The main character is strongly based upon the real life historical character Lee Miller, a pioneer female photojournalist who went from a model in Vogue to telling the human toll story of WWII. Jessica May is the books Lee Miller, like Miller went from model to WWII photojournalist. She had to overcome being a woman at a time of profound chauvinism. The book intertwines a love story between Jess May, Lt. Colonel Hallworth and a young orphan Victorina. The 3 lives becomes intertwined and torn apart, but yet through decades of separation still remain attached unbeknownst to most of them. It's the war journal that really is the best part of the book and this was further strengthen when reading the epilogue to learn that Jess May was strongly based off the real character Lee Miller, though Ms Lester clearly says it is not Miller's biography. Still so much of her research went into Miller and she gave Jess May many of Miller's photograph credits within the book. ( )

I feel like I need a millennium to recover from this book, but then I’d never get a review out. Holy lord almighty this book hit me hard with emotions and feelings like no book has before. I am SERIOUSLY not kidding. This book was so well written, and the story takes you on one of those really enjoyable roller coasters that has A BUNCH of twists, turns and flips. I was not expecting a lot going into this - partially because of how I felt about Anne Rice’s The Mummy and Margaret George’s The Confessions of Young Nero. This book is heart wrenching like no other that I’ve read. I actually TEARED UP at the end. ( )

After her French photographer boyfriend sabotages her modeling career, Vogue offers to continue employing Jessica May as a war correspondent. Jess has learned quite a bit of the tools of the trade from Emile and she has tinkered with writing enough to know that she can turn out the kind of woman-focused stories from Italy and France that Vogue's readers will want. But things at the Front aren't as Jess imagined, she and the other female reporters must fight their own battles just to cover the war. Jess wins a few and loses a few - some fights being more personal than others, some having consequences that reach down generations.

Lester has said that she based the character of Jess May on real-life Lee Miller and that's apparent in several areas of the book. The first 100 pages really swept me away. Then the narrative did what I have really come to dislike in these types of tales - it split from WWII to present day. I really, really liked the WWII sections. Jess May and Martha Gellhorn (Mrs Hemingway, at the time) hunting down gut-wrenching stories, the collateral damage inflicted on everyone, Jess's compassion for the soldiers and ensuing romance was beautifully written - those passages were just the best. I cannot say the same for the modern tale at all and the last 50 pages I just disengaged entirely. Such a pity. ( )

I rarely cry when reading. It takes a very special book to bring forth tears. It takes an exceptional book to bring forth the "ugly cry". You know the kind, where you are crying so hard you can't even see to read and have to stop and put it down and go wash your face.
I have not had an "ugly cry" book since Nightingale. I can now say without any reservation that the top place for that type of emotion now belongs to The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester - Author.
I can say without any doubt this book is now at the top of the books read this year about WWII.
I could not put this book down and spent many late hours reading and did not see the ending coming at all. This takes a very deep and well researched look into the women of War II. Nurses, journalists, and even the civilians in war ravaged Europe and what they had to overcome and even forget: living and existing in a world of men. Put this one on your want to read list and stock up on tissues. I would give it a sky of stars if I could.

Loved the beginning of this book which took you between WWII and present day. The characters were fantastic and the descriptions were right on. However, as the book was coming to a conclusion, I found it way to convoluted to be real. ( )