The Grace Kelly Dress

In Brenda Janowitz's the Grace Kelly Dress, this beautiful woman's fiction novel is so emotional and has a bit of a historical fiction twist. When Rachel "Rocky" is engaged to her true love Drew, her mother wants her to wear the Grace Kelly dress,  a dress that's been handed down from one generation. As she plans her wedding, Rocky isn't the typical bride--she has tattoos, dyed her hair, and doesn't wear dresses. While she deals with the details with her sister Amanda, we flash back into time when Joan, Rocky's mother, and Rose, her grandmother, when they wore the wedding dress.
For Rose in 1950s, she's an apprentice for Madame Michel at the French bridal atelier shop. When Madame Michel unfortunately passed away, it's up to her and her nephew Julien to keep up with the subterfuge that Michel's busy. When Diana Laurent comes to the shop for Rose to design her bridal dress like Grace Kelly's, she meets Robert Laurent, Diana's brother, who's engaged to be married to someone else. The chemistry between them is palpable, while Julien warns her about him. As the attraction between them is mutual, she meets Elisabeth, his betrothed, which complicates things further for her. When the truth comes out about Michel's passing, they lose the business and potential customers... except for Diana Laurent and the dress. As for Joni,  it's the 1980s, when she's a college student who's engaged to be married to Matthew, and a sorority sister. She's on the hunt for the truth about what happened to her sister Michel who died from a heart attack. From there, she goes to the art gallery and meets Mel, an artist and one of her sister's her former friends. Then she meets her brother, Jesse, a musician in the band, the chemistry between them is red-hot, though she should stay away since she's engaged. Later, she broken off the engagement and marries her true love with the dress. In the end, the family comes together for Rocky's wedding and how she used the dress for her own dream wedding to honor tradition.

This was a terrific woman's fiction novel and how the Grace Kelly dress spanned three generations in one family. I loved how diverse the characters were from Drew being Korean and adopted into a Jewish family, and how both Julien and Amanda were gay and became who they were. I cared for Rose, Rocky, and Joni, who shared us their love story and how the dress became passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter. I love the three time periods that pictured the timing well in New York City, past and present, for the locations and mesmerizing scenic settings. The theme of the story is to follow your heart and how family comes together to build traditions like an interwoven quilt.

If you love to be loveswept into a terrific woman's fiction novel with non-stop drama, plenty of action, sparks of love, and hints of passionate intrigue, you'll love the Grace Kelly dress today. Check it out today!