Book: The Hatmaker's Heart

For Nell Marchwold, bliss is seeing the transformation when someone gets a glimpse in the mirror while wearing one of her creations and feels beautiful. Nell has always strived to create hats that bring out a woman's best qualities. She knows she's fortunate to have landed a job as an apprentice designer at the prominent Oscar Fields Millinery in New York City. Yet when Nell's fresh designs begin to catch on, her boss holds her back from the limelight, claiming the stammer she's had since childhood reflects poorly on her and his salon.

But it seems Nell's gift won't be hidden by Oscar's efforts. Soon an up-and-coming fashion designer is seeking her out as a partner of his 1922 collection. The publicity leads to an opportunity for Nell to make hats in London for a royal wedding. There, she sees her childhood friend, Quentin, and an unexpected spark kindles between them. But thanks to her success, Oscar is determined to keep her. As her heart tugs in two directions, Nell must decide what she is willing to sacrifice for her dream, and what her dream truly is.

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I love period fiction and this story was awesome!  I couldn't put it down.  Fashion details about the 1920's and the way society functioned.  Roles of women... I kept wondering why Nell didn't just go out on her own and start her own business, but I forget how little respect women got back then for doing something in a man's world.

This was also the era of prohibition so there were some references to the way that affected life.  I love getting a glimpse into another era and I think Carla did a wonderful job filling in all the details to give us a picture of what life would have been like almost 100 years ago.

My only critique of this novel would be that it would have been great to have a short fashion guide at the beginning listing all the styles of hats and giving some description and maybe a diagram of a hat's parts.  There is a lot of technical stuff about hats and seeing as how I'm not really up on the world of hats (hate wearing them) I was having a hard time picturing something I know nothing about!

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You can enter to win a copy and a fun period themed prize package at Carla's blog.

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Carla Stewart is the award-winning author of four novels. With a passion for times gone by, it is her desire to take readers back to that warm, familiar place in their hearts called "home." She and her husband live in Tulsa and have four adult sons and six grandchildren (with one on the way!).

I received this book from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for my fair and honest review.