One of 20 titles recommended to me by a Facebook friend when I posted a "read 12 recommendations in 12 months" challenge for 2023. I've pledged to read all of them this year.

I read this in a bit over a week. In that week everyone who saw it on a chair, a table, a dog crate commented that it was one of their favorite books. I have no problem understanding why. It’s compelling. It’s haunting. It sucks you in and doesn’t let go. Its characters are achingly, imperfectly human… and almost universally easy to empathize with in spite of their flaws. It’s probably going to land in my top ten reads for 2023.

There were many quotable moments in this one. Here are a few that resonated strongly with me:

“I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I’d like to be known.”

“Still, sometimes without Isabelle, the house was too quiet, and in the silence, Vianne found herself thinking too loudly.”

“In him, suddenly, she saw someone foreign, a broken man where a cruel, careless man had always stood.”

“The smile he gave her was barely one at all. ‘We are all fragile, Isabelle. It’s the thing we learn in war.’”

“Love had turned into loss and she’d pushed it away, but somehow, impossibly, a bit of that love remained. A girl’s love for her father. Immutable. Unbearable but unbreakable.”

“Some stories don’t have happy endings. Even love stories. Maybe especially love stories.”

“‘It is hard to forget,’ she said quietly. ‘And I’ll never forget.’
‘But love has to be stronger than hate, or there is no future for us.’”

“They couldn’t touch my heart. They couldn’t change who I was inside. My body…they broke that in the first days, but not my heart V. Whatever he did, it was to your body, and your body will heal.”

“I had forgotten how gently time passes in Paris. As lively as the city is, there is a stillness to it, a peace that lures you in. In Paris, with a glass of wine in your hand, you can just be.”

I'm going to send this on in the Books I've Read & Journaled book box headed my way.

I've added this to the Books I've Read and Journaled Book Box. I hope the next reader enjoys it.
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In the "Books I've Read and Journaled Bookbox #2.5" when the box returned to me. I've read another copy of this book so I'm making this book available.

Wishlist tag sent to Shann24lvr in MO.

Just received this book from dabercro as part of a wishlist tag. This is one of the 12 books recommended by friends in the read 12 books in 12 months challenge for 2024.

Thanks dabercro for your generosity!

Wow! Just Wow!

This book was recommended to me by a friend for a 2024 challenge. I'm not sure I would have picked this up had it not been. What a book I would have missed out on. This haunting story of love, family, and survival will move you to tears, it did me.

This will easily go into the category of "Books recommended to my friends". If you get a chance to read it I highly recommend.

Sending this off to Aberpeter as part of the Wishlist tag game.

Enjoy!

thank you for the RABCK