Kristy Cambron

An iconic city under siege during World War II and the bravery of two women who joined the Resistance to save it . . . Paris, 1939. The closing of Maison Chanel thrusts haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion and into occupation as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Lights slips into darkness. Lila's fight for survival turns into a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda that sees Paris cut off from the rest of the world. Yet in hidden corners of the city, the faithful pledge to resist. Lila is drawn to La Resistance and is soon using her skills as a dressmaker to infiltrate the Nazi elite. She takes their measurements and designs masterpieces, all while collecting secrets in the glamorous Hôtel Ritz--the heart of the Nazis' Parisian headquarters. But when dashing René Touliard suddenly reenters her world, Lila finds her heart tangled in the determination to help save his Jewish family and bolster the fight for liberation. Paris, 1943. While cataloguing priceless works of art stolen from prominent Jewish families and on trains bound for the Führer's ranks in Berlin, Sandrine Paquet secretly forages information for the underground resistance. Beneath her compliant façade lies a woman bent on uncovering her missing husband's fate . . . but at what cost? As Hitler's regime crumbles, Sandrine in drawn in deeper when she uncrates an exquisite blush Chanel gown concealing a cryptic message that may tell the fate of a dressmaker who's vanished from within the fashion elite. Based on true accounts of how Parisiennes resisted the Nazi occupation--from fashion houses to the city streets--The Paris Dressmaker weaves a story of two courageous women who risked everything to fight an evil they couldn't abide.

The Paris Dressmaker

Manhattan art dealer Sera James' discovery of a portrait of a Holocaust victim leads her to search for the story of the painting's subject, an aristocratic Austrian violinist whose efforts to smuggle Jews out of Vienna put her in Auschwitz.

The Butterfly and the Violin

Launching a brand-new series, Kristy Cambron explores the collision of past and present as she discovers the ruins of a French castle, long lost to history.

A Split-Time Romance

The Lost Castle

Harry Houdni's one-time apprentice holds fantastic secrets about the greatest illusionist in the world. But someone wants to claim them . . . or silence her before she can reveal them on her own. Boston, 1926. Jenny "Wren" Lockhart is a bold eccentric--even for a female vaudevillian. As notorious for her inherited wealth and gentleman's dress as she is for her unsavory upbringing in the back halls of a vaudeville theater, Wren lives in a world that challenges all manner of conventions. In the months following Houdini's death, Wren is drawn into a web of mystery surrounding a spiritualist by the name of Horace Stapleton, a man defamed by Houdini's ardent debunking of fraudulent mystics in the years leading up to his death. But in a public illusion that goes terribly wrong, one man is dead and another stands charged with his murder. Though he's known as one of her teacher's greatest critics, Wren must decide to become the one thing she never wanted to be: Stapleton's defender. Forced to team up with the newly formed FBI, Wren races against time and an unknown enemy, all to prove the innocence of a hated man. In a world of illusion, of the vaudeville halls that showcase the flamboyant and the strange, Wren's carefully constructed world threatens to collapse around her. Layered with mystery, illusion, and the artistry of the Jazz Age's bygone vaudeville era, The Illusionist's Apprentice is a journey through love and loss and the underpinnings of faith on each life's stage.

The Illusionist's Apprentice

What is revealed when you pull back the curtain of the greatest show on earth? Rosamund Easling is no stranger to opulence. As the daughter of an earl, she's grown up with all the comforts money can buy. But when hard times befall the family's Yorkshire estate in the aftermath of the Great War, the stage is set for a series of events that change her world beyond even her wildest dreams. Though expected to marry for a title instead of love, Rosamund feels called to a different life--one of adventure outside the confines of a ladies' parlor. When her father sells her beloved horse, she abandons all she's known and follows in pursuit as her horse is shipped to the new owner--an American entertainer by the name of John Ringling. Knowing she has much to learn, Rosamund agrees to a bareback riding apprenticeship in the shadow of the Ringlings' home--the Ca'D'Zan. In what would become the last days of the enigmatic Mable Ringling's life, Rosamund finds a deeper sense of purpose in her new life and begins to experience the awakening of faith. With a mysterious and dazzling supporting cast of characters, Rosamund journeys far from the traditions of the English countryside to the last days of the Roaring Twenties--a journey that forever changes what her life might have been.

The Ringmaster's Wife

Italian Ballerina

Bound together across time, two women will discover a powerful connection through one survivor's story of hope in the darkest days of a war-torn world. Present Day--With the grand opening of her new art gallery and a fairy-tale wedding just around the corner, Sera James feels like she's stumbled into a charmed life--until a brutal legal battle against fiancé William Hanover threatens to destroy their future before it even begins. Now, after an eleventh-hour wedding ceremony and a callous arrest, William faces a decade in prison for a crime he never committed, and Sera must battle the scathing accusations that threaten her family and any hope for a future with the man she loves. 1942--Kája Makovsky narrowly escaped Nazi-occupied Prague in 1939 and was forced to leave behind her half-Jewish family. Now a reporter for The Daily Telegraph in England, Kája discovers the terror has followed her across the Channel in the shadowy form of the London Blitz. When she learns Jews are being exterminated by the thousands on the continent, she has no choice but to return to her mother city, risking her life to smuggle her family to freedom and peace. Connecting across a century through one little girl, a Holocaust survivor with a foot in each world, these two women will discover a kinship that springs even in the darkest of times. In this tale of hope and survival, Sera and Kája must cling to the faith that sustains them and fight to protect all they hold dear-even if it means placing their own futures on the line.

A Sparrow in Terezin

A storied castle. A band of rebels. And a nation chasing the centuries-old dream of freedom . . . What legacy will they leave behind?

Castle on the Rise

At the height of the Nazi occupation of Rome, an unlikely band of heroes comes together to save innocent lives in this breathtaking World War II novel based on real historical events. Rome, 1943. With the fall of Italy’s Fascist government and the Nazi regime occupying the streets of Rome, British ballerina Julia Bradbury is stranded and forced to take refuge at a hospital on Tiber Island. But when she learns of a deadly sickness sweeping through the quarantine wards—a fake disease known only as Syndrome K—she is drawn into one of the greatest cons in history. Alongside hospital staff, friars of the adjoining church, and two Allied medics, Julia risks everything to rescue Jewish Italians from the deadly clutches of the Holocaust. Soon a little girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina arrives at their door, and Julia is determined to reunite the young dancer with her family—if only she would reveal one crucial secret: her name. Present Day. Delaney Coleman recently lost her grandfather—a beloved small-town doctor and World War II veteran, so she returns home to help her aging parents. When a mysterious Italian woman reaches out claiming to own one of the family’s precious heirlooms, Delaney is compelled to travel to Italy and uncover the truth of her grandfather’s hidden past. With the help of the woman’s skeptical but charming grandson, Delaney learns of a Roman hospital that saved hundreds of Jewish people during the war. Soon, everything Delaney thought she knew about her grandfather comes into question. Based on true accounts of the invented Syndrome K sickness, The Italian Ballerina journeys from the Allied storming of the beaches at Salerno to the London ballet stage and the war-torn streets of World War II Rome, exploring the sometimes heart-wrenching choices we must make to find faith and forgiveness, and how saving a single life can impact countless others. Split timeline: WWII and present day Stand-alone novel Book length: approximately 107,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs

A World War II Novel

The Italian Ballerina

La sarta di Chanel

Based on real accounts of Britain's Land Girls and the Forgotten Blitz, The British Booksellers highlights the courageous choices we must make to live, love, and---in the face of all that tests us---fight for what matters most.

The British Booksellers

Laine Forrester steht an einem Wendepunkt in ihrem Leben, der sie auf eine abenteuerliche Reise nach Irland führt. Dort erwartet sie nicht nur eine atemberaubende Landschaft, sondern auch ein geheimnisvolles Schloss, hinter dessen Mauern Geschichten aus längst vergangenen Tagen zu neuem Leben erwachen. Es offenbaren sich die Schicksale von Issy, einer jungen Frau zur Zeit des Osteraufstandes von 1916, und Maeve, der Schlossherrin, die während der irischen Rebellion von 1798 ums Überleben kämpfte ... Dieser Roman spielt vor der traumhaften Kulisse Irlands und erzählt die Geschichten dreier starker Frauen, die sich entscheiden, die Vergangenheit hinter sich zu lassen und all ihre Hoffnung auf die Tatsache zu setzen, dass Gott selbst aus den schmerzhaftesten Lebenssituationen Gutes hervorbringen kann.

Das Lied der Grünen Insel

Aleksandra Gietka-Ostrowska

Czy miłość i piękno przetrwają czas okupacji? Paryż, rok 1939. Miasto Świateł ogarnia mrok. Dla Sandrine Paquet wojna zmieniła wszystko. Jej mąż zaginął na froncie, a szczęśliwe, pełne blasku życie stało się jedynie mglistym wspomnieniem. Tymczasem z polecenia nazistów Sandrine kataloguje dzieła sztuki kradzione żydowskim rodzinom, w tajemnicy przekazując informacje na ich temat francuskiemu ruchowi oporu. Pewnego dnia otrzymuje skrzynkę zawierającą suknię Chanel z zagadkową wiadomością... Lila de Laurent, krawcowa dotychczas pracująca w domu mody Chanel, z dnia na dzień traci pracę – firma zamyka się w chwili, gdy do Paryża wkraczają Niemcy. Szykowne bale, praca u słynnej projektantki, uczucie do René Touliarda zastępują wojenna rzeczywistość, codzienna walka o przetrwanie i świadomość, że dawny ukochany kolaboruje z wrogiem. Wkrótce pod pretekstem szycia kreacji dla żon i kochanek niemieckich żołnierzy krawcowa zbiera informacje, które mogą zaważyć na losach Francji. Czy Sandrine i Christian się odnajdą? Czy Lila przeżyje? Czy odkryje, co ukrywa René? Czy dawni kochankowie odzyskają utraconą miłość?

Dziewczyna z Paryża

A lost painting of Queen Victoria. A library bricked off from the world. And three women, separated by time, whose lives are irrevocably changed. When art historian Keira Foley is hired to authenticate a painting at a centuries-old East Suffolk manor, she hopes this is just the thing to get her career and life back on track. But from the time she arrives at Parham Hill Estate and begins working alongside rumored art thief Emory Scott, she’s left with far more questions than answers. Could this lost painting of Queen Victoria be a duplicate of the original Winterhalter masterpiece, and if so, who is the artist? As Keira begins to unravel the mystery behind the portrait, two women emerge from the estate’s forgotten past. In Victorian England, talented sketch artist Elizabeth Meade is engaged to Viscount Huxley, then owner of Parham Hill. However, Elizabeth’s real motive for being at Parham Hill has nothing to do with art or marriage. She’s determined to avenge her father’s brutal murder—even if it means a betrothal to the very man she believes committed the crime. A century later, Amelia Woods—a World War II widow who has turned Parham Hill and its beloved library into a boarding school for refugee children—receives military orders to house a troop of American pilots. She is determined the children in her care will remain untouched by the war, but the task is proving difficult with officers taking up every square inch of their world . . . and one in particular vying for a space in Amelia’s long-shut up heart. Set in three time periods—the rapid change of Victorian England, the peak of England’s home-front tensions at the end of WWII, and modern day—The Painted Castle unfolds a story of heartache and hope and unlocks secrets lost for generations just waiting to be found. Praise for The Painted Castle: “A gripping tale of secrets hidden behind the walls of an ancient English castle.” —KATE BRESLIN, bestselling author of Far Side of the Sea

Kristy Cambron

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