The Lost Diary of Cécile Dubonnet

Forgetting the Yesterdays of World War II

Fiction - Historical - Event/Era
324 Pages
Reviewed on 01/06/2023
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite

The Lost Diary of Cécile Dubonnet: Forgetting the Yesterdays of World War II by A P Harper is a historical fiction novel with a solid plot and even stronger characters. The story opens in Paris, 1999, when Hénri Durant decided to remodel his apartment. He wasn’t expecting to find an old diary underneath his floorboards. The diary belonged to 20-year-old Cécile Dubonnet who lived there in 1938 when the Second World War was about to wreak havoc in the world. Young and innocent, Cécile fell in love with a German diplomat named Ludwig König. As the naïve Cécile fell in love, the chaos of war began and changed her life forever. She wasn’t expecting the changes but fate had other plans for her. Hénri had no idea that reading a hidden diary would change his life forever.

I was not expecting The Lost Diary of Cécile Dubonnet to take the turn it did and what an awesome turn it was. I loved how the story was not just flashbacks and a dry ending in the present. Author A P Harper actually gave us a good fragmented story that came together to become a masterpiece. I loved the diary entries but I also adored Hénri and how he reacted after reading Cécile’s story. I loved how the flow of the story changed toward the end. Ruth’s character was vital to the development and to Hénri’s quest to find what he was looking for (you will have to read it to find out what it was). The ending was bittersweet, but it was perfect. It followed the pace of the story and its theme; it gave Hénri a direction and a purpose, something that he had been lacking at the beginning of the story. His development followed the development of the plot and these complemented each other! I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a new perspective on WW2.