First Line Friday — Until Leaves Fall In Paris

4 Mar

I am looking forward to R&R this weekend — reading and relaxing. I am taking Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin with me. Sarah is one of my go-to historical fiction authors. My book club loves her too. We will be discussing this book in a couple months. Can’t wait!

In the meantime, here’s the first line.

As long as she kept dancing, Lucille Girard could pretend the world wasn’t falling apart.

As the Nazis march toward Paris in 1940, American ballerina Lucie Girard buys her favorite English-language bookstore to allow the Jewish owners to escape. Lucie struggles to run Green Leaf Books due to oppressive German laws and harsh conditions, but she finds a way to aid the resistance by passing secret messages between the pages of her books.

Widower Paul Aubrey wants nothing more than to return to the States with his little girl, but the US Army convinces him to keep his factory running and obtain military information from his German customers. As the war rages on, Paul offers his own resistance by sabotaging his product and hiding British airmen in his factory. After they meet in the bookstore, Paul and Lucie are drawn to each other, but she rejects him when she discovers he sells to the Germans. And for Paul to win her trust would mean betraying his mission.

Master of WWII-era fiction Sarah Sundin invites you onto the streets of occupied Paris to discover whether love or duty will prevail.

Sarah Sundin enjoys writing about the drama and romance of the World War II era. She is the bestselling author of Until Leaves Fall in Paris (February 2022), When Twilight Breaks (2021), the Sunrise at Normandy series, and three more World War II series. 

Sarah’s novels have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. When Twilight Breaks and The Land Beneath Us were finalists for the Christy Award, The Sky Above Us won the 2020 Carol Award, and When Tides Turn and Through Waters Deep were both named to Booklist’s 101 Best Romance Novels of the Past 10 Years. 

A mother of three, Sundin lives in California and enjoys speaking to community, church, and writers’ groups. Sarah serves as Co-Director for the West Coast Christian Writers Conference. Please visit Sarah at http://www.sarahsundin.com, on Facebook at SarahSundinAuthor, on Twitter at @sarahsundin, and on Instagram at @sarahsundinauthor.

5 Responses to “First Line Friday — Until Leaves Fall In Paris”

  1. Paula Shreckhise March 4, 2022 at 11:56 am #

    I loved Sarah’s book!
    My First line is from Enchanting the Heiress by Kristi Hunter:
    December 1817. Newmarket, England
    How could Jonas Fitzroy possibly follow his twin sister’s directive to stop watching over and protecting her, when she actually believed in the crazy plans she’d just laid out to him?

  2. Cindy Davis March 4, 2022 at 2:34 pm #

    That’s a great first line! Have a good weekend! https://cindysbookcorner.blogspot.com/2022/03/first-line-friday-41-edgewater-road.html

  3. KymPossible March 4, 2022 at 5:18 pm #

    WWII era is not a historical setting I usually go for, but this looks so good.

  4. Nicole Santana March 5, 2022 at 10:05 am #

    I’m currently halfway through To Disguise the Truth by Jen Turano. It’s great!
    “Not that you’re going to want to hear this, but after listening to your diatribe against Arthur for the past hour, complete with complaints about his character, his handsome face, and the way he makes you long to punch him, I’m left wondering if the contentious relationship both of you share is something entirely different than a clash of two strong personalities.”
    Have a wonderful weekend! 😀❤📚

  5. Danielle Grandinetti March 6, 2022 at 12:53 pm #

    We’re book twins today! My first line is also from Until the Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin. https://daniellegrandinetti.com/2022/03/04/until-leaves-fall-in-paris

Comments are closed.

Discover more from By The Book

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading