Review–An Unlikely Suitor by Nancy Moser

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Unlikely Suitor
by Nancy Moser
Bethany House Publisher
376 pages

ABOUT THE BOOK: New York dressmaker Lucy Scarpelli befriends socialite Rowena Langdon as she's designing her 1895 summer wardrobe. Grateful for Lucy's skill in creating fashions that hide her physical injury, Rowena invites Lucy to the family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, encouraging the unusual friendship.

One day Lucy encounters an intriguing man on the Cliff Walk, and love begins to blossom. Yet Lucy resists, for what Newport man would want to marry an Italian dressmaker working to support her family?

Rowena faces an arranged marriage to a wealthy heir she doesn't love, but dare a crippled girl hope for anything better?

And Lucy's teenage sister, Sofia, falls for a man well above her social class--but is he willing to give up everything to marry a woman below his station?

As the lives of three young woman--and their unlikely suitors--become entangled in a web of secrets and sacrifice, will the season end with any of them finding true happiness?

If you would like to read the first chapter of An Unlikely Suitor, go HERE.

MY REVIEW:   The Gilded Age is a period in our nation’s history that has always intrigued me. The excess and over-the-top way of life for the “haves” compared to the more squalid conditions of the “have nots” is rather mind boggling. So to find a book that takes some of the characters and moves them into the fringes of upper society was a fun read.

What made this such a good book to me was not so much watching the characters in awe of the surroundings of the wealthy, but how they remained, for the most part, level-headed and just took it all in.  I also appreciated the fact that the author would have all the characters sometimes say things that perhaps were a bit mean spirited, then let us in on what the character was thinking to herself after having said such a thing.

Nancy Moser is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors, both for the way her books are so, well, readable and also because of the tremendous amount of research she obviously does before writing.  This book has a section in the back explaining some of the items of the time period and when they were first popular.  She also has included some fashion illustrations, which were very helpful in a book that has fashion running throughout the pages.

All this to say, this book is one of my favorites of this year so far.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

Nancy Moser is the award-winning author of over twenty inspirational novels. Her genres include contemporary stories including John 3:16 and Time Lottery a Christy Award winner, and historical novels of real women-of-history including Just Jane (Jane Austen) and Washington's Lady (Martha Washington). Her newest historical novels are Masquerade and An Unlikely Suitor. Nancy and her husband Mark live in the
Midwest. She’s earned a degree in architecture, traveled extensively in Europe, and has performed in numerous theaters, symphonies, and choirs. She gives Sister Circle Seminars around the country, helping women identify their gifts as they celebrate their sisterhood. She is a fan of anything antique—humans included. Find out more at www.nancymoser.com and www.sistercircles.com and her historical blog: http://footnotesfromhistory.blogspot.com/