Book Blurb:
In Paris, 1958, Grace Kelly’s royal wedding dress is still all the rage in fashion circles. Rose, a seamstress at a famous atelier, has just been entrusted with sewing another gown in its image. An orphan, she needs her job to survive. But when Rose finds herself in love with the bride’s handsome brother, she must decide what matters most: love or security.
Sixty years later, Rocky is thrilled to be marrying the love of her life. He truly is her perfect fit. But there’s just one problem: her family’s heirloom wedding dress isn’t. Rocky knows this admission will break her mother’s heart. What she doesn’t know is why her mother is so set on the dress—or about the shocking secret that changed her mother’s life decades before, as she prepared to wear the dress herself. As the wedding day approaches, the mother-daughter pair will finally confront long-buried heartaches, and it might just be the dress that brings them closer than ever.
My Review: 4 stars
The Grace Kelly Dress follows the story of a wedding dress inspired by Princess Grace of Monaco’s famous wedding dress, connected by three generations of women. The story is told in parallel timelines: the Parisian seamstress Rose in 1958, her daughter Joanie in 1982 Long Island and her granddaughter & bride-to-be Rocky in current day Brooklyn.
Usually when books are told in parallel timelines, I get more invested in one of the stories more than the other. But in this case, I was equally intrigued by each of the women’s story and felt that they were all very true to the era in which they hailed from. Janowitz did a fantastic job giving each woman their own unique voice and style. Although I didn’t connect with Rocky as much (to be honest, I found her a tad bit annoying at times), I did enjoy getting to see Joan and Rose outside of their dedicated chapters. I enjoyed Joan’s chapters the most – as a reader it was rewarding to watcher her story as a young adult unfold in her own chapters, but then take on a totally different role in Rocky’s chapters.
The chapters were short, which at first, made it hard to get into the flow of the story. Once the story progressed, and I got to know the characters, I didn’t mind the length of the chapters and found that it actually propelled the story forward in a fast-paced, hard to put down way. Each chapter ended with a sort of “cliff hanger” that led to a constant cycle of wanting to get to each character’s next chapter to uncover what was going to happen.
Although this novel does include some romance, the theme of love is predominantly seen in the generational relationships – which as we all know, is a more complicated kind of love. I thought this book had more potential to be an emotional read given its themes of tradition, expectations and family, but don’t think the chapter length allowed for that type of depth. Overall, The Grace Kelly Dress was a great and uplifting read that can be shared across generations. So glad I pulled this out of my never-ending To Be Read list (TBR).
Quotes I liked:
We need to remember the past so that we can more clearly see where we are going.”
“These things we hold on to, they are more than just things. They prove our history, who we are, where we came from.”
“This is the kind of person you marry—someone who loves the worst parts of you, someone who knows how to make you laugh even when you’re mad as hell.”
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