The Paris Secret

Starred review from June 22, 2020
Lester (The Paris Orphan) entrances with this lush romance set in WWII Britain and present-day Australia. In 1940, pilot Skye Penrose becomes one of the first women to join the Air Transport Auxiliary, a civilian flying service that ferries planes from factories to Royal Air Force bases. On one of her missions, Skye comes face to face with her long-lost childhood friend Nicholas Crawford, a member of the American Eagle Squadron. Though Nicholas is already engaged to Margaux Jourdan, a stunning woman who works for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, he and Skye fall deeply in love. In 2012, Margaux’s granddaughter, Kat, an Australian fashion conservator, travels to England for work, stopping to check-in at her grandmother’s cottage in Cornwall. Kat is amazed to discover a closet of vintage Dior dresses that hint at a different life-story for her grandmother than the one Kat knows. Back in Australia, Kat is contacted by Elliott Beaufort, an author researching a book on WWII who believes that Margaux was actually a high-powered spy for the French Resistance. As Kat helps Elliott with his research, they embark on a sensual romance—but their love affair is interrupted when Kat discovers the real reason Elliott is searching for her grandmother. Lester’s magnetic characters, lyrical writing, and extensive historical research breathe life into this riveting tale. This is a stunner. Agent: Jacinta di Mase, Jacinta di Mase Management.

Starred review from August 1, 2020
Her grandmother is a complete stranger. That is the only conclusion Kat Jourdan can reach once she discovers a cache of Dior gowns hidden away in Margaux Jourdan's old cottage in Cornwall. Now Kat must not only figure out how Margaux became the owner of 65 priceless dresses, but she must also determine whether historian Elliott Beaufort's claim that Kate's grandmother is the very same WWII spy he has been researching for his latest book. As Kat and Elliott work together to uncover more information about Margaux, they find a connection not only to the House of Dior but also to the remarkable Penrose women and their friends and lovers, whose daring helped win the war. Best-selling Lester (The Paris Orphan, 2019) effectively finesses multiple timelines in her latest sweeping family saga written in elegant, evocative prose that is as carefully stitched together as a couture gown. Her meticulous attention to period details, impeccable plotting, and rich characterization will delight fans of Kate Morton or anyone in need of a gorgeously wrought, old-fashioned (in the best possible way, with echoes of Rosamunde Pilcher's The Shell Seekers) tale of love, loss, courage, and compassion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)