The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle

 I just read the absolute BEST book!  

I am a prolific reader.  Mostly I read free romances from Amazon Unlimited.  You know I'm stressed when I'm marathon reading and baking.  A free romance requires literally no thought.  It is 100% escapism.  When we were quarantined- I baked about every other day, and read . . a lot.  I require a happily ever after, interesting, humorous dialogue, well edited, and a little bit of steamy romance.  I do NOT like domineering men.  I attempted to read a book earlier this week and the main male character was HORRIFIC.  I tried the second book in the series- thinking it would get better- but alas, the second book was worse- and so I didn't even bother to finish it.  There's alpha men, and then there's just overbearing, controlling a$$holes.  I don't care for that type of character.

However- while I do love a good romance, I also love a good "women/friendship" book.  

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan, is set in Britain around 1942- during World War II.  It's a small village outside of London, and it is centered around 3 women.  One is a spoiled 20 something from aristocracy looking to marry a titled gentleman.  Another is the daughter of a widowed vicar- who has dedicated her life to helping the people in her village.  And the 3rd women is a famous courtier clothing designer- and aunt to the spoiled girl.  The story centers around how these women grow, develop their friendship, and contribute positively to their community.  

It was so interesting reading about rationing.  I am currently attempting to "ration" myself because things cost so much . . . and I am in awe of people who make it work.  I guess they had to- but they embraced it with cheerfulness and as like a puzzle to solve and were happy to do their part to contribute to "sticking it to the Nazi's." (I find rationing depressing and restrictive when there are so many delicious things out there!!!)

I loved the community mentality.   They were constantly helping the community.  They were watchmen for Nazi planes that were dropping bombs (imagine living when the enemy would drop bombs on you!!!!), they organized sewing circles to help mend clothes to share.  Wedding dresses were incredibly difficult to come by- they asked people to donate their old wedding dresses, then mended and altered the dresses to be more modern or repaired- and then developed a schedule to share them among villagers.  

I love women developing confidence in themselves and realizing they can be more than they "settled" for.  One women had "settled for a life of loneliness and work- and realized that she had family and friends.  Another realized she had engineering skills and leadership skills.  Also the women were very supportive of each other- which I also love.  

It was well written, a sweet story, that shared history of World War II and how it impacted regular old people living in Britain.  

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