The Dressmaker's War

Author: Mary Chamberlain
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2016
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: London, 1939: Ada Vaughan is a young working-class woman with an unusual skill for dressmaking who dreams of opening her own atelier. When she meets Stanislaus von Lieben, a Hungarian aristocrat, a new, better life seems to arrive. Stanislaus sweeps Ada off her feet and brings her to Paris. But when war breaks out and Stanislaus vanishes, Ada is abandoned and alone, trapped on an increasingly dangerous continent.

Taken prisoner by the Germans, Ada does everything she can to survive. In the bleak horror of wartime Germany, Ada's skill for creating beauty and glamour is the one thing that keeps her safe. But after the war, attempting to rebuild her life in London, Ada finds that no one is interested in the messy truths of what happened to women like her. And though Ada thought she had left the war behind her, her past eventually comes to light, with devastating consequences.

Review: I could have been Ada in a different time. I empathized with her. I too have made stupid decisions with long-term consequences. 

This is a different kind of WWII novel that I found by chance. I was browsing the library shelves and something about it grabbed my attention. Once I started reading, I could not put it down.