Pam Jenoff

Most of this novel is set in 1942 in Brussels, during the Nazi occupation. Hannah Martel, a German Jew, had been trying to escape Nazi Germany and left on a ship bound for the Americas, but the ship was turned back. (Jenoff states in an Afterword that she modeled this incident after the infamous case of the St. Louis, which sailed from Germany in 1939. Passengers were denied the right to disembark in either Cuba or the US. Around a third of the 900 Jewish passengers forced to return to show more Europe were subsequently murdered by the Nazis.)

Hannah had nowhere to go but to the Brussels home of her cousin Lily Abels, with whom she was once very close. Lily now had a husband, Nik and a son, Georgi. Hannah almost immediately joined with the local resistance in an attempt to try to escape once again. Lily believed that Belgian Jews would never be in danger, and that it was safest just to keep her head down and stay out of trouble. She objected to Hannah’s activities.

So Hannah started meeting with a local resistance group in secret she found through a man named Matteo she saw hiding a message. Matteo’s sister Micheline, a young woman around Hannah’s age, ran the Sapphire Line, a network formed to get downed British airman out of the country. Micheline reluctantly agreed to help Hannah if Hannah helped them with the network while Micheline looked into options for her.

In Hannah’s eagerness to help and avoid arrest herself, she committed a breach of trust that caused Lily and her family to be arrested. Hannah, wracked by guilt, was determined to save them from certain evacuation to the Auschwitz death camp.

Evaluation: Pam Jenoff is an excellent writer, and especially excels at bringing a horrific time in history alive with her novels set during the Nazi Holocaust. The courage of the characters in spite of their dire circumstances and the poignancy of their stories will grab hold of your heart and shake up your conception of what is possible - both in terms of horrific actions people are capable of taking against each other, and how some managed to survive it in spite of everything. show less

"Sometimes our forever life does not last as long as we think."
Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep... When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she show more snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night. Noa finds refuge with a German circus, but she must learn the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid. At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond. But as the facade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their friendship is enough to save one another--or if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything.
This book was not at all what I expected and I think I loved it for that. The last thing I anticipated was a WWII novel set within a circus! Noa is very much a sixteen year old girl who has been forced to grow up too quickly, and it shows repeatedly throughout the book. However, her adoration for this child she rescues from the boxcar is unexpected and beautiful. I think Astrid, being in her 30s, provided a nice and more realistic contrast to Noa's character. Astrid was very much jaded by the world and the realities of the world she lived in. Noa was still naive enough to be hopeful about love and life. I think the most beautiful thing is that these two develop such an unexpected friendship.
I will admit at times I was so frustrated with Astrid who seemed to forget that Noa was a child; but somehow the two always resolved their issues. I think it was mostly easy at times to forget this was a story of WWII, but when you were reminded it was in the most intense and memorable types of ways. I will admit the book was a little slow to get started but by the end it just felt like everything was coming at you at once. The story has romance and betrayal and loss and grief and hope. It is a story of sacrifice and survival. But most of all it is a story of friendship. It really is a must read story for anyone who enjoys historical fiction. show less

Okay. I have to admit it: Mrs. Jenoff, you totally fooled me with that ending. I'll defend myself by insisting that I would have caught on sooner had I been reading the book instead of listening to the audiobook; the narrator's emotional, seamless flow made me miss any thoughts of "why aren't we using any names anymore?" I noted that the last full chapter hadn't been titled with Ella's or Sadie's name, but I assumed at the time (yeah, yeah) that it was a subtle nod to the fact that it was no show more longer necessary to differentiate, since only one girl was still alive. But I missed the intentional vagueness, and I was completely baffled until I went back and relistened to the chapter. Checkmate, Mrs. Jenoff.

I really liked the two main characters, but I wish others around them had gotten more description or development. Khrys left me cold, for one, since I knew so little about him. The story felt well-researched in some parts, but lacked in others (e.g. referring to Ella's brother as "gay" when that term wouldn't have been the likely one for the era). Some of the writing was a little repetitive, too; how many times can the characters say "Don't let it [someone's death] have been for nothing!"? But the plot drew me in enough that I was able to put that aside, for the most part. show less

I seem to read a lot of books pertaining to the two World Wars and I almost passed on this one. That would have been not only a mistake but a loss. Pam Jenoff has woven a story about the women who became a part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and were dropped from England into France as radio operators between 1943 and 1944, just ahead of the allied invasion. That story, already told and put to bed, has been left to be discovered by Grace Healy in New York in 1946.

Running late for show more work and looking for a shortcut which might get her to her office sooner, Grace happens on a traffic accident and has to make a detour through Grand Central Station. She finds an abandoned suitcase, neatly packed containing among other things a pack of carefully wrapped photographs in a piece of lace inside an envelope. The photographs were of young women some dressed in military uniforms, others in smart street clothes. The photographs yield the secrets to be unfolded in this book.

The writing is engrossing and the movement between countries and years is seamless. I was totally involved in the story and regardless of the foregone conclusion dictated by the title I was foolishly hopeful. When the writing is that good that you not only become invested psychologically but emotionally you know the writer has more than achieved her goal.

Lost Girls is based on a real female operative, Vera Atkins, and the women who served under her leadership. Although the story has been fictionalized it is infuriating believable. When I finished this book I was reminded of an old TV commercial. Two older men climb a hill, take off their jackets and get into a slug fest. The import behind the fight is that they are world leaders and are going to do battle instead of sending millions of their citizens to kill one another. If only war was that easy to resolve.

Thanks you NetGalley and Harlequin for a copy. show less