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 … . .
The widow . . .
Three women whose fates are joined by one splendid hotel
France, 1914. As war breaks out, Aurelie becomes trapped on the wrong side of the front with her father, Comte Sigismund de Courcelles. When the Germans move into their family’s ancestral estate, using it as their headquarters, Aurelie discovers she knows the German Major’s aide de camp, Maximilian Von Sternburg. She and the dashing young officer first met during Aurelie’s debutante days in Paris. Despite their conflicting loyalties, Aurelie and Max’s friendship soon deepens into love, but betrayal will shatter them both, driving Aurelie back to Paris and the Ritz— the home of her estranged American heiress mother, with unexpected consequences.
France, 1942. Raised by her indomitable, free-spirited American grandmother in the glamorous Hotel Ritz, Marguerite “Daisy” Villon remains in Paris with her daughter and husband, a Nazi collaborator, after France falls to Hitler. At first reluctant to put herself and her family at risk to assist her grandmother’s Resistance efforts, Daisy agrees to act as a courier for a skilled English forger known only as Legrand, who creates identity papers for Resistance members and Jewish refugees. But as Daisy is drawn ever deeper into Legrand’s underground network, committing increasingly audacious acts of resistance for the sake of the country—and the man—she holds dear, she uncovers a devastating secret . . . one that will force her to commit the ultimate betrayal, and to confront at last the shocking circumstances of her own family history.
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 Andrew “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. Curious to know more about the enigmatic La Fleur, 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. . . .
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Set during WWI, WWII, and the early 60s, with the Paris Ritz as a backdrop, this is the story of 3 women whose stories all intertwine over time. I particularly enjoyed the stories of Aurélie and Daisy and I would have preferred more of their stories and less of Babs. There’s a bit of mystery, and while I figured most of it out as the book went on, there was one surprise I didn’t expect, and I kinda wish it had been left out. Overall it’s an enjoyable read, especially if you enjoy WWII stories as much as I do. 3 stars.
I love these three ladies individually and together. Their stories are original, engaging, and hard to put down. As a reader, I love all the links to the other stories through the characters.
Beautiful story! Well told!
Four stars is overly generous. 3.5 is more accurate to my rating.
I admit when I first saw this book — written by three bestselling authors –two of whom I have read many times and admire — I was put off. It smacked of gimmickry. (Was this just an easy way for successful authors to make an extra buck?) But as the book progressed, I mostly got passed that. Mostly.
It’s an historical novel that spans half of the 20th century, made up of three distinct narratives, with parts of each story taking place at the prestigious Ritz Hotel in Paris. (I assume each of the three authors penned one of the three stories, but that’s pure conjecture.)
The Stories (no spoilers):
1914 – During World War I, a centuries-old noble French family (de Courcelles) with a castle in the countryside find their daughter (Aurelie) caught between her loyalty to family and country and her attraction to an occupying German solider.
1942 – While French housewife (Daisy) and her two young children benefit from her husband’s collaboration with the occupying Nazis, Daisy increasingly finds her loyalty to her husband at odds with her desire to help her country.
1964 – a dowdy and recently widowed Brit, with three nearly-grown children, heads to France to try to discover the truth behind a woman her late husband loved during World War II.
Naturally, the three stories turn out to be linked, though it takes a bit to figure out how. In each there is budding romance (of course), a few family secrets, women coming into their own, and children working out issues with parents.
Unfortunately, I found I was able to accurately predict where each story would lead and how the secrets, once exposed, would impact each storyline. So there were very few surprises for me.
This is another one of those novels where chapters jump around from story to story, from time period to time period — a structure so many contemporary authors use, which I often find annoying and unnecessary. These story threads could just as easily have been three sequential stories, which would have been much easier to follow. Instead I had to track three separate plots with three distinct sets of characters. And instead of building suspense (I assume that is what authors using this technique are trying to do), all that jumping around just makes it harder for me to immerse myself into each.
Overall, it’s a quick read with plenty of drama. But I don’t expect I’ll pick up another book collaboration by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White. (There are two others.)
I loved this book. From 1915 – 1967 spans 2 world wars. Great story and will definitely keep your interest.
I found this book hard to follow and not at all what I thought it would be like.
It was different and enjoyable. This was a different take on a story in World War 2.
5 Stars
1914: The start of WWI positions Aurelie, French heiress and holder of a national relic, to spy for the resistance, leaking out bits of information she overhears from the German officers who have acquisitioned her family’s castle. With her mother at the Ritz in Paris and her father trying to keep his estate afloat, Aurelie’s ties to her parents waver. Eventually, her heart leads Aurelie down a much different path than she imaged—straight into the arms of German officer, Max von Sternburg.
1942: Marguerite “Daisy” Villon delivers much more than books to her grandmother at the Ritz. Sickened by her husband’s involvement in rounding up and shipping out Paris’s Jewish population, Daisy befriends forger and spy, Legrand. In a secret section of a local bookshop, they collaborate for the underground resistance to provide Parisian Jews with forged identity papers and passports. However, Daisy cannot untangle her heart from Legrand’s, endangering them both and all whom she holds dear.
1964: With the death of her husband recently behind her, Barbara “Babs” Langford goes in search of her suspicions—that her husband had been in love with a spy of renown, La Fleur, whom he met in Paris in the 1940’s. Babs’s search for the legendary spy coincides with lawyer, Andrew “Drew” Bodoin’s. Through the romantic atmosphere of Paris and a little help from a woman Babs meets at the Ritz, Drew and Babs form much more than an investigative alliance.
Is there a future of Aurelie and Max? Can Daisy and Legrand keep up their cover and their romance, while diverting watching eyes? Will Babs set aside her past bonds to embrace Drew, who loves her unapologetically and unconditionally.
Which of the three women, Aurelie, Daisy, and Babs—whose lives have revolved or evolved through the doors of the Ritz—will say a permanent goodbye to the love of their lives?
I listened to this book on tape and struggled a bit about who the 3 characters were.
I loved it. Never saw that ending coming. Yes, I would recommend! These 3 “W” authors are great. Never a disappointment.
This was a beautiful multiple timeline novel that wove together the lives of three women whose histories were connected in some way to each other. It consisted of wartime courage, romance, and the resolute strength of females when put to the test. The three authors did an amazing job in connecting their separate timelines. All while creating an immersive and fluid story. I highly recommend the novel, as well as the audiobook for those who enjoy listening. It was beautifully narrated by three separate women who captured their heroine’s story perfectly.
The story follows three different woman, on three different time lines. One woman during WWI, one woman during WWI and the last woman during the 60s. What do these woman have in common? Everything and nothing and the same time.
During WWI, we meet Aurelie, who is the daughter of Comte Courcelles and the American heiress. She finds herself on the wrong side of the war and trapped with her father int he front of the war. When the Germans move in to her family’s estate, she discovers that Max Von Sternburg is among them, a German she first met during her debutante days in Paris. Max and Aurelie find themselves falling in love despite all the wrongness going on around them, but much too soon Aurelie finds herself in Paris and the Ritz with her heiress mother with unexpected consequences.
During WWII, Daisy was raised by her American grandmother in the glamorous Hotel Ritz, she now has two kids and married to a Nazi collaborator after France falls to Hitler. Daisy finds herself in a very difficult position between her grandmother and her husband. After much thought she agrees to assist her grandmother’s Resistance efforts and becomes a courier for a skilled forger. What she didn’t realized was by agreeing to it was that she would fall in love with the English forger named Legrand. When Daisy and Legrand’s lives are at risk, she will find out more than she wanted about her family history and lose more than she ever wanted at the same time.
France, 1964 we meet Babs, her husband has been dead for one year. She receives a letter from an American lawyer, Drew, who’s father served with her husband during the war. He wants her help to find, Le Fleur. She joins Drew, because she has heard that name coming from her husband before. And together they will go on a journey to find not only Le Fleur but much more than they were looking for.
This book was amazing, it’s love, war and everything in between. I loved the going back and forth in the time frame. I loved getting to know these three woman, getting to know what happen during WWI and WWII and what each of those two woman did, but also what different things people had to go through during those times. And the different love stories, that was so touching and wonderful. Just a warning, the beginning of the book may be a little slow but once you get through the first quarter of it, you will not be able to put it down.
Totally recommend it, I also got an eARC from Netgalley.
5 out of 5 stars.
XOXO,
ALL THE WAYS WE SAID GOOD-BYE by White, Williams, and Willig
At first I resisted yet another book with multiple POVs and timelines, but then I fell right in. It was surprisingly easy to follow, with clear labeling of each change, and sweet details tying them together, almost like the fade-out/fade-in of good cinema. The reward, good characters and fascinating settings. This is a book filled with courage, beauty, honor, sacrifice, and love and forgiveness, with mysteries to resolve and characters to love . . . and hate.
Words of courage, for now and always:
“It’s nothing, it’s a raindrop in a thunderstorm.”
“It’s not nothing. Not to those we save. To them, it’s everything.”
“Don’t ever lose yourself thinking of the ones you couldn’t save. Think instead of the ones you did.”
Great book! At first, it’s a bit hard to follow the plot because of the triple timelines but after a while the story comes together and becomes enjoyable. I recommend this novel if you like historical books.
In this delightful historical romance, an English widow takes a vacation in Paris to piece together the mystery of her husband’s relationship with a French heroine of the WWII resistance and discovers a history of strong French women that spans generations from the World War I to the mid-1960s and helps her to come to terms with a wrong she believed she had done her husband and to reinvent herself in a life beyond the guilt and grief.
The story features three heroines, each written by a separate author. They work astonishingly well together to weave this amazing, often heart-wrenching story of love and life in France in the first half of the 20th century. The research is impeccable, the characters engaging and the story a mystery that slowly reveals itself through the tireless research of the widow, Babs Langford and her American co-investigator.
All The Ways We Said Goodbye is a bittersweet escape into another world and one of the best historical romances I’ve read in recent times.
A great story that takes place over three time periods. A lot of switching between times but so intriguing how everything ties together. I am still thinking of the effects of the choices made, forgiveness, and the horrors of war days after finishing the book. I appreciate there was no bad language in the book. This one is hard to put down so be careful when you choose to start reading it.
From three wonderfully talented authors comes a story of three women who live in different times but somehow their stories intertwine. From 1914 we meet Aurelie, who is stuck living with the enemy in her own house while WWI was happening all around her. In 1942 we meet Daisy, who does what she must to keep her family safe during WWII. 1964 introduces us to Babs, who travels to Paris to find answers to her husband’s secrets. All three stories have their own paths, all three women are incredibly strong, and all three stories tie together in amazing ways.
I am in awe of how strong Aurelie, Daisy, and Babs are. They are living in times that are not easy, searching for ways to keep their families safe, yet continue to put themselves out there to help others while trying to get a grip on all that life is throwing at them. I kept reading looking for the clues as to how it would all come together and putting the pieces together bit by bit, I did have it mostly figured out before the end.
Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White are all authors that I have read before. Writing as one, there are no gaps in the story and the book flows perfectly from one character to the next. The chapters alternate between the three main characters and are not short, but they are easy to follow. The storyline pulls you into three wonderful eras and the world as it was happening at that time. I could picture the characters and hear their voices, I could see the places they were visiting and living, and I could feel their emotions as their worlds were changed by the lives they were living.
I think this might be my favorite of the author trios writings. I listened to this on Audible and the narration was also excellent. Told by three different authors about three different women in three different time periods and weaving it all together. Fantastic!
I enjoyed all three authors’ stories about The Ritz in Paris during WW1, WWII and 1964.