The Dressmaker’s Secret

Name: The Dressmaker’s Secret
Rating: 4.333333492279053 (3 reviews)

Lorna Cook

Jan 2022 · Sold by HarperCollins UK

3 reviews

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384

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'I cried my eyes out' Reader review★★★★★

1941, Nazi-occupied Paris: In the glamorous Ritz hotel there is a woman with a dangerous secret...

As Coco Chanel’s assistant, Adèle lives side by side with German officers in the splendour of The Ritz hotel. But Adèle has a secret. She is working for the resistance, right under the Germans’ noses.

As occupied Paris becomes more and more dangerous, Adèle will have to decide if she can risk everything to save innocent lives and protect the man she loves...

Present day: Chloé’s grandmother has never spoken about the war and avoids questions about the legendary designer she once worked for.

Now Chloé has come to Paris, to uncover the truth about Adèle’s life. But is she prepared for what she will find? And for the power of her grandmother’s secrets to change her family forever...

An absolutely gripping and heartbreaking wartime story of the enduring power of love, for fans of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Nightingale.

Readers love The Dressmaker’s Secret:

‘Extraordinary... Brought history alive on the page... Tense and emotional... Sensitive yet brutal...With the most unexpected end that left me breathless. Wow, just wow... Incredible’ Reader review ★★★★★

‘WOW... Outstandingly brilliant and extremely poignant from beginning to end’ Reader review ★★★★★

‘Just absolute perfection... My emotions ran the full course in this book... THE ENDING. I cried my eyes out, I was a blubbering mess trying to quickly explain the entire book to my husband while crying’ Reader review ★★★★★

‘Your heart will be in your mouth reading this book... I cried... I loved the ending’ Reader review ★★★★★

‘It made me cry tears of happiness at the end... Fantastic’ Reader review ★★★★★

‘I absolutely loved this story!... A MUST read. Grab some tissues before you dive in’ Reader review ★★★★★

‘A tale of deception, love and endurance... It kept me reading into the small hours’ Glynis Peters, author of The Secret Orphan

‘Had me up way later than I planned... I couldn’t put it down’ Reader review ★★★★★

‘Thrilling... I couldn't put it down’ Adrienne Chinn, author of The English Wife

'I cried my eyes out' Reader review★★★★★ 1941, Nazi-occupied Paris: In the glamorous Ritz hotel there is a woman with a dangerous secret... As Coco Chanel’s assistant, Adèle lives side by side with German officers in the splendour of The Ritz hotel. But Adèle has a secret. She is working for th...

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Ratings and reviews

3 reviews

Shirley McAllister

January 28, 2022

Our Closest Enemies are Within Us. A dual timeline with two stories. The story of the Grandmother Adele during WWII and the second story is that of her granddaughter many years later traveling to Paris to escape a recent divorce and hoping to find information on her grandmother and her employer Coco Chanel during WWII. The year is 1941, the place is the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France. Adele lives there with her employer Coco Chanel. Adele is thankful for her job , but never agrees with her employers collaboration with the Nazi's. Living under the same roof with high ranking Nazi's she is constantly on edge. When she meets an American doctor and works for the resistance she must make a choice between loyalty to her employer and the life of her loved one. Years later as Chloe and Rob divorce she escapes to Paris and finds a job in a dress shop. She wants to find out about her grandmother's time in Paris during WWII, but she doesn't know where to start. While at a museum she meets an art director and as they become friends she learns that his mother worked as a seamstress for Coco Chanel before the war. Together they dig into the war time records to find the past and the truth of Coco Chanel's wartime activities and the past of her grandmother who was working for her during the war. I enjoyed reading about the famous buildings, parks and museums in Paris. The Ritz Hotel sounded like a very extravagant place. It all sounded like a beautiful city marred by the boots of the Nazi soldiers. I enjoyed both of the stories told, they were both interesting and engaging. The characters were true to life and very well staged in the story. This book was a good read and I would recommend it. Thanks to Lorna Cook for writing a great story, to Avon Books, U.K. for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available to me.

About the author

LORNA COOK is the author of the Kindle #1 bestseller The Forgotten Village. It was her debut novel and the recipient of both the Romantic Novelists’ Association Katie Fforde Debut Romantic Novel Award and the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers. Lorna lives in coastal South East England with her husband, daughters and a Staffy named Socks. A former journalist and publicist, she owns more cookery books than one woman should, but barely gets time to cook.

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