MY THOUGHTS AND BOOK REVIEW
This novel is uncompromising and forthright in telling the story of the Beaufort sisters - Justine Beaufort and Eve. It begins with events like unsparing sexual assault and coercion for women to surrender under the cruel hands of SS officers who are Germans and the Gestapo when Nazis are the government in a war-driven Paris at the time 1940. Justine is sexually assaulted when a perverted SS officer - Major Saxe Mullenheim abducts and without a doubt, rapes her. After this incident, Eve becomes broken-hearted and lonely thinking Justine's disappearance could have resulted in her death. Justine has to come to terms with the reality that she is helpless and cant deny that she cannot fight the SS and the Gestapo and win. She accepts the fate that she has no choice but to do what the major wishes for her.
Their mother - Maman works for Madame De Giocomote as a seamstress at Maison Bleue. Maman would never leave Madme De Giocomte who treated the sisters as her own granddaughters. Her mother's loyalty to the woman who saved her daughters from poverty and the depravity of those who preyed upon them is above reproach. Their father Beaufort was a gambler and was killed in a knife fight. The landlord tossed them on the streets and they were penniless in the slums in a shack in northern Paris. After that, Madame de Giocomte brought them to Maison Bleue in 1930 maman as her seamstress.
As the Nazis start requisitioning villas for their officers, then grabbing the best thoroughbreds from the stables to send to Germany and harassing the population with curfews and laws. Madame Giocomte feared for their safety only to return to Paris to find her home looted of its impressionist works - fearing the Nazis will return. The Nazis were stealing art by the prospect of a good investment they can resell on the black market or ship back to Germany. The Nazis confiscated Giocomte's husband's collection of impressionists and the arant-garde painting of Justine and Eve.
The Nazis - Boches call Paris a city of Love and Fashion but they treated people as dolls and puppets they can place in a fancy cardboard house then discard at whim.
Eve on the other end of the war is searching for her sister Justine as they get separated by the abduction and abuse of the German Gestapo. As far as Eve is concerned Justine is erased, gone. Eve is saddened terribly. Will Eve let go of her quest for Justice? or face the mental cruelty of the Gestapo or God help her, or give her physical torture at their hands because she defied them. At the time of Eve's university in Paris - Sorbonne she was obliged to do her best for Maman, Madame de Giocomote, and Justine. Haunting, emotions running hot and furious sending Eve into a bout of cold sweats - the vivid memory of Justine's assault by the SS officer stopped her several times to cry. Eve wanted to avenge Justine and was among those who aren't afraid to defy the Nazis, who speak the truth. Justine got assaulted to save her sister Eve. Eve joins the fight to find her sister and what happened to her. On the other hand, Justine seeks her revenge for what the major did to her and her poor maid messenger who was thrown into prison for carrying the message to Eve and Maman about them leaving Paris.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this excellent novel with the author's note highlighting sexual assault as the main theme of the novel, the realities of World War 2, and the gripping research which can be tearfully heartbreaking and emotional.
Thanks to Rachel Random Resources, Netgalley and Boldwood Books Publishers for an advance digital review copy of my honest review.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Paris, 1940: Two sisters separated by the Nazis… After a devastating attack, Justine and Ève Beaufort find themselves on opposite sides of the war, both in their beloved Paris. But can they ever find their way back to each other?
It was the day that changed everything. When the Nazis broke into our home, destroying everything, taking our home and our security. I thought it couldn’t get worse. But then they also took my sister.
After that day nothing was the same. I thought I’d never see her again. I thought she was lost to me forever. I joined the Resistance, vowing to fight against the evil German army with every last spark of fire in my body. Nothing and nobody can stop me.
Until I catch a glimpse of a woman who looks just like my sister. Alive. But this is not the sweet darling girl I once knew. This is a platinum blonde happily conversing with a terrifying Gestapo officer. No longer my sister. But a traitor.
And I know what I must now do…
Could you choose your country – and what is right – over the person you once loved more than anyone in the world?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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- Publisher : Boldwood Books (September 25, 2023)
- Publication date : September 25, 2023
- Language : English
- Print length : 357 pages
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