REVIEW: The Paris Dressmaker by Kristy Cambron

Title: The Paris Dressmaker
Author: Kristy Cambron
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: February 2021
Genre: General Fiction / Women’s Fiction
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: Based on true accounts of how Parisiennes resisted the Nazi occupation in World War II—from fashion houses to the city streets—comes a story of two courageous women who risked everything to fight an evil they could not abide.

Paris, 1939. Maison Chanel has closed, thrusting haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Lights slips into darkness. Lila’s life is now a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda while Paris is cut off from the rest of the world. Yet in hidden corners of the city, the faithful pledge to resist. Lila is drawn to La Resistance and is soon using her skills as a dressmaker to infiltrate the Nazi elite. She takes their measurements and designs masterpieces, all while collecting secrets in the glamorous Hôtel Ritz—the heart of the Nazis’ Parisian headquarters. But when dashing René Touliard suddenly reenters her world, Lila finds her heart tangled between determination to help save his Jewish family and bolstering the fight for liberation.

Paris, 1943. Sandrine Paquet’s job is to catalog the priceless works of art bound for the Führer’s Berlin, masterpieces stolen from prominent Jewish families. But behind closed doors, she secretly forages for information from the underground resistance. Beneath her compliant façade lies a woman bent on uncovering the fate of her missing husband . . . but at what cost? As Hitler’s regime crumbles, Sandrine is drawn in deeper when she uncrates an exquisite blush Chanel gown concealing a cryptic message that may reveal the fate of a dressmaker who vanished from within the fashion elite.

Told across the span of the Nazi occupation, The Paris Dressmaker highlights the brave women who used everything in their power to resist darkness and restore light to their world.

My Thoughts: This was a struggle to read at times due to the terribly slow build of the story and the switching between points of view. I was tempted to give up several times, but I continued and ended up enjoying the story, following the lives of these two women walking different paths towards the common goal of helping the French Resistance and the Allied forces defeat the Nazi’s.

Lila and Sandrine do not know one another but I enjoyed how closely their lives intersect and the reader gets a real sense of the danger their lives are in at any given moment. There are several tense moments before and after the liberation of Paris when I wondered who would survive.

My Final Verdict: Fans of historical fiction should enjoy this story as well as readers of romance or women’s fiction for the relationship driven storyline. However, there is a lot to keep track of in this story and with the multiple points of view, I found it to be a challenge to keep it all straight.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of The Paris Dressmaker from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: Post-Traumatic Brazilian Wax Syndrome by Tamara Lyon

Title: Post-Traumatic Brazilian Wax Syndrome
Author: Tamara Lyon
Publisher: Tamara Lyon
Publication Date: May 2015
Genre: Chick-Lit / Romantic Comedy
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN

Description: Bristow Sparks, an interior designer in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, has just landed the contract of a lifetime, working for the Cherry Wyeland, volatile reality star and CEO of Wine-A-Lot. Designing for a crazy person is an around-the-clock commitment. It frays Bristow’s nerves and forces her to compromise in unimaginable ways, but, given that the finished product will be featured on The Decorating Network, she must succeed.

While her professional life is hot, her personal life is barely room temperature. After surviving the relentless media spotlight because of a personal tragedy and a traitorous ex-boyfriend, Bristow flies so far under the radar she cannot even be detected. A homebody to the core, she binges on episodes of the Showtime series, Dexter, lives in sweatpants, and is addicted to exercise and Oreos.

As for relationships? She has fallen hard and fast for witty and adventurous Jack Hoffmann. However, after their disastrous first date where Bristow collides with a park bench among other mortifying mishaps, they are unfortunately just friends. At least there is one male sharing her bed, even if it is only Vegas, her theatrical golden retriever.

For her twenty-ninth birthday, Bristow goes out of her comfort zone and gets a makeover at an elite spa. Post-Brazilian wax and in excruciating pain, Bristow realizes that she has been in a post-traumatic state for years. She vows to start taking risks again. When she finally goes after what and whom she wants, no matter the cost, tragedy strikes again . . .

My Thoughts: At the mere mention of a Brazilian wax, most women, myself included, will cringe in horror, and run as fast as our footsies will carry us. This story confirmed several things for me. The first is I will never put myself through the agony that the heroine of this story does. Even if my love life is as non-existent as Bristow’s and cobwebs are growing down there. Nope…not gonna happen. Even if my well-meaning friends buy me a multi-service gift certificate at a high-end spa because they know I would never treat myself (you got that right!!!), I will have to tell them to bugger off.

The second confirmation is relationships require communication and Bristow needed to grow a spine when it comes to the relationships in her life. She allows herself to be inconvenienced and embarrassed by her client from Hell, her ex-boyfriend, her idiot cousin, and her mother, just to name a few. When she and Jack finally speak to one another outside of the gym where she just visually stalks him, she manages to sabotage that too. Thank goodness Jack is a stand-up guy and does not let Bristow ruin it for them both. Girls need a Jack in their lives, so for Heaven’s sake, when you are blessed to find one, grab on tight and do not let go!

The third confirmation I received is when you catch your adorable dog shredding your checkbook that you had locked up, you do not take it from him and toss it on the counter. No, instead, you start questioning why said checkbook is no longer locked up! And when you further discover greasy fingerprints on your computer screen, then I would say it is a safe assumption to conclude that there has been a break-in and locking down the bank accounts, changing passwords and CALLING THE POLICE would be the logical course of action. Unfortunately, I cannot ignore Bristow’s lack of common sense in this area and this story went from a solid 4-star rating to a 3. Alarm bells were going off in my head immediately, but after discovering her home has been ransacked and there are several missed calls and voicemails from her financial advisor, Bristow just blows it off for several days. I cannot overlook that level of ignorance in a character and especially not the protagonist.

My Final Verdict: In spite of the moments where I was smacking myself in the forehead in disbelief, I found this story to be enjoyable and fun. I adored Bristow’s great-grandmother and her lack of a verbal filter had me laughing out loud several times.

I liked Bristow and Jack, individually and as a couple. Even though Bristow could use an extra helping of common sense, I found her to be genuine and sincere. I was rooting for her success both professionally and personally. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy fun stories to take along to the beach or pool this summer.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Post-Traumatic Brazilian Wax Syndrome from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: Olive by Emma Gannon

Title: Olive
Author: Emma Gannon
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: June 2020
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN

Description: The debut novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author, Emma Gannon.

Independent.
Adrift.
Anxious.
Loyal.
Kind.
Knows her own mind.

OLIVE is many things, and it is ok that she is still figuring it all out, navigating her world without a compass. But life comes with expectations, there are choices to be made, boxes to tick and – sometimes – stereotypes to fulfil. And when her best friends’ lives start to branch away towards marriage and motherhood, leaving the path they have always followed together, Olive starts to question her choices – because life according to Olive looks a little bit different.

Moving, memorable and a mirror for every woman at a crossroads, OLIVE has a little bit of all of us. Told with great warmth and nostalgia, this is a modern tale about the obstacle course of adulthood, milestone decisions and the ‘taboo’ about choosing not to have children.

My Thoughts: Though I enjoyed the story overall and found the subject matter interesting, it took much too long to finish. I did not have any solid connection to the characters, so I had a difficult time mustering up any empathy for them. For the most part, they all come across as very self-centered and selfish, rather than embracing their life choices and being the supportive “best” friends that the reader is led to believe they are.

The decision to have children or not is a very personal choice and, for some, they are not given a choice, as one of the characters is dealing with infertility issues. Olive decides she does not want to have children but her three best friends, Bea, Cecily, and Isla all do, so it feels quite uneven as the lives of Olive’s best friends seem to take off in a different direction, which leaves Olive isolated. After she and her long-term boyfriend end their relationship, Olive does not feel she can talk to her friends about it because the break-up was because Olive chooses child-free, and Jacob wants to start a family.

The issue of whether to have children or not causes walls to go up between Olive and her friends as they all stand firm on their beliefs and choices, rightly so, but somehow a line has been drawn and there is an unspoken expectation that sides must be chosen. Most of the story centers around each character defending their choice and the resulting conflict and strain it brings into these friendships.

My Final Verdict: Life is not always a picnic, being an adult is not all it is cracked up to be and interpersonal relationships are a lot of work. I recommend this story to readers who enjoy stories that have realistic issues and conflict that the characters must face. Sometimes life is messy, sometimes it is amazing, and this story was a good reminder that nothing in life worth having ever comes easy.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Olive from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.