All the Ways We Said Goodbye: A Novel of the Ritz Paris

Loved this book! I am thrilled that I am able to review All the Ways We Said Goodbye by Williams, Willig, and White because I have enjoyed their two previous books and think this team of women does an amazing job writing together. All the Ways We Said Goodbye is my favorite book that the three of them have done together. I thought having three stories set in two different wars and the third trying to investigate things that happened in the earlier two stories was clever and also powerful. The theme of the stories is survival, and love and what it means to be a “formidable woman.” Each of the three women do brave things in the face of hardship even though they think they are not strong. But each woman proves that they are “formidable” in the challenges they face, where that challenge is the German army or their guilt over their own actions. Each woman shows their true strength.The tie in this novel is a place, just like the previous two novels, but this time it is the Ritz hotel in Paris. It is a powerful setting, but not as strong as the women who lived through the difficult times. Babs is a British woman who recently lost her husband and is trying to learn about the woman he lived while a spy in Paris during World War II. Aurelie is a young woman raised in Paris at the Ritz, but who wants to help save France from the Germans, and meets her destiny in her family’s castle as it is occupied by the German army. And Daisy is raised by her Grandmother at the Ritz, and it is through her that she begins working with a spy network in Paris to help Jewish people escape the Nazi’s.

This wonderful novel includes three timelines, flowing seamlessly one to another, three heroines and a lot of overlap of generations. Babs Langdon decides after 20 years to uncover her late husband's great love in Paris. Romance, danger, and mystery ensue as we learn about the noble Coucelles family and their struggles in both world wars. If you have read anything by any of the three writers you know their writing is terrific. If not, what a treat you have in store.

1914: The start of WWI positions Aurelie, French heiress and holder of a national relic, to spy for the resistance, leaking out bits of information she overhears from the German officers who have acquisitioned her family’s castle. With her mother at the Ritz in Paris and her father trying to keep his estate afloat, Aurelie’s ties to her parents waver. Eventually, her heart leads Aurelie down a much different path than she imaged—straight into the arms of German officer, Max von Sternburg.1942: Marguerite “Daisy” Villon delivers much more than books to her grandmother at the Ritz. Sickened by her husband’s involvement in rounding up and shipping out Paris’s Jewish population, Daisy befriends forger and spy, Legrand. In a secret section of a local bookshop, they collaborate for the underground resistance to provide Parisian Jews with forged identity papers and passports. However, Daisy cannot untangle her heart from Legrand’s, endangering them both and all whom she holds dear.1964: With the death of her husband recently behind her, Barbara “Babs” Langford goes in search of her suspicions—that her husband had been in love with a spy of renown, La Fleur, whom he met in Paris in the 1940’s. Babs’s search for the legendary spy coincides with lawyer, Andrew “Drew” Bodoin’s. Through the romantic atmosphere of Paris and a little help from a woman Babs meets at the Ritz, Drew and Babs form much more than an investigative alliance.Is there a future of Aurelie and Max? Can Daisy and Legrand keep up their cover and their romance, while diverting watching eyes? Will Babs set aside her past bonds to embrace Drew, who loves her unapologetically and unconditionally.Which of the three women, Aurelie, Daisy, and Babs—whose lives have revolved or evolved through the doors of the Ritz—will say a permanent goodbye to the love of their lives?

This is the third book by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White, and it is just as good as the first two. It is written in the same style, intermingled stories of three women in three different time periods, which all come together in the end. This story takes place during WWI, WWII, and in 1964 and involves two heroines of France. The Ritz Hotel is the background for much of the story. There is a mystery to solve, the answer to which doesn't become clear until almost the end. I enjoyed this and will look forward to the next collaboration.

This was such an entertaining read especially during these times when we are all looking for amusement and distraction. I have read the other books by these authors and I think this was the best one. I loved the references to their past novel, Glass Ocean. Although it was fairly obvious how the characters would fit together, I still enjoyed how the authors unwound the connections. Perhaps the ending could have been a little less predicatble but it was a satisfying book overall.