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Saturday, April 4, 2015

After A Fashion by Jen Turano Review

Miss Harriet Peabody dreams of the day she can open up a shop selling refashioned gowns to independent working women like herself. Unfortunately, when an errand for her millinery shop job goes sadly awry due to a difficult customer, she finds herself out of an income.

Mr. Oliver Addleshaw is on the verge of his biggest business deal yet when he learns his potential partner prefers to deal with men who are settled down and wed. When Oliver witnesses his ex not-quite-fiance cause the hapless Harriet to lose her job, he tries to make it up to her by enlisting her help in making a good impression on his business partner.

Harriet quickly finds her love of fashion can't make her fashionable. She'll never truly fit into Oliver's world, but just as she's ready to call off the fake relationship, fancy dinners, and elegant balls, a threat from her past forces both Oliver and Harriet to discover that love can come in the most surprising packages.

About Jen


Jen Turano is the critically acclaimed author of The Ladies of Distinction Series, published through Bethany House.  Her novel, A Most Peculiar Circumstance, was chosen by Booklist as a Top Ten Romance for 2013.
JenTuranoJen grew up in St. Clairsville, Ohio, a small city bordering Wheeling, WVA.  Her childhood was idyllic and she spent many an hour ice-skating on a little pond, playing with friends in her treehouse, boating at the lake, and reading under the shade of numerous trees.  High School, surprisingly enough, was fabulous.  She roamed the halls with eight wonderful girls, all of whom she’s still friends with to this day.  Student Council took up much of her time as she was Secretary of her class all four years, Vice-President of Student Council her junior year and President her senior year.  After High School, she began her next great adventure – College.  Pursuing a degree in Clothing & Textiles, Jen was a member of Alpha Phi sorority.  She left college after the required four years and set out to take the fashion world by storm, finding out that fashion wasn’t nearly as glamorous as she’d been led to believe.
Meeting her husband, Al, when she was working at a department store in upstate New York, she married him mere months after they’d met, to everyone’s concern.  Twenty-something years later, she and Al are still going strong, proving the concern was all for naught.  Her son, Dominic, was born after she’d been married for quite some time, and it was then she decided to hang up her heels and settle into the best job of her life – Mom.
Her writing career began rather oddly, right when Dominic was in the third grade.  Disgusted with a series they’d been reading together, Jen and her son set about writing a book of their own.  It was a strange story, filled with smelly beasts who had a propensity for eating children, or at least wanting to eat them, but Dominic proclaimed it to be perfect and that was all it took for Jen to begin writing in earnest.  Her earlier works were met with swift rejections, but when she settled on romance, she managed to snag an agent and she’s been writing romance ever since.
When Jen’s not writing, she spends her time hiking around Colorado, socializing with friends and family, and taking great pride in watching Dominic, who will soon be off to college, turn into a remarkable young man.  (For readers of A Change of Fortune – Dominic was the inspiration behind little Ben – which is why you won’t be surprised to learn Jen’s been slightly taken aback over the fact Dominic’s turned out so well.)





My Thoughts: Reading this book was absolutely delightful. It was surprisingly very funny and charming. I loved every character. Each one had its own appeal and even the secondary characters were well written and brought an added bonus to the book.  I enjoyed the character of Harriet so much, I felt as if she and I would have been very good friends. This book was very light-hearted but also had a sense of urgency and intrigue when it comes to the climax of the book. I felt as if I was sitting right in the middle of each and every scene in the book. I was almost sad when it ended. The author also did an excellent job of adding surprise to the end of the book. I definitely did not see it coming. I am most definitely excited to read more by Jen. Do not delay in reading this book!

I received this book through the Book Club Network reviewer program in exchange for my review. I was not required to give a positive review.

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