The Blurb (from Goodreads):
France, 1944: The Nazis still occupy Paris, and twenty-five-year-old Gabby Foucher hates these enemies, though, as the concierge of ten rue Royale, she makes it a point to avoid trouble, unlike her sister Yvette. Until she, like her sister, is recruited into the Resistance by Catherine Dior—sister of the fashion designer, Christian Dior.
Gabby and Yvette are both swept into the world of spies, fugitives, and Resistance workers, and it doesn't take long for the sisters to realize that their lives are in danger.
Gabby discovers an elderly tenant is hiding a wounded British fugitive, and Yvette becomes a messenger for the Resistance. But as Gabby begins to fall in love with her patient and Yvette’s impulsiveness lead her into intrigue at an ever-higher level, both women will discover that their hearts and even their souls hang in the balance as well.
This page-turning novel is perfect for any reader fascinated by the role of women during World War II, whose stories are often untold, and introduces us to Catherine Dior, the fearless real-life Resistance hero.
My Thoughts:
I hugely enjoyed ‘Sisters Of The Resistance’ by Christine Wells - it’s her best book yet!
I’ve been interested in the story of Catherine Dior & her work with the French resistance for a while, and so when I heard that she was a major character in Christine’s new book, I was very keen to read it. Catherine Dior was the younger sister of couturier Christian Dior; he is said to have named his perfume Miss Dior after her. She worked with the underground resistance in France during the war, but was arrested in July 1944 by the Gestapo, tortured, and deported to the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp where she almost died. After the end of the war, she spent the rest of her life growing flowers in Provence. She was a very private woman, and not much is known about her personal experiences during the war. Christine Wells solves this problem by weaving an imaginary story of two Parisian young women around the apartment block in which she lived. One is twenty-five-year-old Gabby who does her best to look after her mother, her sister, and the tenants of the ten rue Royale, where she works as concierge. Her younger sister Yvette is far impetuous, however, and determined to fight the Nazis. Both sisters find themselves in every-growing danger, as they follow Catherine Dior into the shadowy world of rebels and spies. A real page-turner of a novel!
