by Erin McKean
Dora is at loose ends: she’s graduating from college, but is not sure of her next step, she’s got a crush on her boss (who doesn’t date undergrads), and she’s strangely happy just managing the campus coffee shop. All of this changes when she finds out that her grandmother has suffered a stroke.
Mimi, her grandmother, isn’t just anybody. Mimi raised Dora. And she is the successful proprietor of a vintage clothing boutique. Dora doesn’t know what she’d do without Mimi.
So, Dora dashes off to her hometown, Forsyth, NC, and immediately takes over the shop. Between the shop and the hospital, Dora doesn’t have time to think about college or the coffee joint. Instead, she immerses herself in the vintage clothing biz. In vintage clothing, Dora discovers a passion she never knew she had and a very interesting future.
I really liked the basic story presented, but the construction of this novel is awkward, at best. The author doesn’t seem to know how to present flashbacks. And then there are the “secret lives” of the clothes. These are little stories that Mimi provides to her customers to go with the pieces purchased. The stories are horrendous and completely unnecessary. You could delete them, change the novel’s title, and have a better book.
6/20/11
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