Photo credit: Deborah Feingold
Describe your latest book.
Mistress of the Ritz is, once again for me, about a real woman whose story was untold until now. It’s set in World War II, an era I think every historical novelist explores at some point; it’s the defining event of the 20th century and so many stories are still waiting to be told. Especially women’s stories. Blanche Auzello, my heroine, was an American flapper who traveled to Paris in the 1920s to pursue a film career; instead, she fell in love with a very dapper Frenchman, Claude Auzello, whose dream was to manage the iconic Hotel Ritz. They married and Claude realized his dream; their turbulent marriage plays out against an unbelievably glamorous setting, witnessed by royalty and celebrities...