A review by attytheresa
The Oysterville Sewing Circle by Susan Wiggs
3.0
I so wanted this to be better, and it easily could have been. At times it delivered, but there were too many sudden story jumps around an unnecessary and loooong flashback that I can't reward it. I did add a half star because the author is sharing a percentage of her royalties to a nonprofit in her home county that provides safe, supportive, longer-term affordable housing for survivors of domestic violence. I borrowed this in ebook from NYPL. I will probably now buy a few copies to give as gifts.
Caroline is a young designer working in the NYC fashion studio of a hugely successful established designer. One of her best friends is supermodel Angelique, the single mother of 2 mixed race children for whom she agrees to stand as guardian if ever needed, and who also Caroline suspects is being physically abused. At the same time her boss is stealing her breakthrough designs and claiming them as his own, Caroline comes home to find Angelique dead from an overdose. Suddenly that casual agreement to be a guardian becomes real.
Having no other real options, Caroline returns home to Oysterville, WA where she reconnect with her family, beginning the process of providing a safe and secure home for the 2 kids and beginning from scratch as a designer. Personally struggling with understanding what happened to Angelique, Caroline atarts the Oysterville Sewing Circle as a safe zone support group for women experiencing, or have survived, domestic abuse.
And these chapters shine. What doesn't shine is the long revisit to Caroline's past relationship with her best friends Will and Sierra. Too much time and detail is spent on this, hurting the rest of the story and detracting from the eventual ending. Several chapters could easily have been summarized in a couple of paragraphs. Fortunately there is a terrific ending, one fitting in the era of #MeToo, that lived up to the initial promise.
Caroline is a young designer working in the NYC fashion studio of a hugely successful established designer. One of her best friends is supermodel Angelique, the single mother of 2 mixed race children for whom she agrees to stand as guardian if ever needed, and who also Caroline suspects is being physically abused. At the same time her boss is stealing her breakthrough designs and claiming them as his own, Caroline comes home to find Angelique dead from an overdose. Suddenly that casual agreement to be a guardian becomes real.
Having no other real options, Caroline returns home to Oysterville, WA where she reconnect with her family, beginning the process of providing a safe and secure home for the 2 kids and beginning from scratch as a designer. Personally struggling with understanding what happened to Angelique, Caroline atarts the Oysterville Sewing Circle as a safe zone support group for women experiencing, or have survived, domestic abuse.
And these chapters shine. What doesn't shine is the long revisit to Caroline's past relationship with her best friends Will and Sierra. Too much time and detail is spent on this, hurting the rest of the story and detracting from the eventual ending. Several chapters could easily have been summarized in a couple of paragraphs. Fortunately there is a terrific ending, one fitting in the era of #MeToo, that lived up to the initial promise.