The Paris Model by Alexandra Joel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A painting may take years to give up its secrets, but life was not a static piece of art. It was dynamic and constantly changing.”

You all know how much I love my historical fiction books!!! What makes this multi timeline novel set in Paris so fascinating is that it is based on a true story. This incredible tale follows the unlikely rise of a woman named Grace Woods, who starts her life as an orphan on a sheep farm, and comes to be one of Christian Dior’s favorite models. Her story is truly multi-layered and amazing!!

This one started out slow for me. I’m a total tomboy so while I connected with the scenes of her riding horses and goofing off on the farm, I rolled my eyes when she’s with her mom looking through Vogue magazines and talking about fashion. If this is like you, HANG IN THERE. She eventually marries her high school sweetheart but when he comes back from the war he is harder and they struggle.

After Grace learns snippets of her past, she escapes her abusive marriage and flees to Post-War Paris to find more about her true identity & follow her dreams of becoming a model. This is when things get really good!! After she secures a highly coveted role as one of Christian Dior’s glamorous mannequins, she rubs shoulders with and befriends an array of famous people including princesses, authors, artists, and diplomats.

Eventually Grace falls for a super dashing man named Philippe Boyer who is full of secrets of his own that may inflict devastating consequences upon her life. As she is drawn into Philippe’s secret world of international espionage, Grace discovers both the shattering truth of her origins – and that her life is in peril.

This one just kept getting better as it went on. So if you stick with it you’ll be rewarded. And be sure to read the author’s notes at the end since it’s based on a true story. She shares some of the inside information and what she tweaked for the book. Once you realize this unlikely story actually happened it made me want to read it all over again!

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Book Link: https://www.harpercollins.com/product…

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