January 17, 2024

THE GIRL FROM PROVENCE

MY THOUGHTS:

Lilou is a happy country girl, and at only twenty-one years old she loves her life. Her family owns the lavender farm in the South of France, that they live on. She loves the farm and its surroundings of beautiful streams and mountains.  She can’t imagine life anywhere else.  Her entire life is turned upside down when the Nazis arrive in her town with plans to take it over.  When the Nazi’s take her brother and force him into a labor camp in Germany, life as she knows it will never be the same. Lilou joins the French resistance and in no time she is hiding messages inside loaves of fresh-baked bread and meeting Allied pilots in the most remote fields.  She is then assigned to the most important and risky task of hiding Eliot, a frightened Jewish boy, in their farmhouse.  She soon discovers that the book Eliot refuses to let go of contains coded messages that could change the whole course of the war.  


The Girl from Provence by author Helen Fripp is a wonderfully written and heart-breaking novel.  The author immediately transports you to the South of France and leaves the you with the scent of lavender wafting through the air.  The storyline takes place in Provence France through World War II. This historical fiction is one that will remain in my heart for a very long time.  I loved everything about this story, from cover to cover and every page in between.  I enjoyed Lilou’s story so much, she was courages and completely relatable.  Even in the darkest hours of war, there is always a glimmer of hope and she never gave up.  Do not let another day go by without reading this phenomenal story.  Definitely worth ten stars.  This unputdownable book is one that I highly recommend.


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rating: 5 out of 4.DESCRIPTION:
THE GIRL FROM PROVENCE
Author:  Helen Fripp
Publisher:  Bookouture 
Publication Date: January 15, 2024
Pages: 333 
Buy on Amazon 

South of France, 1942. Twenty-one-year-old Lilou is selling lavender honey in the village square when the Nazis arrive in her beloved Provence. And when her best friend is dragged away simply for being Jewish, Lilou is horrified. As the village begins to take sides, Lilou secretly swears through angry sobs that she’ll sacrifice everything to fight for what’s right.

Drawn in to the French resistance, soon Lilou is smuggling hidden messages in fresh-baked loaves of bread and meeting Allied pilots in remote moonlit fields. She lives in fear that 
Kristian, a blue-eyed German soldier, knows about her work – but does he keep her secrets because he is undercover, too?

Everything changes when Lilou is given her most important task: to keep a frightened little boy, 
Eliot, hidden safe in her farmhouse. All alone in the world, Eliot refuses to speak as he clutches his treasured children’s book close to his chest. Inside is a beautiful story of stars, planets and the night sky. But why is this innocent child the one, among thousands, who Lilou must save?

When she is told Eliot’s book will help her decipher coded messages, Lilou knows he must have knowledge that could change the course of the war. But the day Kristian arrives at her farm searching for hidden Jewish families, 
Lilou is terrified that Eliot is in more danger than ever…

Can Lilou trust the one person who could tear her world apart? 
And will she ever help Eliot find his way home?

ABOUT HELEN FRIPP

I love delving into the past and uncovering new stories, and in my writing, the tiniest historical detail can spark an idea for a whole chapter. My female characters rail against the social constraints to which they are subject and often achieve great success, but they are of course flawed and human, like the rest of us. It’s the motivations, flaws, loves and every-day lives of my characters that I love to bring life, against sweeping historical backdrops – and I will find any excuse to take off and research a captivating location or person for my next story.

My first novel is set in the Champagne region in France, and I’m currently working on my next one, set in late eighteenth century Paris. I spent a lot of time in France as a child, have lived in Paris and spent a year with my family in a fishing village in South West France, so that’s where my books have ended up being set so far. Who knows where next!



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