When the Scarpelli family’s rickety tenement building is slated for destruction, widowed Mama prays while Lucy ventures forth to find a home the family can afford on sweatshop wages. She finds not only an apartment, but also positions—for Mama, Lucy, and teenaged Sophia—in Madame Moreau’s Fashion Emporium.
A wealthy client, Rowena Langdon, befriends Lucy, the only person who has ever been able to design clothes that would conceal a major injury. Rowena even schemes to secure an invitation for Lucy to the summer paradise of Newport as a seamstress…. How the friends deal with class differences and learn about friendship, family, and themselves makes for a compelling story.
The social conventions of 1895, three young women, a suitable number of unlikely suitors, a stalker, fabulous wealth, beautiful clothing, and a dangerous Cliff Walk along the seaside are combined in a tangled net of unexpected connections and emotions. Author Nancy Moser weaves in complementary views on growing up, participating in life despite handicaps, and learning to trust, oftentimes in Italian phrases. Her characters believe that ‘love rules without rules,’ while Mama watches and prays.
Although Lucy and Rowena are sweet young ladies and Sophia eventually grows up, the plot itself is quite improbable. And, of course, love does not ‘rule without rules.’ Even so, An Unlikely Suitor will fill several of your hours with sunny enjoyment. This is great book to take along to the beach.
Disclosure: This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. and is available at your favorite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
An Unlikely Suitor is my 17th book in the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge.