Anyway, it is about a girl named Dora who is in her last semester of college, but doesn't have any direction in her life and is in love with her boss who is flirty but really isn't in to her. Dora gets a call from her aunt that her grandma Mimi has had a stroke. She drops everything and heads home. Mimi was the one who raised Dora, since her parents died when she was a baby. Dora comes back to run Mimi's vintage dress shop while Mimi is in the hospital in a coma. Then she has to fight off her "evil" relatives who want to take over the shop and of course she meets some guy and there is a love triangle. Well, actually, it isn't a love triangle, because the first guy never liked her in the first place. Sorry if this was too much spoiler for you.
I found the book very predictable. You could tell what was going to happen within the first couple of chapters. The characters were stereotypical and flat. My favorite character was Mimi and she was in a coma the whole time. You get to know her through Dora's memories and she seemed quite charming. Mckean does have a way with metaphors and writing in that sense. I thought she had some really delightful descriptions and I liked the idea of giving each dress a past life, to give you an idea of the era and time it came from. However, I thought the swearing was over the top. I feel like it was put in there just to show it was a "grown-up" book.
Also, I was a bit bothered by the "moral" that as Dora started wearing vintage dresses her love life started going better and she suddenly had direction, drive and confidence. It's the same deception that every commercial and ad tells you, if you wear/eat/drive this, you will be so much cooler/prettier/sophisticated etc. Don't get me wrong, I think it is fun to get dressed up and I do think it is important on how you present yourself, but come on people, confidence, drive, direction all come from within. Don't tell me a pretty dress is going to give an aimless girl that. Just because you put a prettier band-aid over a sore doesn't make the sore heal faster. Ok, I'll get off my soapbox. (Side note, I'm really liking using "quotation marks" in this post.)
Overall, while the book is a quick read, its just not my cup of tea. Sorry to whoever recommended I read this (because I can't remember who it was). If you love it, I still love you, we just don't love the same things in this case.
Jan's Rating:
Won't bother with this book. I do agree that what you wear doesn't make who you are.
ReplyDeleteGlad we agree. :)
Delete