A review by fortheloveoffictionalworlds
The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor

4.0

Disclaimer: An eARC was provided via Harper Collins International in exchange for an honest review. Since, I have been on an audiobook kick, I listened to the Audiobook via Storytel App.The Thoughts, opinions & feelings expressed in the review are therefore, my own.

Okay, I have been on a WWII fiction kick – but The Paper Girl of Paris is unique in its execution – oscillating between the Present and the Past – and is gripping in the narrative; even if I still had a few issues with the mental health representation in the book.

Alice has just lost her grandmother and at the same time found out that she has been left an apartment – her grandmother’s family home in Paris. This creates ripples within her family; with her mother falling into shock; of understanding that her own mother kept secrets from her – this pretty much makes sure that Alice and her father tiptoe around her mother; just to keep peace during one of her “episodes”.

What Alice and her parents find in Paris is a perfectly preserved apartment – as if the family living there has just stepped out and would be right back. But while her mother doesn’t seem to be interested or even curious in finding out the history behind the apartment; Alice finds herself looking to understand more about her own grandmother. And what she finds out is that her grandmother had a whole life before she moved to America with her grandfather; specifically a sister (& Alice’s great aunt) named Adalyn.

Her curiosity even more aroused when she finds a journal in Adalyn’s room and she starts translating her entries; and she is even more alarmed when she finds a photo of her great aunt with Nazi soldiers – was this the reason why her grandmother never talked about her life before America? But the entries she has translated did not point to Adalyn being a Nazi sympathizer; so it was a mystery she needed to solve – not just for herself but for her grandmother and her mother who couldn’t handle knowing that she didn’t know her own mother.


Told in both Alice and Adalyn’s PoV, The Paper Girl of Paris was an addictive read (& listen on audiobook) – as a reader, you get sucked in the mystery of finding out EXACTLY how, where and what happened to bring Alice to where she is and what happened with her grandmother and her family; for her to never mention them ever again.

There is of course romance within the pages; for the book is set in the romantic city of the world – and I loved the pacing of the story – in fact it took me less than a couple of days to get through the audiobook – because I just couldn’t stop listening to the book – I needed to know how and where the plot would take Adalyn (and in effect Alice to!).

It was the representation of mental health that had me wary for most of the book – while I agree that everyone/every family deals with having mental health issues in their family differently, somehow the way Alice and her dad handled her mother didn’t resonate with me.

I would however be amiss if I didn’t mention that the way the author actually closed off the mental health ARC was commendable – that and the way the whole contemporary twist to the WWII plotline has my definite recommendation especially if you are a reader who can’t read a purely historical fiction.



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