THE DRESS SHOP OF DREAMS

Four couples search high and low for romance amid the magical byways of Oxford, England, in this second novel.

Twenty years ago, when her parents died in a mysterious fire, Cora Callaway (who was just a child at the time) shut down all her emotions. Since then, she’s felt neither fear nor anger—nor happiness, nor love. Her only wish is to continue working on the scientific breakthrough her parents had been about to announce at their deaths. Her grandmother Etta, who owns a magical dress shop where women can find their hearts’ desires, decides it’s way past time for Cora to learn to feel again. She works her sewing magic on her granddaughter and waits for the inevitable flood of emotions to arrive, especially Cora’s long-suppressed love for Walt, her childhood friend and owner of the bookstore where Cora has spent many hours happily reading science tomes, oblivious to Walt’s feelings for her. Walt, in an effort to excise Cora from his heart, starts reading Jane Austen novels at night on the radio, which brings him to the attention of Milly, a widow trying to mend her own broken heart, and Dylan, the radio-station manager who starts writing to Milly under Walt’s name. Meanwhile Cora seeks out the aid of police detective Henry to help her solve the mystery of her parents’ deaths, all while Henry pines for his ex-wife, Francesca, who harbors a deep, dark secret. And though Etta has set all this in motion with a few stitches of red thread, she can’t seem to work her magic on herself and her long-lost love.

A few too many secrets and a murder-mystery plotline that feels like a bit of an afterthought can’t mar this brightly colored fabulist confection, more sweet than filling but still sure to delight those looking for a little fairy dust in their romance.