Alix has been tasked with promoting the as-yet-unknown Christian Dior's upcoming collection in Paris, a dream opportunity. Her excitement is overshadowed when news from the Nuremberg trials brings back memories of her time in OSS and a mission gone wrong in northern Italy. She's as determined to uncover the secrets that haunt her as she is to shine in her new role, and when she crosses paths with news editor Anthony March, she finds that he's instrumental in both pursuits, if she can trust him. Despite their growing attraction, Alix has seen enough spurned wives and mistresses to know that falling in love might mean giving up on the future she's trying to build. In both Alix and Anthony's perspectives, Lester captures the delicate balance between trust and self-preservation. With true-life characters, detailed descriptions, and a strong sense of place, she celebrates the glamour of Dior without shying away from the horrors endured by Italian partisans during Nazi occupation. For readers who enjoyed Code Name Hélène, by Ariel Lawhon (2020), or Jennifer Chiaverini's Resistance Women (2019).

A young woman working in Paris in the aftermath of World War II is haunted by the consequences of her work as a spy in Lester's sumptuous historical romance. Australian author Lester moves back and forth through time as she follows orphaned Alix St. Pierre, raised in Los Angeles by wealthy friends of her late French parents, from her post--boarding school, prewar life in Paris to her years in Switzerland working for the Office of Strategic Services under the direction of Allen Dulles and her postwar career as a publicist for up-and-coming fashion designer Christian Dior. Determinedly self-sufficient Alix is haunted by guilt for the role one of her key informants during the war, code-named "La Voce," may have played in the deaths of her fiance, Bobby, and one of the Italian partisans with whom she worked. Determined to bring La Voce to justice, she forms an unlikely alliance with New York publishing heir Anthony March, described by one of Alix's friends as "very louche and luscious." The two grow increasingly attached as the search for their dangerous target proceeds. The various plotlines don't mesh seamlessly: While Lester appears to be doing her dutiful best to deal with the atrocities of the war years and the grim experiences of the women and men who must cope with them, her writing comes alive while telling the stories of Dior and those who worked with him, and it's hard not to wish she'd given herself more time with that fizzy subject matter. The budding romance between Alix and Anthony, during which Alix swoons over Anthony's manly form and hidden sensitivity while instructing herself to remain independent, seems tacked on from another, steamier, novel entirely. Readers may find themselves skimming the thoroughly researched but often plodding World War II sections in hopes of returning to Alix's admittedly more frivolous but decidedly more fascinating life in postwar Paris. One life would be plenty. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.