82. The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray
Based on the real life story of the Chateau Lafayette in France, which originally belonged to Adrienne Lafayette the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette. The book is set in three time periods following three different women in an interconnected story. We follow Adrienne Lafayette during the French Revolution. We follow Beatrice Chanler, a real life New York socialite whose marriage is falling apart during World War I. Finally, we follow Marthe Simone during World War II. She is the one character who is fictional. I do have a few questions about some choices the author made for the Marthe given that she wasn’t hemmed in by actual history for her story. As is often the case for these types of stories I did have my favorite character to follow and was less engaged with some of the other characters, but overall I thought it was a really well written and engaging book. I give it a 7 out of 10.
Around the Year in 100 Books 