Author Guide · Historical Fiction
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At sixteen Kristin Harmel was covering Major League Baseball and NHL hockey for a Tampa Bay sports magazine; from 2000 to 2012 she was a reporter for PEOPLE. Her first six novels, published from 2006, were contemporary comedies and young-adult books. In 2012 The Sweetness of Forgetting took her into the Second World War, and most of what she has written since goes back there: forgers making papers for Jewish children, a girl raised alone in a Belarusian forest, the Champagne cellars of occupied Reims, a prisoner-of-war camp in Florida. The Book of Lost Names (2020) was a National Jewish Book Award finalist. This guide covers her 11 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 11 key books · 2006–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Kristin Harmel has published sixteen novels and one novella. The key ones are The Sweetness of Forgetting (2012), The Room on Rue Amélie (2018), The Winemaker’s Wife (2019), The Book of Lost Names (2020), The Forest of Vanishing Stars (2021), The Paris Daughter (2023), The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau (2025) and Meet Me in Paris (2026). Start with The Book of Lost Names, her best-known book, about a young forger in occupied France who keeps a coded record of the children she saves.
Where to Start with Kristin Harmel
If you want her best-known book
→ The Book of Lost Names (2020) — a forger in occupied France, a National Jewish Book Award finalist.
If you want no present-day timeline
→ The Room on Rue Amélie (2018) — three lives in occupied Paris, told entirely in the war.
If you want a survival story
→ The Forest of Vanishing Stars (2021) — a girl raised in the Naliboki forest.
If you want where her war novels began
→ The Sweetness of Forgetting (2012).
11 Kristin Harmel Books, in Order
How to Sleep with a Movie Star
Her debut, published in February 2006, a romantic comedy written while she was still a magazine reporter. A celebrity journalist at a fashion magazine wakes up in a film star’s bed, with nothing having happened, and has to live with the tabloid version of the story. It opens the contemporary phase of six novels that ran to 2010.
The Sweetness of Forgetting
Hope McKenna-Smith runs her family’s bakery on Cape Cod. Her grandmother, losing her memory to Alzheimer’s, gives her a list of names and sends her to Paris, where Hope uncovers a wartime past the family never spoke about. Her first Second World War novel, and the first of the dual-timeline books she is now known for.
The Life Intended
A widowed music therapist, about to remarry, begins dreaming of the life she would have had if her husband had lived, including a deaf daughter who may or may not exist. Published by Gallery Books on 30 December 2014; it is her last contemporary novel before the war books took over.
When We Meet Again
A freelance writer receives a painting of her late grandmother and traces it back to a camp in Florida that held German prisoners of war during the Second World War. The novel sets a little-known part of the war on the American home front against a present-day family search.
The Room on Rue Amélie
Occupied Paris, told by three people: Ruby, an American who has married a Frenchman; Charlotte, the eleven-year-old Jewish girl next door; and Thomas, an RAF pilot shot down over France. Ruby joins an escape line that hides Allied airmen. Unlike most of her later books it has no present-day frame.
The Winemaker’s Wife
In 1940 Champagne, Inès, the young wife of a winemaker, and Céline, the half-Jewish wife of the house’s chief winemaker, hide resistance munitions in the cellars under Reims. In 2019 an American woman is taken to France by her grandmother and learns what happened between them. The fictional family house is set among real figures, including the German wine administrator Otto Klaebisch.
The Book of Lost Names
Eva Traube, a Jewish graduate student who has fled Paris, forges identity papers for Jewish children escaping to neutral Switzerland, and records their real names in code in an old religious book so they will not be lost. Decades later Eva, now a librarian in Florida, sees a photograph of that book, found in a Berlin library, in a newspaper. A National Jewish Book Award finalist and a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award finalist.
The Forest of Vanishing Stars
Yona was taken from her parents in Germany as a two-year-old and raised in the forests of Eastern Europe by an old woman, Jerusza, who taught her to survive there. In 1941, alone after Jerusza’s death, she meets Jewish refugees fleeing the ghettos and teaches them to live in the forest. Harmel consulted Aron Bielski, who survived the war with the Bielski partisans, and a wildlife expert on the Naliboki Forest.
The Paris Daughter
Two American women in Paris, Elise and Juliette, become friends through their daughters in 1939. When Elise has to go into hiding, she leaves her daughter with Juliette, and a bomb then destroys the neighbourhood and Juliette’s bookshop. After the war Elise comes back to ruins and begins a long search. Publishers Weekly called it her strongest novel to date.
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
Colette Marceau is a jewel thief who, like her mother, steals only from the cruel. In 1942 Paris a raid goes wrong: her mother is executed, her little sister Liliane is lost, and a diamond bracelet hidden in the child’s nightgown disappears. Decades later the bracelet appears in a Boston museum. Published in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand as All the Diamonds in Paris.
Meet Me in Paris
Nine Americans and seven love stories over one spring week in Paris. Among them a dying mother and her daughter on a last trip, a rock star on a reunion tour, and the songwriter Henry McGee, who has believed for eighty years that his first love died in wartime Paris and learns she is alive. Published by Gallery Books on 28 July 2026.
In What Order to Read Kristin Harmel
There is no series and there are no recurring characters, so every book stands alone. Her work falls into two phases: six contemporary and young-adult novels from 2006 to 2010, and from 2012 the Second World War novels that made her name, with The Life Intended (2014) and Meet Me in Paris (2026) set mostly in the present.
Most of the war novels use two timelines, a present-day woman uncovering a wartime story. The Room on Rue Amélie and The Forest of Vanishing Stars stay in the past. Two title traps: All the Diamonds in Paris is the UK title of The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau, and The Paris Daughter came out in 2023, although some lists give 2022.
A reading path
1. The Book of Lost Names (2020)
2. The Winemaker’s Wife (2019)
3. The Room on Rue Amélie (2018)
4. The Forest of Vanishing Stars (2021)
5. The Paris Daughter (2023)
Everything Else Kristin Harmel Published
Beyond the 11 key books: 6 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Early contemporary novels
3
3 books · 2007–2009
- 2007The Blonde Theorya New York lawyer pretends to be dim on dates
- 2007The Art of French Kissinga jilted publicist takes a job in Paris; US edition 2008
- 2009Italian for Beginnersa cautious New Yorker goes to Rome
Young-adult novels
2
2 books · 2008–2010
- 2008When You Wisha teenage pop star tries an ordinary life
- 2010Aftera girl copes with her father’s death in a car accident
Novella
1
1 book · 2016
- 2016How to Save a Lifea novella published as an ebook
The years · 1979–2026
Quick facts about Kristin Harmel
- Known for
- Second World War novels, most of them told in two timelines, about little-known corners of the war, above all The Book of Lost Names (2020).
- 1979
- Born in Newton, Massachusetts
- 2000
- Joins PEOPLE as a reporter
- 2026
- Meet Me in Paris
- Born
- 4 May 1979, Newton, Massachusetts
- Lives
- Orlando, Florida; she has also lived in Paris and Los Angeles
- Before fiction
- Sportswriter from 16; reporter for PEOPLE from 2000 to 2012
- Studied
- Journalism, with a minor in Spanish, at the University of Florida
- Books
- Sixteen novels and one novella
- Also
- Co-founder and co-host of the web show and podcast Friends & Fiction
- Translated
- Into more than 35 languages, according to her website
The red mark is 2020: The Book of Lost Names, her best-known novel.
How Kristin Harmel Writes: A Reporter’s Research
Harmel says she uses the research and fact-finding methods she learned in a decade at PEOPLE. For The Book of Lost Names she read about the war’s most prolific forgers and acquired real documents of the kind forgers used; for The Forest of Vanishing Stars she consulted Aron Bielski, who survived in the forest with the Bielski partisans, and a wildlife expert on the Naliboki Forest. Her author’s notes list the reading behind each book.
From 2012 her usual structure is two timelines: a woman in the present receives or finds something, a list of names, a painting, a photograph in a newspaper, a bracelet in a museum case, and follows it back to the war. The strands alternate and meet in a revelation about family or identity. The Room on Rue Amélie and The Forest of Vanishing Stars break the pattern and stay in the past.
Her central characters are invented, set among real places and sometimes real people, such as the German wine administrator Otto Klaebisch in The Winemaker’s Wife. She tends to choose a less familiar part of the war each time: the Champagne cellars, a Florida prisoner-of-war camp, a forest in Belarus. For novelists working the same ground, see Authors like Kristin Harmel.
Frequently asked questions about Kristin Harmel’s books
How many books has Kristin Harmel written?
Sixteen novels and one novella. Six belong to her early contemporary and young-adult phase (2006–2010); the rest followed from 2012, most of them set in the Second World War. The novella is How to Save a Life (2016). This guide covers 11 key books and lists the rest under “Everything else”.
What are Kristin Harmel’s books in order?
How to Sleep with a Movie Star (2006), The Blonde Theory (2007), The Art of French Kissing (2007), When You Wish (2008), Italian for Beginners (2009), After (2010), The Sweetness of Forgetting (2012), The Life Intended (2014), How to Save a Life (novella, 2016), When We Meet Again (2016), The Room on Rue Amélie (2018), The Winemaker’s Wife (2019), The Book of Lost Names (2020), The Forest of Vanishing Stars (2021), The Paris Daughter (2023), The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau (2025) and Meet Me in Paris (2026).
Where should I start with Kristin Harmel?
The Book of Lost Names. It is her most widely read book and a good example of her two-timeline style. If you prefer a novel set entirely in the war, start with The Room on Rue Amélie or The Forest of Vanishing Stars.
What is Kristin Harmel’s most famous book?
The Book of Lost Names (2020). It was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and for the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards.
Is The Book of Lost Names based on a true story?
The characters are invented, but the forgery is based on real history: Resistance forgers in France made false papers for Jewish children escaping to Switzerland. Harmel says she read about the war’s most prolific forgers and obtained real documents of the kind forgers used.
Do Kristin Harmel’s books need to be read in order?
No. Every book is a standalone, with no series and no recurring characters.
Is All the Diamonds in Paris the same book as The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau?
Yes. All the Diamonds in Paris is the title used in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand for The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau (2025). It is not a separate novel.
When was The Paris Daughter published?
In 2023. Some lists give 2022, but the hardcover came out in June 2023.
Are any of Kristin Harmel’s books being made into films?
Her website says that many of her novels have been optioned for film and television. No adaptation has been released.
What did Kristin Harmel do before she was a novelist?
She was a journalist. At sixteen she was a sportswriter covering baseball and hockey for a Tampa Bay magazine and reporting for the St. Petersburg Times; from 2000 to 2012 she was a reporter for PEOPLE, and she appeared regularly on the morning show The Daily Buzz. Her first novel came out in 2006.
What is Friends & Fiction?
A weekly web show and podcast that Harmel co-founded and co-hosts with the novelists Mary Kay Andrews, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry. It airs on Facebook and YouTube, and has an official book club on Facebook.
Footnotes
- Kristin Harmel — Wikipedia
- About Kristin — kristinharmel.com
- Q&A with Kristin Harmel, author of The Book of Lost Names — Book Club Chat, 2020
- The Paris Daughter — Publishers Weekly
- Meet Me in Paris — Simon & Schuster
- Kristin Harmel on The Forest of Vanishing Stars — BookTrib, 2021
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I come from a journalism background, and I think I employ the same kind of research and fact-finding methods I used as a journalist to make sure that everything is as real as possible.”
— Kristin Harmel, Q&A with Book Club Chat about The Book of Lost Names (2020)
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