Review: The Dress Shop of Dreams

The Dress Shop of Dreams by Menna van Praag

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Since her parents’ mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her grandmother Etta’s dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta’s charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passersby, but the colorfully vibrant racks of beaded silks, delicate laces, and jewel-toned velvets hold bewitching secrets: With just a few stitches from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a woman’s deepest desires.

Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic on her granddaughter. Cora’s studious, unromantic eye has overlooked Walt, the shy bookseller who has been in love with her forever. Determined not to allow Cora to miss her chance at happiness, Etta sews a tiny stitch into Walt’s collar, hoping to give him the courage to confess his feelings to Cora. But magic spells—like true love—can go awry. After Walt is spurred into action, Etta realizes she’s set in motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in extraordinary and unexpected ways.

--My thoughts. Breathtaking. You have a main story going on here. Cora and Walt. Cora being a nerdy scientist who's parents died in a fire and Walt owns a bookstore and neither can see the forest for the trees. Then you have the grandmother, who owns the dress shop, and it does fantastic brilliant things when you come in. The music plays, so magical! I wish I had a grandma like Etta! The cakes, I drank some Maraschino cherry tea while reading this book, it went so fantastic with the chocolate cherry cakes they were eating!

Just the way Praag writes is so fantastic and out of this world, I can't get enough. You have lots of other characters, and there is a mystery, did Cora's parents really just die in the fire or were they possibly murdered? Grandmother Etta has her own secret too. Will Cora and Walt be able to make the love connection or does this world have other people for them? Each character you come to love, I can't say one is my favorite more than the other.

Read it today, let Praag put her spell on you!

I received a copy of this book electronically from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.



View all my reviews