An Unlikely Suitor
by Nancy Moser
Paperback
Price: £8.99
Publisher:Bethany House imprint of Baker Pub from Lion
Published:Summer 2011
ISBN:978-0-764-20752-5
GoodBookStall Review:
Nancy Moser has used her obvious love of Victorian fashions, to weave a story about the ladies who make the clothes for other ladies to wear; the rich and fashionable ladies of 1895 New York. The descriptions of the clothes satisfy the imagination.
Lucy Scarpelli is the older girl in an Italian immigrant family, struggling to make ends meet since the father of the family died in an accident at the docks. When the family are given notice to quit their tenement because it is going to be demolished, Lucy sets out to find a new home for herself, her mother and her sister.
On a street in a better neighbourhood with pleasant shops, she looks for ‘To Rent’ signs and when she sees a gentleman struggling with a lock, steps forward to assist him. This is Mr Standish who turns out to be a landlord of several rental properties and owner of the dress shop outside which they are standing. He offers Lucy jobs as dress makers for her mother, her sister and herself, a home above the shop and in return for a rent they can afford, the cleaning of the shop and workroom in the evening. She accepts with gratitude, anything to get away from the tenement and the sweatshop they all worked in previously.
When Lucy is able to help alter dresses to better fit a customer, a friendship forms with the young woman which leads into the rest of the story. Historically accurate, beautifully described, the whole book is a joy to read.
Reviewer: Mary Bartholomew (09/02/12)
Nancy Moser has used her obvious love of Victorian fashions, to weave a story about the ladies who make the clothes for other ladies to wear; the rich and fashionable ladies of 1895 New York. The descriptions of the clothes satisfy the imagination.
Lucy Scarpelli is the older girl in an Italian immigrant family, struggling to make ends meet since the father of the family died in an accident at the docks. When the family are given notice to quit their tenement because it is going to be demolished, Lucy sets out to find a new home for herself, her mother and her sister.
On a street in a better neighbourhood with pleasant shops, she looks for ‘To Rent’ signs and when she sees a gentleman struggling with a lock, steps forward to assist him. This is Mr Standish who turns out to be a landlord of several rental properties and owner of the dress shop outside which they are standing. He offers Lucy jobs as dress makers for her mother, her sister and herself, a home above the shop and in return for a rent they can afford, the cleaning of the shop and workroom in the evening. She accepts with gratitude, anything to get away from the tenement and the sweatshop they all worked in previously.
When Lucy is able to help alter dresses to better fit a customer, a friendship forms with the young woman which leads into the rest of the story. Historically accurate, beautifully described, the whole book is a joy to read.
Reviewer: Mary Bartholomew (09/02/12)
