NEW RELEASES
The Secret Lives of Dresses - Erin McKean (2011)
Dora Winston's life has been anything but going places ever since she packed up, left her grandmother's and headed to college. Now she's stuck in a dead-end coffee shop job, with a boss she is head over heels with but he doesn't notice her. When her grandmother Mimi falls ill, Dora rushes home to North Carolina. It is here that Dora realises that she had lost her passion for fashion, especially vintage clothing. When Dora takes over her grandmother's vintage clothing shop, she soon rediscovers herself as she finishes a project Mimi liked to do with the clothes - "The Secret Lives of Dresses - each item of clothing with a story to tell". The story sees Dora finding out about her past, her calling and more importantly her future with the hunky builder Con. (PP)
Erin McKean's blog A Dress a Day is the inspiration behind her debut novel The Secret Lives of Dresses. The summary says: "Dora is in love with a man who barely notices her, has a job she doesn't care about, and dresses entirely for comfort, not style. All a far cry from her vivid, eccentric childhood, growing up with her beloved grandmother Mimi. However, when disaster strikes, Dora knows she has no choice but to return to her childhood home and take over running Mimi's vintage clothing shop. And there she makes a surprising discovery - Mimi's been writing stories to accompany every dress she sells. Romantic, heartbreaking tales about each one's secret life before it got to her shop... Dora starts to match-make these lonely frocks with new owners, but will the stories help her as well? Trading her boring high street clothes for vintage glamour is one thing. What she needs to know is whether she can trade her safe old life - and love - for something better too?" The Secret Lives of Dresses is out in February.