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In 1939, Odile Souchet is living in Paris with her parents and twin brother when she is hired to be a librarian at the American Library in Paris.\u00a0 As she becomes engrossed with the great literary works with which she is surrounded on a daily basis, she becomes friends with an eclectic group of peers ranging from young to old and of varying nationalities.\u00a0 As the days pass, it becomes increasingly clear that another world war with Germany looms heavily on the horizon.\u00a0 Almost overnight, Odile\u2019s life begins to change when Hitler\u2019s Nazis take over Paris, and the city once alive with art and romance succumbs to a harsh new reality of rations and the loss of freedom.\u00a0 As books are banned and the libraries close their doors under Hitler\u2019s directive, the American Library is one of the few kept open during Nazi occupation.\u00a0 Head librarian, Dorothy Reeder as well as Odile and her friends took on the dangerous task of delivering books to Jews who were banned from the library by the Nazis.\u00a0 During this tumultuous time, Odile fell in love and made lifelong friendships, but she also witnessed the best and absolute worst of humanity.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to Montana, 1983.\u00a0 Lily is a rising high schooler who has never been able to assimilate into social groups with her peers.\u00a0 However, she has always been fascinated with her neighbor, Odile, even though the rest of community shuns her because she immigrated to the United States as a \u201cwar bride\u201d engaged to one of the small town\u2019s most eligible bachelors.\u00a0 As Lily interviews Odile for a school assignment, she learns much more about love and friendship than world history.\u00a0 When tragedy strikes Lily\u2019s family, Odile becomes so much more than a neighbor or the subject of a class project.\u00a0 The lessons that Lily learns from Odile are invaluable, but it is what Lily learns about<\/em><\/strong> Odile that will change her life forever.<\/p>\n Trigger warnings: War, death, physical attack on women, mild sexual content<\/p>\n Why I read it: Recommendation in online book group<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I usually speed-read books.\u00a0 I read this one slowly.\u00a0 I read every word on every page.\u00a0 Sometimes twice.\u00a0 I loved everything about it, and I didn\u2019t want it to end.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to miss a second of this unbelievable story that based on true events and real people.<\/p>\n Sometimes historical fiction books start out slow for me.\u00a0 It takes me a minute to get into the right state of mind.\u00a0 As I\u2019m a history buff, I sometimes get bored or impatient with authors who take too long to build the story because they feel like they have to give a mini history lesson to set the stage.<\/p>\n This book was so refreshingly different.\u00a0 Yes, it was historical fiction; but, the author got right to the point.\u00a0 The story moved fast (but not too fast).\u00a0 I fell in love with every character for different reasons, and the author did an amazing job of giving just the right amount of detail and dialogue.<\/p>\n I loved the going back and forth between time periods.\u00a0 Each chapter flowed really well even though there was a 40 year difference between the characters.\u00a0 Sometimes in those kinds of books, it\u2019s hard to remember which time period you\u2019re reading about, but this one was so easy to follow.\u00a0 The story is primarily told through Odile and Lily\u2019s point of view, but every now and then the author would throw in a different character to tell a short chapter which provided the reader with extra context and character development as the \u201cbonus chapters\u201d gave accounts of events of which neither Odile nor Lily would have been a part.<\/p>\n My *only* critique was that I wish the author had told us what happened to Odile\u2019s first husband.\u00a0 I had to go back and re-read to see if I missed something.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t enough of an issue for me to bring the rating down a star, but I was just left wondering what happened.<\/p>\n I loved it and was dreading the book ending because I wanted the story to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"