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callunavul 's review for:
Belle Epoque
by Elizabeth Ross
Set in Paris during the building of the Eiffel Tower, Belle Epoque is the story of a girl who strikes out on her own only to find that reality doesn't always live up to one's expectations. Maude Pichon runs away from home to avoid a dull life (and a marriage to the local butcher), but when she gets to Paris, she quickly realizes that the meager funds she stole from her father's shop won't get her very far. After an unsuccessful career as a laundress, Maude ends up working as a repoussoir, a girl hired to make her client appear more beautiful. Maude is hired by a countess to be a companion to her daughter, Isabelle, but to complicate matters, the daughter can never know Maude is the hired help. As Maude is swept up in the life of the aristocracy, she becomes Isabelle's closest friend, and her secret becomes harder and harder to keep. Belle Epoque is a quick read, but it feels like as Maude alienates everyone who really knows her, the reader is alienated as well. It's hard to be sympathetic towards her plight, and when she does the right thing at the end, I wanted to shout "Finally!"