Mistress of the Ritz

Chapter 1

Blanche,

June 1940

Her shoes.

It s her shoes that worry her, if that can be believed. Of all the things this woman should be concerned about on this horrific day, it s her shoes.

But in her defense, given who she is and where she is headed, her shoes are a problem. They re filthy, caked with dried mud, the heels worn down. And all she can think about, as her husband helps her off the train, is how Coco Chanel, that bitch, will react when she sees her. How they ll all react when she shows up at the Ritz with filthy, worn-­down shoes, her ripped stockings practically disintegrating on her shapely calves. While she can t do anything about her stockings ­even Blanche Auzello would never dream of changing her stockings in public ­she is desperate to find a bench so that she can rummage through her suitcases and find another pair of shoes. But before she can speak this wish, she and her husband are swept up in the wave of bewildered ­well, what the hell are they now? French? German? Refugees? ­who are flooding out of the Gare du Nord, eager, terrified, to see what has become of Paris in their absence.

Blanche and her husband are part of the great unwashed; dirt and cinders have coagulated in pockets of perspiration beneath their chins, behind their ears, their knees, in the crevasses of their elbows. Greasy faces streaked with soot. They haven t changed clothes in days; Claude packed away his captain s uniform before they left his garrison. To be worn again, he assured Blanche ­or more likely, she suspected, himself. When we fight back. As we most certainly will.

But no one knows when, or if, that time will come. Now that the Germans have taken France.

Outside, the pair finally push their way out of the crowd so that they can catch their breath, try to corral all the luggage that is slipping out of their hands; when they packed, nine months ago, they had no idea how long they d be away. Automatically, they look for a taxi in the usual

Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Children s Blizzard, Mistress of the Ritz, The Girls in the Picture, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator's Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and Alice I Have Been. Benjamin lives in Virginia, where she is at work on her next historical novel.

A compelling portrait of a marriage and a nation at war from within . . . At the glittering height of the twenties and thirties, suave French hotel manager Claude Auzello has turned the Ritz into the jewel of Paris, installing his brash American wife, Blanche, as queen among the movie stars, fashion icons, and crowned heads who make up the hotel guests. But the Auzello marriage is rocked by infidelity and turmoil even as the Nazi shadow rises in Germany, and when the Ritz becomes Third Reich headquarters in occupied Paris, France s ultimate power couple must decide if they will weather the storm together or crumble under the oppression and brutality of war. High fashion, royal gossip, political scheming, and French Resistance sabotage all swirl together to make Mistress of the Ritz a cocktail as irresistible as anything served at the hotel s bar! Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network

No one writes of the complexities of women s lives and loves like Melanie Benjamin. In Mistress of the Ritz, Benjamin brings wartime Paris brilliantly to life and brings home the terrible dilemmas and moral conundrums forced upon occupied citizens by the war. Blanche Auzello is a martini-soaked flapper with a heart of steel. Benjamin s fascinating story brings this forgotten heroine vividly to life without flinching from the high price paid by those who fought back against the Nazi scourge. Intense, illuminating, and ultimately inspiring! Elizabeth Letts, New York Times bestselling author of Finding Dorothy

In Mistress of the Ritz, Melanie Benjamin illuminates the little-known story of Blanche Auzello, the fiery American who, along with her French husband, secretly worked for the French Resistance while hosting senior German officials at their storied hotel. This meticulously researched and richly told story could only have been penned by Melanie