Book Review: ‘The Paris Understudy: A Novel’ By Aurelie Thiele

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The book is in stores on Tuesday, September 10th from Alcove Press. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/46WcUX1

The year is 1936 and up and coming young opera singer Yvonne Chevalier is ready to make a splash, but current big-time star Madeleine Moreau is not ready to give up the spotlight, and cuts her off at the pass. She then offers her a job as her understudy as a way to keep her under her control. In 1938 Madeleine is to headline a show in Germany, but quits at the last minute when it means having to meet Hitler. Yvonne takes her place, is a smash hit, meets Hitler, has her picture taken and it makes the newspaper. As the Germans take over France, in a desperate bid to save her captured son, she takes up with a powerful German, who gets her the lead at the Paris Opera House, and soon her son is released. As her star rises, she also faces the backlash of being with a German, and both her and Madeleine’s lives will dramatic turns as the war goes on and ends. An intense WWII novel that will keep you reading along. The rivalry between the two divas and what they will do to succeed keeps you enthralled. A very good debut novel.