The Dress Shop of Dreams

A Novel

By: Menna van Praag

Narrated by: Jennifer Carr

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

Since her parents’ mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her grandmother Etta’s dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta’s charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passersby, but the colorfully vibrant racks of beaded silks, delicate laces, and jewel-toned velvets hold bewitching secrets: With just a few stitches from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a woman’s deepest desires.

Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic on her granddaughter. Cora’s studious, unromantic eye has overlooked Walt, the shy bookseller who has been in love with her forever. Determined not to allow Cora to miss her chance at happiness, Etta sews a tiny stitch into Walt’s collar, hoping to give him the courage to confess his feelings to Cora. But magic spells - like true love - can go awry. After Walt is spurred into action, Etta realizes she's set in motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in extraordinary and unexpected ways.

©2014 Menna van Praag (P)2014 Recorded Books

So charmingly British!

This book was so sweet, and well narrated. Not particularly deep, but doesn't sacrifice good writing for that charming simplicity found in so many books coming out of UK.

A Perfectly Wrapped Package

Loved the story and especially Jennifer Carr's performance. She is magical. I adore how van Praag weaves the story of so many characters and wraps it all up perfectly by the end.

Romance with mystical realism

The premise of a dress shop where each customer can find a special dress is lovely, and the owner of this enchanted shop, Etta, is the best character in the story. Too bad there wasn't more about the shop and less on all the secondary characters, who added little to the story. Narration was fine.

Loved this book!

I was pulled immediately & didn't want to put it down. The performance added immensely to the quaint fictional characters. I want another!

Sweet magical story!

I stumbled upon this delightful story during my husband's prolonged illness. It gave me many hours of pleasure. Many thanks to the author!

loved it! Precious!

Couldn't put it down! I will remember this one with fondness! The intricate story weaves magic, mystery, love and redemption in a lovely story, like wandering through a garden path.

loved it!

The narrator truly brought this story to life. It was sweet, charming, and magical. I was a little sad when our book club landed on such a "fluffy" read for November, but it was perfect. I couldn't stop listening.

Sweet, charming story

I really enjoyed this book. I was looking for something light and was happy to hear a good performance and a story with a few layers while still being an easy listen.

A feel good book..

I love the book Garden Spells by North Carolina author: Sarah Addison Allan and I can never get enough of the magically realistic life settings. This book has those same sweet notes of life choices, destiny and the gifts we each carry within and how we share them with others. Loved it and will definitely re-listen to this one!

It was okay, not great

It’s very hard for me to review a book that was just okay. It was a sweet romance but I wish there had been more reminiscing about the dress shop. To me the characters loved the dress shop but the reminiscing was about their past and present relationships. Etta, the grandmother to Corra, owned it.

I was expecting when she spoke about her love for a man she had to let go of a long time ago, she would have brought about her sewing and why or how she got there. I understood the relationship and the bubble-gum romance, which was an infatuation between Walt and Corra. I understood why Milly started to love him and the hardships she had in her past. I understood Etta & Sebastian, which he was always mentioned as the ‘Saint’. But it seemed like there were excessive characters that kept my head spinning. The end was wonderful, don’t get me wrong. I just wasn’t crazy about it.

As far as the narration Jennifer had the perfect British for the characters, it just wasn’t enough.

Definitely would recommend but I give it 2.8 out of 5 stars.