Review: Stuffed Shirts and Calico Dresses
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 31, 2012
I want to begin this review by saying I loved this book.  I was truly taken aback by how much I loved it.  Honestly, I picked it up at about 7pm and finished it 2am...granted when I had to be up for work 3 hours later, I was regretting that decision, but I simply couldn't put that book down until I finished it.  I have so much to say in the book review, I decided to do this review a little different so I could keep my thoughts organized, so here goes:Summary: Victoria Riley is 25 years old and is trying to take care of her baby sister Mandy after both her mother and father had passed.  Her father had managed a store called Worthington's in their hometown of Ft. Worth, TX, after his death the accountant for the store began stealing the profits.  Victoria, starving, decides to write the owner a strongly worded letter.  William Worthington is a very, very rich man who brags about his family having built San Fransico and how San Fransico is 'his town'.  In truth he owns the town hotel, the bank, many houses, a winery and has many other investments.  William knows nothing of love having been raised by his cold mother Eunice and his work-a-holic father.  He conquers everything.  Everything is an aquisition to him and when he meets Victoria, he sees no reason why he shouldn't own her too.What I thought: I have to admit the first chapter or so of the book proceeded a little slowly but, it was necessary for character development.  I was truly invested in these characters within 30 mins of the book, they were very well fleshed out.  I loved the use of alliteration often in the story (ex. 'banished the bittersweet memories') and I loved the flow of the book.  I liked the plot, the struggle of it, the pursuit of the story.  At times reading the book I so badly wanted Victoria to go back to Ft. Worth and to make William come after her.  I wanted him to have a comeupance that never really took place but, it occured to me that made the book more realistic. I liked how the author inserted the backstory of Patricia Riley and Williams father, forshadowing the fact that William could very well become his father if he proceeded on the path he was on and never took a chance on love.  I can imagine that there are readers out there that will have a real problem with William and Victoria's relationship.  And, they should.  But, the reality is that love is often messy, both parties bring their own 'baggage' to the thing and sometimes it's just not neat and clean or even nice. But love is love and even you deny it, it doesn't go away. The fact that their relationship is messy and even downright ugly at times actually drew me into the story that much more.Why I didn't give it the full 5 stars: My critques are small but here they are: number 1--the ten dollar words, you WILL need a dictionary to read this book words like quixotic, chimerical and prosaic are bantered around where words like idealistic, fanciful and commonplace would have sufficed.  number 2-- I didn't understand the insertion of the grandparents late in the story.  I think it was to show that Victoria wasn't as 'low-born' as Eunice thought but, I kinda liked her being 'low-born'.  number 3--and this is picky...but, I hated that we didn't learn the babies names.  So, I named them myself, Patricia Eunice for the girl and Riley William for the boy.All in all, I would very much recommend this book and I would read this author again.  I found her to be quite chimerical!