\\ About the Book \\ One dress. Four women. An amazing destiny. Charlotte Malone is getting married. Yet all is not settled in the heart of Birmingham's chic bridal boutique owner. Charlotte can dress any bride to perfection-except herself. When she discovers a vintage mint-condition wedding gown in a battered old trunk, Charlotte embarks on a passionate journey to discover the women who wore the gown before her. Emily in 1912. Mary in 1939. And Hillary in 1968. Each woman teaches Charlotte something about love in her own unique way. Woven within the threads of the beautiful hundred-year-old gown is the truth about Charlotte's heritage, the power of faith, and the beauty of finding true love.I was first interested in The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck when I discovered the plot sounded somewhat similar to a movie I watched recently on Hallmark called—what do you know?—"The Wedding Dress." I liked the idea of the movie; it needed a bit of work, I thought, but it had potential. So when I saw The Wedding Dress I knew I had to check it out, because a dress that fits four different people and stands against the changing tides of "in" fashion has to be pretty special. I wasn't disappointed, thankfully, and this book might possibly be on my favorites list for 2012 (and it's only March, people).
The Wedding Dress is told from several characters' points of view, but each person has her or his own strong voice. Most of the book is either from present-day Charlotte's point of view or Emily's 1912 view. I like this style so much. It seems I was just figuring out something about one particular character when the next chapter switched to another. It made me want to skip ahead (as I'm prone to do), but I held off and waited. Hauck's timing of each scene is delightful; as a writer she knows just how far to go in making you mad with anticipation. Hauck writes with such imagery that I had no problem jumping between time periods or viewpoints. While The Wedding Dress is mostly romance, it has a lot of mystery in it too.
Since I'm so opinionated about romance novels, I suppose I should mention something about the romance in The Wedding Dress. The title itself should give you plenty of ideas. In short, this book is about multiple couples in love who are soon to be married and how they are each affected by the same dress. If The Wedding Dress wasn't Christian fiction I doubt I would have read it for fear of an unnecessarily high level of sexual content. This book is tame; there's too much kissing, in my opinion, but at least it isn't like a movie where you're looking on about two inches from the couple's faces. "They kissed." Woo hoo. That isn't to say that Hauck doesn't write kissing scenes well, if that's the type of thing you like to read. She just doesn't let that get too much in the way of the main story line, something I'm grateful for. There is one awkward spot where a character thinks to herself about how glad she is she and her intended didn't sleep together, and I found that paragraph a little out of place in the context, but, considering that's the only complaint I have about Hauck's writing, I don't consider it a big deal.
Now, before I forget, I must mention Rachel Hauck's writing. Sometimes I read books that cause me to pause over a sentence and re-read it, just because it sounded so good. The Wedding Dress is spattered with these sentences and phrases, like this one
The feathery kiss of destiny sent a shiver over her soul as the breeze rushing over the mountaintop tapped her legs.That's my favorite line of the whole book. I loved sinking into Hauck's creative writing.
The Wedding Dress is a well-planned, well-written novel that I really enjoyed reading. It has the charms of historical fiction, the excitement of mystery, the sighs of a love story, and the refreshment of the right words put together in thoughtful sentences. I'll definitely be savoring it for a while.
\\ In Case You Were Wondering \\\\ About the Author \\ RITA-finalist Rachel Hauck lives in Florida with her husband, Tony. She is the author of Dining with Joy; Sweet Caroline; Love Starts with Elle; and The Sweet By and By, co-authored with Sara Evans. You can find out more about her and her books at www.rachelhauck.com.
Title: The Wedding Dress
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication date: April 3, 2012
Pages: 352
ISBN: 1595549633
Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy!
