Author: Randy Susan Meyers, M.J. Rose
Series: None
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
Publisher: Blue Box Press
Pages: 338
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Families are complicated and sometimes it takes death for you to understand
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab
Summary: Estranged half-sisters Gabrielle Winslow and Lulu Quattro have only two things in common: mounds of debt and coils of unresolved enmity toward Bette Bradford, their controlling and imperious recently deceased mother. Gabrielle, the firstborn, was raised in relative luxury on Manhattan's rarefied Upper East Side. Now, at fifty-five, her life as a Broadway costume designer married to a heralded Broadway producer has exploded in divorce. Lulu, who spent half her childhood under the tutelage of her working-class Brooklyn grandparents, is a grieving widow at forty-eight. With her two sons grown, her life feels reduced to her work at the Ditmas Park bakery owned by her late husband's family. The two sisters arrive for the reading of their mother's will, expecting to divide a sizable inheritance, pay off their debts, and then again turn their backs on each other. But to their shock, what they have been left is their mother's secret walk-in closet jammed with high-end current and vintage designer clothes and accessories— most from Chanel. Contemplating the scale of their mother's self-indulgence, the sisters can't help but wonder if Lauren Weisberger had it wrong: because it seems, in fact, that the devil wore Chanel. But as they begin to explore their mother's collection, meet and fall in love with her group of warm, wonderful friends, and magically find inspiring messages tucked away in her treasures — it seems as though their mother is advising Lulu and Gabrielle from the beyond — helping them rediscover themselves and restore their relationship with each other. ~amazon.com
Review: I love sister stories, so I knew I had to read The Fashion Orphans. Now I'm no fashionista (I'm in sweats 98% of the time) but I can appreciate a closet full of Chanel. In fact, that might make me want to dress up. Although wearing Chanel in my basement office seems like a waste. 😁
Gabi and Lulu are two sides of the same coin but they don't see it that way. They see each other how their mother wanted them to see the other one: Gabi - The favorite older daughter and Lulu - the younger, less responsible daughter. While they were close when they were young, life pulled them apart as they grew up. Lulu always had her dad and grandparents to tether her to the real world; whereas, Gabi just had her mom. Plus their adult lives took very different paths with Gabi busy with her costume designer and Lulu raising kids and working in her in-laws bakery, they just didn't have much in common. The estrangement really begins when Lulu's beloved husband, Matt, drops dead from a heart attack and Gabi isn't really there for her. It doesn't help that Gabi is also dealing with her own marriage situation.
It seems that Bette had grand plans for getting her daughters talking again and the included a closet full of Chanel. Of course there are things that they can't do and they need to figure out what to do with the vintage goods that would be something Bette would approve of and that her lawyer will sign off on.
My favorite part of the novel was the meeting of Bette's friends who had their own club. This allows Gabi and Lulu to see their mom as a friend and woman, which they never got to see when she was alive. Within this group they find the love and support they desperately need to figure out what it is that they need to do with Bette's treasure trove.
This book is a shout out to family, fashion and forgiveness. Definitely recommend this one to my fellow readers.
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