by Susan Roberts
Paris, 1943: Charlotte clutches the children tightly to her as they board the train. "Don't worry," she whispers to them softly. "I will get you to safety, I promise..."
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| September 2026; Bookouture; 978-1837905355 audio, ebook, print (374 pages); historical fiction |
This dual timeline book wraps up the Paris Sisters series in an emotional and thought-provoking ending. It brings together the 5 children from the previous books in the series as the final Villette sister tries to help them escape Paris to the safer countryside.
Modern Day Timeline:
Ethel has planned a retreat in France for her mother Sophie and the four other children who escaped Paris together. Sophie has dementia and is rapidly forgetting her life, and Ethel wants to create one last chance for her mother to remember and mentally process her memories of the war and her perilous escape from Paris. It was very emotional that even though Sophie was forgetting so much, she recognized and remembered the other ‘children’ despite the 70 years that had passed.
World War II Timeline:
Charlotte Villette escapes Paris with 5 children in hopes of getting them to her aunt’s home in rural France, where she hopes it will be safer. A mistake by one of the children brings them to the attention of the Gestapo, who remove her from the train, leaving the other children to travel on without her. When they miraculously find each other again and go to her aunt’s house, they find it has become a Nazi headquarters so they continue their perilous journey to find safety. They meet Luc, who agrees to help them get to the border. At first, he is very hostile to Charlotte and the children, but they eventually learn to trust each other. Just as Charlotte begins to see a possible happy outcome, a former Nazi officer finds her, and she has to make difficult decisions to try to save the children that she has learned to love.
My Thoughts:
I had trouble putting this book down once I started. At first, it was the suspense that kept me turning the pages as the small group was placed in danger over and over. All I could think about was how brave these small children were to continue going ahead while they were in so much danger. Once life got a little more settled for them, the book became very emotional and, I will admit, I cried several times during the last 25% of the book. When the story ended, I was in tears, but I was also in awe of the bravery that real people had during the war to endanger their lives to help others. This was a fantastic series!
A Note About the Series:
The Last Train from Paris is the final book in the Paris Sisters series. Even though it can be read as a standalone with no confusion, it’s such a fantastic series that you need to read all five books in order. I plan to go back and read the entire series again so that I can better remember the child from each book to the story of one of the five children in the final book.
Read Reviews of the Series:
My review of The Last Day in Paris and The Bookseller of Paris
Buy The Last Train from Paris at Amazon
Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west. She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.
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