I would describe this as primarily a mystery of family lineage with the thrill of untangling the relationships of the characters in the past set over three different time periods. Secondly, I describe this as a romance. Each of the main characters has their own romantic relationship that is flourishing.
Summary: In 1914, heiress Aurelie seeks to restructure her future while war breaks out. In 1942, Daisy joins the resistance though her husband works for the Nazi’s. In 1964, shortly after her the death of her husband, Babs decides to find someone code-named “Le Fluer” who was part of the resistance during WW2 but had an alleged relationship with her husband.
Historically: The focus is not on the resistance, their fight, or the war. The reader does see a bit of resistance occur, but it is short-lived because the focus always turns back to the budding romance. The story revolves around their relationships. It very briefly mentions a few things that other novels have included such as Coco Chanel and the Velodrome. The Jews and their suffering are not detailed. The setting is historical, but historically nothing new is learned.
Chapter Organization : Each chapter alternates between three main characters: Aurelie, Daisy, and Babs. This takes adjusting on part of the reader. Each chapter is not short, so when a new chapter started, I often found myself having to internally remind myself which character that was and their background before beginning.
Overall Thoughts: There were a lot of scenes in Babs chapters that I found hard to believe. The story moved at a moderate pace until around 83% when the missing pieces of the lineage and relationship puzzle start to come together. (However, it was easy to predict most of these pieces.) This is a romantic mystery that takes place in the past. Overall, I kept reading to confirm my suspicions about the mystery concerning the relationships set in the past.
Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and HarperCollins for a copy. Opinions are my own.