The Dressmaker’s Secret

I really enjoyed this dual timeline book, set in Paris in the present day and the 1940s when the Nazis were in occupation. And who knew that Coco Chanel was a Nazi spy?! The 1940s were about Adele, who worked for Coco Chanel just before and during the war. She had been orphaned, brought up in a convent and luckily had managed to get a job with Chanel when she was old enough to leave the convent and came looking for work in Paris and to improve herself. But then the war happened, and again she was lucky enough to be the only member of staff Chanel kept on, both of them living in The Ritz in Paris, a luxury compared to what was happening in the rest of Paris. Chanel was looking after herself and had a German lover, keeping her relatively safe. Whilst there Adele met an American doctor, Theo, who whilst working at a hospital in Paris also secretly helped injured airmen, or those trying to escape the Nazis, putting his life in danger but something he felt he had to do. Adele also helped him slightly with this, whilst they slowly fell in love. But it was war and anything could happen, and often did, so they promised to wait to be together until after the war was over. Present day we have Chloe, Adele's granddaughter, recently divorced and having a year out for herself away from her life in England, working at a friend's vintage clothes shop in Paris, and slowly getting her life together again. Then she meets Etienne at an auction of items from The Ritz in the 1940s and through him learns a lot more about what happened in the war, and with her grandmother, who has always been very quiet about what actually happened. An absolutely fascinating story of life in Paris and, through a lot of actual documents unearthed, we find out that Coco Chanel was working for the Nazis, but it seems mainly to keep herself safe, she didn't have any particular allegiance to anyone but herself, maybe because she also was an orphan and had to struggle for everything she achieved. I suppose who knows what any of us would have done living in a daily life or death situation like that, survival of the fittest I supose, but I don't think I could have been like her. But she always seemed to just get away with everything. A riveting story that I couldn't put down, and even better there was a happy ending after all the atrocities that had been happening. Highly recommended.

Excellent book! Very well written. Lorna had me hooked from the first page!