Colette lives a life of privilege but values her friendship with the orphaned niece of her housekeeper. Their close relationship is damaged by an enforced separation but the looming war brings them back together.
Daughters of Paris is an historical novel set in France during the 1930s and 40s.
There is a class difference between the main two characters that impacts significantly on their lives and friendship. The war both unites the pair and separates them as their experiences diverge but their love for each other endures. Both women want to contribute to the war effort against the Nazis and this adds a tension to the plot as danger is anticipated.
I found it much easier to like Fleur than Colette. Her life is full of loss yet she is resilient. She is not confident with men and the path of love does not run smoothly for her in this book. In contrast, Colette has a self assured confidence despite feeling unloved by her mother. She throws herself into relationships as well as enjoying the finer things in life.
I enjoyed the historical aspects of the books and felt that the class and gender norms brought the culture and period to life. The risks that the women take in their personal lives but also in the undermining of the Nazi regime make the reader care about their safety.
Daughters of Paris was an enjoyable novel about female friendship against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of Paris.
Daughters of Paris
Paris 1930s
A promise that binds them together. A war that pulls them apart.
Childhood companions Fleur and Colette make a vow, under the trailing ivy of their secret garden, that they will be secret sisters forever. But as they grow up, the promises of childhood are put to the ultimate test. For Colette is the daughter of the house, and her life is all jazz clubs, silk dresses and chilled champagne, while Fleur is the orphan niece of the housekeeper and doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere.
Years later, in 1939, life as they know it will never be the same. As the German tanks roll in and Paris becomes an occupied city, the promise they made as children will have consequences they could never have imagined…
Author Bio – Elisabeth began writing in secret, but when she came third in Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write contest in 2013, she was offered a two-book contract, and consequently had to admit why the house was such a tip. Elisabeth’s historical romances with Harlequin Mills & Boon and One More Chapter span the Middle Ages to the Second World War and have been Amazon bestsellers and award shortlisted.
Elisabeth is a primary school teacher but she’d rather be writing full time because unlike five-year-olds, her characters generally do what she tells them. When she isn’t writing, she spends most of her spare time reading and is a pro at cooking one-handed while holding a book.
She was born and raised in York but now lives in Cheshire because her car broke down there in 1999 and she never left.
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