About the Book: 
⦁ ​Title: A Dress of Violet Taffeta: A Novel⦁ Author: Tessa Arlen
⦁ Genre: Historical Fiction
⦁ Publisher: ‎Berkley (July 5, 2022)
⦁ Length: (352) pages
⦁ Format: Trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook 
⦁ ISBN: 978-0593436851
⦁ Tour Dates: June 27-July 11, 2022

BOOK DESCRIPTION
A sumptuous novel based on the fascinating true story of La Belle Époque icon Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, who shattered the boundaries of fashion with her magnificently sensual and enchantingly unique designs.

Lucy Duff Gordon knows she is talented. She sees color, light, and texture in ways few people can begin to imagine. But is the male dominated world of haute couture, who would use her art for their own gain, ready for her?
 
When she is deserted by her wealthy husband, Lucy is left penniless with an aging mother and her five-year-old daughter to support. Desperate to survive, Lucy turns to her one true talent to make a living. As a little girl, the dresses she made for her dolls were the envy of her group of playmates. Now, she uses her creative designs and her remarkable eye for color to take her place in the fashion world—failure is not an option. 
 
Then, on a frigid night in 1912, Lucy’s life changes once more, when she becomes one of 706 people to survive the sinking of the Titanic. She could never have imagined the effects the disaster would have on her fashion label Lucile, her marriage to her second husband, and her legacy. But no matter what life throws at her, Lucy will live on as a trailblazing and innovative fashion icon, never letting go of what she worked so hard to earn. 

Review: 
After Lucy's husband wastes their fortune on drinking and runs off with a showgirl, Lucy does the unthinkable to keep herself and her daughter Esme safe, she divorces from her husband. This is unheard of in polite society during Victorian Era London. Lucy has a plan to make money. She has always loved fashion and begins to design dresses. With the help of her one remaining staff, Celia, Lucy designs and makes a dress that is the envy of everyone. From there, Lucy begins taking orders. With Lucy's eye for color and cut on specific women and Celia's management skills, business takes off. Lucy meets Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and finds love as well as a business party. Lucile Ltd is now successful and thriving with clients around the world and a second shop in New York. Lucy, Cosmo and Celia make their way to New York with new dresses on the Titanic. When the unthinkable happens, all three manage to escape with their lives. However, the aftermath of the escape and the trauma will affect them forever.

Lady Lucy Duff Gordon is known not only for her elegant fashion design, but for creating fashion shows and modernizing women's underwear. Despite this, most of what I knew about Lady Lucy was from the movie Titanic. While A Dress of Violet Taffeta is a fictional version of Lady Lucy's life, the author has done a lot of research and used Lady Lucy's memoir as well as her design books and a viewing of her fashion collection. I was in love with Lucy's character and temperament from the start as she decides that she will support herself and Esme after her husband leaves. Lucy's determination to fulfill her dream now that she is divorced is even more significant in Victorian society. There are absolutely wonderful descriptions of color and the process of how Lucy made her gowns and built her business from nothing. Her ideas for women's fashion were able to move women forward in society. As Lucy said, " I truly believe that what women choose to wear will dictate the sort of lives we lead in the decades to come." In addition to Lucy, the other female characters were also amazingly written. I was intrigued the most by Celia who began as an unpaid helper and rose to managing Lucile Ltd. I think it's a shame that we don't know more about the real Celia, although I would have loved more chapters from her point of view. Lucy's sister, Elinor Glyn is also a force in her own right and became a well-known romance author. The Duff-Gordon's experience on the Titanic seems to have been twisted and they were made to look like villains for not going back to rescue more people in their lifeboat. The survivor's guilt seems to have affected Lucy and Cosmo as well as their relationship. Overall, A Dress of Violet Taffeta is an amazing story of a self-made woman of history.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

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Author Bio: 
Tessa Arlen writes historical fiction when she is not toiling away in her garden. She is the author of the Edwardian mystery series: Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson; the Woman of World War II mystery series. Poppy Redfern. And two standalone historical novels: In Royal Service to the Queen, and A Dress of Violet Taffeta. 

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About the Book:


In The Craigslist Incident, Edna Barrett takes an advertisement out on Craigslist: I'm an 18-year-old female and I want to take a hit out on myself. Joe Dolsen, a 20-year-old who has suffered from periodic blackouts his whole life, answers the ad. What would bring two people to such ominous points at such young ages, and will they actually go through with it?

Edna, raised by a single mother after the suicide of her father, repeatedly finds herself kicked out of schools for violent altercations that don't seem to be her fault. Finally, living a solitary life in rural Minnesota and taking classes online, she falls passionately in text-love with another outsider, Shane, whose obsession with Edna sends off alarm signals to her world-weary mother, especially when he drives hundreds of miles to show up unannounced at their home.

Meanwhile, Joe is coming of age with an Evangelical mother who believes his probable epilepsy means he has been touched by God and uses her religiosity as justification for not seeking medical attention for her son and for remaining with his abusive father. As Joe and Edna reach adulthood struggling to make sense of their lives and losses, their dangerous tracks are set for collision.
Review:
Edna Barrett has had a difficult time since the death of her father causing her to have significant issues in school. Joe Dolsen has suffered blackout incidents his entire life. His mother believes that Joe's blackouts are a sign from God rather than a medical condition. Edna and Joe connect when Edna is 18 and she posts a hit for herself on Craigslist and Joe responds.

The Craigslist Incident is a unique contemporary fiction story that uses intense characters to display the mental health crisis, lack of support systems and the toll of these struggles for young adults. The story is quickly paced with short chapters alternating between Edna and Joe's points of view that built suspense up to the inevitable conclusion. Through Edna and Joe we see how events in their childhood led up to their crises as young adults. Edna's situation was unfortunate and even though her mother was supportive, she still fell through the cracks at her school and lacked support for her depression. Joe's potentially dangerous medical condition seemed to be largely ignored. The writing conveyed Edna and Joe's deep feelings, their desperation, their confusion, their need for acceptance and their cries for help. With a choose your own ending, Edna and Joe's fates are up to the reader.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

​Urban legends, campfire stories, slumber party games, these stories that have been passed down generation to generation are the basis for this short story collection.  Ghost Games draws on our natural fear yet fascination with the spirit world and the supernatural. Each story features a woman who plays the ghost game and finds a different level of interaction, suspense and fright through their games.  

With any short story collection, there are stories that I liked better than others and some stories that I wish would be expanded.  I was pulled into the collection by the first story, The Elevator Game.  I had never heard of this particular game but was familiar with the incident that prompted the characters to try it out.  I loved the tricks that the ghosts played and how it eerily connected to the real incident.  The Three Kings Game was very intricate. I had also never heard of this one but loved that the spirits had their own personalities.  I especially enjoyed The Closet Game and The Telephone Game that had a little more background into some of the ghosts involved.  With classics like Bloody Mary and The Ouija Board and directions at the end for each game, there is something in Ghost Games for any ghost story lover. 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.