A Vintage Affair

by Isabel Wolff

Do fairytale dresses bring fairytale endings?

Every dress has a history, so does Phoebe…

Phoebe always dreamt of opening her own vintage dress shop. She imagined every detail, from the Vivienne Westwood bustiers hanging next to satin gowns, to sequinned cupcake dresses adorning the walls.

At the launch of Village Vintage, Phoebe feels the tingle of excitement as customers snap up the fairytale dresses. Her dream has come true, but a secret from her past is casting a shadow over her new venture.

Then one day she meets Therese, an elderly Frenchwoman with a collection to sell, apart from one piece that she won't part with …

As Therese tells the story of the little blue coat, Phoebe feels a profound connection with her own life, one that will help her heal the pain of her past and allow her to love again.

• ISBN13: 9780007245826
• Publish Date: 19 January 2009
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 432
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Eve1972]

I enjoyed this one a lot! The authors weaves a delightfully charming story that pulls at your heart strings and made me want to open my own vintage clothing store! LOL Just a really great read. :)

[Leah]

A Vintage Affair is a wonderfully written novel. I really didn’t want the book to end. Hearing Phoebe’s and Mrs. Bell’s story was sad but also very enjoyable. Their stories were eerily similar in the reasons why both felt so guilty. Isabel always managers to create such interesting back stories for her characters and both Phoebe’s and Therese’s were well crafted. Therese’s in particular must have taken a lot of research because it was very well explained.

I thought Phoebe was a brilliant character and I could feel her guilt about Emma and felt so sad for her. I also completely understood why she blamed Guy even though the truth does come out in the end regarding that night.

Therese was a very interesting character and I found she and Phoebe got along really well together. Their relationship was so easy going even though they hardly knew each other. We learn of Therese’s story really early on – it wasn’t dragged out at all. It was such an interesting and sad story, too. I felt so sorry for Therese that even after all of these years she still couldn’t forgive herself.

Of the minor characters I really liked Dan. I felt he got along better with Phoebe than Miles did. I was surprised to learn he was colour-blind, it was an interesting addition to his eccentric character. As I said, I don’t think Miles and Phoebe really got on all that well and I just couldn’t warm to Miles. He completely spoilt his daughter, Roxy, and I found her just as irritating. Roxy came across incredibly selfish and her behaviour was horrible.

I really liked Annie, Phoebe’s part-time helper in the shop. I liked her enthusiasm for the vintage clothes Phoebe sold. I found Phoebe’s mum hilarious with her constant wanting of facials and facelifts and all kind of treatments! I loved the story of the cupcake dresses and how each of the girls managed to acquire them. Katie was probably my favourite of the 4 – so different to the spoilt Roxy, she earned the right to buy her dress rather than being able to get her daddy to get it for her!

A Vintage Affair is probably one of my favourite books of the year. It was throughly enjoyable and is just as good as the other Isabel Wolff books I’ve read. Her writing just gets better & better!

Rating: 5/5