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The Dress Shop Of Dreams: A Novel (2000)

by Menna van Praag(Favorite Author)

3.87 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0804178984 (ISBN13: 9780804178983)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

review 1: Reading The Dress Shop of Dreams by Menna Van Praag will reignite the spark in all of us that believes in true love prevailing, enchanting dresses, and a bit of magic to give us that push we need to accomplish our goals.The book is told from 3rd person, but from 7 different characters’ perspectives from my last count. However, the story mainly centers around Etta Sparks and Cora Carraway, grandmother and granddaughter, respectively. Etta and her dresses are truly what cause all these events to unfold after years and years. After Etta stitches a small red star into Cora’s t-shirts (she’s not a dress sort of gal), Cora takes off on a mission to find out the truth concerning the death of her brilliant inventor parents nearly 20 years prior, opens herself to feelings and... more, most importantly, love, and encourages others along the way to act, as well- although sometimes they have been for the worse instead of the better.I was truly charmed by this book, and felt that it was in the same girl-power, love-discovering, magical atmosphere as Van Praag’s previous novel, The House at the End of Hope Street, which I absolutely adored. The characters were all so diverse and realistic, each with their own elaborate stories to tell. Each one of them encountered many obstacles, both of the heart and through other close people, even from some who were thought to be well known and entirely uninvolved. This was a very intricate novel with ties linking the characters together in the most curious and interesting ways, like a nearly invisible, yet resilient web. My favorite character would have to be Cora. I truly admired her determination, sense of justice, passions, and getting the chance to grow and learn with her on her life-changing journey. I could probably most relate to Walt, as he is a simple man with simple dreams, who loves books, is very observant, and has an amazing hidden talent (I’m still waiting on that last one).My favorite part was the ending, when I felt that the pieces fell precisely into their rightful places and everyone, myself included, was content and truly happy. All the times that my beloved characters had to endure incredibly unfortunate incidences was my least favorite part, but I honestly wouldn’t change a thing. Although, I would have liked to learn a bit more about a few of the lesser characters’ pasts.I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a magical, enchanting read with both sorrow and joy, hope and despair- an overall great novel for any reader who enjoys romance, mystery, a mild thriller, an inspiring story and contemporary fiction all wrapped into one.
review 2: I was drawn to this book by its evocative title, but the book didn't live up to its promise for me.It was a sweet, yet predictable, story built around the premise that a dress shop sold garments with very special powers to innocent customers. I totally believe in the "magic" of a special dress, but the sparkle was missing for me in this book. The writing was colourless. The mundane story and likeable characters could have worked with better writing--very disappointing. less

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