Cora has spent her life trying to live up to her deceased parents’ expectations of her. They were scientists and raised her to be one too. She spends her free time at her grandmother Etta’s dress shop.

The dress shop appears ordinary but Etta has the ability to transform the dresses so they bring out a woman’s greatest desire. She wants to be able to show Cora that there is more to life than work so she puts a few stitches into the shirt of Walt, the bookseller who has loved Cora for years.

Things don’t go exactly as planned.

The Good

  • I love magical realism.
  • I liked how each character had different small magical aspects.

The Bad

  • It may have been too much of a good thing.  There were a lot of characters all going different directions.
  • There is a mystery about what happened to Cora’s parents.  It was pretty far fetched.