Polly Lee

Middle grade SciFi at its finest! The audio-book has a full cast and everyone is perfect! Wells nails the voice of a adolescent boy and stayed locked in all the way through. The story of a boy on a trip to a new world and I don't know if it's a boy's nightmare or wildest dream to be the one person whose pod malfunctions and he has the colony ship all to himself. The plot is tight and moves at a quick pace, as you might imagine for a 4 hour audio-book, but I had a hard time turning it off show more when I got to work. The science is plausible and there were absolutely no rough edges anywhere to drag me out of the immersiveness of the story. I loved Zero G and it was a great introduction to Dan Wells! #ZeroG @DanWells show less

This was a very enjoyable story that would be great for upper elementary/middle schoolers. It’s fun, has suspense, and has entertaining characters. Wells does a great job of making the environment a character itself. I rated 3 bc I liked it but could see the intended audience really loving it and rating it a 5.

POSSIBLE TRIGGERS: mentions death/dying, deals with accepting/rejecting family members, mentions of abandonment.

All triggers are pretty mild but I work with a lot of foster/adopted show more kids and am aware such things can affect said children in unexpected ways so I’m putting the warming there. show less

The Paris Apartment-A World War Two novel by Kelly Bowen

WorldCat catalog URL for Audio in CD: https://search.worldcat.org/title/1255418681 (to find at your local library, or, like me, you may find it in your library’s Libby app collection.)

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
PRINT:
© April 20, 2021; ISBN: 978-1538718155; Grand Central Publishing Imprint: Forever; 416 pages; unabridged. (Paperback $14.90 @ Amazon, or check your local library.)
DIGITAL:
© April 20, 2021; 978-1538718148; ASIN: show more B08F4YZZMV; Forever; 417 pages; unabridged. ($9.99 Kindle, or check your library’s Libby app collection.)
AUDIO:
*** The format I used © May 31, 2021; ISBN: 9781549111167; Hachette Audio (Imprint: Forever); ASIN: B002Y2Q9AW; 12 hours and 15 minutes; unabridged. ($25.00 @ Amazon) [OCLC for CD’s 1255418681]

AMAZONS BEST SELLERS RANK
Print
• #343,950 in Books
• #418 in Historical World War II & Holocaust Fiction
• #804 in World War II Historical Fiction
• #1,116 in War Fiction (Books)
• Customer Reviews:
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (3,569)
Audio
• #62,247 in Audible Books & Originals
• #126 in 20th Century Historical Romance (Audible Books & Originals)
• #305 in World War II & Holocaust Historical Fiction
• #418 in Historical World War II & Holocaust Fiction

FILM:
No.

SERIES:
No

REVIEWS:
Publisher’s Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781538718155

CHARACTERS (not comprehensive):
Aurelia (Lia) Leclaire – A young woman who inherits an apartment in Paris that has been vacant for the past 30 years.
Gabriel Seymour – A restorer of art who agrees to assist Lia in learning the provenance of the paintings she’s discovered are part of her inheritance.
Sophie Seymour – A woman Lia’s grandmother knew during the war
Estelle Allard – Lia’s grandmother

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
SELECTED:
A few years ago, a fellow librarian recommended this book as one of her favorites, and I’ve been trying to find time for it ever since.
ABOUT:
The story is told from the first person perspective, of a few different characters.
A young woman visits the apartment that her deceased grandmother has left her and, appalled to find it filled with paintings by famous artists and other riches believes that her Grandmother to have been a Nazi Collaborator. She seeks assistance in ascertaining the provenance of the art pieces from a relative of a painting in the apartment by an artist she’d not heard of, in hopes of returning the art to their previous owners and in the process unravels a riveting tale.
OVERALL OPINION:
No wonder this was the first book that came to mind when I asked my librarian friend about favorites!

AUTHOR:
KELLY BOWEN:
(From Medium.com) “Kelly Bowen is an award-winning author with a lifelong passion for telling stories about remarkable women doing remarkable things in history. Her ten novels and five novellas have been published worldwide and translated into five languages.
She grew up in Manitoba, Canada, and attended the University of Manitoba, where she earned Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) and Master of Science (veterinary physiology and endocrinology). She worked as a research scientist before realizing her dream to become an author of historical fiction. Her writing career began with her entry into a Romance Writers of America chapter writing contest, which earned her a literary agent and subsequently a publishing deal.
When Kelly is not writing, she can be found coaching young athletes on the volleyball court. A university athletic scholarship recipient, she takes great pleasure in giving back to a sport that afforded her so many opportunities. She is also an avid outdoors person who enjoys fishing, backcountry canoeing, diving, and riding. Her additional interests include travel, art and art history, and reading.
Currently, Kelly Bowen lives in Winnipeg, Canada with her husband and two sons.”

[***ME: On Amazon, I count 17 published novels, most of which are Historical Romances. This one was apparently written mostly during the COVID lockdown of 2020 and, according to an interview in Medium.com, is her first Historical Fiction novel.
She based a couple of the characters on the following actual prominent women of WWII: Pearl Witherington Cornioley, Virginia Hall, Christine Granville, Nancy Wake, Josephine Baker, and Andrée de Jongh.

NARRATOR(s):
MARISA CALIN:
(From Wikipedia) “Marisa Calin (born 5 January 1983) is an American-born English actress, writer and producer.
A native of Bath, Somerset,[1] Calin began her actor’s training at the Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and at 18 attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.[2”
GEMMA DAWSON:
(From Backstage) Gemma Dawson: “Gemma is a Classically trained British actress and voiceover artist now living and working in NYC.
Gemma was born and raised in London, England. She graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, NYC and was selected as a prestigious Academy Company member the following year where she performed in plays in and around NYC. She studied Shakespeare at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London and is a passionate performer of the Classics performing in numerous roles in both London and NYC. Most recently in the Theater2020 Production of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor in NYC: "Beautiful Gemma Dawson as Pastor Evans provides excellent theatrical support"- Brooklyn Spectator. An accomplished and well-renowned Voice Over artist she has narrated over 70 audiobooks and recently performed in a multi-cast production of The New York Times Book of The Dead, reading the obituaries of infamous and powerful women such as Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Victoria and Virginia Woolf to name a few. She switches seemlessly from her native standard Brit R.P accent to an American accent, and has also performed in Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, French, Russian and Italian accents. Gemma has a UK passport and US Green card and is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA.”
POLLY LEE:
(From Tantor.com) “Polly Lee is an award-winning actress best known for her recurring roles on The Americans (FX) and Younger (Showtime). On stage, she has worked in NYC and across the country for almost twenty years. Ms. Lee has narrated over fifty nonfiction and young adult fiction books and has received numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards for her work. In addition, she has narrated over sixty romance novels under the name Ashford McNab/MacNab, receiving multiple Audie nominations for her work on Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane series. Raised in the UK, she is a dual-national and has lived in the US for twenty years, working equally in both her British (all the various regional dialects) and American dialects.”
STEVE WEST:
(From AudioFileMagazine) “Steve West started acting back home in England, doing theater, TV, voice work, and commercials. “But,” he tells us, “England doesn’t have as big an audiobook culture as we do here yet.” Eventually, he moved to Los Angeles, and after only seven years in the business, has more than 100 audiobooks recorded and a slew of impressive awards. “The thing I love about recording audiobooks is that it’s kind of a one-man play. You get to embody all the characters, of course, but you also get the control. Once you’re in the booth, it’s all you, and you bring the work from the page into a whole different form.””

GENRE:
WWII Historical Fiction

SUBJECTS (Not comprehensive):
1939-1945; Painting; Paintings; Friendships; Collaboration; Apartments France Paris Fiction; Art restorers; Courage; FICTION Historical World War II; FICTION Romance Historical 20th century;

FICTION War & Military; Women; Family secrets; Family secrets Fiction; France; France History German occupation, 1940-1945; Grandmothers Death; Grands-mères; Resistance Movements; Mouvements de résistance France; Inheritance and succession; Families; Holocaust; Jews; Nazis; War; Bombings; RAF; World War, 1939-1945 Underground movements France

TIME:
1939-1945, 2017

LOCATION(S):
Paris, France; Switzerland; London

DEDICATION:
“To the unsung heroes who fought hatred and persecution with uncommon courage and strength. Your sacrifice and efforts will not be forgotten.”

EXCERPT (From Chapter 1)
“Paris, France
10 June 2017
The woman was nude.
Painted in a swirl of angry scarlets and oranges, the woman’s arms were flung over her head, her hands outstretched, her hair a cloud of midnight floating behind her. Caught in the shaft of light that fell through the open apartment door, she gazed out with dark eyes from her canvas, angry and accusing, as if she resented the intrusion into her space and privacy. Lia froze in the open doorway, one hand clutching the heavy key and the other gripping the packet of neatly organized legal papers that said she had every right to be here.
And that this unknown apartment, along with all its contents, now belonged to her.
It is an incredibly valuable property, the lawyers had assured her. Your grandmother must have adored you, the administrative assistant had said enviously as she had examined the printed address. And Lia hadn’t replied to any of the because Grand’Mere’s motives in death were as murky as they had been in life, and Lia couldn’t be sure that adoration had figured in either.”

RATING:
5 stars.

STARTED-FINISHED
12-11-2025 - 12/15/2025 show less