This month’s book recommendation from Andrea Peskind Katz from Great Thoughts, Great Readers:
ALL THE WAYS WE SAID GOODBYE: A Novel of the Ritz Paris
by
The New York Times bestselling authors of The Glass Ocean and The Forgotten Room return with a glorious historical adventure that moves from the dark days of two World Wars to the turbulent years of the 1960s, in which three women with bruised hearts find refuge at Paris’ legendary Ritz hotel.
The heiress.
The Resistance fighter.
The widow.
Three women whose fates are joined by one legendary hotel.
France, 1914.
When war breaks out, Aurelie de Courcelles flees the safety of the Ritz hotel and her American heiress mother to join her estranged father at their estate in Picardy, determined to defy the German invaders. But as the Germans push forward, taking the chateau as their headquarters, Aurelie’s plans are complicated by the presence of Maximilian von Sternburg, once a friend, now aide de camp to the despised German commandant. Caught between loyalty and love, which will she betray?
France, 1942.
Raised by her indomitable American grandmother in the glamorous Hotel Ritz, Daisy Villon remains in Paris with her husband, a Nazi collaborator, after France falls to Hitler. At first reluctant to put her family at risk, Daisy agrees to act as a courier for a skilled English forger who creates identity papers for Resistance members and Jewish refugees. But as Daisy commits increasingly audacious acts of espionage she uncovers a devastating secret…one that will force her to commit the ultimate betrayal.
France, 1964.
For Barbara “Babs” Langford, her husband, Kit, was the love of her life. Yet their marriage was haunted by a mysterious woman known only as La Fleur. On Kit’s death, American lawyer Drew Bowdoin appears at her door. Hired to find a Resistance fighter turned traitor known as “La Fleur,” the investigation has led to Kit Langford. Babs joins Drew in his search, a journey of discovery that that takes them to Paris and the Ritz—and to unexpected places of the heart. . . .
Andrea Peskind Katz runs Great Thoughts, Great Readers, a Book Salon presented via her private FB group where approximately 5000 prolific readers and authors interact. She also founded Greatthoughts.com, a lifestyle website blog focusing on Great Books and Great Travel. To quote Robert Frost, she created her “second act” career to “unite my avocation and my vocation.” After 20 years in high pressure sales, Andrea retired to spend time doing what she loves- hanging with her family, reading good books
image source: Lauren Willig