Member Reviews

Thank you Netgalley. I really liked this book it had everything in it. I did not realise that this was book 2 and think I would have liked to read the first book but overall a very enjoyable read.

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This book was magical. I didn't realize it was a sequel until I was quite a way through the book, so I haven't read the Dress, but I don't think I needed to. It seems as though it's set some time after the Dress and gave a good introduction to the characters, so it worked really well as a standalone.

I loved way magic was woven into the book in much the same way as it was woven into the lives of Ella and Fabia. It was there, it was very present, but at the same time it was an ordinary story. A story of the hardship of motherhood and depression; a story of abuse and getting free from it and above all the story of family and friendship. Of the family connections between Fabia and Ella and of the community that Ella has built around her.

I want to visit Ella's bookshop so badly. It seems like such a lovely place and the way it was conjured make it seem so beautiful and lively. I'd love to sit down and have a nice coffee and a read while the sun filters through the windows and Ella types away on her laptop and Grace plays in the dressing up corner. It just sounds so beautiful and peaceful.

A lot of the books I read are sad, so it's not that often that I find a book I really want to just curl up and live inside, but this was definitely one of those.

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Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I didn't realize when I requested an advance copy of this book that it was the second book in a trilogy (my bad), and although I can say that this can be a stand-alone book, I think perhaps I would have enjoyed it more (and would have felt more of a connection to the characters) had I read Sophie Nicholls' first book "The Dress".

That said.

Sophie Nicholls writing itself was excellent. My issue wasn't with that, but more with the plot. I had a hard time connecting characters, or their subplots with one another. It was almost like a series of short stories linked together by the “magical” aspect of this book: people (Ella, Bryony, Fabia and Zohreh) who see/feel the magic around them, a sixth sense of sorts. They stroll in and out of one another’s lives, but the book could have been written without one or more of the characters and it wouldn’t have detracted very much from the story.

This book wasn't what I thought it would be. It really didn't need to be called "Miss Mary's Book of Dreams" since the focus on Miss Mary and her book of dreams really felt as though they were an afterthought. Even though each chapter started off with one of Miss Mary’s spells, the chapters didn’t then tie it back together by having a scene or event that focused on those spells (example: a chapter starts with finding a true love – the chapter wasn’t about that).

I wanted this to be a bit more like “The House on the end of Hope Street” by Menna van Praag – and it fell short. The dash of magic tossed into this book just wasn’t developed enough. Why was Bryony so interested in Miss Mary? What happened to her before? Why wasn’t a friendship between Ella and Bryony better developed? How is it that Ella had never met Zohreh – her great-grandmother? Too many loose ends, to many unanswered and under-developed aspects to the plot to make this more than a 2 star read.

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Miss Mary's book of dreams was a great book, this was a sequel to The Dress but can be read as a stand alone as this story focuses on Ella her family and her bookshop Happily Ever After. Bryony comes into the shop one day, what made her do this, can the magic of the bookshop help solve her problems and can she help out others. With the magic of the old book by Miss Mary can everything be solved or will it all fall to pieces. The characters all brought something to the story and I was transported to their lives. Great book that I read in a day I was hooked.

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I enjoyed this book with its different but linking threads.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

I rarely give a book a 1 star rating but I couldn't even finish this book. I'm hoping I am just reading this at a time in my life that the book doesn't hold my interest but I am not sure that is the case. I believe my interest was not held because the plot jumped around too much. From the beginning, I was having a hard time keeping characters straight. I kept finding myself having to go back and find out who was who and what was their relationship. The is a big pet peeve and turn off for me.

The premise of the story is interesting as I enjoy reading about the supernatural of magic. I really wish I had been able to get past the few flaws and finish the book.

Please do not judge this book by my review as you may find yourself in the perfect moment of your life to read this book.

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What a wonderfully captivating story. Part fairy tale part real life. I enjoyed how each character was built and how through out the story I saw them grow. The auThor showed me how much our past ties us to the present and helps us look to the future. I loved the story!

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Thanks to netgalley for the preview.

I've expected a different story, a story in which books had a more imporant role. The protagonist, in fact, runs a bookstore, so everything suggest that the novel would be set there. The bookstore is there, and it is also a very cozy place where at the customer is offered coffee (books and coffee are a perfect match). But the story revolves around four generations of women, linked by a kind of magic, a housewife magic. This group of women is joined by a fifth one, who is "magic" too.
Passages from the book of Mary are found as exergue of each chapter.
Although I've expected a different book, I've liked the novel, this magic of storytelling ...

Mi aspettavo una storia diversa, in cui i libri avessero un ruolo più imporante. La protagonista, infatti, gestisce una libreria, quindi tutto lasciava supporre che il romanzo sarebbe stao ambientato lì. La libreria c'è, ed è anche un luogo molto ospitale, in cui alle clienti viene offerto anche il caffè (libri e caffé sono un binomio perfetto. Ma la storia ruota intorno a 4 generazioni di donne, legate da una sorta di magia. Una magia casalinga. A questo gruppo di donne se ne aggiunge una quinta, anche lei "magica".
Brani del libro di Mary si trovano ad esergo di ogni capitolo.
Pur aspettandomi un libro diverso, il romanzo mi è piaciuto. Questa magia del raccontare storie...

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Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If Goodreads would allow I'd give this book a solid 2.5 stars. The actual writing in the book is very good. I'd like to read more of Sophie Nicholls if all of the writing is this good. The plot on the other hand needs a little bit of refinement. The plot wavers between being a supernatural chick lit book and just your everyday run-of-the-mill chick lit book (you know, women bored with wife/motherhood; looking for more fulfillment). But the two themes didn't really jive that well together. I was super interested when it was about Ella with The Signals running the super cool bookstore but less interested when it was passive aggressive Ella who was questioning her choices as a mother.

Overall, the book seemed a little messy to me and I found I lost interest in it.

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Did not finish. I found this book to be dull, lackluster, and underwhelming. I could not keep reading it.

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I liked this book for its slight eccentricities. The story is of Ella, who with a professor husband, is struggling. Struggling with the physical strain of bringing up a demanding child, Grace, but also with her own feelings of inadequacy.
Her mother , Fabia, now lives in America, having left her little dress shop to Ella who has turned it into a bookshop where people can meet, children can gather and stories can be woven.
The mysterious dreams and feelings that both Fabia and Ella experience are increased when Bryony comes onto the scene, also seeing and hearing 'Signals'. Bryony manages to deflect her sly sister Selena from a course of action that would harm Ella, and also begins to escape from the controls that have always limited her life.
The relationships between Ella, her mother and great grandmother are beautifully explored and one warms to these three ladies, longing to know a bit more of their background.
Not at all a typical 'chick-lit' story, but with much deeper descriptions.

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