It's 1942 and Paris is fast becoming a dangerous place for Jews.  This is brought home one terrifying night when Eva Traube's father is arrested by the Gestapo.  A chance visit to a neighbor is all that saved Eva and her mother from being taken as well.  With their names on the Nazis' round-up list, the women have targets on their backs.  Despite her mother's insistence that she's not leaving Paris without her husband, Eva forces the issue.  She forges new papers for them and the two women are able to sneak out of the city to Aurignon, a small mountain village in the Free Zone of south central France.

When the leader of a local Resistance group sees how well Eva's papers are forged, he urges her to put her skills to use by helping to make false papers for the Jewish children the group is smuggling into Switzerland.  Although reluctant to put herself and her mother at risk, she agrees in exchange for shelter and promises for help in securing her father's release.  As Eva systematically gives the fleeing kids new names, thus erasing their Jewish identities, she grows distressed as she realizes some of them will be too young to remember their true names when the war ends.  Using an old, forgotten religious text, she records every one so the information will never be lost.  With tension heating up in Aurignon, however, Eva's work and the secret record book are both in imminent danger...

Sixty-five years later, Eva is stunned to see a newspaper article about books recovered from Nazi stores after the war.  Among them is one she never thought she would see again.  Does she have the courage to revisit the traumas of her past in order to reveal the secrets she once protected with her life?

I find World War II endlessly fascinating, so I've read tons of books set during that time period.  Because so many of them are so similar, I'm always on the lookout for those that bring something new to the genre.  The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel has been getting so much buzz that I thought it might do just that.  And it does.  Sort of.  I've read few World War II novels about the French experience, so the book's setting was a new one for me.  The forgery angle was also one I hadn't really encountered before.  Both of these elements made the novel interesting.  The rest of it, though?  Meh.  The characters are pretty cliché and there are no surprises in the plot.  It's a very run-of-the-mill story, really, and one that is made even worse by stale, simplistic prose (I felt like I was reading a YA novel or even a middle-grade one, at times) and a predictable plot (I saw the twists coming from miles away and the novel's final scene is obvious from the get-go).  The characters are likable because, for the most part, they're good people doing good things, but none of them are developed enough to feel like real human beings.  Eva drove me a little nuts because she doesn't really do anything.  Yes, she risks her life by creating forged documents, but it's all very benign—she's in no real danger until the very end of the book.  Thus, for a war story, The Book of Lost Names is actually fairly dull, with not a lot of action to keep it exciting.  It's really more of a romance than anything else.  Since I never felt any real sparks between Eva and Rémy anyway, I didn't care all that much about the love story.  I wanted more derring-do, more action, more suspense.  

Don't get me wrong, The Book of Lost Names isn't a bad book.  It kept my attention enough that I read to the end.  It's also cleaner than most adult novels, which I appreciate.  My problem is I just wanted more from it—more originality, more character development, more emotion, more excitement, etc.  In the end, unfortunately, this was just an average read for me.     

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other novels about World War II, although no specific titles are coming to mind)

My 12-year-old daughter has been keeping a verbal Christmas countdown for a few weeks now.  When she said, "It's 20 days away," I couldn't believe it.  Now that it's ten, I'm even more shook.  It's always surreal when the Big Day finally gets here, isn't it?  I'm just glad she still has her little-girl excitement about the holiday.  Thankfully, I'm ready—my shopping is done, Christmas cards have been sent, the halls are decked, and we're getting ready to make our traditional homemade doughnuts to give out to neighbors and friends.  My college freshman comes home in a week, so I get to have all four of my kids under one roof for the first time in months and for the last time (at least for the foreseeable future), since my oldest moved out a couple months ago and is getting married on January 2nd.  Whew.  The next three weeks are going to be a marathon.  When all my company goes home on January 4th, I'm going to sleep for a month!

Despite this whirlwind of activity, I just finished my 183rd book of the year.  Can I finish 17 more before January 1 to reach my goal of reading 200 books this year?  We shall see.  There are a handful I still need to read for challenges and a few others I'm going to try to get to.  I'm not stressing about it (obviously, I'm not obsessed with my reading stats AT ALL), but I'll do my best.  My all-time reading high was 186 books read in a year—at the least, I'll beat that record by a few.  How are you doing on your 2020 reading goals?

Naturally, I've also been thinking about how I want to start off 2021, book-wise.  I've already discussed a lot of the reads I'm really looking forward to in recent lists, so I've tried to fill this one with new titles.  These aren't my most anticipated reads, but they are definitely ones that are on my Winter TBR list.  Without further ado (since there's already been a lot of ado), here we go with:

1.  The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman—I have this one out from the library right now, but I doubt I'll get to it before 2020 fades away.  It's about a group of friends in a retirement home who solve murders. The book sounds super fun and it's gotten great reviews, so I'm excited to read it.

2.  The Survivors by Jane Harper (available February 2, 2021)—I've enjoyed all of Harper's mystery/thrillers, so I've been waiting patiently for this one, her newest.  This one revolves around a man who's visiting his seaside hometown with his young family when a body washes up on shore.  Could it be that of his missing brother?  As authorities investigate, old secrets are churned up.  What really happened to Finn?  I'm always up for a hometown secrets mystery, especially when it's penned by one of my favorite authors.  Can't wait!

3.  Without a Brew by Ellie Alexander—I just started this latest installment in the Sloan Krause cozy mystery series.  The books are set in Leavenworth, Washington, a German-inspired tourist town.  Sloan is a beer brewer and amateur sleuth.  It's a light, fun series that I enjoy.

4.  Death in the Family by Tessa Wegert—This mystery series opener features a former NYPD detective who's taken a job in a sleepy upstate New York town to take a breather.  When a man goes missing on a nearby private island, she's called in to investigate.  Although it looks like murder to our heroine, no one in the victim's family is talking.  With a vicious nor'easter brewing all around, it looks like she's going to be stuck on an isolated island with the killer ...

5.  The Girl Who Wasn't There by Penny Joelson—Billed as Rear Window for the YA set, this mystery is about Kasia, a homebound girl who witnesses a kidnapping on her street.  Another girl was watching from another window, but when Kasia rushes out to find her she gets a shock—there is no girl.  What exactly did Kasia witness?  How can she solve a crime if she's not sure there was one?  Sounds dark, but intriguing!

6.  Alone in the Woods by Rebecca Behrens—This middle-grade survival story concerns two former best friends who become stranded in the woods when their boat springs a leak during a rafting/camping trip.  Despite their issues with each other, they have to work together to find their way out.

7.  The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel—World War II novels always appeal to me and this one sounds excellent.  It's about a woman who uses her skills in forgery to help hundreds of Jewish kids evade the Nazis and make sure their true identities are not lost in the chaos.  I'm in!

8.  The Color of Air by Gail Tsukiyama—My brother lives in Hilo, Hawaii, which looks like a beautiful and interesting place.  Hilo is the setting of this historical novel that concerns a Japanese-American community living there and dealing with a variety of issues, including the impending eruption of a volcano.  It alternates between 1918 and 1935, time periods I haven't read tons about.  I've enjoyed other books by Tsukiyama, so I'm excited for this one.

9.  An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn (available March 2, 2021)—Although this mystery, the newest in Raybourn's delightful Veronica Speedwell series, doesn't come out until Spring, I have an e-ARC.  I adore these books, so I can't wait to delve into the latest installment.  It concerns the suspicious death of a female mountain climber and a princess who goes missing.  

10.  Midnight Without a Moon by Linda Williams Jackson—I'm always looking for good historical middle-grade novels and this one sounds intriguing.  It's about a young girl whose parents are sharecroppers in Mississippi in 1955.  When Emmett Till is murdered nearby, she looks for ways to help with the Civil Rights movement.

There you have it, ten books I'd like to get to this winter.  Have you read any of these?  What's on your winter TBR list?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on yours.