Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin Book Review

Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin

From back cover:

Paris, 1940

When Nazis march toward Paris, American ballerina Lucie Girard buys her favorite English-language bookstore to allow the Jewish owners to escape. The Germans make it difficult for her to keep Green Leaf Books afloat. And she must keep the store open if she is to continue aiding 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. But in order to carry out his mission, he must appear to support the occupation-which does not win him any sympathy when he meets Lucie in the bookstore.

In a world turned upside down, will love or duty prevail?

I thought this was a well done book. I think I liked When Twilight Breaks a little more, but that is just because I really liked Evelyn and the plot line a little better. I would still say this was a solid 4/5 star book though!

I thought both Lucie and Paul were great, well rounded characters. For instance, there were times when Lucie came across as maybe childish or juvenile, but we are also able to see her rise to the occasion with her resistance work as well as see what a strong and caring person she could be. Likewise, we see multiple sides of Paul as he deals with being a somewhat reluctant double agent, his struggles with being a parent, but also his deep love for his daughter Josie. And while Josie is more of a secondary character, it was hard not to love her! She'd been through so much in her life yet her personality and creativity were so fun to read.

The plot of this story was very interesting and unique. I feel like so may WWII-era books have the exact same plot line, so I enjoyed the fact that this one was different in the fact it takes place prior to the US joining the war and closer to the beginning of the occupation in Paris.

I've read all of Sarah Sundin's books and one thing I really like about her writing is that you can tell she really knows her history and writes with just enough detail so you can understand what is going on but without it feeling like you're reading a textbook. 

As with When Twilight Breaks, I felt as though this story was so well described that I could almost imagine it as a movie in my mind. There is just enough detail that you can easily picture what is happening, but not so much it feels overly descriptive. 

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to whatever comes next!

I received a complementary copy of this book from Revell. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.