Brenda Janowitz’s latest novel called out to me on so many levels: a story of mothers and daughters, of love and loss, a structure that goes back and forth through time, and an exquisite handmade wedding gown. I’ve displayed the book here with my own collection of antique wedding photographs.

The Grace Kelly Dress is a fast-paced, emotional read that takes us behind the scenes of a wedding gown designer’s Paris studio in 1958 … to a Long Island sorority girl’s coming of age in 1982 … to a techy entrepreneur’s engagement in Brooklyn in 2020. It’s quite a feat for an author to write fiction that holds a reader’s interest equally in all three characters’ storylines, but Janowitz does it with style and ease. She might also be the queen of the chapter cliffhanger! I absolutely could not stop turning the pages. There were fun moments, sexy moments, confrontational moments, surprising moments, heartbreaking moments, and several moments where the story brought tears to my eyes—tears of both sadness and joy. Ahh, book bliss.