After sixteen-year-old Alice Prewitt’s French grandmother passes away, she finds out that she has inherited an abandoned apartment in Paris. Alice travels to Paris in order to see the apartment for herself, but she makes a shocking discovery — her grandmother had a sister: Adalyn, a resistance worker during WWII. However, Alice has no idea about her great-aunt’s work, and what’s more, Adalyn’s old photos and diary suggest that she was a Nazi sympathizer. With the help of Paul, a handsome French teenager, Alice starts to uncover the truth that Adalyn took to her early grave.
This novel was fairly good. The writing was simple but beautiful, and the characters were constructed in a way that made them lovable, yet flawed and human. The alternating POV added another dimension to the story, and helped provide the perfect balance of YA contemporary and historical fiction. However, I found that The Paper Girl of Paris lacked the magic of a truly great historical fiction novel, as it glossed over some details and topics that could have provided some more emotional depth. Overall, this novel was a great, quick read.