Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Paris, 1940. Lucie is the last child left at St Agnes’ Orphanage when the building is taken over by German soldiers. Forced to cook and clean for the men using her beloved home as their headquarters, she has stifled her instinct to rebel, instead scrubbing floors in the silent halls that were once filled with warmth and laughter. But when she finds a tiny baby bundled up in blankets on the front step, everything changes…
Desperate to protect the child, Lucie finds an unlikely ally in one of the officers living at the orphanage. From the moment he steps in to shield her from a group of soldiers threatening her on the street, she can tell that Klaus is different. There’s an unexpected warmth in his smile, and the quiet kindness he shows her and the baby is a world away from the cold indifference she is used to.
But Klaus has a secret. And when Lucie discovers that he has been helping the Parisian resistance efforts against the Nazis, her heart leaps at his bravery, but aches at the terrible danger he is in. Holding the baby close, they run for their lives in the dead of night, desperate to start a new life together. But before they reach safety, they hear shouts behind them… Will they make it to freedom? Or will their love story be stamped out before it’s even begun?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Last War Orphan to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Last War Orphan is the second in Jenna Ness’ series, The Orphans of St.Agnes. I adored book one and couldn’t get enough of it and was very eager for the next instalment so thankfully we weren’t kept waiting for too long. Book one was an epic wartime story, a real page turner with edge of your seat tension, drama and action. Having loved the previous story so much I did have an air of apprehension that could book two live up to the very high expectations I had given quite often there is a very strong start to a series and then things peter off. Thankfully this wasn’t the case and this new story was brilliant from beginning to end.
We pick up directly from where book one concluded and there was no messing around with filler in chapters instead we dove straight back into the action and it felt as if I had never left the characters behind. Everything was fresh in my mind and I didn’t feel as if I had to refamiliarise myself with the characters and their current predicaments. For those new to this series you needn’t worry as the author subtly dropped in information regarding previous events so as to make the reader feel as if they were up to date with everything.
The main task for Margot and Josette alongside Roger was to get back into occupied France from Marseille to reunite with and rescue Margot’s younger sister Lucie who had ended up back in Paris at St.Agnes’ orphanage which is now under the control of Otto Shroder, one of Hitler’s right hand men. I thought this would be the entire focus of the book given how their journey to Marseille to eventually try and get to America was the dominant plot of book one. Instead, this all occurred very quickly and they were reunited fairly on in the book but all is not as it seems and there is a very tangled web to try and extricate themselves from.
The author pushed her female characters right into the lion’s den and did so in a surprising and riveting way. Other authors perhaps would have had their characters stay away from certain situations and maybe had them develop more towards the climax of the book instead here they are thrust directly towards the spotlight from the get go creating an anxiety and unease in the reader that never lets up and has you engrossed and eagerly turning the pages. I loved that Jenna Ness did this because it allowed for a different aspect of the war to be explored. Usually characters are kept apart from those that want to take them down until strictly necessary so to see how such close interactions occurred and what it meant for the characters that I was rooting for proved very interesting.
Helen, the headmistress of the orphanage, is now on her way to America with John Cleeton and several other orphans so they don’t feature but the ramifications of what Helen did so many years ago are still being felt with Shroder determined to enact his revenge. For what I will not say. There is still oner particular big mystery surrounding Helen that I hope will be explored in book three and I really would like her to feature again. Here Margot, Lucie and Josette really get their chance to shine and their individual stories are explored in great depth. From the outset, the pacing is brilliant with lots of twists and turns all of which are relevant to the story and drive it further on. The reader has to be alert for hints and clues at all times and one major strand I had an inkling about and though not 100% confirmed in this book I do feel I am on the right track with it and can sense this will all come to fruition in book three. Well fingers crossed anyway.
Throughout the book, Margot is expected to be brave, tough, determined and strong and she rises to the challenge with great relish. She became a real leader and although initially upset that Lucie will not leave the orphanage and escape as several babies have been left on their doorstep and she is caring for them she adapted to the new situation and plan and used it meticulously to her advantage. Margot and Lucie are employed by Shroder in the very house where they spent many years growing up with Helen and so many others. I just couldn’t fathom why Shroder was so welcoming and gave them employment? He didn’t seem like the antithesis of a Nazi party member and a very high ranking one at that. In fact he was the opposite and at times was charming and gave the young women anything they needed. Given what Helen had said about him in book one surely a leopard can’t change their spots that easily. I was fearful for the group that at any minute he would turn on them and the comfortable situation in which they had established themselves would be swept from under them and they would be at a loss as to what to do.
Margot is clever and really gets close to Shroder. He is impressed by her work ethic and she becomes his secretary. She uses this new role to her advantage and this demonstrated what great courage and dedication she had in that her ultimate aim like so many others was to see Paris liberated and the war won. At the same time she showed great compassion, kindness and love towards Lucie when she could have been angry and full of resentment that she wouldn’t leave when she came to rescue her. After all they could have been safely on their way to America at this stage. Recent revelations mean Margot is also battling with a secret which she is torn in two about revealing for the repercussions would affect several people. She also constantly wrestles with her heart but it’s obvious for the reader to see which way it lies despite her attempting to brush her feelings and instincts aside. Again I feel this will be explored in more depth in book three.
Lucie is the character who I felt changed the most but in a good way. She was no longer reliant on others and she demonstrated great maturity more so than a typical 18 year old would. She was compassionate and stepped into the role that Helen had vacated. She knew her own mind and wasn’t afraid to say it particularly when Margot thought she would just automatically fall in with plans. I do think regarding the romance element to her story I just couldn’t quite fall in line with it given whose heart had captured her.
I’ve read many situations like this in world war two historical fiction and I put myself in their place and think would I have done the same? I’m not sure I would have so it makes me uneasy that Lucie did this but perhaps we shouldn’t tarnish all people with the same brush. I mean this in reference to who her romantic entanglement is with. As for Josette, in the first book I found her very annoying, cold and stand offish and there are still traits of this here regarding her. She is constantly woe is me, nobody loves me. The one I love doesn’t have an interest in me. Why am I so lonely and unlovable. But then she finds an interest for herself, and this leads her down a very dangerous and risky path but one which deserves much admiration and respect and my opinion of her changed. Well not completely but I did come to appreciate her and what she was doing.
The Last War Orphan was another brilliant read from Jenna Ness and to be honest I can’t believe that she hasn’t been published long before now so good are her books. My reading year has been very up and down so it takes something for a book to grab my attention these days and hold it and this Orphans of St.Agnes’s series has done that. I’ve said it in my previous review and I’ll say it again this would make a brilliant series for Netflix or else a Sunday night drama which we all love to watch. You’ll definitely read this in one sitting as it’s one of those of those books where you have to know what is going to happen next. I’m gutted it had to end but will definitely back to see how things continue to unfold for everyone when book three, The War Orphan’s Courage, is published in March 2026.
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