From the publisher:
A young woman has one month and a closetful of shoes to discover the future she thought she’d lost in this captivating new novel from the author of Eliza Starts a Rumor and Nine Women, One Dress.
Esme Nash is eager to leave her small town and begin her carefully planned post-grad life: a move to New York City, an apartment with her loving college boyfriend, and a fancy job at an art gallery. But when tragedy strikes, instead of heading to Manhattan, she returns home to care for her ailing father, leaving every bit of her dream behind.
Seven trying years later, Esme is offered a dog-sitting job in Greenwich Village by a mysterious stranger, giving her access to all of her long-buried hopes and dreams—as well as to an epic collection of designer shoes. Esme jumps at a second chance to step into the future she’s sure was meant to be hers.
As she retraces her steps, one pair of borrowed shoes at a time, making new friends and reconnecting with her old love, Esme tries on versions of herself she didn’t know existed. But the hazy August days and warm summer nights pass too quickly, and Esme must decide how much of the life she imagined still fits, and what—and who—is on the road ahead of her.
https://amzn.to/3cGF93M
This is the second Rosen book I’ve read, after Nine Women, One Dress, and all I can say is that this is a worthy successor. New York City is pretty much another character here, and I really enjoyed that aspect. Esme is a great character, too; smart, caring, a heart big enough to survive and prosper in NYC. When her father falls ill, Esme leaves all her plans behind to go back upstate to take care of him. Several years later, she finally loses him and finds a unique opportunity. Not really sure what she wants to do with the rest of her life, she takes a job dogsitting/apartment sitting for a woman in a very nice apartment, complete with an amazing shoe collection. Esme has a bit of a shoe fetish herself, so she definitely can relate. When the owner, who is in rehab for what Esme assumes is her shoe/shopping addiction, offers her to try anything she likes in the apartment, Esme takes her up on it and every day is a new shoe adventure.
She meets a young man and they become good friends, hanging out quite a bit. She also meets an elderly gentleman in the dog park, and they, too, form a friendship. Esme is having a great time, but what she really wants is to sort of “accidentally” run into her college ex, the boy she dumped to go home to care for her father. He is still in the city, and it turns out he is living in the apartment they were supposed to share.
Of course everything is not quite as Esme hoped it would be, and while she’s finding her way to her future, these relationships all help clarify things. Along with the shoes, of course. This sweet and funny novel is heartwarming with a touch of romance, and I highly recommend it.
7/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
A SHOE STORY by Jane L. Rosen. Berkley (June 28, 2022). ISBN: 978-0593102121. 336p.
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