by Kristy Cambron
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: Paris, 1939. Maison Chanel has closed, thrusting haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Lights slips into darkness. Lila’s life is now a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda while Paris is cut off from the rest of the world. Yet in hidden corners of the city, the faithful pledge to resist. Lila is drawn to La Resistance and is soon using her skills as a dressmaker to infiltrate the Nazi elite. She takes their measurements and designs masterpieces, all while collecting secrets in the glamorous Hôtel Ritz—the heart of the Nazis’ Parisian headquarters. But when dashing René Touliard suddenly reenters her world, Lila finds her heart tangled between determination to help save his Jewish family and bolstering the fight for liberation.
Paris, 1943. Sandrine Paquet’s job is to catalog the priceless works of art bound for the Führer’s Berlin, masterpieces stolen from prominent Jewish families. But behind closed doors, she secretly forages for information from the underground resistance. Beneath her compliant façade lies a woman bent on uncovering the fate of her missing husband . . . but at what cost? As Hitler’s regime crumbles, Sandrine is drawn in deeper when she uncrates an exquisite blush Chanel gown concealing a cryptic message that may reveal the fate of a dressmaker who vanished from within the fashion elite.
Kritters Thoughts: Two women in Paris, both of their stories in two different years that are just four years apart, but almost a world apart! Lila de Laurent is a dressmaker and while working with Chanel and then on her own, she is able to be a part of the Resistance in her own unique way. Sandrine Paquet says goodbye to her husband and must live with her in laws with her child and unfortunately catches the eye of a captain of the Nazi regime, but she uses him to her advantage to do her own part for the Resistance.
It took a bit for me to realize we had two women and both stories were to take place in 1939 and 1943 and would progress until they collide. Once realized, I reread a few pages and took some notes, so I could keep each woman's story apart, but what I loved most was when their stories ended up intermingling and the genius behind the way they did.
The timing of reading this book was interesting as I read it shortly after another book about a woman in the Resistance who was coordinating supply drops, so I appreciated seeing a different aspect of French women contributing to the war effort in their own way and how many different ways that could take place. Being in the heart of Paris in this book compared to the country of France in the other, I enjoyed the extra fever that was brought in this book as you saw the Nazi party come in and then retreat.
I have read most of Kristy Cambron's catalog and enjoyed each of them. I would love to complete her list and look forward to her next one!
Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel
Ebook 2021 Challenge: 7 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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