Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Paris, 2011: Lily Tremaine’s hands shake as she opens the envelope addressed in her mother’s hand. The faded letter inside reveals the long-buried family secret that her mother had a twin she was separated from during the Second World War. A tear slides down Lily’s cheek, knowing the loss of a sister caused her mother so much heartbreak. And now, after all these years, her mother needs Lily to find her…
As Lily begins to piece together the fragments of her mother’s story, she meets Julien, a photographer whose research contains the clues she needs to unlock the past. As they pore over faded black and white photographs together, a warm feeling begins to stir in Lily’s chest. But she knows she can’t bury her own recent heartbreak just yet, not until she has fulfilled her mother’s wish.
When the truth of what happened to the young twins is revealed, it is more shocking than Lily could have ever anticipated. And with her mother’s health failing, she is running out of time to find her mother’s missing sister. Can Lily piece together long-buried family secrets from the war in time to reunite the lost twins of Paris before it is too late?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Secret Twins of Paris to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Secret Twins of Paris is the latest book from Suzanne Kelman and although it is the fourth book in The Paris Sisters series if you haven’t read any of the previous books you’ll definitely find yourself seeking out the other instalments once you have finished this story. It’s full of hidden secrets, raw emotions, turmoil and upset during the darkest days that the city of lights during its occupation in World War Two. Told in the dual timeline format as were the previous three books, the plot weaves effortlessly back and forth between Paris in the war and the present. he chapters are short and snappy the majority of which end on cliffhangers which have you eagerly racing through the alternative timelines to see what would happen next. et at the same time there was a slight frustration that I wanted them to be longer as I found myself getting comfortable with a certain timeline and then bang it jumped forward to the present or vice versa. ut upon reflection this is what made the book flow so well and given my lack of attention span these days I found myself reading huge swathes of the book at a time as I found it compelling and I became deeply engrossed in the remarkable story unfolding.
The prologue alone would have any reader sitting up and paying attention. Paris January 1943, sees our main female protagonist, Gigi, at a train station with twins Rachel and Rebecca. She questions whether she is doing the right thing in sending the twins away. They have no one left and therefore Gigi feels there is no other alternative. Her sister Charlotte takes them away but will they ever be seen again? Fast forward to Summer 2011 and Lily receives a phone call from her sister Clare to say that her mother Rebecca has suffered a stroke and prior to the ambulance arriving she gave Clare a key for Lily saying she must go to the bank and discover the answers. Of course Lily is intrigued but also upset at the same time that she may have very little precious time left with her mother. She takes on the request of her mother with gratitude and a will to complete it. A letter along with a photo and worn ballerina shoes reveals Rebecca has spent her life searching for her missing sister whom she last saw in horrific circumstances during the war. She has always had a sense that somewhere out there she is still alive. Whether that is fact remains to be seen.
I admired the fact that Lily was deeply worried about losing her mother but she pushed those fears to one side and began the search and in doing so attempt to unravel secrets that had come to be during the war. Lily hopes that by untangling her mother’s past that she can make sense of her own life. To be honest, I found aspects of Lily’s personal life very predictable and that I had read this umpteen times over and I could see exactly where things would go for her. For example, trouble in her marriage to her husband Marcus which the reader could see was heading in the wrong direction. Meeting Julien whose grandfather took photos of Paris during the war is the starting place for her quest but it was quite obvious what would potentially happen there. So I would definitely say that the strand of the story set in the past was much stronger than those set in the present. But saying that I totally understand the inclusion of Lily as she was the conduit that bridged the links between the past and the present and as she discovered things I loved how we jumped back and saw how these fitted in with what was going on in the war. She literally was peeling back the layers, identifying clues and working to solve them and hopefully striving to have the past reveal the secrets it has held for so long.
Gigi was a fabulous character and the artistic world that she inhabited in Paris in the 1940’s showed the heartbeat of the city never lost its rhythm during the most desperate of times. Resistance can take shape in many different forms and this is a thread that runs throughout the book. Life alters significantly for Gigi with the arrival of the Germans to take over her beloved city. All her dedication and training to be a ballerina is just starting to pay off with a role in a show at the Palais Garnier theatre but that is curtailed by the new rules and regulations imposed by the Germans. Gigi lives next to her friends, Malina, Claudette and Elise and they all inhabit the artistic world in one form or another. Be it as an artist, a costume designer or a stage manager, their love for the arts shines through. The reader is taken behind the scenes into this world and shows how everything that was so precious to these people was disrupted and turned upside down by the arrival of the Germans. Instead of fulfilling their ambitions and following a profession they loved, a world of fear, suspicion and danger was created. Especially for those that were Jewish.
Gigi will do anything to help those in need especially those so very close to her own door. Despite her young age at only 18 in 1940, I thought she showed such great strength, courage and fortitude throughout. I almost forgot how young she was because there was such brilliant development of her character over the course of the war as she finds herself becoming deeply embroiled in Resistance work. Work that if her family knew she was partaking in they would have probably have her hauled back to live at home and keep her safe within the family cocoon. Through her life as a dancer she encounters composer Olivier who exposes her to a world she never knew existed with some new characters introduced based on real life people of the time. This was a real nod to the Paris of old before the war. Jazz clubs and singing and art all feature heavily and its truly like another world. Olivier was handsome and striking and as the story developed you could see that Gigi was falling hook, line and sinker for him even though there are those that warn her off him. But for what reasons? Is there more to him than at first meets the eye and perhaps not necessarily in the best of ways?
Gigi is the glue that hold the plot of the past together but also there are chapters from Charlotte’s viewpoint. She was a character whom I liked at some points but then at others I didn’t appreciate what she was engaging in and I felt she was going against the spirit and themes of the book and the series overall. That of women connected by sisterhood, courage and art. There were numerous times I found myself becoming very smug in thinking oh I know how this all pans out and I know who the twins mother is only to have my suspicions thrown out the window with the turn of a page. But in a way this was brilliant because then I was kept guessing until the last possible moment of reveal even though I was kicking myself that I hadn’t seen certain connections that in hindsight were obvious.
The Secret Twins of Paris is a brilliant addition to the series and the last few pages set us up nicely for what is to come in the next book when Charlotte will share her story. I liked what was explained as it was intriguing and has brilliant potential. Gigi’s story highlighted the courage of so many who resisted tyranny and oppression at a time when dark shadows fell over the world. Mystery, suspense, romance, daring escapades, resilience, loss, pain, separation and hope are all strong themes throughout what was an excellent book that is a must read for fans of World War Two historical fiction.
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