Colette descends from Robin Hood, taught to steal from the evil rich and redistribute wealth for good—specifically to fund the Jewish resistance against the Nazis. As a youth, during World War II, Colette helped the Jewish underground. And now, in her later years, Colette steals from Neo-Nazis to fund a Holocaust remembrance nonprofit. In short, Colette Marceau is a badass protagonist.

Colette is haunted by the ghosts of her past. In this story, Colette and those who love her, work to find answers that have been buried for 76 years. The story is wild, sad, lovely, hard to believe at times, and generally delightful. All with a twist of romance woven in.

Highly recommended. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved reading this story. Colette is such an enchanting character. Even though she is a thief, I love that her family identifies with being descended from Robin Hood. The jobs that she accomplishes she utilizes her gains to help others, and to bring awareness to injustices such as those done during World War II. This story is beautiful and touching. Everything about it brought me joy as I read it. I love how this story is truly full circle. Something as simple as a bracelet can tie so many things together truly shows the power of inanimate objects. I know that readers are going to be just as enchanted as I was. I can’t wait to get it in their hands.
Thank you to Gallery Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Kristin Harmel’s hauntingly beautiful World War II novel The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau will steal your heart and make you cry.

The dual timeline story starts in 1938 as Collette Marceau’s mother Annabel is teaching her how to be a thief in Paris who steals from bad people to help people in need in the tradition of the real Robin Hood whom they are descended from.

In 2018 nearly 90-year-old Collette is still stealing jewelry from neo-Nazis in Boston to help fund the Boston Center for Holocaust Education and other causes.

Collette helped her mother steal to support the Resistance during World War II. Her father did not agree with the stealing.

In 1942 there were roundups in Paris for Jews and many of them were sent to concentration camps like Auschwitz.
Annabel knew her friend Helene Rosman I had been sent there. She found out that two beautiful bracelets of Helene’s were now on the arm of the girlfriend of a German police officer. So she stole them and sewed them into the lining of the nightgowns of her daughter Collette who was 14 and Liliane who was 4.

But Annabel was recognized and arrested and killed. And during the arrest Liliane was taken and her body was found in the Seine. Their father Roger was devastated. He left Collette with friends Uncle Frederic and Aunt Marie and fled the country.

Meanwhile in 2018 Colette, who still has one of the beautiful bracelets that was sewn in her nightgown, finds out that the other one is about to be displayed in a Boston museum so she sets out to find out who the owner is. She still blames herself for her sister’s death and believes the owner may have killed her.

The World War II part of the story traces Collette’s path through the war helping the Resistance and then leaving for England with her Uncle Leo after the war who enhances her stealing skills.

The 2018 part of the tale continues her quest to find out what happened to her sister. She sends her young close friend Aviva who lived with her after mother died when she was 18 and they’ve grown to love each other to the Boston Museum to talk to the Director about the provenance of the second bracelet.

That leads to questions of its owner who is 102 years old and it doesn’t go well.

Photos of the bracelet in the press bring a call from Daniel Rosman in New York, Helene’s son who Colette thought was dead. He comes to see her in Boston.

Will Collette ever get answers to her questions? Will she find her peace?

There is actually a lovely ending. This novel is definitely worth reading!

Marceau:

4.5 stars rounded up

My favorite quote from the book is:
“ …remember the past and try to do good in the world, for in doing so, it might just be possible to turn back the darkness.”

This truly summed up a great part of what this book is about. Imagine the ways one can bring goodness to the world. We all need to from our past. It is so very relevant to the world we are living in today.
Kristin Harmel is a favorite author of mine. Her books have shown us ways that everyday people resisted during WWII in order to save people and fight in their own way for what is right. In The Stolen Life of Collette Marceau, we imagine how the illegal act of theft might be done for the right reasons. Readers will be considering whether this makes it ok. I, for one, was cheering on Annabel and her daughter Collette as they stole jewelry from vile people to help those in need/help memorialize those who’d been persecuted (similar to their ancestor Robin Hood). The story runs through two timelines- during the war in the 1940’s and also in 2018, both telling Collette’s story. Much of the story focuses around a mystery of lost jewels, and lost lives. It’s truly a fascinating story and although some things seemed a bit coincidental, I bought into it because it made the story even better.
On a side note, I want to say how happy I am that Kristin survived the fight against cancer and was able to bring us this wonderful book. May you stay healthy and happy and continue to do what you love… including writing, which is so important to you (and much appreciated by your fans!).
Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own

The Stolen Life of Collette Marceau is another great book by Kristin Harmel. The story is about a family history of jewel thieves and takes place during WWII and also in 2018. We follow Collette through both of these timelines.

Collette is a jewel thief, as was her mother Annabel and her uncle Leo. However, they do not just go around stealing for their own profit, they take from those that are vicious and hurtful and give to those in need. The story revolves around a bracelet that was taken from a family of diamond merchants who were Jewish. The family was caught in the round up of Jews in Paris after the Germans invaded and occupied France. As it was in all the countries that Hitler conquered, the Jewish people were sent to camps, many never returning. They were felt to be inferior and Hitler was obsessed with creating the perfect race.

Collette and her mother stole jewels from Nazi sympathizers and used the money from the sale to support the resistance. Annabel stole back her friend’s bracelet from the woman of a high profile Nazi. She sewed half of it in the hem of each of her daughters nightgowns. As a result of this, she was captured and killed. At the time of her capture, Collette’s sister Liliane was taken from their bedroom and was found dead. Her half of the bracelet was never found. Collette, feeling responsible for her sister’s kidnapping, spent her life trying to find out what happened to her, who took her, and what happened to the bracelet.

This was a suspenseful story that led to an unexpected ending. I liked the duel timeline and found the story to be captivating. The development of Collette’s character was wonderfully done as was the writing throughout. You had to think about whether what they were doing was really wrong. I highly recommend this work of Historical Fiction.

I want to thank Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this advanced readers copy.

I received a free DRC of this book through Netgalley. I've read quite a few books by Kristin Harmel, but I really think this is one of her best. The characters and the story are very compelling and I had a hard time putting it down to get my work done. I teared up more than once and I loved the relationship between Collette, Lilianne and their mother. A beautifully sad story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC copy of this book!

Wow, after now two five star reads from Kristin Harmel, I've got to read the rest of her backlist! Historical fiction, jewel thieves, and dual timelines make for a fascinating story.

What a beautiful and incredibly unique WWII story! Kristin Harmel has done it again writing and weaving a beautiful and heart wrenching story of sisterhood and found family.

I enjoyed the perspective of a jewel thief which is not something I would have ever related to a WWII piece, but it felt authentic and very real. The beginning of the story was a bit hard to keep up with due to the back and forth time periods, however, once the story started to pick up I couldn’t put the book down!



Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book

Not only is [author:Kristin Harmel|165006] one of my favorite authors, writing my favorite genre ( historical fiction) but we also share a similar personal journey.

A twist in a way to the history( fact or fiction) of Robin Hood through future generations.
Story starts in 1943 & there's alternating section with 2018.

We meet Collette & her sister Liliane & their parents. Annabel, the mom is a descendant of Robin Hood & as we know, Robin Hood stole from the rich & gave to the poor. Let's say now, there's theft from the bad or evil & used to help the oppressed.

The Germans have taken over Paris & the family watches as many of their Jewish friends & neighbors are being taken away, neighbors are turning against each other & the world is at war.

I won't share what happens as there are too many spoilers & there are many twists & turns between what we learn in war torn Paris & 2018 America.

The author once again finds bits & pieces to place in her story that show depths of research & a clever way of showing history through fictional telling.

Again- I soaked up this book, & I love this author!!

This wasn’t my favorite book by this author. I have loved several of her other books. I couldn’t seem to connect with the characters or become engaged in the story. I didn’t find them to have a lot of depth or be likable. Some parts seemed unlikely to occur. It was just ok for me

I was elated when I was approved for this ARC "The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau". This immediately captivated my attention with the "Robin Hood Approach" of Colette (a powerful and older aged woman!?) stealing jewels from the elite Germans during WWII and giving to those that needed them and punish those that have done wrong to others. A whole legacy built around stealing and giving back to those in need. Funding and helping the organization to empower others that had suffered in lose of family in the Holocaust.

Female, main character, Colette suffered much loss in her life with the loss of family: her mother, Annabel, and Liliane. A father that didn't love her, and walked out on her. Colette makes it her mission to reunite with the missing bracelet from the 1940's that was once a family friend's, which happens to be on a traveling display from a private owner in a museum in Boston re-surfacing in 2018. Finding the matching pair that was missing with her sister's death us as the reader are sent on a chase to find the right way to bring back the bracelet (steal it), find the real owner, and the past secrets that it also kept between the loss and all the feelings and life that surrounds an individual and their walk of life. What a roller coaster of emotion, The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau will be a reread and a purchase for me. It challenges the expectations of right and wrong morally and where evil/good exist. I highly recommend to those who love WWII, strong developed female character, and a deep emotional connection to the characters, and setting. This book will leave a lasting impact and be one that I do recommend you buy!

Thank you so much NetGalley, Gallery Books, and Kristin Harmel herself. This is a top notch book to end off April for me Thank you again!

This suspenseful dual-timeline novel is set in World War II Paris and will have you flipping the pages to find out what happened to Colette Marceau and her family. At the tender age of 14, she loses her mom, her dad and her sister in a series of actions gone wrong. Colette’s mom’s heritage is from Robin Hood and they take the stealing from the rich and bad and giving to the poor to a new level by stealing jewelry and helping the French Resistance. In the second timeline, Colette is 89 and still looking for the truth in what happened to her sister. When a piece of jewelry from her past surfaces, the 1940s and present will intertwine to a thrilling and unexpected end. Loved the characters in this novel and the premise of Colette being a jewel thief who was descended from Robin Hood. Kristin Harmel weaves both storylines well and gives us surprise after surprise with rich descriptions and lots of emotion. I flew through this wonderful novel and you will, too. A Bejeweled 5 Stars!

This was a breathtaking book that made me smile and cry. With a beautiful way with words, the author takes the reader on an adventure that no one should have ever had to go on. Colette and her mother did what needed to be done to save others. This blurs the line between right and wrong in a way that you can repeatedly debate in your head or out loud with a book club. I loved this story and every detail in it!

This book is outstanding.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance reading copy in exchange for a fair review. The opinions stated here are my own.
Just when you can’t possibly read another WWII historical fiction (and in my book club I run, we are having a WWII-less 2025 because of the sheer number of them coming out), here comes one that will stick with you for a long time. Not because of the descriptions of the atrocities that happened in that war (does one ever get over Schindlers List?), but for the story of Collette herself: a descendent of Robin Hood and a modern day jewel thief who finds a bracelet in a museum that was last seen in the hem of her little sisters nightgown on the night she disappeared 70 years earlier. As the story meanders between the two timeline, the mystery of the bracelet too slowly develops.
I was riveted. From start to acknowledgments I was lamenting I didn’t have time to sit and read the entirety in one gulp. I loved the intrigue, the love stories, and the belief that family is sometimes not by blood, but by love. Being from Boston, I was driving the streets in my head and even could imagine my aunts house in Weymouth, or the intersection by the South Shore Mall that they were sitting at in on part.
I would happily recommend this to my book club (maybe next year though) and all of my patrons. It’s relatively clean with toned down violence for what actually occurred in Paris at the time. Of course it is not eliminated, but Harmel makes the time completely readable and extra enjoyable.
5*

4.5 rounded up. I loved Colette’s character, I was immediately intrigued by her story and thought the dual timeline was well done. I found the storyline to be predictable but still very enjoyable and emotional. I think this would be a really great book club book, there’s definitely a lot that I’d like to discuss!! Thank you Net Galley & Gallery books for the arc of this book.

Thank you net galley for this amazing read of the stole. Life of Colette Marceau. Kristin Harmel has done it again with another fabulous WWII historical novel. I loved the robin hood lore, the courage of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and the second chances we are given. Well researched and well written I loved Lillian and Collette. Very well done and would highly recommend.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.