A good, juicy, romance with fashion commentary woven through every page.  The action takes place in London, bouncing between 1939 and the present day.  I liked the main character in both time periods, but modern-day Maddie Warner -- a Southerner on assignment to interview fashion queen Precious Dubose in London -- is the kind of character Karen White can really bring alive.

One of my go to authors!   I love the team W books and love each of these authors individually.  Karen white gets better and better with every book

A DELICIOUS GEM!  Hard to put down!  I just devoured this book.  Love how it has the two timelines going.  All the characters are wonderful.  A lot of glamour with the two models. I felt like I was there in London when the bombs were being dropped.  The descriptions of the houses and mansions are well done. One of my favorite lines:  “When you live your life looking backward thinking of all the ways you could have or should have done things differently, of the infernal unfairness of life, you end up running into the brick wall of old age, having learned nothing but the futility of it all”.  Wraps up nicely at the end.

Loved this one! Karen White is an excellent writer, and she did an excellent job of keeping this reader engaged in two different time periods, present day and the Second World War. During this pandemic, I have been seeking out books that I can get really involved in and forget, just for a bit, what's really going on out there in the world-this book gave me that escape.

Date reviewed: August 28, 2020

When life for the entire universe and planet turns on its end and like everyone else you "have nothing to do" while your place of work is closed and you are continuing to be in #COVID19 #socialisolation,  superspeed readers like me can read 250+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today. And it is way too hot to go outside, so why not sit in from of the blasting a/c and read and review books?? 

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do and because I don't like repeating the store over again in my review ... I tend to stick to the facts. 

New York Times bestselling author Karen White weaves a story of friendship past and present, love, and betrayal that moves between war-torn London during the Blitz and the present day.

(Well, that was short!! SO I have to break my own rule and tell you of the story .... ) A lovely lady named Maddie goes to London to write about WWII era fashions un the UK and gets in a whirl of discovery upon discovering a distant relative's life and secrets. Aren't secrets amazing?? Yes, they are because Maddie, a very plucky Georgian has a lot of her own. 

There is a lot of detail in this book so we know that Miss White did her due diligence in her research - and it is a nice blend of fiction and romance without it becoming being too treacly Secrets are always fun to have, read about and discuss in book club, so I am going to recommend this book to a LOT of people....next spring.  It comes 8 months from now so I am pregnant with another great set of news of a fantastic book coming out.  It is marked on the calendar to order and to recommend as it is .... flawless.

I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE ONE SUGGESTION, THOUGH .... it is hard from the cover to tell if one is in London or Paris ... it needs more clear and obvious geographical monuments like a clear view of Parliament or Big Ben...

As always, I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I love emojis (outside of their incessant use by "🙏-ed Social Influencer Millennials/#BachelorNation survivors/Tik-Tok and YouTube  Millionaires/etc. " on Instagram and Twitter... Get a real job, people!) so let's give it 😷😷😷😷😷 (Stay home, save lives!)

I was totally charmed by this story of women dealing with the past and future in London and Georgia. Maddie believes she is in London to write a fashion story about women’s clothing during WW II, instead she becomes engrossed in the life of Precious Dubose, a very distant relative with many secrets. As we read further, we learn that Maddie also lives with secrets, so compelling, that she has put her life and emotions on hold. 

White transports the reader back to London at the start of the war using descriptions that are incredibly vivid which careful research made flawless. This book has the best elements of historical fiction and romance. Maddie is a likable protagonist, surrounded by a group of other interesting and well formed characters. Of course it is Eva, a mysterious woman who has transformed herself, that propels the plot forward. It is she who captured my attention. 

.I am an Anglophile so I loved being transported to 1940’s London. I loved the beautiful descriptions of fashions and the intrigue that surrounded Precious and her best friend Eva. 

Maddie resists emotional attachment because of her own secrets and fears, but women will find these references interesting. It is the relationship between the two women that bring Maddie to a point where she can imagine her own future. 

Thank you Netgalley for this terrific novel. I truly enjoyed it and look forward to recommending it to book groups.