The Room on Rue Amélie

By: Kristin Harmel

Narrated by: Madeleine Maby, Jacques Roy

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

For fans of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Martha Hall Kelly's Lilac Girls, this powerful novel of fate, resistance, and family - by the international best-selling author of The Sweetness of Forgetting and When We Meet Again - tells the tale of an American woman, a British RAF pilot, and a young Jewish teenager whose lives intersect in occupied Paris during the tumultuous days of World War II.

When newlywed Ruby Henderson Benoit arrives in Paris in 1939 with her French husband, Marcel, she imagines strolling arm in arm along the grand boulevards, awash in the golden afternoon light. But war is looming on the horizon, and as France falls to the Nazis, her marriage begins to splinter, too.

Charlotte Dacher is 11 when the Germans roll into the French capital, their sinister swastika flags snapping in the breeze. After the Jewish restrictions take effect and Jews are ordered to wear the yellow star, Charlotte can't imagine things getting much worse. But then the mass deportations begin, and her life is ripped forever apart.

Thomas Clarke joins the British Royal Air Force to protect his country, but when his beloved mother dies in a German bombing during the waning days of the Blitz, he wonders if he's really making a difference. Then he finds himself in Paris, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, and he discovers a new reason to keep fighting - and an unexpected road home.

When fate brings them together, Ruby, Charlotte, and Thomas must summon the courage to defy the Nazis - and to open their own broken hearts - as they fight to survive. Rich with historical drama and emotional depth, this is an unforgettable story that will stay with you long after the final minute.

©2018 Kristin Harmel (P)2018 Simon & Schuster

It was okay

Any additional comments?

The connection/similarity to Kristin Hanna's The Nightingale is weak - yes, there are common plot lines - WWII at the fore, an escape line out of Nazi occupied lands, and a love story - but I found the story and characters to be lacking development and not nearly as intruiging as the Nightingale. The story is okay and it has good entertainment value - but it really doesn't rival Hannah's book of the same genre.

Written by Capt Obvious?

I made myself finish this book, but it was painful. The dialogue was so stilted and predictably obvious and banal, it had me screaming at my iPhone at times. Of the dozens and dozens of audible books I have purchased and read (some great and others not so much) this is the first one I’ve ever returned.

I wanted to like it but...

I had great hopes for this book - I enjoy historical novels. This was just awful. The last few chapters were not too bad but the rest of it had no character development, the dialogue was weird and stilted, and there were very few descriptions of the physical surroundings or people. The dialogue didn't just ring false, it was embarrassingly bad. What made it even worse was the narrator - sounded like a high school student named Siri trying out for the school play. I kept waiting for it to get better, to justify the time I wasted listening to it. I returned it.

Good story, bad narration

The story ended up being really good but I almost stopped listening because of the narrator. The inflections in her voice we unnatural and reflected the wrong sentiment. I eventually got used to it but would have enjoyed the story much more if it weren’t for that. All-in-all, it was a good book. Not quite as gripping as some of the other WWII books I’ve read but I still enjoyed it.

The Room on Rue Ame’lie

I loved the book listened to it on Audible which makes book come to life. The book had many sad events, i know there had to be many good hearted Germany’s living during War World Il And this book tells that story. But i was somewhat disappointed with the ending. I hate when characters in books die. I will probably listen to the novel again. I always read my books many times. Very good read (listen)

Terrible ending

Good story, but no NIGHTINGALE. VERY SIMILAR PLOT BUT ENDING WAS TOO SAD AND UNSATISFYING.

great story, but didn't like it. spoiler alert

Great story, I wish I knew everyone dies in it, so I wouldn't start reading

Surprising twist at end

(As posted in GoodReads) I finished the book several days ago, but we had the book club meeting about it tonight, and I have been able to use it to solidify some of my thoughts. I generally liked the book, but the end was a total surprise. At the start, there are man and a woman are not the expected characters, and I suppose that it is a little unsettling – not necessarily in a bad way, but in a surprising way. Overall, as a Jewish American my historical introduction to World War II has been concentrated on the US and the Holocaust. This book gave a little more substance to my knowledge of the war and its effect on the rest of Western Europe and the rest of the world other than Germany and the US. We Americans are so concentrated on US and how things affect us (Americans)! Observing the war from France's viewpoint is, I think, an important addition to my overall view of World War II. The book itself, well, the dual romances were disconcerting, and I feared that it would end up being primarily a romance book. Fortunately, that fear was unfounded, but the reunion of Thomas and Ruby was more than a little unlikely… Overall, though, the book was worthwhile.

Poor narration

I found the narrator irritating, story too predictable. Regretfully I do not recommend this audible book

Great WWII historical fiction

Great story, easy read, interesting characters, set mostly in Paris. Strong women characters (men, too). To those who know WWII history there won't be any surprises, but still very enjoyable. I love WWII fiction, but wish they had gotten a man to do the male voices, or that the reader had a bit more variety to her voice.