The Gown by Jennifer Robson

If you love historical fiction, fashion, and the Royal Family…I think you will enjoy this novel. It is filled with vivid imagery and amazing detail. It is one of those books where after you read it…you have a hard time remembering if it was a book or a movie that you watched.. That is how great the detail is! It has a bit of mystery spun into as well which keeps it interesting. Of course love stories are woven in and out as well, which I am still on the fence about. Sometimes I feel like a novel is perfectly fine and then the author decided, “oh let me just throw a random love story in!”.

“London, 1947

Though the war ended two years ago, England’s recovery has been difficult. But the nation’s spirits are lifted when Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of Princess Elizabeth to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. For Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin, colleagues at the famed Mayfair fashion house of Norman Hartnell, the upcoming wedding is more than a celebration. The talented embroiderers have been chosen to create the beautiful, intricate stitching that will adorn the royal bride’s wedding gown. It is an extraordinary opportunity for an ordinary working-class English girl and a French émigrée who survived the Nazis.

Toronto, 2016
Intrigued by the exquisite set of hand-stitched flowers she has inherited from her late grandmother, Heather Mackenzie discovers the embroideries match the motifs decorating Queen Elizabeth II’s stunning gown from her wedding almost seventy years before. Among her grandmother’s possessions, she also finds an old photo of Nan with Miriam Dassin, a celebrated artist and Holocaust survivor. How did her beloved Nan, a woman who never spoke of her old life in Britain, come to possess these embroidered treasures? What was her connection to Miriam Dassin, and why did Nan never mention her? Yearning to know more about her grandmother’s past and the mystery of the embroideries, Heather travels to London. It is a journey that will unlock the secrets of Nan’s life, including her connection to Miriam, and may even lead Heather to her own destiny.”
GoodReads rating: 4.1
Page Count: 449

 

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