Kristin Harmel is an American author of contemporary and historical romance. While her earlier work focused on “armchair travel” contemporary love stories, she more recently became associated with historical fiction and romances that take place during World War II. As of 2024, she has written five novels that take place in France during the years of World War II: The Sweetness of Forgetting, The Room on Rue Amélie, The Book of Lost Names, The Paris Daughter, and The Winemaker’s Wife. Each is told from the perspective of courageous and nuanced women trying to survive and positively impact the war effort.

Harmel’s WWII journey began with The Sweetness of Forgetting in 2012, an intergenerational tale about a baker who uncovers her grandmother’s experiences during the Holocaust. The Winemaker’s Wife uses food and drink as a lens through which to examine the heroism and horror of the Nazi occupation. Her 2020 novel The Book of Lost Names has perhaps the most elements in common with The Room on Rue Amélie: It follows a librarian who forges documents for Jewish children fleeing WWII-era France.