The Dressmaker’s Secret

Wow! The Dressmaker’s Secret is a dual timeline story that will keep your attention from beginning to end. I had not read any of Lorna Cook’s prior books but I really enjoyed this one.

The parts of the story that deal with Coco Channel has been thoroughly research. The story of Adele, Theo, Melodie, Cleo and the rest are extremely well written and have been intertwined with Chanel’s that this makes for a spectacular and entertaining story.

Thank you to #netgalley and #harper360,avon for allowing me to read this ARC for an honest review. All opinions expressed above are my own.

A fascinating, gut-wrenching read of the France Occupation during WWII involving Coco Chanel who lived at the Paris Ritz Hotel which housed much of the senior staff of the Nazis. I liked the way this story revolves around the assistant to Chanel and also with a different timeframe story of the assistant’s granddaughter. It is told with the women of Paris and evokes one to question how would I have reacted during that time period. Not an easy-to-digest but a book that will have your attention throughout the book. Thanks to #NetGalley and #Harper 360 for an ARC of this book and my honest review that this is a historical fiction book very much worth reading.

If you like reading about historical fiction or WWII, this is the book for you. It has a dual time line that I usually cannot get into. However, this one flows rather well. Reading about Adele and Chloe both living in Paris at 2 completely different timelines was rather interesting.
Adele is very brave and I enjoyed reading about her. She was torn between working for Coco Channel and the man she loves. What is she willing to risk? Nazi supporter or Resistance?
You also read about Chloe, her grandaughter, and her search to find out what her grandmother never speaks about. She's determined to find out the secrets that her grandmother keeps.
What will she find out? His will she react to the information she discovers? Read this book to find out more. I definitely recommend this one.

A very well done story that masterfully weaves in the story of Coco C's Nazi collaboration with two beautifully told love stories. The story of Coco does not detract from the excellent character building and subplots throughout the story. I would recommend.

The Dressmakers Secret
By: Lorna Cook
Review Score: 4 Stars

Five Key Feels
-I loved the time jumps across Paris.

-It was fun to get a peek into Chanel’s life during that time.

-You could feel the tension in this story as they interact with the Resistance movement.

-Adele felt very authentic, you could feel her loyalty, but also her conflicted feelings towards her employer.

-I enjoyed how the story wrapped up with Chloe.

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The Dressmakers Secret was kindly provided as an ARC by Netgalley and Harper 360. Thank you for allowing me to read this wonderful book!

Release Date: Out now!

The Dressmakers Secret was such a great book. I really enjoyed the suspense of the story.

Cook does such a good job of taking you into the Ritz during the Nazi Occupation, and then really brings you to the present of trying to decide what really happened, and who to believe.

There were some really great plot twists in this story, and that really added to the overall picture.

I highly recommend checking out The Dressmaker’s Secret.

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While The name Coco Channel is very familiar, the facts about how she survived WWII are not. Lorna Cook has woven a marvelous multigenerational story around these facts.

With a flashback format, chapters alternate between Adele, Coco’s personal assistant or Chloe, a newly divorced young woman who has come to Paris to try to heal. Cook has masterfully developed all of the main characters such that they all trigger strong emotional responses in the reader.

This historical fiction story is loaded with secrets along with mystery, drama, and romance. From its dramatic beginning to its surprising ending, The Dressmaker’s Secret is a powerful and unusual view of WWII in Paris.

The Dressmaker's Secret is a dual-time line story that takes place in both World War II and 2018. During the WWII chapters, you meet Adele, who is an orphaned young adult that travels to Paris in search of a better life and finds herself working for Coco Chanel. During the 2018 chapters, you meet Adele's granddaughter, Chloe. Chloe is recently divorced and moved to Paris from England for a new beginning. Some of the book focuses on Coco Chanel and her questionable behavior during the war with the Nazi's: was she a collaborator or was she simply a survivor? You, as the reader, get to decide. The other parts of the book focus on Adele and how she survives through the war working various roles for Coco (seamstress, lady maid, secretary etc.) and also in present time focuses on Chloe finding out about her grandmothers mysterious past. Both Chloe and Adele's characters find love during their chapters and it's interesting to see it all intertwine with Coco Chanel's story too.

Although the story was a bit slow at times, I really enjoyed the author's style of writing. They were very descriptive and very easily and effortlessly brought the story to life. The characters were very likable and fun to follow along with. I know a lot of World War II stories often start out with a grandchild on a mission to discover their family history and so the story unfolds from there, this one was well done in that aspect and the storylines meshed together well. Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books and Lorna Cook for an ARC.

Dual timelines blend fact and fiction with mystery and intrigue. A very good novel.
Many thanks to Harper 360 and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Excellent. This is a great story for a lover of WWII historical fiction. The story line is interesting a full of excitement. The narrator does a great job. I highly recommend.

First, thank you to the publisher and author for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I thoroughly enjoyed this title and was grateful for the opportunity to read it. I loved the history it is based on. While, historical fiction and obviously the author had to create portions of the story, it was still interesting to hear about that time period and to learn about the documents and facts that the story is based on. Lorna Cook is a great storyteller and really pulls you into the characters and their lives. I would recommend this to any friends interested in historical fiction, especially surrounding a well known figure during world war II.