Blog Tour: The Secret Dressmaker by Jenny O'Brien

 

When Flora Toussaint was a young woman she found herself in the unhappy predicament of being pregnant to an older man.  After giving birth to twin girls, she reluctantly hands them over to their father and flees to Ireland with no intention of ever returning to France.

Fast forward 18 years, Flora is now working in a parachute factory in WWII when she is approached by British intelligence. They suspect the girl's father, famous couturier Lucien Lumineau, is a collaborator. More alarmingly, one of her daughters has disappeared.

Taking the opportunity to leave her unhappy marriage, Flora finds herself living in a room above a brothel, her nearest neighbour is a singer named Edith (as in Piaf) and she is tasked with finding out whether Lucien is indeed a collaborator. It also gives her the chance to find out what happened to her daughters. She had believed that Lucien was raising both of their daughters with his glamourous wife Sabine, but it turns out the truth was very different.

Whilst working in the wardrobe department at the famous Moulin Rouge, Flora is able to use her skills as a seamstress to not only help maintain the gorgeous costumes but she also helps develop an ingenious way of delivering messages across enemy lines using a simple code. With the help of her Paris contact, a Paris wine merchant, she is able to work out her own complicated history and maybe find a future. It won't be without danger and challenges though! 

There is a lot that happens in this book, and at least two things that I was surprised by.  I was also a bit surprised when I realised that there was a character from the previous book, The Resistance Knitting Club which I reviewed here, that played a key role in this book. Don't let that worry you though. I didn't make the connection until I was looking to see if Tomas had appeared in the earlier book or not. 

I mentioned Edith Piaf but she isn't the only big name cameo to make an appearance. Lucien's work as a designer brings him into contact with the great, the good and the not so good in Paris!

I am already looking forward to the next book in this series. If I was to hazard a guess, I think the next book might feature Marguerette and it might feature crocheting! Of course, I could be wrong!

I am sharing this review with New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here.  This is also one of the books I nominated for 20 Books of Winter. Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Be sure to check out other stops on the blog tour below.

Rating 4/5

About the Book

The Secret Dressmaker

Shelves of sequins in a kaleidoscope of colours. Bolts of silk and tulle against the back wall. The sewing room was the last place anyone had seen her daughter alive.

Northern Ireland, 1942. Flora Toussaint packs parachutes for the RAF, haunted by the twin daughters she was forced to give up eighteen years ago. When British intelligence shows her photographs of her girls – now young women in occupied Paris – her world shifts. One is safe. One has vanished. And their father, the celebrated couturier Lucien Lumineau, is suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.

Flora agrees to a dangerous mission: parachute into France, pose as a seamstress at the Moulin Rouge, and uncover the truth. Lodging above a brothel where Edith Piaf sings after hours and where Pablo Picasso still holds court, she mends costumes between shows, searches for any trace of her missing daughter between curfews, and circles closer to Lucien.

But Lucien isn’t the man she remembers. Neither is their history. And what Flora discovers will unravel everything she thought she knew – about Lucien, about her daughters, and about the night she gave them away.

A sweeping tale of wartime Paris, family secrets and impossible choices. Fans of Kate Quinn, Pam Jenoff and Kristin Hannah will be mesmerised by The Secret Dressmaker.

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Dressmaker-Jenny-OBrien-ebook/dp/B0GSVGSK36

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Dressmaker-Jenny-OBrien-ebook/dp/B0GSVGSK36

About the author

Jenny O’Brien writes complex thrillers and heartbreaking historical fiction, as well as intriguing romances. Silent Cry, initially self published, topped the Amazon kindle chart in both the UK and the USA. Most of her books have followed suit.

Jenny has over 40 years experience as a qualified nurse. She turned to creative writing as a hobby when her children were born. Now, 20 years later, she's retired from the day job to focus on writing. She's currently working on the third book in the Threads Series.

Born in Ireland, she now lives in Guernsey with her husband and children.

Social Media Links – https://www.facebook.com/JennyOBrienWriter/

https://www.instagram.com/scribblerjb/

https://x.com/ScribblerJB

Blog tour: The Resistance Knitting Club by Jenny O'Brien

 

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It never ceases to amaze me how many little known stories there are about the events in WWII that are still being told in new stories. This is another one which features characters who share messages in their knitting and is based on a true story.

When an elderly woman has a stroke, her family is shocked when she suddenly starts speaking fluent French, her family are completely shocked.  They had no idea that their mother/grandmother who refused to leave their Channel island home could speak French. It turns out, she had a whole other life that she never told them about. 

Young Lennie Gallienne is an orphan who lives a very restricted life on the isle of Guernsey. When she received the dreaded telegram to tell her that her beloved brother is missing presumed dead, she refuses to accept it, and heads to London to try to find the truth. An unexpected meeting in the War Office, sees Lennie in training to be a spy .Of course, the men aren't necessarily happy to have a woman recruit with them. And they are even less enamoured when she uses her knitting to teach herself morse code. Her superior officers find out and think it is a great idea and so they all have to learn to knit.

Lennie finds herself working in a bookshop in Paris, helping distribute tracts and pass information back to London. Being a spy is a dangerous business though. It's hard to know who you can trust and if you catch the attention of the wrong people, it can be a matter of life or death. Even if you make it out alive, you can be left with enduring memories and guilt. 

In some ways this book felt a little like a thriller, with each chapter headed by a date and time, with the tension building and building as the time and dates got closer and closer together. 

Whilst this book is probably technically a dual time line, the modern parts of the story really only bookends the main story and form a very small part of the book. I do think that it added something even though it was only a very small part.

Unfortunately, the other thing that ended up playing only a very small part of the story is the knitting. Yes, there was a group of knitters that Lennie spent time with in Guernsey before she went to London, and then when she was teaching the other recruits. However, there wasn't much obvious knitting when she was in Paris which is the majority of the book. It feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, particularly given the title of the book.

I did find myself quite engrossed in the story very quickly. This is the first book in a series, and I am definitely intending to read the next book in the series. 

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog, British Isles Friday hosted at Joy's Book Blog and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here.  Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Be sure to check out other stops on the blog tour below.

Rating 4/5

About the Book

The Resistance Knitting Club

Inspired by the true story of a woman who used knitting patterns to encode intelligence during World War Two.

Guernsey, 2010. After a stroke, an elderly woman shocks her family by speaking perfect French – a language they never knew she possessed. As her granddaughter unravels seventy years of silence, a hidden wartime story emerges...

Paris, 1941. After her brother is declared missing in action at Dunkirk, eighteen-year-old Lenny Gallienne vanishes into Churchill’s secret army. In a bookshop on Rue de la Pompe, she poses as a simple shop girl while encoding intelligence from Nazi headquarters into knitting patterns. Each sweater smuggled to prisoners contains flight paths. Each scarf holds radio frequencies. Each mistake means execution.

Fellow agent, Harry Dennison is the only person who knows her real name. But when the SS close in, Lenny faces an impossible choice in the Metro tunnels beneath Paris – one that will haunt her family for generations. Because in the resistance, the most dangerous secrets are the ones you keep from those you love most.

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Resistance-Knitting-Club-Jenny-OBrien-ebook/dp/B0FZ6F8397/

https://www.amazon.com/Resistance-Knitting-Club-Jenny-OBrien-ebook/dp/B0FZ6F8397/

About the Author

Jenny O’Brien writes complex thrillers and heartbreaking historical fiction, as well as intriguing romances. Silent Cry, initially self published, topped the Amazon kindle chart in both the UK and the USA. Most of her books have followed suit.

Jenny has over 40 years experience as a qualified nurse. She turned to creative writing as a hobby when her children were born.

Born in Ireland, she now lives in Guernsey with her husband and children.

BOOK NEWS

The Resistance Knitting Club comes out in February, 2026. A blend of Jenny’s two hobbies - knitting and reading. For more check out The Resistance Knitting Club Facebook Page. Join the conversation as well as share your crafting projects.



Social Media Links 

Twitter and Instagram @scribblerjb

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennyOBrienWriter/