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The Girl You Left Behind edition by Jojo Moyes Literature Fiction eBooks

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The Girl You Left Behind edition by Jojo Moyes Literature Fiction eBooks

Brief summary and review, no spoilers.

This book is narrated by two different women at different points in time. The first part of the novel takes place during WWI and tells the story of Sophie LeFevre, who owns and helps run a bar/cafe in a small town outside of Paris. The town has been taken over by Germans and the locals have all suffered from deprivation and oppression at the hands of their captors.

Sophie and her sister Helene are both concerned about their husbands who are French soldiers and possibly in a prison camp or worse. Sophie's husband is a talented and fairly well-known artist named Eduoard, and Sophie's most prized possession is the portrait he did of her shortly after they first met. She has it prominently displayed on the bar wall. When the German Kommandant sees the portrait, he becomes enthralled with it and with Sophie as well. What will happen to Sophie and her family and to their town if the Germans don't leave? And what will Sophie do in order to save her husband and see him again?

The story then moves to the present times and we meet Olivia (Liv) Halston, a woman who's been in a state of depression and grief since the death of her young husband 4 years earlier. Liv is struggling financially and emotionally but things seem to take a turn for the better when she becomes attracted to a man named Paul McCafferty. Paul works for an agency that tries to give priceless paintings stolen by the Nazi's back to their original owners, and when he spots Sophie's portrait in Liv's home, he feels he must take action.

I really enjoyed the WWI parts of this book, which pretty much make up the majority of the first half. I thought this part of the book was stellar and I loved reading about Sophie and the descriptions of her life and of the conditions during the occupation were vivid and educational.

My problem came when we come to the present day. As believable as I found Sophie and the decisions she had to make - I had the opposite reactions to Liv. I didn't buy into her character and found myself often annoyed rolling my eyes at her actions and thoughts. I don't necessarily have to like the characters to like a book, but I think we were supposed to like Liv and at times I just didn't. I also had trouble buying into the relationship between her and Paul.

My biggest problem, and this is without giving away any spoilers, is that I don't like books that try to wrap up all the loose ends with a bow. I thought the book could've had a stronger impact without this and I thought there were way too many coincidences and convenient twists along the way.

So this was a mixed bag for me; I loved the WWI bits but was frustrated by the present-day storyline.


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The Girl You Left Behind edition by Jojo Moyes Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews

This novel has so many facets two love stories; a mystery; morality and survival during wartime; art theft and restitution. There really aren't any clear black and white characters, situations, or solutions, and that's one reason why I liked this book so much. It makes one think, and wonder what you would Robin the same situation.

Sophie, a Parisian shopgirl, meets and poses for Edouard Lefevre, a young artist in the Matisse school. They fall in love, marry, and are soon separated by World War 1 Edouard to serve in the French army, and Sophie to return to her village, running her family's inn with her sister Helene and caring for her younger brother and Helene's two children. When their village is occupied by the Germans, the Kommandant orders Sophie and Helene to cook for him and his officers each night, a situation that creates suspicion and distrust among her neighbors. This already fraught situation is compounded as the Kommandant reveals himself as a lover of art and culture, and is quite taken with Sophie's portrait, and its subject. When Sophie learns that Edouard has been captured and sent to a work camp where he will almost certainly die, she appeals to the Kommandant and makes an impossible choice.

One hundred years later, Sophie's portrait is hanging in the London home of Olivia, the young widow of an architect who died suddenly at 38. David had purchased this portrait of Sophie as a wedding gift for Liv, and she loves it more than anything else in the world. However, the portrait has recently been identified as an artwork stolen during wartime. The auction prices of artworks by Lefevre have hit new records, and the Lefevre family have hired a London firm to recover the painting.

Sophie and Liv are both strong, memorable, and well-developed characters. They are in very difficult situations and are faced with agonizing choices. Even many of the minor characters emerge as complete and complex people Mo, Liv's accidental roommate; Helene, Sophie's sister; Liliane, the despised German collaborator in their village; the Kommandant; and Paul, the investigator hired by the Lefevre family.

While I feel that the Sophie/Edouard storyline is the stronger of the two, the Liv's story is also intriguing and overall the book kept me turning pages into the wee hours to find out the ending - and there were a few surprises, too. All in all, this is a very good read.
I made a mistake when I started reading this book. I made the mistake of starting on a Saturday morning. Before I knew it, half of my Saturday was gone because I finished it in a little over four hours. I have loved each of the Jojo Moyes books I have read previously and she does not disappoint. This was a tale of two women Sophie, who was struggling during WWI with her husband at war and then nearly a hundred years later Liv, who was still grieving the loss of her husband. I was so incredibly engrossed with Sophie's story. This author does a great job with historical fiction. Somehow I could imagine very clearly this small town of Paris in 1916 dealing with the occupation of German soldiers. But I had to take a star away because of Liv's story. I really wasn't as engaged and she kind of annoyed me a bit. I could not put the book down though because I was so anxious to see what happened to Sophie. I won't give away any spoilers, but I do think the author took the easy way out with that one. There were too many coincidences and twists that basically had everything wrapped in a neat bow at the end. I think it was actually too neat. But I loved the story and I love happy endings so I still gave this book four stars. I can't wait to read the author's other novels!
Brief summary and review, no spoilers.

This book is narrated by two different women at different points in time. The first part of the novel takes place during WWI and tells the story of Sophie LeFevre, who owns and helps run a bar/cafe in a small town outside of Paris. The town has been taken over by Germans and the locals have all suffered from deprivation and oppression at the hands of their captors.

Sophie and her sister Helene are both concerned about their husbands who are French soldiers and possibly in a prison camp or worse. Sophie's husband is a talented and fairly well-known artist named Eduoard, and Sophie's most prized possession is the portrait he did of her shortly after they first met. She has it prominently displayed on the bar wall. When the German Kommandant sees the portrait, he becomes enthralled with it and with Sophie as well. What will happen to Sophie and her family and to their town if the Germans don't leave? And what will Sophie do in order to save her husband and see him again?

The story then moves to the present times and we meet Olivia (Liv) Halston, a woman who's been in a state of depression and grief since the death of her young husband 4 years earlier. Liv is struggling financially and emotionally but things seem to take a turn for the better when she becomes attracted to a man named Paul McCafferty. Paul works for an agency that tries to give priceless paintings stolen by the Nazi's back to their original owners, and when he spots Sophie's portrait in Liv's home, he feels he must take action.

I really enjoyed the WWI parts of this book, which pretty much make up the majority of the first half. I thought this part of the book was stellar and I loved reading about Sophie and the descriptions of her life and of the conditions during the occupation were vivid and educational.

My problem came when we come to the present day. As believable as I found Sophie and the decisions she had to make - I had the opposite reactions to Liv. I didn't buy into her character and found myself often annoyed rolling my eyes at her actions and thoughts. I don't necessarily have to like the characters to like a book, but I think we were supposed to like Liv and at times I just didn't. I also had trouble buying into the relationship between her and Paul.

My biggest problem, and this is without giving away any spoilers, is that I don't like books that try to wrap up all the loose ends with a bow. I thought the book could've had a stronger impact without this and I thought there were way too many coincidences and convenient twists along the way.

So this was a mixed bag for me; I loved the WWI bits but was frustrated by the present-day storyline.