Reviews

The Dressmaker's Gift by Fiona Valpy

nykisz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

sydneyscho's review

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3.0

I enjoyed the historical part of the book, but was pretty bored by the modern portion. I feel similar stories have been told in a better way (The Nightingale) but I thought this book was still fine.

laurenloveslibros's review

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2.0

DNF - I may try to go back and read the story again, but I couldn’t submerse myself enough in the story to keep going. The writing style felt too simplistic and light despite the seriousness of the story’s setting. I was excited about this one because I enjoy learning morning about World War II, but it was disappointing after reading the first handful of a chapters.

maegan_mccrea's review

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4.0

I’d rate this 3.5 stars, but I’m rounding up to 4.

I really enjoyed the historic storyline of Claire, Mirielle, and Vivi, but didn’t enjoy the present-day storyline much. I think the book would have been better without Harriet’s chapters.

rebellionbooklover's review

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5.0

Nostalgic. Inspiring. Viva le resistance!

Excellent. Page turning journey of a young woman that wants to find the pieces of her family history and finds the pieces of herself.

xstinz's review

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4.0

The very detailed description of being in the concentration camp was both heartbreaking and terrifying.

kelli_with_an_i's review

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3.0

A wwii book without quite the gore and details of the holocaust. Set in two eras, WWII and modern times. A granddaughter comes to France inspired by her grandmother and an old photo. This story is about the 3 women in the photo and their involvement in the French resistance during the war.
Parts seem a little far fetched, others are predictable, yet overall a good story that I wanted to finish and a fairly easy read.

mommacat's review

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5.0

The Dressmaker's Gift is told from the point of view of Harriet who finds a picture of her grandmother and seeks to find out about her family past.

I enjoyed the 1940's settings a little more than the present day but together they worked really well.

ushma15's review

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3.0

A few of the plot devices used to resolve the story just didn't for me, suspended belief is only plausible to a certain weight into a story. The parallel stories are well written, but also have pages and pages of descriptions without any progression of the story.

Also, what WAS the dressmaker's gift?

miskel's review

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5.0

Interwoven story from the early 1940s & 2016

This intertwined story of Claire, Mireille, Vivienne, Simone, and Harriet was beautiful and heartbreaking. And even though it is a work of fiction, the things endured during the time of war were not. This story makes me appreciate the bravery of the French women and men who were part of the Resistance.

Content for those who want to know: no profanity or sexual content. Descriptions of atrocities performed by Nazis mentioned several times.