The Seamstress of New Orleans: A Fascinating Novel of Southern Historical Fiction

This was a very interesting story with lots of twists and turns that made it easy to follow the story.

Good writing with a twist. Showing the strength of women united in family wither by blood or friendship to survive.

MINOR SPOILERS. (The kind you find out about in chapter two, but be warned) The idea of this book was very seductive, but there were a few problems in the execution. Chief among them was that the dialogue was clunky, a whole bunch of info-dumping where you could tell the author was just trying to tell you that she had done her research. There is an exchange about how aspirin comes from willow bark or whatever that does nothing to forward the plot, a bunch of sewing references and mythology that come out of nowhere and contribute nothing. There are so many of these. How many times does Constance say she is grateful for the Napoleonic law that protects her money? Five? Ten? Once is enough. We get it. And the inner dialogue is so repetitive. One paragraph after another restating the same thing. And the flashbacks and the backstory are the same throughout, with no additional layers, nothing new gained from looking back, just over and over how everything reminds her of her mother and her baby and her mother but also her baby but look, this reminds her of her mother and also her baby but sometimes her father and also her mother and her baby for BOTH WOMEN. The "twist" wasn't really that twisty, fairly predictable but also made no sense. All in all, the book seemed to have no climax. Wait, the ball, this is it, something is going to happen, it's going to be BIG...oh, wait. No. Ok, but the police are here, they know something, it's going to be BIG. Oh, no it's not. But Dorothea, surely she knows, she's going to say something. Oh, no she's not. Martin, that's it, something's going to be interesting there. No, it's not. Alice is going to say something! She doesn't. But surely this is about the orphanage. Or the vote. Or the other women. Or feminism. Or justice. Or not. The end is rather unsatisfying. Also, the whole part about the husband's double life was disappointing in a modern book. I get that this was an issue then but it isn't now and the author could have done better than to describe a man who was attracted to other men as "less than a man" or "not a real man" or needing to make up for his sinful, perverse ways by pretending to be attracted to "women with boyish bodies" and having him be guilty of every vice to reinforce this idea that he was a baaaaaaaaaad man, and the woman who forgives him is of course close to sainthood, dripping with understanding, but of course she could not love him but she does not blame him but he was evil and deserved to die but she rises above it all with a knowing smile and a gleam in her eye for she is so good and look, she made a friend! Really needed a good editor.

This was a great read. The characters are complex and mixed with the time in which they lived make an interesting and complex story.

Spoilers in this review****I was a bit confused when I first started reading this book. I couldn’t figure out why the main character shad 2 daughters then no children, especially since they both had a baby boy that died. It took 5 chapters (sad, right?) to finally grasp that these are two women living parallel lives that would soon pivot and intersect. I do feel the book was a bit shallow for what I typically read, though it would have been much longer if they had delved into the characters backgrounds or lives more than just this one circumstance, so I do get it. And it seemed to end on a cliffhanger with Alice knowing the children are half siblings but not ever telling Constance or even Analee. I’d love to see a sequel about Analee and her perspective. Particularly since this time period was still segregated. It would be a very interesting follow up.Overall, the story line was good, the characters were just dynamic enough to build upon and the moment of Alice totally solving the puzzle was decent. (It could have been given a bit more importance in the story). I gave it a 4⭐️ for keeping me engaged and wondering when things would happen.

A great read!

What a compelling & educational read. This author writes in a way that so captures the reader's attention making it difficult to put down to attend to other matters.

I love historical fiction and this book certainly provides it. It's an interesting story of the power of friendship. It kind of jumps around and I felt like some parts of the story could have been fleshed out more. But I still enjoyed it.