The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff ~ My Thoughts

The Lost Girls of Paris

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff
Paperback, 384 pages
Expected publication: February 5th 2019 by Park Row

From the author of the runaway bestseller The Orphan’s Tale comes a remarkable story of friendship and courage centered around three women and a ring of female spies during World War II.

1946, Manhattan

Grace Healey is rebuilding her life after losing her husband during the war. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, she finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.

Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a ring of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.

Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war, and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances.

My thoughts about The Lost Girls of Paris ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"New York, 1946 If not for the second worst mistake of Grace Healey's life, she never would have found the suitcase." 

My recently discovered, new favorite genre is historical fiction and The Lost Girls of Paris just reinforced why I love it so much. This is a story that captured me from the very first sentence—a story that totally drew me in as I was curious to learn more about Grace and the women in the pictures. 

Grace is obsessed with finding out what happened to the women and I loved her determination to find some answers and get to the truth. I had to keep reminding myself that this book was set in the 1940's, not in the present, when women weren't perceived to be as strong-willed as Grace was. 

Jenoff is a wonderful storyteller who can weave an interesting piece of the past into an informative and entertaining tale. I loved reading about the brave and strong women who sacrificed their lives for something they believed in. I enjoyed this story immensely and look forward to exploring more of this author's work.

I received a copy of The Lost Girls of Paris from BookishFirst in exchange for my honest review. 

About the author

Pam is the author of several novels, including her most recent The Orphan's Tale, an instant New York Times bestseller. Pam was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England. Upon receiving her master’s in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The position provided a unique opportunity to witness and participate in operations at the most senior levels of government, including helping the families of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims secure their memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, observing recovery efforts at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and attending ceremonies to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of World War II at sites such as Bastogne and Corregidor.

Following her work at the Pentagon, Jenoff moved to the State Department. In 1996 she was assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland. It was during this period that Pam developed her expertise in Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust. Working on matters such as preservation of Auschwitz and the restitution of Jewish property in Poland, Jenoff developed close relations with the surviving Jewish community.

Having left the Foreign Service in 1998 to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania, Jenoff is now employed as an attorney in Philadelphia.

Pam is the author of The Kommandant's Girl, which was an international bestseller and nominated for a Quill award, as well as The Diplomat's Wife and Almost Home. ~ Goodreads

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