The Queen of Paris - Pamela Binnings Ewen

The Queen of Paris

By Pamela Binnings Ewen

  • Release Date: 2020-04-07
  • Genre: Historical Fiction
4 Score: 4 (From 335 Ratings)

Description

Legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel is revered for her sophisticated style—the iconic little black dress—and famed for her intoxicating perfume Chanel No. 5. Yet behind the public persona is a complicated woman of intrigue, shadowed by mysterious rumors. The Queen of Paris, the new novel from award-winning author Pamela Binnings Ewen, vividly imagines the hidden life of Chanel during the four years of Nazi occupation in Paris in the midst of WWII—as discovered in recently unearthed wartime files.
Coco Chanel could be cheerful, lighthearted, and generous; she also could be ruthless, manipulative, even cruel. Against the winds of war, with the Wehrmacht marching down the Champs-Élysées, Chanel finds herself residing alongside the Reich’s High Command in the Hotel Ritz. Surrounded by the enemy, Chanel wages a private war of her own to wrestle full control of her perfume company from the hands of her Jewish business partner, Pierre Wertheimer. With anti-Semitism on the rise, he has escaped to the United States with the confidential formula for Chanel No. 5. Distrustful of his intentions to set up production on the outskirts of New York City, Chanel fights to seize ownership. The House of Chanel shall not fall.
While Chanel struggles to keep her livelihood intact, Paris sinks under the iron fist of German rule. Chanel—a woman made of sparkling granite—will do anything to survive. She will even agree to collaborate with the Nazis in order to protect her darkest secrets. When she is covertly recruited by Germany to spy for the Reich, she becomes Agent F-7124, code name: Westminster. But why? And to what lengths will she go to keep her stormy past from haunting her future?

Reviews

  • Wonderful read!

    5
    By Kitchen gypsy
    I love Paris and have walked so many of the streets in the book. This is a great yarn than follows Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s actual life. I highly recommend it!
  • Interesting & Intriguing

    4
    By Hales Passage
    This is fast page-turner novel based on historical facts about a strong, self-made woman literally surviving during the Nazi occupation of Paris. The author draws you in by revealing the creative, clever, intelligent, and down-right steely personality of legendary Coco Chanel. I was fascinated with her ingenious thinking in order to always be one step ahead of her male adversaries in her career, but also when dealing with high-ranking Nazis and Hitler himself. An excellent read!

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