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The Paris Dressmaker cover art

The Paris Dressmaker

By: Kristy Cambron
Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
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Summary

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 could not 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 Light 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 Hotel 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 to bolster 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 facade 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.

  • Stand-alone World War II historical fiction
  • Includes discussion questions for book clubs
©2021 Kristy Cambron (P)2021 Thomas Nelson

Critic reviews

“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, best-selling 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 best-selling 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

What listeners say about The Paris Dressmaker

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Courageous Bold Women

Courageous bold women. It fizzes with tension, and yet has wonderful moments of lightness. It encapsulates female friendship. Ever so inspiring especially as it's based on actual accounts of what Parisienne did to resist the Nazis.

Her voice is so wonderful! I felt totally transported by Barrie's effortless narration.

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Stunning historical fiction

Absolutely wonderful account of a story not often told of WW2 Paris. Highly recommended beautifully narrated.

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Hard to follow

Despite the great storyline, it is very hard to follow due to the several long French addresses, place and location names, as well as the frequently used French expressions and sentences. I think it was unnecessary to keep emphasising this way that it all happened it France - the writer kept bringing it up anyway in the text. The multiple timelines didn't help enjoying the flow of the story either.
I struggled to finish this book and didn't enjoy the narration, but found the story itself historically interesting and very uplifting. It could have been such a great experience.

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Could not recommend this book.

I really struggled with this book. I found it so confusing I had to restart several times, trying to get everything in order in my head. Dual timelines are very popular at the moment and I enjoy novels written with two timelines and they are certainly much less confusing than this novel, which has totally random dates, in no order at all. No chapter follows on from the previous one. The narrative flits from random weeks and years with no pattern or obvious thought process, without any real reason. The back and forth random dates were so confusing and totally spoiled what could have been a good book. I also think the full addresses given at the beginning of each chapter simply added to the overall distraction and discombobulation - by the time the narrator has read out the full address, including the street and apartment number, it simply leaves the listener utterly perplexed and unable to really follow the storyline. I couldn't finish this and could not recommend this author. I would not buy anything from this author again. I do love Barrie Krienik as a narrator. She is an excellent narrator who really puts so much emotion in to her work. It's a shame it was wasted on this book.

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