Love a dual time line story especially one set in France during the war. The author does an excellent job of weaving the past and the future to tell the story of Adele, Coco Chanel’s assistant during WWII. We learn some very interesting details about Coco Chanel.
Chloe, Adele’s granddaughter is now living in Paris following her divorce and is keen to learn and find out more about her family history and her grandmother’s life with Coco Chanel.
There is intrigue, mystery, romance, loss and the horrors of the Nazi occupation. Who can be trusted and what one has to do to survive in a war!
A truly captivating read and what an ending!!

Following Chloe's endeavor to find out more of her family history, mainly from her Gran Adele's earlier years, whose reluctance to relive past events, leaves Chloe wondering why.

Told from present day for Chloe in her quest to research what happened for her Gran during the war, and back to the early 1940s from Adele. Will her Gran finally share her painful memories??...

It took me a while to get into this book, but overall a great read.

I only downloaded this today but have already read it as it was just so gripping

Brilliantly written and what a premise!
I've read lots of Nazi based novels but this makes for a refreshing change. A new angle I have never heard of.

Love how Lorna Cook takes a bit of history we either have forgotten or didn't know in the first place and places it centre stage and makes it so compelling

Loved it and would heartily recommend

The Dressmakers Secret made for an interesting, emotive read. The story centres around Coco Chanel’s life in Paris during WWII, and Adèle, Coco Chanel’s assistant in 1940’s Paris during the Nazi occupation. Told across a dual timeline, we also follow Chloé, Adèle’s granddaughter in the present day, as she unravels the mystery surrounding her grandmother’s past. I really enjoy reading a book with a dual timeline as past and present merge. I also liked the fact Lorna Cook blended reality with imagination in a seamless mixture of fact and fiction.

Before I read this book, I knew very little about Coco Channel, I knew she was a fashion icon with her own line of clothing and perfume and that’s about the extent of my knowledge! So I was surprised to read she was known as a “horizontal collaborator,”. I thought the author managed to fictionalise Chanel’s life perfectly without crossing the line into sensationalising it.

I found Adele’s story to be the more compelling of the two as we learn more about her working for the resistance, a very dangerous occupation when her employer was a Nazi sympathiser. The tension grows as Adele becomes more involved with the resistance, putting her life and those she loves in constant danger. The author’s descriptions of Nazi occupied Paris during wartime, and her exploration of the lengths people were prepared to go to in order to survive, give the reader a genuine sense of time and place.

The Dressmakers Secret has an original plot and offers a fresh take on WW2 fiction. I found this book to be a captivating read and one that I throughly enjoyed as it captures the reader’s imagination from the off. Highly recommended.

My review will be posted to goodreads, Amazon and my Instagram account

I absolutely loved this book! I read it in one sitting, Lorna Cook pulls you into her storylines and the only way to extricate yourself is to turn the last page.
I am always so sorry to reach the end of the book though!
Dual time storylines are my favourite, you almost have 2 books in one . The historical segments are always so well researched and interesting.
The characters as usual are engaging and relatable. I didn't want to put this down once started .
Can't wait to find out what the author has in store for her next book. Recommended. 5 stars from me!

Lorna Cook is an absolutely phenomenal author. This book is captivating from start to finish. It has everything you could possibly want in a good book: love, loss, heartbreak, fear, twists and turns, enthralling characters, and a storyline that will draw you in and keep you reading long into the early hours of the morning.
An absolute 5* book!

The Dressmaker’s Secret by Lorna Cook is an excellent dual timeline historical fiction novel that takes us back to the world of Chanel, the Ritz, WWII- Paris…and the secrets that are woven within.

I am a huge fan of Ms. Cook and also love a great dual timeline historical fiction, and the author was easily able to pull it off. It was gripping, suspenseful, and addictive…full of mysteries, twists, turns, surprises…and a dash of romance.

I loved reading how the two stories were woven together to give us a fascinating narrative. Present-day Chloe, and WWII-era Adele (Chloe’s grandmother) were both excellent lead characters and I actually enjoyed both equally (and that is difficult to pull off).

I have read quite a bit concerning the parts that Coco Chanel and the Ritz played in occupied Paris from other history books and from HF, but Ms. Cook was able to present this material in a fresh and new light. I felt as if I was reading it all for the first time. I had to know every facet…how Adele would stake her morals and her subsequent actions while being employed by Chanel. I had to know what Chloe and Etienne would unearth in their research…and how it all would blend together. I loved how it all played out…and I enjoyed the ending.

Another fabulous book by Ms. Cook that I highly recommend.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Avon Books UK for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 1/27/22.

This book was absolutely amazing. I was intrigued, interested, and found it extremely hard to stop reading. It was very well-written and I couldn’t put it down. It is one of my favorite books I’ve read so far. I can’t wait for everyone to read this book and I hope everyone loves it as much as I did.

The Dressmaker’s Secret is an amazing novel surrounding facts of Coco Chanel's life in Paris during WWII. The book has a dual timeline between Adèle, who is Coco Chanel's assistant in 1940's Paris during the Nazi occupation, and Chloé, Adèle's granddaughter in present day. This is a very well researched and written historical novel. It inspired me to read more about the life of Coco Chanel. Thanks to author Lorna Cook, Avon Books UK, Avon, and to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book for an honest review.

What is the dressmaker's secret? Read and find out! A beautiful story with a strong and courageous heroine. I couldn't put this down! Beautiful writing kept me turning the pages!

I’ve just let out a massive sigh on finishing this quite extraordinary book, Lorna Cook has done it again. Lorna has weaved her magic into an obscure and vague part of world war 2 and brought history alive on the page. This is a tense and emotional tale, sensitive yet brutal, controlled yet a little wild, and with the most unexpected ended that left me breathless. Wow, just wow. Keep writing Lorna, you are incredible 😍

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The language seemed a little simplistic at first but soon developed in pace and quality. Whilst I was aware of Chanel being accused as a nazi collaborator this book put it into context. I loved the dual timeline contrast and look forward to reading more from this author.

Such an interesting story! I think we’ve all heard of Coco Channel and her famous brand but I never really knew anything about her other than her line of clothing and perfume. Lorna Cook brought her alive through her storytelling with her two protagonists in this intriguing dual timeline novel.

Beginning in 1941 we meet Adele who is a young French woman desperate to find work. As fate would have it, she finds a job working as an assistant to Coco Channel. Through Adele’s eyes we learn of her story and her loyalties during the second world war in Paris. We are given a glimpse into the difficulties and dangers of so many just struggling to eat and survive. Adele’s caught in the middle between the resistance and being so close to the Nazi’s because of her employer’s friendships.

In 2018 we meet Chloe, recently divorced and needing a change, Chloe has moved to Paris to take a year out and think about the direction she wants her life to move in. She’s rented a flat, has begun working for a friend in a clothing shop when by chance she meets Etienne. Their friendship helps her to uncover a bit more about her grandmother Adele’s time working for Channel during the war, a time Adele never spoke about.

Lorna Cook is quickly becoming an author that’s on my list of favourites. The Dressmaker’s Secret has everything I enjoy in a novel. This really is a great historical fiction novel with intrigue, romance, danger and mystery. Truly enjoyable.

Thank you Netgalley, Avon Books UK and Lorna Cook for offering me the chance to read this advanced copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

I found this a really interesting read, and I might possibly be the only person who didnt realise that Coco Chanel played a part in the war. This had such an interesting storyline and I loved that I didnt really know what to believe or what Chanel's part in it was. A really great historical read

One would think I’d be tired of reading WWII Historical mysteries by now, but they haven’t read this one. How can you not be intrigued by Coco Chanel and her role in the war? Take into account Adel’s secret along with this and you’ve got one hard to put down story!



I really enjoyed how the author weaved the present with the past to tell her story. I find women like Adele to be true heroines and while this is fiction, there are so many that were doing what Adele did and risking their lives to end the war. A great read that had me up way later than I planned to be, since couldn’t put it down.

The Dressmaker's Secret by Lorna Cook is an emotional and immersive past present narrative that I couldn't put down. I loved both timelines equally and my heart was absolutely thumping for most of the book. The main characters were so vivid and well drawn, and I was fascinated to learn more about Coco Chanel and her origins of her business. A truly brilliant novel.

With grateful thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest opinion.
WOW. what an amazing book this is the 4th I've read and absolutely outstanding, This one has a bit more icing on the cake definitely, what a page Turner.
Having read a few books about Coco chanel there are many differences but this us the 1st that has covered such atrocities and the life of he right hand woman. one outstandingly brilliant and extremely poignant from beginning to end.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC.

This is my first read by this author and I will be definitely looking to read her other books at some point. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it over two days. The two main characters Adèle and Chloé are so believable and very likeable. I could sense the fear through the author’s writing of her characters living in Nazi occupied Paris during war time, and what lengths people are prepared to go to in order to survive. I loved the dual time line, and felt the story moved from past to present times so flawlessly and I particularly enjoyed following Chloé as she tries to find out more about her grans life when she was younger and working for Coco Chanel. The book had a lovely ending which I thought was very fitting for the story. The author has done a great job of portraying her characters thoughts, feelings and emotions so eloquently and making them so vivid and real I could picture a lot of the scenes in my head when reading. Overall an enthralling and very well written book that captured my attention right from the start and held it all the way through. I just loved it.

Chloe has long wondered about her grandmother’s refusal to speak about what happened to her in paris during World War II. To uncover the truth she travels to Paris where she confronts a truth that has her reeling and doubting everything she thought she knew about her grandmother. To many of her countrymen, Adele is a traitor. Living in the Ritz Hotel and consorting with Nazis, the assistant to Coco Chanel is in reality, working for the French Resistance. This is a story of bravery and sacrifice that left me in tears

A well written, interesting dual line story focusing on who Coco Chanel was and what she did during the war. Nazi collaborator? Nazi Agent? Recommended!