Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin

genre: historical fiction

For Claude and Blanche Auzello, the Ritz is more than just the most upscale hotel in Paris, for them, it is home.  Claude, as the general manager, works to keep all the balls in the air that require a high end property to stay in top form all hours of the day and Blache, well, is BLANCHE.  Boisterous and friendly, she loves her role as the "mistress of the Ritz" until the unfathomable happens and their beloved Paris becomes occupied by Nazi Germany.  The Ritz, safe haven that it was, is now full of occupiers, both soldiers and civilians, demanding and expecting the same level of service.  For Blanche and Claude, the stress this causes and the choices they make will determine what remains at the end of a devastating period of time in France's history.

I love historical fiction and World War II fiction, and I have read less about France during the war than other countries.  There were things about this book that I did enjoy - the setting (and, really, third primary character) of the Ritz was unique and added a different spin to the story.  The complicated marriage between Claude and Blanche, while sometimes trope-y and frustrating, also was a look at how war can affect people and relationships.  For me, however, it went really slow during the first half, I had a hard time keeping myself engaged, especially because there was a lot of switching back and forth in time that I had to keep making sense of.  The last 1/4 went much faster but I really wished I had been able to see more of Blanche's activities instead of just hearing about them after the fact. 

While this book wasn't a perfect execution, I do think it's an important story about two little-known people doing their best to not just survive but make a difference in their own way.