6 April 2015

Review #182: Dictatorship of the Dress by Jessica Topper




My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.”

----Sarah Dessen


Jessica Topper, an American author, weaves a heart-touching and romantic story, called Dictatorship of the Dress, about a wedding dress bearer and her journey to Hawaii through a series of airports and a number of flight delays and cancellations. And this is the first book in the Much "I Do" About Nothing series.




Synopsis:

As the dress-bearer for her mother’s wedding, comic book artist Laney Hudson has a lot more baggage than the bulky garment bag she’s lugging from New York to Hawaii. Laney is determined to prove she’s capable of doing something right, but running chores for her mom’s fairytale nuptials is proving to be a painfully constant reminder of her own lost love.

So when she’s mistaken for the bride and bumped up to first class, Laney figures some stress-free luxury is worth a harmless white lie. Until the flight crew thinks that the man sitting next to her is Laney’s groom, and her little fib turns into a hot mess.

The last thing Noah Ridgewood needs is some dress-obsessed diva landing in his first-class row. En route to his Vegas bachelor party, the straight-laced software designer knows his cold feet have nothing to do with the winter weather.

When a severe storm leaves them grounded in Chicago and they find themselves booked into the last available honeymoon suite, Laney and her in-flight neighbor have little choice but to get better acquainted. Now, as her bridal mission hangs in the balance, perhaps the thing Laney gets right is a second chance at love.



Laney Hudson, the graphic comic artist, carries a lot of baggage of her own from the past along with the baggage of a wedding dress when she arrives at the LaGuardia airport, but little did she knew that her non-direct flight to Hawaii would give her a second chance at life and love, when she is bumped to a first-class seat because of the dress.

Noah Ridgewood, you can call him a tech-boy, since he develops app for a living, is traveling to his bachelorette party at Vegas. He has enough drama in his life with his dominating finance, changing wedding dates without even consulting him or splurging mindlessly without any consent, living life like a rich-spoilt-daddy's-girl, so when he sees this girl on his first-class flight with all the air-hostesses' attention on her, he cared less.

So what happens when these two lost souls meet and greet on a layover due to a sudden delay of their flights?


Jessica Topper spins this entertaining and no-fuss contemporary story brilliantly. The narration is catchy and effective and so is the pace. The writing style is crisp thus keeping us engaged from the very first chapter. The author have layered the plot with funny anecdotes and quotes that will make you go ROFL, and it's also quite emotional filled with quite a lot of 'aww' moments and heart breaking moments that will pull you deep into the ocean of emotions with Laney and her past relationships.

The central characters Noah and Laney, both are crafted strikingly who draws enough realism with their problems from our daily lives. The characters evolve eventually with the progress of the plot. We learn and get accustomed with Laney from the flashbacks of her relationship with a drummer, Allen. We eventually get to know why Laney acts in a weird way when she kicks the second chance at love out of her system. Noah comes across as a very methodical and less emotional human being who knows nothing other than work, but with Laney's quirkiness, he opens up and we easily for his sexy-and-suave demeanor. The chemistry between Laney and Noah is mildly passionate yet the author portrayed it with all the yummy details, thus turning the heat a notch up. The rest of the characters from Laney's bestie, Dani, a kick-ass-cool-bff-who-is-always-ready-to-get-your-back, Laney's mom who is way too protective and complaining about Laney's every move, Noah's best-man, Tim, who is bit of a jerk, are all well-developed.

The author have featured Laney and Noah's evolving relationship sensibly, considering the fact that Laney is still in the process of letting go her past love, thus this where the author pulls out our sympathy hat for Laney. Layover and one night with a stranger in a hotel-room is the best possible combination that the author came with to portray Laney and Noah's relationship. Unfortunately, like most chick-lit novels, this too came with a predictable and neat ending, but if you're looking for a chick-lit with less drama, then go for this book. And I'm definitely looking forward in reading the next book in this series.

Verdict: Heart-warming and seriously fun- this book is a real gem for any chick-lit fans.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Jessica Topper, for providing me with a copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

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Author Info:
Jessica Topper is an ex-librarian turned rock n' roll number cruncher. She can trace her love for the written word back to age three, when she memorized Maurice Sendak's "Chicken Soup with Rice" in its entirety.

After her daughter was born, Jessica left the Manhattan library world and began working for her husband's music management company. He offered her a part-time bookkeeping job so she could "stay home for the baby's first year" and pursue her dream of writing.

The baby is now thirteen, and Jessica has been working her full-time, sold-her-soul-for-rock-n-roll job as Office Manager for veteran jam band moe. ever since. She may have traded in books for bookkeeping, but the written word is never far from her mind, or her heart.

Jessica lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter and one ancient cat. 

Visit her here


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4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the eloquent review! I am so glad that you enjoyed the book. :)

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  2. Thanks Jessica, I'm glad you liked my review :-)

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  3. I love the cover, especially the contrast of her hair and the flowers to the background. Sounds like a good romance -- thanks for the lovely review!

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  4. Yeah it is beautiful, thanks a lot Olivia

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