Maude Pichon, desperate to leave behind her small French town and her father's plans to marry her off to the butcher, runs away to Paris to start a new life. With Eiffel building his tower and the bohemians holding wild parties and creating art, Maude is determined to carve out a better life for herself than she could have if she had stayed put. But living in Paris costs money, so she answers an ad for the Durandeau Agency, which offers a specialized service - the beauty foil, a plain or unattractive woman, hired by a woman of the upper class to make herself look better by comparison. Mortified by the details of the job, Maude leaves, but soon returns because the pay is too good and the job doesn't require lots of physical labor. She ends up being contracted to work for the Countess Dubern, who hires Maude for her daughter, Isabelle, who is about to start her first season as a debutante. Isabelle doesn't know that Maude is hired help, and they soon develop a real friendship. Unfortunately, Countess Dubern is only concerned with Isabelle getting engaged as quickly as possible, and uses Maude to keep tabs on her daughter's chances with several eligible young men and to push Isabelle towards marriage, something Maude knows Isabelle doesn't want. Soon she is caught between the two and must decide where her loyalty lies.
One thing I really liked about this book is the idea of the beauty foil. This seems like a modern concept, but it fits perfectly with the late 1800s time period of Belle Epoque France. While the poor continued to be poor, the upper class carried on, going to the opera, musical recitals, and other pursuits that required money. Hiring someone who might not fit the standard of beauty at the time to make yourself look better seems like the kind of thing rich society women with money to burn would do. But my one complaint is that I wish the book was longer - not because the story was so good that I wished it didn't end, but because the dual role that Maude was playing (friend to Isabelle, spy for her mother) didn't have enough time to really come together for me, making the inevitable reveal not nearly as powerful as the tagline on the cover might suggest.
(Read as part of YALSA's Hub Challenge)
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