First published 2014
Lou Villars cuts a striking figure at the Chameleon Club, where jazz flows and boundaries blur in 1920s Paris. This cross-dressing athlete finds her tribe among the club's regulars: Gabor Tsenyi, a Hungarian photographer building his reputation, Baroness Lily de Rossignol, who moves through high society collecting artists, and Lionel Maine, an American writer with a sharp tongue. Lou discovers love and success behind the wheel of a race car while Gabor captures her world through his lens, creating a portrait of Lou and her lover that will echo through their intertwined lives. But as the decade's freedom gives way to political upheaval, Lou undergoes a transformation that twists her deep need for love and acceptance into something unrecognizable. The woman who once sought refuge in the Chameleon's welcoming chaos becomes someone capable of betrayal that will shatter the bonds connecting this circle of friends.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Chameleon Club, Paris
Period: 1920s
448 pages · Hardcover · Harper