Kristy Cambron released The Paris Dressmaker to wide acclaim in…ahem…February this year. She prepared this fun insight into her reading habits for me to share with you, my readers, upon the book’s release. Due to human error – I’m the human if you hadn’t already guessed 😉 – I’m only posting it now, so apologies to Kristy and Thomas Nelson for the delay!

I hope you will enjoy discovering more about Kristy and what she enjoys reading…but bear in mind her TBR pictured below may have been updated many times over since she sent me the picture! And don’t miss entering the giveaway below, thanks to Thomas Nelson.

Kristy’s Reading Habits

When is your optimal time to read?

Let’s be honest. . . in a house with four other guys (my husband and our sons), the optimal reading time is whenever I can find peace enough to turn pages. 😊 Our family managed to sneak in a beachfront retreat for a week last autumn, so I spent that time happily sailing through books with toes in the sun-warmed sand. I also listen to audio books while I’m driving kids to and fro—which is often!

Are you faithful to a genre, an author, or simply quality writing?

As I get older, I find that my reading choices ebb and flow with a busy schedule. I still love my tried-and-true genres of Historical Fiction and YA Fantasy, but I’m choosier about the books I spend time with. If a novel really captivates me, I have no qualms about giving up the next 48 hours of my life with it until I’ve turned the last page. (But that also means if a novel doesn’t work for me, I’m a bit quicker about setting it aside in favor of something that does.)

Which factors most influence your selection of a book?

Compelling characters, every time. I’m not as concerned with whether a novel has a popular setting, exotic location or even a linear narrative as much as I want to understand the motivations that move a character through their story. It’s the intricacies of the human condition that move my soul most, and a skilfully-handled story will explore that every time.

Your fiction pet peeve?

Confession: I LOVE spoilers. (True!) Give me a good spoiler for that popular movie, Netflix series, or novel. . . and I’m a happy camper. That’s because I’m a *tad* addicted to the HEA (aka Happily Ever After). As long as I know there is some closure at the end of a character’s journey—even if it’s not tied up neat—I’ll be engaged enough to stick with it. It’s the lack of closure in a story that is difficult for me to enjoy in the end.  

What book have you read this year that you could not put down, and why?

This one is going back in time a bit: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

I read a classic novel a month in the What the Dickens Book Club (with author friends Katherine Reay and Sarah Ladd), and that novel stands out as my top read of 2020. The compelling characters, immersive scene-setting, and the undertones of faith woven in. . . they combined to create a breathtaking first-read experience.

How do you mark your spot – folded page corner, bookmark, dollar bill, whatever is at hand?

I’m not a book purist. That means I fold page corners, jot notes in margins, or bend back spines. . . anything so I can absorb the story at its deepest level. All of it amounts to this: if a story captivates me so that I’m willing to show the book “loved” by the end of the reading experience, it’s earned the purchase of a second “clean” copy that I’ll keep pristine on my favorites shelf. 😊

When reading, what makes or breaks a story for you?

I want what’s authentic and real—especially from history—even if it’s not always comfortable. The best stories I’ve read have challenged my view of humanity, life, love, forgiveness, and have encouraged my faith in some way because they were willing to present the past in a true light and allow the reader to learn from it.

Snack/drink of choice while reading?

Peppermint mocha latte & French macarons (pistachio, please!)

What book cover has really caught your eye?

Stunning covers that recently wooed me to open my wallet:

Fable by Adrienne Young

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

What book do you wish you had written? Why?

I couldn’t even answer that because it doesn’t seem right to wish! The book that comes to mind is one of my favorite fiction reads of all time, and the only one who could have written such a masterpiece is the author who did: Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan.

What are you reading now?

I just finished two 2021 new-release reads that readers will love. Watch for: Hope Between the Pages by Pepper Basham, and A Tapestry of Light by Kimberly Duffy.

As for my bedside reading stack. . . it’s a mix of memoir, book club fiction, my new NIV Verse Mapping Bible, and nonfiction research titles for the novel I’m penning next. (That’s WWII, ballet, and. . . Italy!) 😊

The Paris Dressmaker

Based on true accounts of how Parisiennes resisted the Nazi occupation in World War II—from fashion houses to the city streets—comes a story of two courageous women who risked everything to fight an evil they couldn’t abide.

Paris, 1939. Maison Chanel has closed, thrusting haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Lights slips into darkness. Lila’s life is now a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda while Paris is cut off from the rest of the world. Yet in hidden corners of the city, the faithful pledge to resist. Lila is drawn to La Resistance and is soon using her skills as a dressmaker to infiltrate the Nazi elite. She takes their measurements and designs masterpieces, all while collecting secrets in the glamorous Hôtel Ritz—the heart of the Nazis’ Parisian headquarters. But when dashing René Touliard suddenly reenters her world, Lila finds her heart tangled between determination to help save his Jewish family and bolstering the fight for liberation.

Paris, 1943. Sandrine Paquet’s job is to catalog the priceless works of art bound for the Führer’s Berlin, masterpieces stolen from prominent Jewish families. But behind closed doors, she secretly forages for information from the underground resistance. Beneath her compliant façade lies a woman bent on uncovering the fate of her missing husband . . . but at what cost? As Hitler’s regime crumbles, Sandrine is drawn in deeper when she uncrates an exquisite blush Chanel gown concealing a cryptic message that may reveal the fate of a dressmaker who vanished from within the fashion elite.

Told across the span of the Nazi occupation, The Paris Dressmaker highlights the brave women who used everything in their power to resist darkness and restore light to their world.

What do you love most about this story, or the process of writing this story?

Absolutely the fact that it’s based on true accounts of how Parisian women defied the Nazis with whatever they had—including their fashion! The process of uncovering very real heroism from names like Rose Valland, Josephine Baker, and in the stories of everyday women too, taught me that the life- choices we make. . . they matter. And they can impact the lives of so many others for good. 

Share a little about one of your characters – what makes them unique?

Dressmaker and one-time seamstress for Chanel’s Paris salon, Lila de Laurent, takes the longest journey in the novel. She starts off among the Paris fashion elite at the start of what looks like the unlikeliness of war. But it’s her willingness to risk everything for what she knew to be right, core-deep, and then to use her skills in defiance of their Nazi overlords that creates such unpredictable tension in the story. It quite literally takes her from the runways of Paris to fighting with the French Resistance, and I admit I love this fierceness we discover in her!

Share a favourite line or paragraph from your book.

“I have been asking myself who I intend to be when this war is over—the woman with much who gave little, or the woman with little who gave much. That is always the question, isn’t it, when we walk through the fire in our lives? And I now know my answer.”

What piece of research surprised you as you were writing The Paris Dressmaker?

No spoilers here! (Though you now know I love them.) But I will say there is a character who though they had integrity before God and did what was right to save others instead of what was easy to save themselves. . . things didn’t work out the way we might expect they deserved them to. I found myself weeping as I painted the picture of that scene in my mind. I’ve been there. I’ve walked in similar shoes. Maybe you have too. But the fact that God is good ALL THE TIME wins out, even despite the pain. . . and that gives me lasting hope. 

Thank you, Kristy!

THE PARIS DRESSMAKER IS ON EBOOK SALE ~ only $2.99 for a limited time – buy now!

Kristy Cambron is an award-winning author of historical fiction, including her bestselling debut The Butterfly and the Violin, and an author of nonfiction, including the Verse Mapping Series Bibles and Bible studies. Kristy’s work has been named to Publishers Weekly Religion & Spirituality TOP 10, Library Journal Reviews’ Best Books, RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards, received 2015 & 2017 INSPY Award nominations, and has been featured at CBN, Lifeway Women, Jesus Calling, Country Woman Magazine, MICI Magazine, Faithwire, Declare, (in)Courage, and Bible Gateway. She holds a degree in Art History/Research Writing and lives in Indiana with her husband and three sons, where she can probably be bribed with a peppermint mocha latte and a good read.

You can connect with her at: kristycambron.com and versemapping.com. Instagram: @kristycambron; Twitter: @KCambronAuthor; Facebook: @KCambronAuthor; and Pinterest: Kristy Cambron.

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Buy at Amazon: The Paris Dressmaker or Koorong