Breakaway Books

Authored by Kristen Harmel; Published June 2025; Historical Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️

Okay, I *am* tired of World War II historical fiction novels, and I could understand if you were too. But, if I were you, I’d make an exception for The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau, which somehow manages to balance just the right amount of light and dark as the story unfolds.

Colette Marceau was raised to honor the legacy of her family: Descended from Robin Hood, they steal from the rich and immoral to benefit the poor and good. As young as ten years old, she is trained by her mother to lift jewelry and watches off the adults around her. But Colette’s life is upended when a heist during WWII ends her mother executed and her little sister mysteriously killed, and it is years before Colette gathers the courage to take up the family trade once more. Even decades later, Colette remains haunted by her little sister’s fate, her specter raised again when Colette discovers a stolen, familiar piece of jewelry that could unlock the puzzle—in Boston, of all places, where Colette has started working with lawyer Aviva on efforts to ensure the Holocaust is not forgotten. Dedicated to discovering how the jewelry came to America, she begins to unravel more secrets than she could ever have foreseen.

This novel is easy to love. I strongly believe that there is a part of all of us that roots for Robin Hood and his ilk, and when he’s stealing from Nazis, it’s that much easier. Of course, in some ways, Colette’s story is wildly unrealistic, especially considering the astronomical amounts of money that she claims to have stolen without repercussion throughout the decades. But with the all too accurate misery of WWII in the background, a little detachment from realism seems just fine. There are other bits that are more difficult to swallow, namely, just how quickly and easily all the characters seem to spill long-held family secrets to each other, but generally, these were mere bumps on a very smooth road. The only element of the narrative that really bothered me was Colette’s father, who is so cruel and unfeeling that he abandons his daughter in Paris during WWII despite the clear danger. How could Colette’s mother, portrayed as a hero of sorts, end up with such a man?

The romance storylines (there are multiple!) are cute, rather than hot. When a romance involves children or nonagenarians, it’s hard to be anything but cute. That being said, they were easy and joyful to read, rather than filled with drama and obstacles. It’s Colette’s (the nonagenarian version) love stories that filled me with joy, while Aviva’s, arguably a woman in her prime, is sort of… meh. I was fine with it, because Colette is clearly the star of this novel and far more interesting, anyway. All the romances make for a welcome respite from the horrors of occupied Paris in WWII as the perspective switched back and forth between events in the middle of the twentieth century and the 2020s.

Yes, The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau is another Europe-based WWII novel in a sea of WWII novels. But it is novel and light enough that you will zoom through it!