The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Title: The Dressmaker
Author: Kate Alcott
Length: 417 pages
Publisher: Anchor
Published: February 21, 2012
Genres: Historical Fiction; Love Stories; Fiction

Rating: ✮✮✮✮

Summary:
Just in time for the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic comes a vivid, romantic, and relentlessly compelling historical novel about a spirited young woman who survives the disaster only to find herself embroiled in the media frenzy left in the wake of the tragedy.

Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes.

Amidst the chaos and desperate urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy. Others—including the gallant Midwestern tycoon—are not so lucky.

On dry land, rumors about the survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff Gordon quickly becomes the subject of media scorn and later, the hearings on the Titanic. Set against a historical tragedy but told from a completely fresh angle, The Dressmaker is an atmospheric delight filled with all the period's glitz and glamour, all the raw feelings of a national tragedy and all the contradictory emotions of young love.

Review:
I just absolutely loved this book from start to finish! This is not typically the genre of my choice, but each book of the genre that I've read, I've seemed to like just as much as the last, and that was certainly the case with this book!

What I enjoyed the most about this book that it is historically correct. Kate Alcott, or should I say, Patricia O'Brien, really did her homework and performed plenty of research to write this book. I can't believe it took her writing this book under a pseudonym to get a publisher to pick it up, because it truly is a great, heart-warming book.

The characters are so real and believable, which is awesome, because most of them are real people. I found myself invested in the characters and the happenings in their lives. I really admired Tess Collins, the main character, and am in awe of her strength and courage throughout the book.

Overall, this was a fantastic, realistic book. I am so happy that I've been able to read this!


View all my reviews