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This is a fabulist, wondrous story about a girl, the guy whose been in love with her for most of their lives, and her grandmother.

Scientist Cora Sparks lost her parents in a house fire when she was a young child. Her grandmother, Etta, raised her, and they are very close. Etta owns a very special dress shop, where the dresses pick the customers, Etta adds a few special stitches and the customers find their lives changed – a bit fantastical yet somehow believable in van Praag’s fine hands.

In the book shop down the street, Walt, the owner, has been in love with Cora since the first time he laid eyes on her when he was just ten years old. Walt has another job besides the bookstore; he reads books aloud on the local radio station each evening, and women are falling in love with him because of his voice. But he has no interest in any of them.

Unbeknownst to Walt, his boss at the radio station is answering all his fan mail, and eventually strikes up a correspondence with Milly, a young widow. Despairing of ever winning Cora’s heart, Walt meets Milly and they form a relationship, but he doesn’t know about “their” letter correspondence.

Meanwhile, Etta is determined to get her granddaughter’s mind out of just her work and to get her to realize that Walt has feelings for her. Etta’s magic starts a lot more than she expected – Cora decides to try and find out how her parents died. The fire was ruled an accident, but Etta tells her she was never convinced of that.

There are several storylines here that flow seamlessly together and make the pages fly by. This truly is one of my favorite reads this year, and were it in my power, I would make everyone who reads this review go read this book! It reminded me a bit of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern but not quite as complicated, or maybe more like The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey  – it has that fairytale quality to it.

I loved this magical read, and just might read it again – which is high praise indeed.

10/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE DRESS SHOP OF DREAMS by Menna van Praag. Ballantine Books (December 30, 2014). ISBN 978-0804178983. 336p.

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Jennifer Crusie writes great contemporary romances, and I wish she’d write a new one. This book is from 1996, released as an eBook a few years ago. But it’s a great story and a quick read.

Nina Askew just turned 40. Newly divorced after she realized she hated being married to a high powered lawyer who wanted her to be his socialite. She didn’t hate the guy, just the marriage and is happily working for a small nonfiction press as an editor.

She gets herself a birthday present, the dog she always wanted and her husband wouldn’t let her have, and she decides to teach Fred how to climb out the window and down the fire escape into the fenced in yard to do his business. But he ends up in the 2nd floor apartment below hers, and Alex brings the dog back.

Alex just turned thirty. He’s an emergency room doctor from a family of doctors, all with high paying, high stress specialties, and they think he is hopeless. Alex and Nina form a friendship, watching old movies and playing with Fred. Nina is very drawn to him but is not comfortable with her 40 year old body and can’t imagine that Alex would be interested. Alex is very interested, but afraid of scaring Nina off.

Eventually they get together, with a lot of laughter and some great sex along the way. Terrific characters, lots of laughs, hot sex and a good story line are Crusie’s hallmarks, and this one is no exception. She hasn’t had a new book for a few years, and I miss her.

10/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ANYONE BUT YOU by Jennifer Crusie. Harlequin HQN (October 15, 2012). ASIN: B0098ISVMY. 288p.