The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris: from an exciting new voice in historical fiction comes a gripping and emotional novel

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I have to say that I was very disappointed in this book. I've heard so many good things about it and maybe it's just me, but I was getting confused with all the characters & names mainly in the present timeline of 2022. I usually really enjoy duel timeline stories but this one fell short and honestly I couldn't wait to get done. If this book is on your reading list, please read it and I really hope that you'll find things that I possibly missed! I hope that you'll enjoy it more than I did 😊 As for me, on to better books: The Lindberg Nanny & The Book Spy!!!! While it bothers me to read about a woman whining about an unfaithful husband and an unhappy marriage, I was relieved to hear that this author created a strong female who stood her ground and did something about it; albeit a rather unrealistic ‘move’ and ‘ending.’ She finds an apartment above a Bookshop, and she decides that she wants to restore the shop and sell books again against the owners 97-year-old Grandmothers wishes. She doesn’t want the past to be dug up. Jacques is no hero, he has had a constrained lonely upbringing enduring recurring illness. He fell in love at first sight with Mathilde and was surprised that she felt the same way. However, this inept bookshop owner surprises himself when only after a short time he begins to understand Mathilde's need not to be a passive spectator but to be proactive in resistance and he puts aside his fears and becomes a man of real compassion and great bravery.

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Paris 1940 Jacques and Mathilde gets married just as WW2 breaks out. They live in an apartment above a bookstore. Mathilde works for a museum but also the resistance. She decides to leave Paris and help an Englishwoman too safety, but Jacques decides to stay in Paris and sells books to the Germans, hoping that one day Mathilde with return to him. Jacques finds a secret room in the Bookshop, so he does his bit for the war and hides jews and children that would be otherwise get caught by the Gestapo. After discovering her husband’s affair while on vacation in Paris, Juliette finds herself unable to leave the city. Drawn to an abandoned bookstore, Juliette discovers its secrets and how they entwine with her family history. It was as if she was meant to be there.

Juliette and her husband Kevin are visiting Paris in 2020. She loves everything about the city and being fluent in French, she gets by admirably. Kevin is bored and wants to go home. She discovers quite by chance that he is not being faithful. In 1940 a young married couple is running a bookshop during the Nazi occupation of WWII. How they helped the resistance help Jewish people and resistance workers even children during the war. Their story, their separation and the price they paid for their part in the resistance movement. How in a time of such tension you could trust no one and on trusted patron sold them out to the Nazi's. It is a story of Love and of compassion for those unfortunate enough to be hunted by the Nazi's and needing their help. The two past and present storylines meld together in a surprising mystery. Included are the tragedies of WWII with the Nazi occupation of Paris and Daisy does a superb job of telling not only the love story of Jacque and Mathilde but also his evolution throughout this experience. The contemporary tale, whilst a well worn trope of marriage breakdown and moving to a new country for rediscovery is well used, with the addition of setting up a bookstore and discovering family heritage, Daisy does a solid job of it. All up is a poignant tale told from many aspects with engaging characters and tribulations to overcome. Juliette and her husband Kevin have traveled from America to France for a much needed holiday. Juliette’s grandmother Marie was French and she moved to America after the end of the Second World War. Kevin can’t wait to return home, Juliette discovers why, she decides to stay in Paris and investigate her grandmothers mysterious past.

Books are important to save but so are people. Everyone has a story to tell and what a great one ours will be when all this is over." This is a wonderful novel. I especially liked the descriptions about Mathilde and Jacques. Their story is filled with hope and is heartbreaking at the same time. The book is brilliantly written. The reader is transported in time to wartime Paris. The fear of the citizens, the “disappearing” Jewish people and the strength of the human spirit to hope and resist in the face of terrible odds. Henry, Jacques’ good friend, builds a secret room in the bookstore. Jacques has finally seen the need to do something. He and Mathilde take awful risks.

Jacques has a bookshop and during its renovation he had designed a secret hide hold, a tiny room. Herr Schmidt is a regular customer, a man with a keen interest in collectable books for which Jacques is able to supply, unbeknown to the German from an unlikely source. This is very dangerous for Jacques who also hides banned books in his basement. In a word, disappointing. I was happy to review this through Netgalley but this isn’t my sort of story. Primarily a work of historical fiction bouncing between occupied France in WWII and a by the numbers romance set in 2022. Normally historical fiction is my favorite genre but the modern romance is straight out of a Hallmark movie. If you like those cliches and light romances, you’ll most likely enjoy this. It’s very heavy on tropes like a woman fresh out of a bad marriage, starting her life over in the city of romance and meeting a man she’s immediately drawn to. However they end up hating one another when they first meet, getting close while fixing a sink that suddenly bursts, and almost derailing the whole relationship twice because of simple misunderstandings.