This historical fiction novel centres on the stories of Odile and Lily. In the 1940s Odile works at the American Library in Paris where she navigates relationships while trying to protect the library from the Nazis. In the 1980s in smalltown Montana, Lily is becoming a teenager and struggling in her relationships with both her family and friends. For support, she turns to her neighbour, Odile.

I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with this book. As a book lover, I really enjoyed the world of the library with its employees, volunteers, and subscribers that the author created. The story, based on real events and people, offered a perspective of WWII that I haven’t read about before and gave me an appreciation for the efforts to preserve literature during the war.

I felt the story lagged at times and I found it odd that there were a few short chapters from the perspective of one of the side characters - not Odile or Lily. The description of the book leads you to believe the chapters will focus on Odile and Lily in their respective time periods so the addition of solo chapters for a few of the side characters was peculiar and distracted a bit from the main stories. I also think that the actions of young Odile’s love interest towards the end of the book didn’t fit his character. Maybe the message was supposed to be that war changes people, but it just didn’t sit well with me. All in all, I don’t think I’d recommend this book, even to historical fiction fans.