Helpful Score: 2
I really loved this book!
Each author writes a story about a magical dress that brings true love to the recipient, and builds the story around each new character, and how the dress comes into her life. People fall in love with unexpected lovers, and it brings out to me the coincidences that happen in our own lives, that make people meet at just the right time, or miss finding the best person for them. Do we all have magic in our lives, but go a different direction because we can't see the big picture?
Nice long stories, each is like a mini-book, and are warm and humerous....Enjoy!
Storygirl
Each author writes a story about a magical dress that brings true love to the recipient, and builds the story around each new character, and how the dress comes into her life. People fall in love with unexpected lovers, and it brings out to me the coincidences that happen in our own lives, that make people meet at just the right time, or miss finding the best person for them. Do we all have magic in our lives, but go a different direction because we can't see the big picture?
Nice long stories, each is like a mini-book, and are warm and humerous....Enjoy!
Storygirl
Helpful Score: 2
Get this anthology for Connie Brockway's short story alone - well worth the effort. If you a fan of Caroline Anderson's Keegan/Paxton series, you'll love this story about Patrick O'Shannessy, Caitlin's brother from the historial romance, Keegan's Lady. This is a satisfying story that shows that Patrick has redeemed himself nicely since "KEEGAN'S LADY" and deserves his own happiness which he finds in widow, Faith Rudolph's arms. It also features Ace and Caitlin and Ace's younger brothers, who are getting their own stories soon.
Helpful Score: 1
To be honest, it was just okay for me. There are 4 stories in this book. The first one is okay, by Barbara Metzger,A Perfect Fit. The second not so great, by Connie Brockway,Glad Rags. The third was also okay, Casey Claybourne,Something Special. The last story was awesome by Catherine Anderson, called Beautiful Gifts. So, give it a try... you may even enjoy it more than I did. This may be your cup of tea. It just wasn't my fav.
A quick read of four short stories with the 'charmed' wedding dress linkingall four romances.
Sweet read.
Short stories about a magical wedding gown. Really good book, really good authors.
***** Loved this anthology. All 4 stories were great.
Four great stories, four talented writers. "A Perfect Fit" by Barbara Metzger. "Glad Rags" by Connie Brockway. "Something Special" by Casey Claybourne. "Beautiful Gifts" by Catherine Anderson. All writing about an enchanted wedding dress and the brides who wear it.
Pleasant and sweet love stories that follow a blessed wedding dress...
Four different stories, by 4 separate writers, follow a magical wedding dress from Scotland in 1790 to Colorado in 1887.
Historical romance. Little bit of magic to it.
A wedding dress is handed down to make happy brides.
I did not like this book. I had to stop reading could not get involved with the story.
Great anthology
This book is a "I can't put it down book" You will love it
Good reading. I liked the Barbara Metzger and Casey Claybourne stories the best though.
Very very good! An all-around feel good book.
It's hard to rate this book over all since each story was written by a different author with some of the stories being an absolute joy and others made me keep looking to see how many pages were left before I was finished (which is why I reviewed each story separately below). This is a collection of short stories tied together by a common theme. It starts off with the prologue which tells the story of a servant girl making a wedding dress for her wealthy, spoiled mistress who is marrying the girl's love. She puts a spell on the dress to ensure happiness in love for the owner because she doesn't want to see the groom suffer. However, the spell backfires and she ends up with the love of her life and the dress mysteriously vanishes, only to turn up again in the other stories.
A Perfect Fit by Barbara Metzger- Katie acquired this dress by accident and meant to send it back to the dress shop to get her correct wedding dress, but the place burned down before she could do so. Her fiancee is killed in an accident soon after, and she is drummed out by her parents because she is pregnant with his child. Fast-forward to when Katie's daughter is ready for her wedding, and Katie wants nothing more than for her daughter to wear this special dress. But will both women be able to find love with some handsome gentlemen on the horizon? All-in-all a cute story, but it did feel a bit choppy and rushed at times.
Glad Rags by Connie Brockway- As we learned in the previous story, this dress does have certain magical qualities, including being able to perfectly fit its intended wearer. In this case, it happens to be a 6 ft + man who is made to face humiliation at a party after losing a bet with his ex-girlfriend's brother. This was the steamiest of the stories, but the plot moved rather quick, making for a quick and entertaining read. The idea of the dress "choosing" a man in this case was a very creative choice!
Something Special by Casey Claybourne- This one tells the story of a young girl growing up mostly alone out West while her father travels a lot for work. She finds the wedding dress in the attic & gets the idea to advertise for a governess back East, both to combat her own loneliness and hopefully bring someone into her father's life. Unfortunately, things don't exactly work out as planned as her father and her new governess don't exactly see eye-to-eye...This was probably my favorite of the stories because of the love-hate relationship between the two main characters, it isn't always peaches and cream between them, which allows for the sparks to fly!
Beautiful Gifts by Catherine Anderson- This one tells the story of Faith, who flees from Brooklyn with her six-year old daughter Charity to escape her oppressive father's attempts to arrange her second marriage to a man who doesn't want Charity around. They end up in No Name, Colorado with Faith working as housekeeper to Patrick O'Shannessy, a man with father issues of his own. This one read rather quickly quickly and comes very close to Something Special in competing for my favorite story in this anthology, but the way Charity talked bothered me (nothing the way a six-year old would talk, even if she was very smart as Faith mentions). Even Faith doesn't talk that way most of the time. It detracted from the story for me
A Perfect Fit by Barbara Metzger- Katie acquired this dress by accident and meant to send it back to the dress shop to get her correct wedding dress, but the place burned down before she could do so. Her fiancee is killed in an accident soon after, and she is drummed out by her parents because she is pregnant with his child. Fast-forward to when Katie's daughter is ready for her wedding, and Katie wants nothing more than for her daughter to wear this special dress. But will both women be able to find love with some handsome gentlemen on the horizon? All-in-all a cute story, but it did feel a bit choppy and rushed at times.
Glad Rags by Connie Brockway- As we learned in the previous story, this dress does have certain magical qualities, including being able to perfectly fit its intended wearer. In this case, it happens to be a 6 ft + man who is made to face humiliation at a party after losing a bet with his ex-girlfriend's brother. This was the steamiest of the stories, but the plot moved rather quick, making for a quick and entertaining read. The idea of the dress "choosing" a man in this case was a very creative choice!
Something Special by Casey Claybourne- This one tells the story of a young girl growing up mostly alone out West while her father travels a lot for work. She finds the wedding dress in the attic & gets the idea to advertise for a governess back East, both to combat her own loneliness and hopefully bring someone into her father's life. Unfortunately, things don't exactly work out as planned as her father and her new governess don't exactly see eye-to-eye...This was probably my favorite of the stories because of the love-hate relationship between the two main characters, it isn't always peaches and cream between them, which allows for the sparks to fly!
Beautiful Gifts by Catherine Anderson- This one tells the story of Faith, who flees from Brooklyn with her six-year old daughter Charity to escape her oppressive father's attempts to arrange her second marriage to a man who doesn't want Charity around. They end up in No Name, Colorado with Faith working as housekeeper to Patrick O'Shannessy, a man with father issues of his own. This one read rather quickly quickly and comes very close to Something Special in competing for my favorite story in this anthology, but the way Charity talked bothered me (nothing the way a six-year old would talk, even if she was very smart as Faith mentions). Even Faith doesn't talk that way most of the time. It detracted from the story for me
From the back of the book: By the flickering light of a kitchen fire, a modest servant girl creates the wedding gown of her dreams--a glorious dress of ivory silk and delicate lace that she would give anything to wear. But alas, the dress is for her haughty mistress, who is to marry the man that the poor young woman loves with all her heart. Though tempted to stop the marriage using the magical skills passed down to her through blood, the young woman instead ensures the misguided groom's future happiness by enchanting the dress so that whoever possesses it will be forever blessed with true love....
Only the spell goes delightfully awry, working its magic for the servant girl instead of her mistress, and then the dress mysteriously vanishes. Who knows where or when it may turn up next, for some blushing bride to claim as her very own?
Only the spell goes delightfully awry, working its magic for the servant girl instead of her mistress, and then the dress mysteriously vanishes. Who knows where or when it may turn up next, for some blushing bride to claim as her very own?
This book has four short stories revolving around a magical wedding dress. The stories start with a prelude by Catherine Anderson, telling about the beginning of the magical dress. Then ....
A PERFECT FIT, Barbara Metzger. This story takes place in Devon, England in 1813. Katie was proud of the wedding gown that she was to wear but fate intervened and her intended was killed mere days before the wedding. Because Katie was already expecting, she retired to a small hamlet and raised her daughter by teaching music lessons and selling foods from her garden and milk cows.
Now, Suzannah, Katie's daughter is getting ready to marry an aristocrat and the young man's guardian uncle has come to evaluate the worthiness of Suzannah for himself. Katie's carefully planned life starts to unravel.
GLAD RAGS, Connie Brockway. The wedding dress reappears at a party outside of London in 1856. Hugh St. James wants revenge for his sister, Lucy, and poses an impossible wager. Alexander Thorpe and Lucy had been an item two years before and then Alexander dropped Lucy and went off to war.
The wager causes Alex and Lucy to be in each other's company again and sparks start to sizzle.
SOMETHING SPECIAL, Casey Claybourne. Eleven-year-old Eliza Cooper orders her own governess from Boston to Seattle. This story is too outlandish to ring true.
BEAUTIFUL GIFTS, Catherine Anderson. This novella belongs with the Keegan-Paxton series. It is the story of Patrick O' Shannessey and Faith Maxwell. After seeing Patrick's problems with a whiskey bottle in the first book (of the Keegan-Paxton series), it is nice to see that he has straightened up and created a life for himself.
Since Caitlin has not had her first child yet (at the time of this story), I would place this novella after the first book (see series below).
Keegan-Paxton Family
1. Keegan's Lady (1996)
1.5 Beautiful Gifts (in THE TRUE LOVE WEDDING DRESS anthology)
2. Summer Breeze (2006)
3. Early Dawn (2009)
4. Lucky Penny (2012)
Faith Maxwell has run away from New York (with her small daughter), rather than marry an old man of her father's choosing. They end up in No Name, Colorado with only a penny to spare. Faith looks for work and finds an old notice for a housekeeper on the O'Shannessey ranch.
Overall, I'm sorry I wasted the money on the book. It was barely average. The only bright spot was seeing what happened to Patrick O'Shannessey from the series mentioned above.
A PERFECT FIT, Barbara Metzger. This story takes place in Devon, England in 1813. Katie was proud of the wedding gown that she was to wear but fate intervened and her intended was killed mere days before the wedding. Because Katie was already expecting, she retired to a small hamlet and raised her daughter by teaching music lessons and selling foods from her garden and milk cows.
Now, Suzannah, Katie's daughter is getting ready to marry an aristocrat and the young man's guardian uncle has come to evaluate the worthiness of Suzannah for himself. Katie's carefully planned life starts to unravel.
GLAD RAGS, Connie Brockway. The wedding dress reappears at a party outside of London in 1856. Hugh St. James wants revenge for his sister, Lucy, and poses an impossible wager. Alexander Thorpe and Lucy had been an item two years before and then Alexander dropped Lucy and went off to war.
The wager causes Alex and Lucy to be in each other's company again and sparks start to sizzle.
SOMETHING SPECIAL, Casey Claybourne. Eleven-year-old Eliza Cooper orders her own governess from Boston to Seattle. This story is too outlandish to ring true.
BEAUTIFUL GIFTS, Catherine Anderson. This novella belongs with the Keegan-Paxton series. It is the story of Patrick O' Shannessey and Faith Maxwell. After seeing Patrick's problems with a whiskey bottle in the first book (of the Keegan-Paxton series), it is nice to see that he has straightened up and created a life for himself.
Since Caitlin has not had her first child yet (at the time of this story), I would place this novella after the first book (see series below).
Keegan-Paxton Family
1. Keegan's Lady (1996)
1.5 Beautiful Gifts (in THE TRUE LOVE WEDDING DRESS anthology)
2. Summer Breeze (2006)
3. Early Dawn (2009)
4. Lucky Penny (2012)
Faith Maxwell has run away from New York (with her small daughter), rather than marry an old man of her father's choosing. They end up in No Name, Colorado with only a penny to spare. Faith looks for work and finds an old notice for a housekeeper on the O'Shannessey ranch.
Overall, I'm sorry I wasted the money on the book. It was barely average. The only bright spot was seeing what happened to Patrick O'Shannessey from the series mentioned above.
mine is hardcover, not paperback.
