The Dressmaker’s Secret by Lorna Cook

 This is a poignant and moving war novel which tugs at the heartstrings. I loved it, and I will look for more books by Lorna Cook.

A time-slip tale, it tells two stories about a heroine who lives in the present time and her grandmother. Chloe, upset and alone after a divorce, has moved to her beloved Paris. Here she meets the handsome Etienne, but she also starts wondering about her grandmother, and why she never talks about the war. She knows that her grandmother Adele worked for the famous Coco Chanel, so when Etienne tells her that Chanel was a Nazi agent, she worries about her grandmother possibly being a traitor. Together, she and Etienne set out to find the truth... But will her feelings for her ex-husband get in the way of any potential new romance?

Adele enjoys working for Chanel, and living at the Ritz, but when Hitler's dark forces occupy Paris, and Chanel starts having a little too much to do with the Nazis, she is torn between her gratitude for her employer, and her desire to help the Allies. After she saves a young Jewish girl from the Nazis, and becomes involved with a doctor at the American Hospital, can she keep her job, and work for the Resistance? Adele has tough decisions to make.

I especially enjoyed the mysteries involving Chanel in the background to this story, . She is always fascinating, although my mother called her 'that old traitor', which unfortunately appears to be correct.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.