The Lost Girls of Paris was too predictable for me. I never connected with Grace's story and her desire to find out what happened to Eleanor and "the girls" felt like Grace was created to lead into Eleanor's story, who was in turn created to flesh out Marie's story, which started off interestingly enough (I did like her recruitment) but then became more and more unbelievable as Marie (of course) kept risking her life over and over and then...
And then of course she doesn't die, not that I thought she would because The Lost Girls of Paris plays it so safe. Besides, with Marie alive, of course Grace can find her in America and "solve" the "mystery" and ta da! So neat and tidy and it just did not work for me because in a story about spies and life and death situations, you have to (or at least I have to) feel like the stakes are real. And I never worried about Marie, saw that Eleanor was going to be the pivot point to bridge Marie and Grace together, and never felt that Grace was "solving" the "mystery" for any other reason than without it, what would Grace be doing?
I do have to acknowledge that I did like Grace telling Mark that she wasn't going to be with him at the end, but of course she backtracked in the same paragraph. The last sentence tries to pull off a "Woman off to make it on her own!" vibe but yeah, no.
The Lost Girls of Paris would be good for readers new to the glut of WW II fiction aimed at readers of popular (aka women's) fiction, but for readers who are familiar with it, there's nothing interesting here. I'd actually recommend Jenoff's first novel, The Kommandant's Girl, instead as that has the intensity (and story) that is missing from The Lost Girls of Paris
And then of course she doesn't die, not that I thought she would because The Lost Girls of Paris plays it so safe. Besides, with Marie alive, of course Grace can find her in America and "solve" the "mystery" and ta da! So neat and tidy and it just did not work for me because in a story about spies and life and death situations, you have to (or at least I have to) feel like the stakes are real. And I never worried about Marie, saw that Eleanor was going to be the pivot point to bridge Marie and Grace together, and never felt that Grace was "solving" the "mystery" for any other reason than without it, what would Grace be doing?
I do have to acknowledge that I did like Grace telling Mark that she wasn't going to be with him at the end, but of course she backtracked in the same paragraph. The last sentence tries to pull off a "Woman off to make it on her own!" vibe but yeah, no.
The Lost Girls of Paris would be good for readers new to the glut of WW II fiction aimed at readers of popular (aka women's) fiction, but for readers who are familiar with it, there's nothing interesting here. I'd actually recommend Jenoff's first novel, The Kommandant's Girl, instead as that has the intensity (and story) that is missing from The Lost Girls of Paris