I absolutely adored this novel.

Josephine is 18 when she uncovers a secret of her mother's that leaves her shaken. Her Father was German, possibly a Nazi.

Angry at her family for lying to her for years, and determined to find the truth, she travels to Paris where she discovers the story of a forbidden and dangerous love that grew as the city fought for freedom.

Paris, 1944 Elise knows that she should hate him. What is it about Sebastian that's so irresistible to her? He wears the Nazi uniform she despises. But he seems different from the others.

Sebastian is different. He doesn't want to be doing what he's doing, and he loves Elise. How can he help her to understand this? Can they both fight against a cause determined to change the world?

This book is written in multiple POVs. The chapters are short which made it fast paced. The characters are well developed and likeable. A well written highly emotional read.

I absolutely loved this book and read it over two days. Yes, the story might have been a little bit infeasible but it was well written and I enjoyed the story told by the different characters. If you want an easy read I'd recommend this.

Elise and Sebastian meet in occupied Paris. He is German, lonely, and unhappy about the role he is required to play in the war. She is French, trying to survive the occupation and quietly taking risks to save others. They are brought together through Monsieur le Bolzec, a bookseller, who encourages Elise to see beyond the German uniform. Together the three commit to a daring rescue. When the German army withdraws, their connection has terrible consequences for each of them. In 1963 Josephine is almost 18, living with her mother, Elise, in Brittany, and Soizic, Monsieur le Bolzec’s sister. Josephine has been told that her father was a French war hero who died before she was born but was that really the truth?

Covering both time periods, the story explores many themes including loss, fear and shame and the consequences of decisions people make because of those feelings. This is a book which gets better as it goes on. I became totally invested in the characters and what motivated each of them to act as they did. I very much enjoyed it.

I had this on my to-be-read pile, delaying reading it was a mistake. What a read!
It’s full of emotion, love in all forms, believable characters and a great story.
In 1944 Elise Chevalier has just had her fiancé killed in the war and is trying to adapt to life under German rule when a young German assists when she gets stopped at a check point without her papers. This has unforeseen repercussions.
In 1963 a lifetime of secrets are about to be revealed when in a moment of anger Josephine rummages through a suitcase of her mothers.
My favourite character was Stoizic, who herself has suffered dreadful pain.
It’s a must read book.

‘The Last Hours in Paris’ by Ruth Druart is a different kind of Second World War romance. At times it is a tough read, the hatred is visceral and uncompromising. It feels real.
This is the story of three people in the last days of occupied Paris and the years following when repercussions continued and the war, though never spoken of, remained tangled in the roots of daily life. Those who fought the Germans, those who stayed behind and lived under German dictatorship. In peacetime everyone must live alongside each other again. The different memories, experiences, losses, are difficult to assimilate.
In Paris 1944 Élise Chevalier a bank clerk by day, secretly helps to smuggle Jewish children from the city. ‘Paris was no longer Paris. It was an occupied city, and even the buildings seemed to be holding their breath, waiting.’ No longer her familiar city, Paris is sinister, threatening, frightening. One day in her favourite bookshop Élise is threatened by two French policemen and is defended by another customer, a German soldier. And so begins the story of Élise and Sébastian Kleinhaus and the terrifying, impossible time in which they live.
In 1963 in rural Brittany, eighteen-year old Joséphine Chevalier uncovers a story about her mother that she could never have imagined. She fears it is impossible to truly know someone. ‘From now on, she’ll always be wondering what part of themselves people are hiding.’
A slow burn to start, Druart takes her time, allowing us to feel connected to the characters as she gradually raises the emotional temperature. The peripheral characters are well drawn, particularly Élise’s younger sister Isabelle, bookshop owner Monsieur le Bolzec and Breton farmer Soizic. Each brings their own experience, judgement and dignity to what is an impossible, unbearable situation for everyone. The definition of family and home, love, protection and separation. ‘Maybe home wasn’t a place at all, but the people you wanted to be with.’
Whatever you may think of what happened in Paris at this time, Druart tells this sensitive story of young people, inexperienced, naive and hopeful, living in a time of such violence and betrayal, of secrets, survival, moralising and vengeance. After surviving the hardships, violence and deprivations of war, how can they adapt to find a new life of possibilities. How can they forgive the secrets and betrayals and move on.
A strongly emotional interpretation of life in occupied Paris that is hardly an obvious setting for a story about love. But this is a love more than romance. It is a love of family, responsibility, truth, sacrifice, forgiveness, of letting go of past hurts and wrongs and looking to the future.
Highly recommended.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

A beautiful book about the human impact of world war 2. I enjoyed the characters in this story. Thanks for letting me review this book

Whilst this book was a total tear jerker for myself ir was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. As the secrets begin to unravel and relationships begin to form. Very powerful book and very well written. Thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend

Excessively Mills and Boon

Whilst I had appreciated the author’s first book enough to want to request this, I found this one lacked credibility, although the subject matter – wartime love between a member of the aggressive occupying nation and one from the invaded, resisting nation was potentially a rich one.

Unfortunately, my disbelief was never really suspended. Central character, Sebastien, half French, forced, aged 16, to join the Hitler Youth, now part of the German invading army, working as a translator, an unremittingly noble, never wavering super saint. Apart from one other fellow German, a fairly minor character, a lone candidate for canonisation in a sea of demonic sadists. His counterpart, feisty equally noble Elise and he get it together aided by too many coincidental encounters.

The tale is rendered over complex by the mixture of first person narration (Elise) and third person, in the sections of Sebastian’s section, and those which follow Josephine, Elise’s sulky impetutous daughter in the 1963 section.

All writers ‘manipulate’ their readers, but if the reader is constantly aware of the devices, as I was here, the reader may resist, as indeed I did. This was far too marshmallow a read for my tastes.

2.5 rating, raised

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily and it reflects my personal opinion.
This book tells the story of Elise, a young French woman living in Paris late in world war two and Sebastian, a German officer who works as a translator. Chapters alternate between the two characters in wartime and where they are around 20 years later. Details of living through the war are provided in a way that demonstrates the horrors of the time and the courage shown by those who make a stand against Occupation. The story is well-written and fascinating, and I thought the characters were engaging and realistic. This is a wonderful love story with several twists before the outcome is reached.

A fantastic boook that moved along at a nice pace. I loved reading Elise and Sebastian’s story and the story of enduring love in the toughest of time.

Once I started this book I could not put it down . The story began with a young French girl finding her birth certificate. and discovering her father is not who she was told he was. Back the story goes to Paris in 1944 and a love story tgat developed. I needed tissues reading the story of Elise and Sebastian. . Such an emotive read . Look forward to reading more from this author

To turn back the clock!
Paris 1944, Elise and her family hate the Germans calling them the Bosch and thinking them all Nazi's,they suffer intimadation and hardships. Elise encounters Sebastian in a bookshop, he helps her when she is victimised by the police, she resents his intrusion. Sebastian is fascinated by her spark and individuality. He works as a translator and hates what the Germans are doing to people.
Elise helps at a Jewish orphanage and smuggles children to safety, her involvement could easily result in her death. Sebastian has a letter from an informer which would put her and the children in danger and passes the information on to Elise, this is the beginning of a taut relationship between them. Despite her prejudices and that of her family, Elise and Sebastian fall in love, they have secret assignations, if they are discovered she will be marked as a collaborator with dire consequences.
As the war nears its end they make promises to meet up, but are betrayed and must face the consequences. They will eventually meet and make sense of their betrayers and the lives that they could have shared with their daughter Josephine.
A very moving story, real and raw.

This beautifully crafted love story set against the backdrop of occupied Paris is a thrilling, heartbreaking read. Powerfully evocative of both time and place, it captures both the bittersweet urgency and the enduring consequences of forbidden love. I wallowed in every, single moment.

The star-crossed lovers are Elise, a young Parisienne working for The Resistance, and Sebastian, a German officer weary of fighting a war he has never believed in. When their affair is discovered, there are severe repercussions: Sebastian is arrested and Elise banished by her parents to Brittany, neither aware of the other’s fate.

And so it remains until 18 years later, when Elise’s daughter Josephine makes a startling discovery.

To say I devoured this story is an understatement. Druart’s dual-timeline narrative is effortlessly fluid, the tempo gently rising and falling but forever holding you in its rhythm. It segues back and forth between Elise’s story and Sebastian’s story; these two strands ultimately woven together by Josephine’s quest for the truth.

Folded through this tale are moments of unfettered joy and others of unbearable sadness. There are secrets laid bare, sacrifices endured, and a betrayal so shocking, it defies belief.

I found all three protagonists sympathetic and believable, and I cared passionately about the outcome of their shared story. I admired Elise’s courage and fortitude, Sebastian’s moral resoluteness, and young Josephine’s bold spirit in the face of so much uncertainty. Surely they deserved a happy ending!

Was it to be, or not to be? Suffice to say, it was beautiful and poignant, and testament to the enduring power of true love. More than that, I’m not saying.

Thank you, Ruth Druart, for another wonderful work of historical fiction rooted in immaculately researched historical fact.

Heartfelt story about the unjustness of war. Elise and Sebastian meet in Paris in WW2 and fall in love. This is against every rule they know because he is a Nazi and she is French. Time moves on to 1963, when Josephine finds her birth certificate and discovers her father is not the person she believed him to be. The story of the past is told, and then the reconciling of the present. Well written, with the headstrong teenager blundering about in the past actually help heal family rifts and uncovering the secrets they had hidden for so long.

This was well-written and engaging, My one complaint is one that I often have with this style of book - I wish the 1960s storyline was stronger, or not included at all. I couldn't help but want more from the 1940s storyline every time it switched back to the 60s.

A beautifully written story that lives up yp its description. Ruth Druart brings her characters to life in such an honest way that you fully empathise with them and believe in them.
She looks at how the war affected people on both sides and how they had to learn to live with the aftermath.

This is a pretty long book, but the way that it is written makes a quick read.

I look forward to more from Ruth Druart.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read The Last Hours in Paris

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀 |

#AD-PR GIFTED
5⭐

It's my stop on the Book Tour for this fantastic book today! I've tagged all of the lovely accounts taking part too so you can see what they thought.

1963.18 year old Josephine uncovers a secret of her mother's that leaves her shaken. Determined for the truth, she travels to Paris where she discovers the story of a dangerous love that grew as a city fought for freedom. Of the last stolen hours before the first light of liberation and of a deep betrayal that would irrevocably change two young lives forever.

1944. Elise knows what it is to love and to hate. So what is it about Sebastian that's so irresistible to her? He wears the uniform she despises, after all it was the Germans who killed Elise's young fiance, but he's not like the others.

The writing in this is simply beautiful and heartbreaking. You really feel like you're there with these characters on the streets of Paris, you can feel the fear, the celebration, the pain. The author really is a brilliant storyteller and I was hooked on this right the way through.

Parts absolutely broke my heart and it still astounds me to this day the horrific things that happened and the strength of those who endured it.

Little fact: I live very close to Marbury Park, which is where Marbury Hall, mentioned in this book, used to stand as a POW prison after the war ended. Swipe to see the gorgeous fluffball occupants of the land today ➡️

The Last Hours in Paris is out tomorrow so let me know what you think! I can't recommend this or While Paris Slept by the same author enough!

Massive thank you to @headlinebooks and @ruth.druart for the stunning advance copy 🥰

I got The Last Hours in Paris by Ruth Druart for free from NetGalley for a fair and honest Review.

The Last Hours in Paris by Ruth Druart is a tale of love secrets and forgiveness set to the background and the after effects of the German occupation of Paris during World War II.

A well written and researched novel with engaging characters that takes you into the minds of individuals as they deal with falling in love with the enemy.

Have loved the previous book by the same author, While Paris Slept, I was greatly looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. Family secrets unravel and relationships thought lost are rekindled. Its a powerful and beautiful story and an interesting insight into Paris under German occupation. Thanks to the publisher, author and Netgalley for my arc.