Devastated, she doesn’t know how to support herself without him. Ruby finds out that, in the end, Marcel didn’t abandon her-he’s dead. He leaves one day and simply doesn’t come home. Marcel, however, is bitterly disappointed. When she becomes pregnant, she hopes that the news will save their marriage. Deeply unhappy, Ruby wonders if Marcel regrets marrying her now she doesn’t think their marriage will survive the war. Even when she asks him about the war, he won’t tell her anything. He blames her American heritage for her outspoken nature. He tells her that war is a man’s game and she is safer indoors. Marcel, however, doesn’t want her to leave the house. She claims that just because she is a woman doesn’t mean she is incapable of supporting the war effort. Ruby wants to fight against Hitler and the Nazis. However, when France declares war, the conflict puts an unexpected strain on their marriage. Once they’re married, they move to Paris, planning to build a successful new life together. He loves Ruby’s fiercely independent spirit and he promises to never hold her back. A very handsome and honorable Frenchman, he proposes soon after meeting her. The book opens as Ruby meets her soon-to-be husband, Marcel Benoit. Thomas, a British fighter pilot, is determined to make a difference and to fight for the people he’s lost. Ruby, an idealistic young newlywed, wants to protect her new life from the horrors of war. Eleven-year-old Charlotte lives in constant fear for her life, attempting to conceal her Jewish identity from the Nazis. The three main characters are Charlotte Dacher, Ruby Benoit, and Thomas Clarke. The book begins in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1939. The Room on Rue Amélie is her most popular novel. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Florida. Harmel is a bestselling historical novelist and freelance reporter. Critics praise the book for its blend of emotional depth, complex themes, and believable drama. A lot of the storyline may feel familiar to readers versed in Holocaust fiction - and yet this author manages to draw her audience in, even to the point of unexpected tears at the story’s end.The Room on Rue Amélie (2018), a historical novel by Kristin Harmel, centers on a Jewish teenager, an American woman, and an RAF pilot who cross paths during World War II, who must put aside their differences and join forces if they want to survive the violence. Harmel manages to tell an engaging tale within the confines of her genre. Her later love with Thomas is different - mature, powerful, and deep - he is her bashert. In retrospect, her earlier relationship with Marcel was a naïve one, based on a young girl’s expectations of marriage. The romance between Ruby and a pilot she later meets is especially gripping. We see multiple kinds of love: romantic, maternal, and even love for the stranger. The Room on Rue Am élie is, ultimately, a love story. The two become friends and co-conspirators in the resistance. She also takes on a tremendous risk in hiding Charlotte, the spirited 10-year-old Jewish girl one flat over, after her parents are sent to a concentration camp in Poland. She risks imprisonment and even death as she works in the underground effort to help English pilots who have been shot down over France. What’s worse, he seems to believe Ruby is naïve and unsophisticated in her understanding of their current reality and the gravity of the threat Hitler poses.īut Ruby’s determination to contribute will not be broken. It isn’t long before her new husband, Marcel, becomes secretive, disappearing for days at a time. Her gaiety is quickly cut short several months after her arrival when France finds itself at war with Germany. These women come alive in the representative figure of Ruby Henderson Benoit - an exuberant new bride who leaves California, the only world she has ever known, to follow her husband to Paris, in spite of her father’s warnings. A sobering account of those who lived in fear and defiance during the Holocaust, this book of historical fiction is also a surprising story of love, courage, and the resiliency of the human spirit.ĭrawing on extensive research, Harmel creates characters that allow the reader to experience the perils that were faced by those dedicated to the French Resistance - a group that was comprised mostly of the women and girls left behind to defend their beloved city. In The Room on Rue Amélie, talented novelist Kristin Harmel transports the reader to Paris during the Nazis’ occupation of the city.
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