Publisher: Bookouture
Release date: 5 August 2024
Back cover blurb: Paris, 1940: Madeline tries to scream, but she can’t breathe. A German soldier is working to free her from the rubble – but if he reaches her, he will find the books hidden beneath her clothes… When the Germans seize Paris, its peaceful streets fill with terror overnight, and nowhere is safe. Desperate to help her friends, Parisian bookseller Madeline Valette turns her bookshop into a sanctuary for those in hiding, but she knows it’s only a matter of time before she’s found out. So when she is asked to join the Resistance and smuggle banned books from Berlin, she accepts, desperate to defy the Nazis. And while she wants to save precious books from destruction, she also hopes her trips to Germany might help her find the last living connection she has to her beloved husband… Because Madeline has received a letter from a German woman called Ada, the mother of her husband’s son. Facing persecution, the Jewish boy is in terrible danger. But where are they now, and can Madeline help them before it’s too late? When Madeline finally finds Ada and the child, she realises Ada is at the mercy of a high-ranking Nazi official and both their lives are now at risk. Can Madeline get them to safety? Or will the unthinkable happen to this innocent child?
France, WW2. Madeline Valette is a bookseller in Paris when she discovers that her deceased husband has a child with an ex-wife that Madeline wasn't even aware of. Wanting to find out the truth, but also wanting to help others, Madeline finds herself stumbling in to the resistance movement and risking her own life to save a child.
In more recent times, Olivia is at an auction when she bids for a bundle that she knows is out of her price range, but will potentially make her boss very happy. But she has a strong personal reason for wanting the lot...
She has noticed a photograph amongst the items that she is certain are of her Grandmother, and is determined to find out more about their origin, and how they came to be with the lot.
Her Grandfather is a cantankerous old man who has no interest in family life. Bought to the UK as an Orphan, he never speaks of the war, or the circumstances that led to him becoming an Orphan.
Olivia is determined not to let her Grandfather's frostiness detract from her detective work and sets about her research. She is disturbed by what she discovers, and determined to dig deeper and uncover the truth about her family's past.
This is the second in a series of books entitled 'the Paris sisters'. I have not read the first in the series (though I will go back and search it out now), but this didn't have impact on my experience with this novel.
I look forward to reading the next in the series.
The Bookseller of Paris is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.
Many thanks to the publishers who approved my request via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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