Shelves of sequins in a kaleidoscope of colours. Bolts of silk and tulle against the back wall. The sewing room was the last place anyone had seen her daughter alive.
Northern Ireland, 1942. Flora Toussaint packs parachutes for the RAF, haunted by the twin daughters she was forced to give up eighteen years ago. When British intelligence shows her photographs of her girls – now young women in occupied Paris – her world shifts. One is safe. One
has vanished. And their father, the celebrated couturier Lucien Lumineau, is suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.
Flora agrees to a dangerous mission: parachute into France, pose as a seamstress at the Moulin Rouge, and uncover the truth. Lodging above a brothel where Edith Piaf sings after hours and where Pablo Picasso still holds court, she mends costumes between shows, searches for any trace of her missing daughter between curfews, and circles closer to Lucien.
But Lucien isn’t the man she remembers. Neither is their history. And what Flora discovers will unravel everything she thought she knew – about Lucien, about her daughters, and about the night
she gave them away.
A sweeping tale of wartime Paris, family secrets and impossible choices. Fans of Kate Quinn, Pam Jenoff and Kristin Hannah will be mesmerised by The Secret Dressmaker.
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Jenny O’Brien writes complex thrillers and heartbreaking historical fiction, as well as
intriguing romances. Silent Cry, initially self published, topped the Amazon kindle chart in both the UK and the USA. Most of her books have followed suit.
Jenny has over 40 years experience as a qualified nurse. She turned to creative writing as a hobby when her children were born. Now, 20 years later, she’s retired from the day job to focus on writing.
She’s currently working on the third book in the Threads Series.
Born in Ireland, she now lives in Guernsey with her husband and children.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this story of Flora, returning to her native France during the war, while Paris is under occupation in order to find out if her former lover, couturier Lucien Lumineau is a collaborator and what has happened to their daughters, the babies she handed over to him and his wife eighteen years ago.
Taking a job at the Moulin Rouge as a seamstress brings into the world one of her daughter’s Marguette inhabited as a performer, taking lodgings above a notorious brothel introduces her to Edith Piaf, living next door. Pablo Picasso is a close friend of Lucien’s and it is this glamorous, artistic world she once escaped.
But danger is always close, working undercover puts her in the path of the Nazi secret police, and one officer in particular seems keen to find her. Flora must be as careful as she possibly can to stay ahead of those who wish to stop her.
Intense and gripping, this feels more like a thriller than anything else, Flora’s life is in danger, as are her daughters the longer she remains in Paris, where dark secrets must come to light and she risks everything for the answers.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 