Books Like The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Book Summary

Alice’s grandmother, Adalyn, just passed away, and she left the sixteen-year-old an apartment in Paris – one that’s been locked up for more than seventy years and that no one in the family knew existed.

Now Alice is spending the summer in Paris, and with the help of Paul – a Parisian student – she’s determined to find out why her grandma never mentioned the family that she left behind when she left France during WWII. The more she learns about the past, the more she realizes that her family is also hiding secrets in the present.

This dual-timeline YA novel also transports us back to Paris in the 1940s. It’s a city that sixteen-year-old Adalyn hardly recognizes as the Occupation brings new terrors daily. When she meets a young leader of a resistance group, she sees an opportunity to fight back, but she soon finds herself having to make more and more compromises.

Book Summary

Based on Nancy Wake’s real life, Code Name Helene introduces you to four different names of this unlikely Australian helper. 

As Lucienne, she smuggles people across the border to safety. Her success in those efforts leads to a bounty on her life and a new nickname, The White Mouse. 

After training with the Special Operations Executive in Britain, she was assigned the code name Hélêne. When she returned from training and became an influential leader in the French Resistance, she became Madam André.

Book Summary

In 1940, the Nazis invaded and occupied the Channel Islands, including Jersey. While thousands of islanders evacuated, many also stayed in their homes, including librarian Grace and her best friend Bea, a postwoman.

By 1943, Grace had become Chief Librarian after her boss was sent to an internment camp in Germany. She is taking a significant risk in hiding books banned by the Nazis in order to protect them from destruction. She also strongly believes in the importance of access to books during this terrible period. But when neighbors are offered extra rations for reporting each other, who can she trust?

Book Summary

Ella Franks is a journalist writing under a male pseudonym because female writers were not allowed at her paper. When her identity is discovered, she has to decide whether to give up her big dreams or take a new opportunity to travel to Europe to report on the war. 

She meets Danni, a trailblazing female photographer fighting to be near the action. Danni wants to get photos from the frontlines to help those at home understand what it’s like in the field. 

The women begrudgingly team up after taking a risk to get to Normandy, where they end up even closer to the action than they intended.

Book Summary

In 1947, pregnant and unmarried American college student Charlie defies her family to search for her missing cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France. Her quest leads her to Eve, a reclusive former WWI spy from the real-life Alice Network who spent years gathering intelligence in German-occupied France.

Haunted by betrayal and driven by unfinished business, Eve and Charlie embark on a journey to uncover long-buried secrets and find the truth, no matter the cost.

Book Summary

In 1940s England, there was an increasing danger in London as war spread across Europe. The government developed a program to evacuate the children out of the city temporarily into foster homes. They’d be returned to their parents after the threat had passed. This true event was called Operation Pied Piper and inspired this book. 

Emmy is 15 and has dreams of being a fashion designer, and shortly after receiving a huge opportunity, she’s told she is moving with her much younger sister, Julia, to the Cotswolds. Emmy does not want to leave London, but boards the train to protect her sister. 

Their story continues to unfold as they find their foster home, and Emmy plans to escape back to London. The book also has a split timeline component, with a smaller percentage of the pages following an American student, Kendra, in the present day. She needs to interview someone who lived during the war and is connected with Isabel McFarland, who has been holding onto some big secrets for the past 7 decades.

Book Summary

Inspired by the author’s own family history, this novel is a tragic love story. Alina and Tomasz were best friends who planned to marry. But when their village falls to the Nazis, Alina doesn’t know if Tomasz is alive or dead. 

Decades later, Alice is struggling to support her son, who was born with an autism spectrum disorder. When her grandmother is hospitalized, she begs Alice to return to Poland to see what became of those she loved. Alice travels to Poland and begins to uncover her grandmother’s story.

Book Summary

Lilac Girls crosses three continents and follows three women whose lives are on a collision course. 

Caroline is a New York socialite working at the French consulate, Kasia is a Polish teenager and a courier for the underground resistance movement, and Herta is an ambitious young German doctor who finds herself trapped in a male-dominated world of Nazi secrets and power.

The book alternates between the three stories, each providing thought-provoking insights into uniquely difficult situations as the war progressed.

Book Summary

Emma is a 22-year-old baker in a small town on the Normandy coast of France. After her Jewish mentor is removed from his shop, she has to take over the bakery.

Throughout the years of war, and under the watchful eyes of the enemy, Emma builds up a clandestine network of barter and trade, risking her life to make sure as many villagers as possible have bread and other food. In addition to helping the villagers meet their physical needs, she also helps restore their hope.

Book Summary

Daughter of the Reich centers on Hetty Heinrich, the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking officer. She’s ready to play her part in the Thousand Year Reich.

Everything changes for Hetty when she runs into Walter, a Jewish friend from the past. Soon, Hetty realizes she is being watched. As anti-Semitism rises to play a leading role in the regime, can their love survive the growing hatred surrounding them?

Book Summary

Two best friends, a female pilot and a female spy, are flying over occupied France in 1943 when their plane crashes. 

When the Gestapo arrests “Verity,” she’s sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.