About the Book

Book: The Socialite
Author: J’nell Ciesielski
Genre: Historical Romance
Release Date: April 14, 2020

Glamour, treachery, and espionage collide when an English socialite rushes to save her sister from the Nazis.

As the daughter of Sir Alfred Whitford, Kat has a certain set of responsibilities. But chasing her wayward sister, Ellie, to Nazi-occupied Paris was never supposed to be one of them. Now accustomed to the luxurious lifestyle that her Nazi boyfriend provides, Ellie has no intention of going back to the shackled life their parents dictate for them—but Kat will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.

Arrested for simply trying to defend himself against a drunken bully, Barrett Anderson is given the option of going to jail or serving out his sentence by training Resistance fighters in Paris. A bar owner serves as the perfect disguise to entertain Nazis at night while training fighters right below their jackboots during the day. Being assigned to watch over two English debutantes is the last thing he needs, but a payout from their father is too tempting to resist. Can Barrett and Kat trust each other long enough to survive, or will their hearts prove more traitorous than the dangers waiting around the corner?

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My Thoughts:

What do you do when the sister that you dearly love has been seduced over to the dark side? Well, you convince your high powered father to let you go into enemy territory and get her back. That is exactly what Kat Whitford is prepared to do. If she cannot love her sister back, she will take her back by force.

Kat has found herself in a much more precarious position than she imagined, especially seeing how much power Eric (her sister's Nazi lover) has over Ellie. And how much Ellie seems to actually love him. However, Ellie is not happy and there is much more to Eric and Ellie's relationship than Kat knows.

Enter Barrett Anderson who is working with the Resistance while appearing as just a bar owner. Barrett has been tasked to watch over both Kat and Ellie and get them out. But his mission gets even more dangerous as some want Kat to go further into the ranks of the higher ups of the enemy camp. Did I mention yet that Barrett is a Scotsman with plans of his own?

As Barrett and Kat play this dangerous political/spy game, they also begin to fall in love. Can a socialite help in the war efforts? It was a riveting read.

This was my first read by author Ciesielski and I enjoyed all the tension that the war and maddening romance brought to this exciting story and helped me escape reality for awhile.

I was provided a copy of this novel from the publisher I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author

With a passion for heart-stopping adventure and sweeping love stories, J’nell Ciesielski weaves fresh takes into romances of times gone by. When not creating dashing heroes and daring heroines, she can be found dreaming of Scotland, indulging in chocolate of any kind, or watching old black and white movies. Winner of the Romance Through the Ages Award and the Maggie Award, she is a Florida native who now lives in Virginia with her husband, daughter, and lazy beagle. Learn more at www.jnellciesielski.com.

More from J’Nell

I blame Pinterest. Too many hours are spent chasing rabbit holes of glorious pictures of fashion from eras gone by, Highlanders in kilts, WWI ambulances, and fairytale castles. One day I was browsing something super important (or possibly escaping from the actual work I was supposed to be doing, er, we’ll never know) and stumbled across a black and white picture of six beautiful girls. Who are these lovely ladies? I wondered. A quick search brought up the Mitford sisters. Six gorgeous daughters born into an aristocratic English family, each girl with a different passion: Diana the fascist, Jessica the communist, Unity the Hitler lover, Nancy the novelist, Deborah the duchess, and Pamela the poultry connoisseur. Whoa. You know dinner time around their family table was interesting. How could such different personalities belong in the same family? What would you do if your sister got moon-eyed over Hitler??

Bam. An idea was born.

In the beginning, my little rebel Ellie was going to be a full-fledged Nazi ideology lover, but she quickly informed me that it wasn’t so much the Nazis or their crazy ideas she loved, but one man in particular. One twisted Nazi who had fallen completely under her spell, and she under his. The ideas of love can often be more difficult to break as Kat finds out when she tries to rescue her naïve sister. Luckily, she has a hunky Sottish bartender to help her while providing a few romantic intentions of his own. With everyone hiding past hurts and true identities, how will they ever hope to find the love they each long for when war rages under the bright lights of Paris? Guess you’ll have to read to find out ;)