Based on true accounts of how Parisiennes resisted the Nazi occupation in World War II-from fashion houses to the city streets-comes a story of two courageous women who risked everything to fight an evil they couldn't abide.
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 Htel 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.
Told across the span of the Nazi occupation, The Paris Dressmaker highlights the brave women who used everything in their power to resist darkness and restore light to their world.
Praise for The Paris Dressmaker:
"Unimaginable heartache, unforgettable romance, and cheering defiance against the oppression the Nazis inflicted on Paris; readers will be swept away into a story where battle-scarred good at last rings victory over evil." -J'nell Ciesielski, author of The Socialite
"Stunning. With as much skill and care as the title's namesake possesses, The Paris Dressmaker weaves together the stories of two heroines who boldly defy the darkness that descends on the City of Light." -Jocelyn Green, Christy Award-winning author of Shadows of the White City
"A thoroughly satisfying blend of memorable characters, evocative writing, and wartime drama that seamlessly transport you to the City of Light at its most desperate hour." -Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things
"Kristy Cambron deftly weaves multiple timelines to craft a story as complex and romantic and beautiful as a couture gown. In addition, Lila and Sandrine's strength and courage in a troubled world inspire us to live likewise. Tres magnifique!" -Sarah Sundin, bestselling and award-winning author of When Twilight Breaks and the Sunrise at Normandy series
"With real life historical details woven in with her fictional tale, the story popped off the page. Readers will be thinking of this book long after they've read the last word." -Rachel Hauck, New York Times bestselling author
"A well-researched and beautifully interwoven treatise on courage and conviction in the midst of oppression." -Rachel McMillan, author of The London Restoration and The Mozart Code
• Stand-alone WWII novel
• Full-length, approximately 115,000 words
• Includes discussion questions for book clubs
