Friday, May 17, 2013

Book Club Friday: The Dressmaker

It's been a while since I've joined in on Book Club Friday, but I'm glad to be back today!  Let's get to it.

This week I am reviewing The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott.



From Goodreads:

Just in time for the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic comes a vivid, romantic, and relentlessly compelling historical novel about a spirited young woman who survives the disaster only to find herself embroiled in the media frenzy left in the wake of the tragedy.

Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes.


Amidst the chaos and desperate urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy. Others—including the gallant Midwestern tycoon—are not so lucky.


On dry land, rumors about the survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff Gordon quickly becomes the subject of media scorn and later, the hearings on the Titanic. Set against a historical tragedy but told from a completely fresh angle, The Dressmaker is an atmospheric delight filled with all the period's glitz and glamour, all the raw feelings of a national tragedy and all the contradictory emotions of young love.

My review

I really enjoyed this book.  I find the Titanic so fascinating (I know I am not alone in this one) and I really liked the fact that is book focused mostly on what happened after the survivors made it back to New York.  We tend to focus a lot on the actual sinking, but I honestly did not really know much about what happened when they got back to New York.  I also like that it was told from the point of view of one of the servants vs. a first class passenger.  If you enjoy historical fiction and find the Titanic interesting, I would recommend this book to you!

What should I read next?

3 comments:

  1. This book definitely sounds interesting! I'll have to add it to my list of books to read.

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  2. this book sounds like one i would enjoy,too! i love a different era :)

    thanks for stopping by my blog!

    happy friday!

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  3. I've been wanting to read this book for a while now! I definitely went through a Titanic obsessed stage, and read book on it I could when younger. And do think it's really interesting this book focuses more on the aftermath than you'd normally here. Definitely a book I think I'll really enjoy!

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