Tuesday, April 3, 2018

The Room on Rue Amelie: a beautiful story of strength of the human spirit


The Room on Rue Amelie by Krisitn Harmel is a story of the French Resistance in World War II. The story opens in March 2002 as a elderly woman is dying and her husband begins to recall when they met in occupied France. Flash back to December 1938, when American Ruby Henderson meets Marcel Benoit and falls in love. They marry and move to Paris to his apartment on Rue Amelie. It is a dangerous move as the rumbles of war are being to spread. By September 1939, Hitler invades Poland and World War II has begun. In their apartment building, Ruby befriends the Dacher family, a Jewish couple with an 11-year-old daughter, Charlotte. By October 1940, Hitler has occupied Paris and trouble for Ruby and the Dacher family. Soon Ruby and Charlotte are pulled in the French Resistance as part of the chain which helps lead fallen Allied pilots out of France. A choice that puts them all in danger. Despite the risks, they fearlessly help the pilots to the next stop along the escape line. Will they be discovered? Will they survive the war?


The Room on Rue Amelie is a beautiful story about the strength of the human spirit in times of great turmoil. While the book was marketed to fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and it does remind me of that story as the French Resistance is a major thread of both books, The Room on Rue Amelie tells another side of the French Resistance and focused more on the characters’ lives as they deal with the occupation of Paris and the harsh treatments of the Jewish. I enjoyed each character as they played their part in the struggle against the occupation. I cried with them when tragedy happened and I held my breath as they got closer to danger. I highly recommend The Room on Rue Amelie. If you have read The Nightingale, you will enjoy The Room on Rue Amelie.

The Room on Rue Amelie
is available now in hardcover and eBook
Paperback will be available on October 23, 2018

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