Julie's Review: Code Name Sapphire

Author: Pam Jenoff
Series: None
Publication Date: February 7, 2023
Publisher: Park Row
Pages: 328
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Brave women change the world
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Summary: 1942. Hannah Martel has narrowly escaped Nazi Germany after her fiancé was killed in a pogrom. When her ship bound for America is turned away at port, she has nowhere to go but to her cousin Lily, who lives with her family in Brussels. Fearful for her life, Hannah is desperate to get out of occupied Europe. But with no safe way to leave, she must return to the dangerous underground work she thought she had left behind. Seeking help, Hannah joins the Sapphire Line, a secret resistance network led by a mysterious woman named Micheline and her enigmatic brother Mateo. But when a grave mistake causes Lily’s family to be arrested and slated for deportation to Auschwitz, Hannah finds herself torn between her loyalties. How much is Hannah willing to sacrifice to save the people she loves? Inspired by incredible true stories of courage and sacrifice, Code Name Sapphire is a powerful novel about love, family and the unshakable resilience of women in even the hardest of times. ~amazon.com

Review:  Pam Jenoff has done it again with Code Name Sapphire.  This is a book that is a slow burn, it builds steadily to the moment where everything changes. Hannah and Lily are cousins who grew up joining each other for summers with their families. Over the years though they hadn't spoken much, and each gone their own way.  As Hannah needs a place to stay during the war, she goes to Lily in Brussels. This decision will change the course of their lives in the very near future. 

I loved that we got both Lily, Hannah and Micheline's POVs throughout the book: otherwise, I'm not sure it would have been the same story. All 3 of these women are brave but it takes Lily the longest to find her voice and her action. There were definitely times when Lily got on my nerves but in the end she redeemed herself. Micheline makes her life be about the rescue downed airmen but she ends up giving up her life to save a family that isn't hers. 

Historical Fiction is one of my favorite genres and I love author notes about the real situation/person that inspired their story. This one has a fantastic background, and the ending of the book is something I will think about for a long time. 

Julie's Review: The Woman with the Blue Star

Author: Pam Jenoff
Series: None
Publication Date:  May 4, 2021
Publisher: Park Row 
Pages: 336
Obtained: Publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Friendships can save lives
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Summary: 1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous tunnels beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers. Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding. Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by incredible true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an unforgettable testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.

Review: I really never get sick of reading WWII novels and The Woman with the Blue Star is no exception to that. Sadie is living in the Ghetto in Krakow when they have to get out without being put on a train. Her dad secures them passage through the tunnels of Krakow. To add onto it, her mother is pregnant with her sibling and they are unsure of how long they will have to remain in hiding. 

Ella is a well to do young lady but she lives with her step mom who survives by entertaining the local Nazi officers. Ella's house that she grew up in has become the place she doesn't want to spend her time. So she often wanders the streets during the day trying to blend in. Until one day she she spots Sadie in the tunnel grates and has a sudden urge to help. Ella wants to do something to feel like she's helping someone other than herself. 

As Ella and Sadie develop a bond, they take risks that jeopardize both of their lives and the lives of those that Sadie is in hiding with. It is also what will end up saving them both in different ways.

What I love about Ms. Jenoff's books is there is always some element of surprise in them, just when you think you've figured it out. Her books are always impeccably researched and immediately pull you in. This book was about survival, love, hope and most of all friendship. How friendship can save you even in the darkest of times. 

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Julie's Review: The Lost Girls of Paris

Author: Pam Jenoff
Series: None
Publication Date: January 29, 2019
Publisher: Park Row Books
Pages: 384
Obtained: Great Thoughts, Great Readers Book Salon
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Heroic women of World War II that I knew nothing about
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Summary: 1946, Manhattan
One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station. Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal. Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances.


Review: I love how historical fiction authors find a nugget in their research and then write a novel about it. I also love that there is never a shortage of nuggets when it comes to history. Ms. Jenoff has a gem of a novel in The Lost Girls of Paris. I didn’t know but I’m not surprised that women were used in the field as radio transmitters in WWII. Ms. Jenoff uses this fact and writes a fantastic book about one of the groups in France.

The story unfolds when Grace finds an abandoned suitcase at Grand Central Station and keeps the photos that were in it. Something about those photos draw Grace in even though she's not sure what to do with them. She even tries to give them to the British Consulate but they act utterly uninterested. So she decides to figure out who they are.

We meet several of the girls as they are recruited, trained and then deployed. Most of their story is told through the eyes of Marie a single mom who was recruited and then sent to the field. I don't know about you but the type of training they went through I probably would have been sent home within a week. These women were tough as nails to decide to leave their families/lives behind to serve their country.

I loved how the story goes back and forth between Grace, Eleanor and Marie. They intersect beautifully so that you are excited to see how Grace figures it out. You are anxious to know what happens to Marie.

It is an utterly fascinating story that did make me use google. I highly recommend. This is only my 2nd Pam Jenoff book but it certainly won't be my last. 

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Julie's Review: The Orphan's Tale

Author: Pam Jenoff
Series: None
Publication Date: February 21, 2017
Publisher: MIRA
Pages: 368
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: A wonderful story of female friendship
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: 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 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. ~amazon.com

Review: The Orphan's Tale is the story of a female friendship that develops during the worst of times. It is the story of how 2 women became friends when they could have become adversaries. It is also the story of 2 women who are orphaned for very different reason and the novel intersects their stories.

Noa was kicked out by her parents because she was pregnant.After the birth of her child, she finds herself working at a rail station. One night she decides to venture out to take a look at the train cars only to find a box car full of children. It is then when Noa decides to be brave by rescuing one of them. She quickly escapes by foot only to realize she has no place to go. Luckily for her someone from the circus finds her and brings her to Herr Althoff. He decides that she will be an aerialist and instructs Astrid to train her.

While Astrid's story isn't the same as Noa, there are similarities. She found herself in love and married to a Reich officer. She was in the glow of being a newlywed when he came home and told them that their marriage was being absolved and she needed to leave immediately. She finds herself back at her family's house only to find that no one is there and the Nazi's are occupying it. Herr Althoff takes her in as well and she finds refuge once again in performing.

I love stories that involve the circus and I also love learning new facts about World War II; like how the circus hid people from the Nazis as much as they could. That normal, everyday people did something that made a difference. Maybe they weren't huge acts but they were acts that saved lives and perhaps even endangering their lives in the process.

I enjoyed the story very much but felt the pace at times was a bit slow for my liking but it did speed up in the end. I appreciate the research Ms. Jenoff put into her novels which made it feel that much more authentic.

If you are a history buff and this information is new to you or maybe it's not but you want a deeper look at it, then you won't want to miss The Orphan's Tale.


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