Paris is the setting in “The Paris Daughter” by Kristin Harmel, where the threat of German occupation looms over everyone. Two young women meet by chance in a park and become good friends. The fact that they meet while pregnant, and give birth to daughters almost the exact same age, cements the bond that Elise and Juliette feel. There is also the fact that both are Americans who moved to France to be with their French husbands. Both their daughters end up feeling almost like sisters as they often play together.

While Elise is married to a mercurial, well-known artist, Juliette has married a slightly older man who runs his family’s bookstore. Juliette has two other other children — both boys — but she also grieves for the daughter who died shortly after birth and whose grave she often visits. Elise has only her one daughter, Mathilde, and her husband grows increasingly political during the unrest before the occupation of France. He ends up incurring the wrath of the Nazis and suffers accordingly. But his idea of how to protect his wife and daughter results in Elise asking Juliette to care for Mathilde while she goes into hiding so the Nazis can’t kill her. They believe she is involved in her husband’s anti-Geman activities.

Over the ensuing pages, we see how both Elisa and Juliette survive through the harsh war years. We also see how they each struggle to survive after the horrifying losses they endure during the war, each in different ways. The ending takes place in 1960, years after the war has ended. We see that both women are still tormented by decisions they made decades earlier, and we see what happens when they finally meet for the first time since Elise left her daughter in Juliette’s care.

The twist is certainly not unexpected, but it is touching nonetheless. On the whole, this historical fiction is about motherhood and sacrifice, and the lengths we will go to in order to protect those we love. It’s also about the aftermath of horrific loss, and how the sudden loss of loved ones can shake our world and perhaps even crack the fragile membrane of our sanity. War destroys more than just our physical bodies; it destroys families and often ruins the lives of those who survive. The question about being a good mother and what we do in the name of love is one that will haunt you for days after you’ve finished this lovely and moving historical fiction.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.