The Wedding Dress (edició 2012)

Loved this book. There was even a passage that gave me chills that I read and over and over because it was very powerful. Excellent story, I loved all the brides and the way the story was crafted together. ( )

My own fault for buying this book without double-checking the genre. I have to be in the mood to read Christian romance. Most of it doesn't float my boat at all. This one was distracting with the asides to prayers and seeking out God. It didn't feel organic to the story at all. Coupled with two boring characters with the same voice I was not in the mood to continue the book.

The characters I read were Charlotte (present day character) and Emily (living in 1912) taking place in Birmingham.

I think that if the story had managed to flow between the present and past much better I could have stayed engaged. Instead everytime the story shifted I felt like I was hitting a mental brick wall and it would take me forever to get back into the story. I finally just gave up at page 72 and moved onto another book. ( )

This was a cute little story about a "magic" wedding dress that has been the perfect fit for four different, unrelated brides through the years. It had a strange, quasi-mystical/Christian element to it. The characters were very likable but the pacing was a bit slow, and the solution to the mystery of the dress wasn't all that exciting. ( )

The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck
Book #1: The Wedding Collection
Source: Overdrive Audio/Public Library
My Rating: 5/5 stars

The Wedding Dress was mu first Rachel Hauck book, and the second I finished it, I went to Netgalley and my online library and requested everything else I could find! I absolutely adored this book and can’t believe I haven’t been reading/listening to Rachel Hauck prior to this. Here’s the skinny:

Charlotte is all about weddings and pairing the perfect dress with the perfect bride. In fact, Charlotte has something of a gift for getting a bride into the dress that was simply made for her. Her business is tremendously successful and if she could just get her personal life on track, everything if her life would be, simply perfect. Then one day, everything changes when Charlotte buys an old trunk with a stunning, well-preserved wedding dress inside.

From the moment the dress arrives in Charlotte’s life, nothing is the same. The dress is gorgeous, perfectly preserved, masterfully crafted, and has little in the way of information about who it belonged to and who made it. With the few clues that remain, Charlotte embarks on a fact-finding mission that will lead her back more than a century to the original owner and creator of the dress. Along the way, Charlotte meets a small group of people with their own history with the dress who not only help her continue to trace the dress’s history, but also become invaluable members of Charlotte’s small circle of friends. Every new clue, every new person, every new story only further convinces Charlotte of how special the dress is and how happy it is going to make the woman she eventually pairs with the dress.

The Bottom Line: I truly have no idea how this book has such a low overall rating on Goodreads! I found this story to be a wonderful weaving of the past and the present, with interesting stories, absolutely endearing characters, and truly fantastic storytelling. Though Charlotte seemingly has her life together, she really doesn’t until the dress comes into her life. The dress seems to focus Charlotte, to give her a direction which ultimately balances and soothes her heart, her mind, and her life. I found every aspect of this book to be, quite simply, excellent and unreservedly recommend it to readers who love sweet, low heat, past meets present reads. ( )

Beautiful story linking one dress to four women through history and faith. ( )