The Secret Dressmaker by Jenny O'Brien is a vivid and suspensul historical fiction set in France during the WWII. It is a moving story of loss and tragedy, lies and deception, and the strength of the human spirit.
This is the second book in Threads of Resistance series, and can be read as a standalone.
The Secret Dressmaker
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.
For eighteen long years Flora Toussaint has carried the guilt of giving up her twin daughters, Violette and Marguerette. Now at last, she knows where they are.
One day, while packing the parachutes at the Taylor's Mill, the military production in Northern Ireland, Flora is approached by someone from the British intelligence service. Tomas Rives is aware of Flora's past. He brings in photos of her twin daughters, now young women. She learns that while one of her girls is safe, the other has disappeared, seemingly without a trace.
Their father is a brilliant and celebrated couturier Lucien Lumineau, who is suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.
What Tomas tells Flora about her girls, shocks her to the core.
"Flora felt her world shatter. Everything she'd been told by the nuns. Everything she'd thought and hoped for her daughters. Everything Lucien had promised. All lies."
Tomas asks Flora to go to France on a special mission for the War Office.
Flora has no choice but to go back to the city she fled eighteen years ago. Her mission is perilous. She has to parachute into the occupied France, and assume the identity of a seamstress at the Moulin Rouge.
And above all, she has to find her missing daughter before the Gestapo does.
Living above a brothel, Flora mends flamboyant costumes by day and searches the shadows of wartime Paris by night.
Returning to Paris brings back many memories that Flora tried to suppress, of her tragic beginnings and most miserable childhood with a cruel foster family, of the nuns who took her in but also despised her humble origins, and most of all, the day when she lost her daughters and left Paris for good.
And then she meets Lucien, the man she loved all those years ago, the man who betrayed her.
"A complex man, far more complex than she'd thought when she'd first met him.Then he'd been the handsome atelier with more charm than was good for any woman. Now she didn't know what to think".
As Flora follows the trail of secrets through the dangerous world of occupied Paris, she begins to question everything she believed about the man she loved and the daughters she was forced to leave behind. The truth about that long-ago night might be darker than she remembered and imagined.
Is Lucien truly a traitor, conspiring with the enemy? Will Flora be able to find her missing daughter, and will this quest uncover more devastating secrets that might detsroy them all?
The Secret Dressmaker is an emotionally charged, entirely compelling tale of secrets and espionage, and one woman's determination to protect her children.
The author creates a captivating portrait of Paris during the Nazi occupation. Aside from the main plotline, it features some famous people like Edith Piaf and Pablo Picasso. The storyline is moving and heart-breaking.
Flora is a complex main character. Family bonds and love are more important to her than the idealistic ideas of patriotism. As she declares, her loyalties lie foremost with her daughters.
Many thanks to Jenny O'Brien and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!
Purchase Links
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Dressmaker-Jenny-OBrien-ebook/dp/B0GSVGSK36
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Dressmaker-Jenny-OBrien-ebook/dp/B0GSVGSK36
Author Bio – 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.
Social Media Links – https://www.facebook.com/JennyOBrienWriter/
https://www.instagram.com/scribblerjb/
