May 20, 2011

Book Review: An Unlikely Suitor by Nancy Moser

Excerpt: While Madame Moreau was out of the room, Rowena turned to her mother in a whisper. "I want to hear what that girl has to say."

"She is an underling, dear. She is not a designer. Besides, she was rude to speak out of turn."

Out of turn or not, Rowena wanted to hear the girl's ideas. For the first time since her accident, a dressmaker was truly seeing her problem and, more than that, was offering solutions. That the girl was in the back room being chastised was untenable.

"Mother, please go after her. Don't you want me to look my best for Edward?" An Unlikely Suitor, pg 55.

Back Cover: New York dressmaker Lucy Scarpelli befriends socialite Rowena Langdon as she's designing her summer wardrobe. Grateful for Lucy's skill in creating fashions that hide her physical injury, Rowena invites Lucy to the family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, encouraging the unusual friendship.

One day Lucy encounters an intriguing man on the Cliff Walk, and love begins to blossom. Yet Lucy resists, for what Newport man would want to marry an Italian dressmaker working to support her family?

Rowena faces an arranged marriage to a wealthy heir she doesn't love, but dare a cripple girl hope for anything better?

And Lucy's teenage sister, Sofia, falls for a man well above her social class - but is he willing to give everything up to marry a woman below his station?

As the lives of three young women - and their unlikely suitors - become entangled in a web of secrets and sacrifice, will the season end with any of them finding true happiness?

My Review: Nancy Moser captures an intriguing story of three women's quest for true love, and the unlikely suitors that they long for. The time period is the gilded age of New York, and this story takes you for the back of a dress shop to a "cottage" mansion at Newport. Through the characters the reader gets to experience all the opulence of the grand home and the extravagant life of the elite. It is the danger, mystery and romantic elements of the story that really keep the reader turning the pages. Can there be a happily ever after for any of these young women?

My Rating:

My Recommendation: I recommend this novel to lovers of historical fiction and readers of Nancy Moser.

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

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