2020 Book Review #33: The Black Swan of Paris

 

I really enjoy historical fiction and this new to me author didn't disappoint!

STORY SUMMARY

Genevieve Dumont is a star....and a spy!

She is known in the music entertainment world  as "the black swan" as per her costume in her musical show she performs nightly in Paris, France. 

She is also a Resistance fighter and an unwilling darling to the Nazis.  But her position of privilege allows her to go unnoticed as an ally for the French Resistance.

When her mother, from whom she has been estranged for a little over 7 years, is captured by the Nazis, Genevieve who is actually Genevre de Rocheford and youngest daughter of Lillian de Rocheford, knows that it won't take very long for the Gestapo to torture her mother for information that will derail the impending Allied invasion.  After they torture her, they will kill her. 

Even though Genevieve has been estranged from her beloved Papa and Maman and older sister Emmy for 7 years, due to a horrible tragedy in her young life, she cannot allow the Nazis to kill her mother.  When she reunites with Emmy, they begin to make a plan with other Resistance fighters, to rescue their sweet Maman.

Will they make it in time?

MY THOUGHTS

I enjoyed this fictional story very much.  The Allied Invasion of Normandy is based on facts, of course,  but the rest of the story is fictional.  It's fast-paced, exciting and full of surprises along with a bit of romance that isn't sappy in the slightest.

I loved the characters of Genevieve and Max and were their cheerleaders right up until the somewhat predictable end.

I'm always in shock when I read of the atrocities of the German Nazis and their methods of torture but this book doesn't make those scenes too awfully graphic.  It's just enough to give you the image of just how horrible those World War Two days were in Europe.

There were two quotes that jumped out at me:

"The terrible truth of life was that it was never given to anyone to know what the future held." (pg 141, The Black Swan of Paris by Karen Robards, c.2020)

"One thing Genevieve had learned was that people you loved were never lost.  They became a permanent part of your soul." (pg 473, The Black Swan of Paris by Karen Robards, c.2020) 

I highly recommend this poweful look at Occupied France during WWII.

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10. 

FAITHE