A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan

 My thoughts

This is such a good book. I read and loved Girls On The Line by this same author and this one is even better. 

It's two timelines and two main characters. Starting in 1870 with the threat of Prussians starving out Paris. Lisette Vigneau is ignored by her parents. She runs away to be with the love of her life National Guardsman,  Théodore Fournier. Lisette is a fighter. She believes in her fight to save Paris and she opens up a bakery to help feed the people. Of course she questions herself along the way but she's strong and she has Theo on her side. 

Then we meet Lisette's great granddaughter Micheline. It's post WW2 1946 and Micheline's father is dead. Her mother has been missing for two years and Micheline is left to raise her younger sisters. She gets the chance to go to baking school while raising her sisters which is hard but could mean a lot to their lives too. She's also trying to find their mother. Micheline has so much going on.

This book is filled with hard choices, loss, love and a great love of baking. You find some pretty awesome recipes. An author's love of her work is obvious in this wonderfully written novel. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #AimieKRunya, #WilliamMorrow for this ARC. This is truly my thoughts about this book.

Five huge stars and the highest recommendation. 

Synopsis

From the author of The School for German Brides, this captivating historical novel set in nineteenth-century and post-World War II Paris follows two fierce women of the same family, generations apart, who find that their futures lie in the four walls of a simple bakery in a tiny corner of Montmartre.



1870: The Prussians are at the city gates, intent to starve Paris into submission. Lisette Vigneau--headstrong, willful, and often ignored by her wealthy parents--awaits the outcome of the war from her parents' grand home in the Place Royale in the very heart of the city. When an excursion throws her into the path of a revolutionary National Guardsman, Th�odore Fournier, her destiny is forever changed. She gives up her life of luxury to join in the fight for a Paris of the People. She opens a small bakery with the hopes of being a vital boon to the impoverished neighborhood in its hour of need. When the city falls into famine, and then rebellion, her resolve to give up the comforts of her past life is sorely tested.

1946: Nineteen-year-old Micheline Chartier is coping with the loss of her father and the disappearance of her mother during the war. In their absence, she is charged with the raising of her two younger sisters. At the hand of a well-meaning neighbor, Micheline finds herself enrolled in a prestigious baking academy with her entire life mapped out for her. Feeling trapped and desperately unequal to the task of raising two young girls, she becomes obsessed with finding her mother. Her classmate at the academy, Laurent Tanet, may be the only one capable of helping Micheline move on from the past and begin creating a future for herself.

Both women must grapple with loss, learn to accept love, and face impossible choices armed with little more than their courage and a belief that a bit of flour, yeast, sugar, and love can bring about a revolution of their own.