Book Review: The Dress by Jane L. Rosen

"Legend has it that every season there is one dress. The dress that can make your career, ignite a spark with that special someone, or utterly transform your life. For Felicia, who has been in love with her boss for 20 years; for Natalie who has sworn off men since her ex dumped her – for them and for others, life is about to change.

And all because of their brush with the dress of the season, the perfect little black number that everyone wants to get their hands on…"

Rating: 4/5

I have to confess I didn't know much about this book or author before I began to read it, although I was completely taken by the cover, it's just gorgeous! The Dress in question is a black Max Hammer dress - nothing hugely fancy or special, but seems to have some sort of powers over the women who wear it, by whatever method they get hold of it. There are 9 different women whose lives are affected by them wearing the dress, in lots of different ways.

The idea of a magical dress isn't normally something I would find in the sort of books I read, but I decided to give it a try, and I am so pleased that I did. It wasn't that it was a fairytale dress or had super magic or anything, it just influences the women who wear it to make good decisions, and therefore have good things happen to them. This was a lovely part of the story, and it made me smile each time you could see the dress working its magic on the wearer. Lots of things happen to this dress, from its humble beginnings as a pattern, to the dress that catches the eye of the world - I don't want to spoil the story by telling you anymore as finding out what happens to the dress is part of the magic of reading the book.

There is a lot of different characters in this book - men, women, in relationships or not, from all walks of life and all in very different jobs. It wasn't hard to keep track with who was who though, Rosen's writing allows you to follow the book with ease, and I had no confusion with them at all. Again, I don't want to sit here and run through all of the characters - there's just too many of them, but I enjoyed their stories unravelling as the book goes on. Needless to say, they were all wonderful stories, and I enjoyed reading them all, and the way Rosen changes the narrative constantly keeps it interesting and fresh. There are characters to love, characters to hate, ones to empathise with... there's probably someone in there we could all relate to at one time or another!

This was a wonderfully written story by Jane L Rosen, and was full of hope, love and joy. I adored how the dress simply changed so many people's lives, and the way it comes in and out of their lives in different ways was fun, I was always guessing how it would find a way to get to its new owner! It's unlike anything I have read before, and was fun to read from start to finish. A couple of the stories stood out to me more than others, but they were all enjoyable to read. It's a very uplifting book and left me with a big smile on my face, and shows us that dreams can come true if we try hard enough. Recommended.