Mistress of the Ritz is one of those books you just can''t put down. Set in Paris during WWII, a young American and her husband, the manager of the famous Ritz hotel, are drawn into the war without each other's knowledge. Looks can be deceiving, and who doesn't know that better than Blanche Ross and Claude Auzello? A young couple who in their own way become entangled with the French Resistance. Blanche and Claude's marriage suffers because neither feels they can trust the other. In Claude's mind, Blanche is an airhead who would rather drink and party with her friends, and take risks that could get her arrested or killed. In Blanche's mind, Claude loves the Ritz, and possibly the Nazi's who invade it, more than her and his country.

This book takes the reader through the worst time in France and shows the resistance and resilience not only of the main players, but also of the everyday people. The characters take hold and drag you into the back alleys, dark rooms, and clubs with them. We learn toward the end why Claude doesn't want Blanche going out where she can be seen.

Historical fiction, especially WWII has become a favorite of mine. A well written book should drag the reader in and keep them wanting more. That is what this book did. I had not read any books prior to this one by Melanie Benjamin, but I will be reading more. You can't go wrong when you check into the Ritz.
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Melanie Benjamin writes another winner in "Mistress of the Ritz". Set during war time, she draws a strong woman who stands up for what is right during very difficult times. The setting of the story is very well developed and the reader can easily slip into Paris during the Nazi occupation. The heroine of this true story, Blanche, secretly works for the french resistance while "serving" the Germans in her hotel. She and her husband put their lives at risk as they work to undermine the Germans foothold on her beloved city. True facts about the active underground in Paris and how they ultimately defeated the enemy in their midst. Highly recommended reading

Evocative descriptions of the period. I felt it didn't have enough forward momentum to sustain. The 'story' was late to launch. The writing is highly-polished and advanced.

Such an enlightening story of my favorite time period! I love how the author captured this time and made me feel so connected to the characters. I love a character driven novel that really pulls you in!! I’ve been in a book rut, and this book was so refreshing. I couldn’t put it down!!
I definitely recommend and give it 4 stars!!!

The story of Blanche Auzello, the wife of the manager of the Ritz Paris during WWII.

Blanche is an American and a Jew (in hiding), two things you don't want to be while the Germans occupy Paris. She is protected in part because her husband is the manager of the Ritz Hotel - where many of the leading German occupiers are staying when in Paris. Blanche is spoiled, impetuous and unwilling to accept the Germans and wishes she could do more. She is looking for adventure and finds it. She realizes that she can use what she learns at the hotel to help the Resistance. She doesn't tell her husband in order to protect him. Of course, her husband, Claude, wants to do the same so lets Blanche think he has a mistress in order to help the Resistance as well.

I had a hard time getting into this book - I think in part because I did not find Blanche a particularly likable character. The struggles within their marriage took up much of the first part of the book and dragged on a bit. The story did get better about halfway through as Blanche and Claude became more involved with the Resistance.

This story is mesmerizing. I felt immersed in WWII Paris at the Ritz. A perfect example of well-written historical fiction.

Enjoyed this more than I expected. Historical fiction is not always my go to but this was captivating, You don't have to be a history buff to enjoy this book!

Mistress of the Ritz was a good story. The writing painted a good picture, it was almost like I was in the story. It was also very fact based and I learned some new things. It was a different story than other Ww2 books I've read.

If you've read The Swans of Fifth Avenue, you're familiar with Melanie Benjamin's books. Carefully researched, with engaging characters and compelling plots, they are addictive. Mistress of the Ritz is based on a real life character, an American woman who served with the French resistance in WWII. A taut tale of suspense wrapped up in a love story. You'll be intrigued by what happens at the Ritz. Highly recommend.

For those who like historical fiction set in World War II, this might be a fun read, though there are a lot of titles taht fit that description that are better than this.

When I was in high school historical fiction really was the only genre I read. And, in particular, I went through a phase where I read a lot of historical fiction set during the second World War. This book was a throwback to that time period in the best way.

Inspired by the story of the Auzello's who were managers of the Ritz in Paris during the Nazi occupation, this book tells a story that fills in the blanks of what is known about Blanche and Claude. I enjoyed this fictional telling of their story, the characters themselves feel very true to life, and enjoyable. The story is as much a story of World War II as it is the story of a marriage, and of trauma, and the ways we know each other and the ways that we do not.

Definitely recommend for the historical fiction aspect, but also simply the story of the relationships and the characters themselves. Because I did not know much about Blanche going into the book, there were some aspects I wasn't expecting, but in the end, the story - while fictionalized - works within what is known to paint a believable picture of what might have been.

I so wanted to love this book, my first by Melanie Benjamin, but I didn't. The story switches back and forth in time and switches from past to present tense, and I found that a little jarring. I also formed an immediate dislike for both main characters, and though neither of them ever endeared themselves to me, and indeed I grew to loathe Claude, I eventually got sucked into the story and kept reading to see how it would play out...but then I hated the ending. This book just wasn't meant for me.

I didn’t really get into this much. The Auzellos have a really interesting story and it’s a unique perspective during WWII, but it just didn’t work for me. The plot seemed to be all over the place and never really go in depth. The ending was just weird. Not a huge fan.

This novel is mostly set in the Ritz hotel in Paris, during World War II when France was occupied by the Nazis and the Ritz was both a hotel and a place many Nazi officers were staying. The two main characters are Claude, the manager of the Ritz, and his wife Blanche, an American who came to France as an actress but met Claude and married him and stayed there - and they are both real historical figures though apparently there is not a ton of information about them so much of the book is inspired by them rather than based directly on their lives. I always enjoy Melanie Benjamin's historical novels (though I feel like I tend to admire them rather than love them), but this was not one of my favorites. First, I felt like too much of the book was devoted to Claude and Blanche's marriage, which was just not that interesting compared to life in occupied France, the resistance, etc. Second, I felt like there were a few things that were sort of odd of tonally, including a few moments that felt a little too sympathetic to some of the Nazis and collaborators, and the book's turn towards something much darker towards the end. Still an interesting read, just not one of either Benjamin's best or the best WWII books. 3.5 stars.

Mistress of the Ritz is inspired by the American born Blanche Ross who was married to Claud Auzello, the director of the Hotel Ritz in Paris. The first half of the book focuses on their marriage and it did not capture my interest as much as the second half of the book when Germany invades France and the Nazis take up residence at the Hotel. The story really picked up then and it made it hard to put the book down. The book was very interesting, there was a lot I did not know about and wanted to find out more like Coco Chanel being a Nazi collaborator. It made me research and dig deeper. Overall, it was a pretty intriguing four-star story for me.

This was an interesting read. It was fun at times, sad at times, and a bit cheesy at times. The foreshadowing and story line fell flat for me, but I still enjoyed the book as a whole.

Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin is a tense tale of the occupation of Paris by Nazi Germany and the lives and turmoil of the citizens of the city. It is also the tale of a woman displaced and though surrounded on all sides, very much alone.

It is said that nothing bad can happen at the Ritz in Paris, France. But when the tanks thunder into the square in June of 1940, the world changed for the Ritz and the people who inhabited its rooms. Perhaps none more than its Managing Director Claude Auzello and his American wife, Blanche Auzello.

Claude fell in love with Blanche the very first time he saw her. Her pet name for Claude was "popsy" on account of his heart going pop when he laid eyes on her. Blanche had come to Paris from New York to become an actress, a promise made to her by an Arab Prince. But in truth the Prince had other designs on Blanche and Claude, only an assistant hotel manager at the time, would not permit for his Blanche to be used in that way. He saved her from the Prince and married her right away. But Claude, the proper Frenchman, did not know exactly what he was getting in his new beautiful American wife. Blanche had a heart and a mind of her own. Their passion in love was as furious as it was in fights. Even more so, when Claude, as so many Frenchmen did, took a mistress for himself. An act that nearly destroyed Blanche.

When the Nazis occupied Paris, they made the Ritz their main quarters and Claude found that not only did he have to tolerate the Germans, but he would have to serve them as well. Inside his beloved Ritz, where Hemingway and Coco Chanel had stayed and even the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, red flags with black swastikas now hung. Claude becomes part of the French resistance, quietly, using his position and the large storerooms of the Ritz, to move contraband and even people about. Claude kept his activities secret from his wife, Blanche, whose drinking and behavior was becoming well known about the city. For Blanche talked and talked quite loudly when she was drunk and Claude could not trust his wife with so many lives at stake.

But Claude did not know Blanche Auzello as well as he thought he did. Blanche was not always as drunk as she seemed and Blanche had secrets of her own.

Blanche Auzello had reason enough to hate the Germans. Her family had immigrated from Germany to the Americas or better told, escaped. Blanche was Jewish, a fact she kept well hidden and now, with the Nazis living in the place she lived, she found she could not keep still. Not when she saw the first family being rounded up and put in the back of a truck to be taken away to the camps. Blanche had to do something. So, with her friend and resistance fighter, Lily. Blanche began to fight with the resistance as well. Something she kept hidden from Claude.

Both of the Auzellos, fighting against the Nazis as they could. Both, not able to trust the other with the truth.

Until the day, the Gestapo came to take Blanche away.

At first, I had a difficult time getting into this book. The story was good and no one writes about this time period better than Melanie Benjamin. She captures the tone and the personalities of her characters better than anyone. Though it is written as a novel, there is so much history and fact in this story that the reader will sit back in wonder that they never knew. In fact, the life and misadventures of the Auzellos should be considered must reading for anyone interested in the Nazi occupation of Paris and the War in Europe in general. It is tragic and heartfelt and above all else, intensely human.

No, my problem was with the character of Blanche herself. I really didn't like her. She was a gold digger with little besides sex and her beauty to offer. She took to her position, being referred to as the Mistress of the Ritz, though she did little to earn anything. Blanche used Claude's position as Managing Director to further her own desires, to be part of the rich and influential. To be looked up to by those working beneath her husband. To be the petulant and spoiled child that Claude believed her to be.

But Blanche began to change as the book went along, until the gilded cage of her existence could no longer hold the woman she was. A woman, her husband would never recognize. A woman of strength and courage and daring. But unfortunately, a woman whose irresponsibility would put not only her life, but the lives of others in peril.

Mistress of the Ritz is not a romance novel but at its core is a love story that may rival any that you have ever read. A broken and flawed love story with bitterness and pain and betrayal. But a love story none the less. Because all love, any love that lasts, is broken and then healed.

A quick note on the author. Melanie Benjamin has staked her claim on this time period and these historical novels based on real people. I don't know of anyone else doing it this good and sustaining the quality of work that Melanie Benjamin has. Read her. Now.

A really good book!

WW II from inside the Ritz in occupied Paris is not a perspective I have read before. Inspired by the actual couple who managed the grand hotel, the book jumps both chronologically and by narrator.

The book follows Ritz manager Claude Auzello and his wife Blanche mainly during the years the Nazi's were occupying the Ritz in Paris. In the beginning there is some time jumping between Blanche and Claude's alternating chapters, but they quickly converge to the same time period. It tells the the couple's unconventional love story, along with the underlying love story of the Ritz. Both Blanche and Claude do whatever they can to help the underground Resistance in France while it is under Nazi control. While it is extremely dangerous to do anything under the noses of their "guests" both continue unbeknownst to each other. The story is built on the secrets Claude and Blanche share & the ones they keep from each other.

I have read most of Benjamin's past work and in this book she continues to tell the story of real life people and the struggles they likely went through. With an abundance of WWII fiction on the market, this book is an entirely different take. Following lesser known people that history has mostly forgotten shows an unexplored part of Paris WWII history. The story telling brings you straight to the underground movement and you feel the need to do something and turmoil the characters felt. It makes you wish the nonfiction work about the Auzello's isn't next to nonexistent! The writing is excellent and I look forward to reading more of Benjamin's work.

Unfortunately, I didn't like Benjamin's previous work. I tried so hard to like this novel.......but, sadly, I just couldn't. This was a slow book with a lot lacking to captivate me.