The Paris Spy's Girl by Amanda Lees

 

Wow. Talk about intense. Christine is tough from what she went through growing up, but she's also very beautiful, smart, shrewd, intuitive. And closed off. Using her beauty as a weapon, she made one of the best spies in Paris against the Germans. Her friendships are few, she trusts no one. But in getting to hear her thoughts you can feel the underlying vulnerability and intense struggle in trying to make a difference. She finally lets Charlie the American in. Unbelievable how it plays out as her colleagues are captured, the games that are played, the betrayal. Really hard to put down. (Clean read but skates along the risqué line.)

I received this book free from the author, publisher, NetGalley and Bookouture book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

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Buy link: Buy link: https://geni.us/B0CLKV2LPVsocial

From the Publisher:

An utterly breathtaking and emotional World War II novel, inspired by true events.

Paris, 1943. The candlelit salon goes silent, the eyes of every German officer on me. I pause in the door, no hint of a tremble from the champagne glass in my hand, playing my part to perfection. If my deception doesn’t utterly convince them, the war will be lost…

As war rages all over Europe, former runaway Christine is now the most dangerous – and most beautiful – asset the British Secret Service has in Paris. Every safe house that falls under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower is like a second home, and she can disappear into the winding maze of cobbled streets that lead to the Seine like a shadow. Now Christine is on her most vital mission yet. She must go deep undercover to find out who has betrayed the Allied spy network, selling their secrets – and her fellow agents – to the Nazis.

Forced to work with Charlie, a charmingly determined American secret agent, Christine has no choice but to rely on him. Together, they must pretend to be everything they aren’t – Nazi collaborators, and lovers – and risk not just their lives but the lives of their colleagues all over France to unmask the traitor in their midst.

But as they get closer to the truth, and each other, the stress of living undercover takes its toll. Christine can’t trust anyone, even Charlie. And just as her past – and the girl she was before she became Christine – catches up with her, the mission demands a sacrifice so great it may destroy everything she holds dear. Can Christine find the courage to do what it takes? And who will pay the ultimate sacrifice if she fails…?

A totally compelling, page-turning historical novel of love, courage and sacrifice in the darkest of times. Set in wartime Paris, this is an utterly gripping and tear-jerking read perfect for readers of Kate Quinn, Rhys Bowen and Mandy Robotham.

About the author

Amanda Lees is an author, broadcaster and an actress. She has written for, or contributed to, the Evening Standard, The Times, US Cosmopolitan and Company Magazine, as well as numerous online publications. Amanda appears regularly on BBC radio and LBC and was a contracted writer to the hit series Weekending on Radio 4.

As well as her new World War Two romantic thriller series, she has published two bestselling satirical fiction novels, a YA thriller trilogy and a number of non-fiction titles including The Dictionary of Crime.

Amanda was born in Hong Kong and survived both a convent boarding school and a Jesuit boys’ school before being summarily ejected from the latter. She gets her thirst for adventure from her parents who met in the jungle in Borneo where her mother had set up a hospital and her father, a former Gurkha Intelligence officer and Oxford-educated spy, was probably up to no good.

Amanda has a degree in drama and her first TV job was as a member of the Communist Resistance in ’Allo ‘Allo. This involved running around with a dachshund under her arm and deploying her best cod French accent. It has all been dramatically downhill since.

Her latest nonfiction book, From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer: The Dictionary of Crime, was published by Robinson/Little Brown in July 2020 to excellent reviews. It was published in the US by Ulysses Press in May 2021.

The Silence Before Dawn, the first in her WW2 spy thriller series was published in September 2022 and the second, Paris At First Light, in November 2022. The third book in the series, The Midwife's Child, was published on 16th May 2023. All are bestsellers. The next book in the series, The Paris Spy's Girl, will be published on 6 February 2024.

Author's Social Media:

Website: amandalees.com

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/AmandaLeesAuthor/

Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/amandalees

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Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin

 

Such a fabulous read! I usually read for a couple of hours before going to sleep, to relax. Not with this book! It's breath taking and so very hard to put down, especially as the story builds. It's 1940 Paris where Lucie is in the ballet. Born American, she is staying with friends of her family, had been for years, studying ballet, living above their American bookstore. Then the occupying Germans made the Jews leave. The family friends were Jews. So Lucie bought the bookstore from them and left the ballet to run it. Paul is also an American, their family making luxury automobiles, but forced by the Germans to convert their factory to making trucks. Both have to adjust their way of life as the Germans cut back and restrict everything. Their loyalty to America, ideals and the people around them, plus being willing to sacrifice themselves to help defeat the Germans is basically the same. But they don't know it, until little by little. A huge last quarter of the book will leave you breathless and unable to put it down. When you try you can almost feel the action and danger pulsing, waiting to be picked up again. Such torture! But if you're like me you wouldn't have it any other way. As always a fabulous author, this is amazing Sarah!

I received this book free from the publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. 
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A Picture of Hope by Liz Tolsma

 

Riveting. Heart wrenching. Nellie is a photographer/reporter from America, anxious to make a difference and get the message to Americans about what was happening in the war Hitler had brought. The story starts as D-Day takes place. They didn't give permission to women to go into France, so she blended in and got herself there. The things she found once there were unthinkable, including a village where the Germans forced the women and children into a church and set them on fire. But she also found a little girl hiding, a girl with Down Syndrome. One that the Germans considered imperfect and needed extermination. She was able to get a perfect photo of her in front of the burned out church after the village was deserted again.

There she ran into Jean Paul, a member of the French resistance fresh out of prison. His father was a German officer who was angered that he stayed with his French mother and fought against him. Together they get to a convent where they housed a few other children with Down Syndrome and they all worked to get the small group out of France and across the border into Switzerland. Not an uneventful process. Constant danger and tension. 

Both Nellie and Jean Paul are also fighting an internal battle from things in their own lives that motivate them to make a difference and not accept the way things were, not just stand by even though they risked their lives. 

Excellent read of love and sacrifice with a Christian message throughout. Showing true beauty where others rejected,  hope and love, innocence shining through. Often I didn't like Nellie because of stupid, headstrong choices that she made, but Jean Paul liked her (wink), and the end results turned out well.

I received this book free from the publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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The Medallion by Cathy Gohlke

"The Germans do their best to make us forget who we are, Whose we are. Not just today, but for all time. We must work that much harder so that we don’t forget. How can we hope that the world will not forget us if we forget ourselves?”

Powerful story, a recounting of true events and people, adding a fictional piece that illustrates and brings the time and people to life. What it may have been like to live during the time of Hitler and the those who destroyed so many other people, with such cruelty you would never believe possible. This was in Poland after it was taken over by the Germans, enslaved, crushed. Two main families who fought every day to live. Of few survivors, the torture they endured. Of people who did all they could to save as many people as possible, at their own risk. Yet their hearts wouldn't let them do anything less, always wishing they could have done more. ". . . when someone is drowning, you jump in to save them, whether or not you can swim."  How this whole experience affected the minds of these persecuted people, trying to survive, witnessing so much inhumane suffering, losing their families. And the amazing foresight of many. This story also tells of the new families that came about as their own were torn apart. How love can continue, lives reformed. How much a difference even one person can make. And the heroes that were born.

It makes you realize how much love and family mean to you. What it is that makes you who you are, what holds you together. What is really most important to you in the life that you are living. It also makes you appreciate the victims of persecution from this time. Making you realize how quickly things like this can happen under the wrong leadership, and hope that it will never happen again.

"“Adonai makes a way when there appears no way. It is His specialty . Remember the Red Sea." The words of her old friend came back to her, just as they did so often when Sophie felt at her wits’ end."

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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An article about Jolenta, one of the real characters this book is based around, can be found here.

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