Natasha Lester – The Grateful Reader

Publication April 8, 2025-Random House Publishing-Historical Fiction-448pp.

Book Summary

How did a young Parisian mother, celebrated for her beauty and glamour, come to lead the largest spy network in occupied France?

Morocco, 1928. Marie-Madeleine Méric is not the kind of woman who stays quietly at her husband’s side. Polyglot, pianist, and pilot, she is a woman of many skills, with unconventional interests—like driving in car rallies—that earn her a daredevil reputation. But dabbling in intelligence work to assist her military officer husband and the French government helps her recognize who she is at heart: an adventurer.

Paris, 1936. As Europe teeters on the brink of war, Marie-Madeleine is living in France, her marriage now in shambles, when a chance encounter with an enigmatic spy turns her life upside down. He recruits her to help build a resistance network, and she conceals her identity—and gender—as she navigates a perilous double life.

Eventually, she steps into the role of leader of what is now known as Alliance, despite the naysayers who doubt in a woman’s ability to do so. Capture and death are only a heartbeat away for both Marie-Madeleine and the agents under her care. At the helm of Alliance, she achieves seemingly impossible feats of espionage that help turn the tide of the war. But the most impossible, and dangerous, feat of them all? Falling in love.
New York Times bestselling author Natasha Lester beautifully brings Marie-Madeleine Méric Fourcade’s story to life in this powerful, heartbreaking tale of resilience that reminds us what it means to cherish those we love and fight for them with every breath.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Natasha Lester’s dual timeline creates the World of Intelligence lead by Marie-Madeleine Meric, the only female leader of a Resistance network in France during World War II. Said to have commanded with grace, courage, humility and flair, the Alliance grew to three thousand agents, mostly military men decades her senior. Agents known by animal names came to be called Noah’s Ark. Lester’s impeccable research, painstaking translations from French, and vast details of the Resistance movement keep the narrative moving from Moracco in 1928, to the end of the war in Paris, 1945. Marie-Madeleine’s dedication to her children and the love of her life, second in command, Leon Faye, create the angst and heart wrenching choices she faces as a mother and leader. Crossing borders in disguise, outwitting Nazis, the highs and lows of prison escape plans, separations, and reunions; all intriguing elements that keep hope alive. Like the Allies receiving maps of the Normandy beaches from Noah’s Ark agents, readers will discover newfound admiration and respect for the unimaginable fortitude of the Resistance fighters in The Mademoiselle Alliance. Highly recommended

Natasha Lester is the New York Times bestselling author of eight historical novels including The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre, The Paris Seamstress, The Paris Secret and The Paris Orphan,

“ONE UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER . . . When Remy discovers she’s mysteriously inherited a house on the French Riviera she drops everything to go there…”

Available August 31, 2021

Natasha Lester worked as a marketing executive for L’Oréal, managing the Maybelline brand, before returning to university to study creative writing. She completed a Master of Creative Arts and has written several novels including A Kiss From Mr. Fitzgerald, Her Mother’s Secret, The Paris Seamstress, The French Photographer, and The Paris Secret.

In her spare time Natasha loves to teach writing, is a sought after public speaker and can often be found playing dress-up with her three children. She lives in Perth.

For all the latest news from Natasha visit:
http://www.natashalester.com.au
Twitter: @Natasha_Lester
Instagram: natashalester
Facebook: NatashaLesterAuthor

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

An envelope with money, a key, and the title to a villa on the French Riviera.

Natasha Lester’s The Riviera House is the tale of daring women protecting famous artworks since the Nazis are coming for France! It’s 1939, and the Louvre is closing for three days for “essential repair work.” Main character, Eliane Dufort, a student of art history, goes to school and works at the Louvre. Eliane, becomes involved in protecting the art by adding codes on crates of artwork being sent to another smaller museum, the Jeu de Paume, for cataloging and eventually transit. Her brother, Luc, an aspiring artist, and his friend Xavier, also become involved in the plot to save the famous artworks. Natasha Lester provides an excellent character study of brother and sister, and the wealthy friend, Xavier Laurent, whose father owns art galleries in Paris, London, and New York City. According to Xavier, Hitler is “not just seizing nations, he’s destroying their art and culture, too.” Readers learn to distrust both Luc and Xavier, for different reasons. Eliane and the reader fall for Xavier as Natasha Lester, in a time of such fear, gives a very calming and tender description of Xavier’s love for Eliane. Later Xavier appears with Reichsmarshall Goring as a guide at the Louvre and readers are filled with extreme doubt! Who can Eliane trust?

In a dual timeline, Natasha Lester whisks the reader to the grand vistas of the French Riviera, to a breathtaking villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. (See below!) At the urging of her best friend Antoinette, Remy Lang has come from Sydney, Australia, to spend three months in France to recover and reassemble her life. In 2015, Remy is a widow of two years, and owner/curator of a vintage fashion business. Remy is in a “coma of agony.” Natasha Lester has a way with the language that speaks to the soul. As Remy navigates her journey of grief NL injects doubt and questioning, so readers are urged to examine their own conscience and come to conclusions. The villa is part of Remy’s inheritance, and her quandary is “How do I have in my possession a painting that Herman Goring stole seventy years ago?” That answer is filled with art history, mystery, and “Wait. What?” moments.

As Xavier says, “Art is all we have when words fail us, mankind fails us, and we fail each other.” Join the throng of Natasha Lester fans, to discover the treasures and uncover the mysteries hidden in The Riviera House.