BOOK REVIEW -- Until Leaves fall in Paris Written by: Sarah Sundin

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

As the Nazis march toward Paris in 1940, American ballerina Lucie Girard buys her favorite English-language bookstore to allow the Jewish owners to escape. Lucie struggles to run Green Leaf Books due to oppressive German laws and harsh conditions, but she finds a way to aid the resistance by passing secret messages between the pages of her books. Widower Paul Aubrey wants nothing more than to return to the States with his little girl, but the US Army convinces him to keep his factory running and obtain military information from his German customers. As the war rages on, Paul offers his own resistance by sabotaging his product and hiding British airmen in his factory. After they meet in the bookstore, Paul and Lucie are drawn to each other, but she rejects him when she discovers he sells to the Germans. And for Paul to win her trust would mean betraying his mission .Master of WWII-era fiction Sarah Sundin invites you onto the streets of occupied Paris to discover whether love or duty will prevail

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Sundin is the bestselling author of Until Leaves Fall in Paris (February 2022) and When Twilight Breaks (2021), as well as four World War II series. When Twilight Breaks and The Land Beneath Us were finalists for the Christy Award, The Sky Above Us won the 2020 Carol Award, and Booklist named both When Tides Turn and Through Waters Deep to the 101 Best Romance Novels of the Past 10 Years. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she practiced as a hospital pharmacist for many years, but she has now hung up her white coat to concentrate on writing. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist’s mate (medic) in the Navy, and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England. A mother of three, Sarah lives in California, and she enjoys speaking for church, community, and writers’ groups. She serves as Co-Director for the West Coast Christian Writers Conference. Please visit her online at www.sarahsundin.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor, on Twitter @sarahsundin, on Instagram at instagram.com/sarahsundinauthor and on Pinterest at pinterest.com/sarahsundin.

MY THOUGHTS

Until Leaves fall in Paris is a beautifully written WWII era story that focues on the Nazi occupation in Paris. This was a point of view that I had not read before. The author has done a beautiful job weaving together her story with historical facts from the time period. Her characters are well developed and well written. Her descriptions are so vivid that you can close your eyes and see everything unfolding around you. 

Lucie, an American by birth has been living in Paris for most of her life. She has been dancing with the Paris Ballet until things start to get sticky with the Nazi invasion. Lucie buys a bookshop from her Jewish friends so that they can get out of the country safely. She really does not know much about running a business, but she does know a lot about books. She grew up in this book store. Nazis start to push their propaganda further and further into Paris, and Lucie realizes that her book store has been used with resistance passing messages to each other. When one of her Jewish friends is sent to a concentration camp she steps up to join the fight. 

Paul is an American Business man. He has continued to run the family business, Aubrey Automobiles. Once the war starts to take a turn, he wants to pack up and go back to the States with his daughter. He has recently been widowed and does not want to lose anything else close to his life. He is approached by the US military to keep the business going. While now they are selling cars to the Germans - he is supposed to act like he is on their side so that he can pass information to the United States. He meets Lucie when he takes his daughter to the book store and his daughter is captivated by Lucie. Paul is too. However with his persona of working with the Germans he is ostracized by other Americans living in Paris. 

Enter, Pearl Harbor - America enters the war. Suddenly Americans are not safe and need to try and exit the country. Lucie, Paul and Josephine have to try and make it out... .alive. 

History, romance, espionage and so much more built into this book. This was one of the best WWII fiction books that I have read. 

Thank you to Revell Reads for allowing me to read a copy of this book -- all thoughts are my own.