Just finished reading...

Little Black Dress by Susan McBride.*

Evelyn and Annabelle Evans were about as different as two sisters could be, but were still very close. The day before Anna's wedding, she persuades Evie to "run away" with her for the day. They come across a strange little curio shop run by a woman who looks like a gypsy, who sells Anna a black dress, telling her it would show her the future. Evie doesn't trust the gypsy or the dress, but she can't stop Anna from buying it, saying she'll wear it to the rehearsal dinner that evening.

But Anna disappears before the wedding, and Evie begins to believe that the dress is cursed and tries to return it, but the shop is no longer there a few days later.

Many years later, Evie awakens very early in the morning and finds herself going to the attic and putting on the dress.

Antonia Ashton is a strong, independent woman with both a successful career and relationship. On the night that she hopes to become engaged, she receives a call from a hospital in her home town, telling her that her mother, Evie, has had a stroke.

She learns that her mother was found in the attic, wearing a black silk dress that the doctors were forced to cut off before they could treat her. Not sure what is so important about the dress, she takes it home and Evie's housekeeper Bridget offers to fix it.

Evie remains in a coma for some time, and Toni feels she must remain nearby, so she puts her assistant in charge of the business, and decides to put her mother's papers in order. She discovers things she'd never known about her family, and realizes what she must do in order to save Evie.

This is a very different type of novel for Susan McBride, better known as the author of the Debutante Dropout mystery series. There is a paranormal element, but the the predominant theme is relationships, between sisters, between mother and daughter, between husband and wife. The characters and their stories are so compelling that this book begs to be read straight through without interruption. But take it slowly if you can, in order to enjoy McBride's prose.

Little Black Dress will be released on Tuesday,August 23.


*Many thanks to the author, who sent a bound galley for review purposes.

Just finished reading...

A Veiled Deception and Larceny and Lace by Annette Blair.

I picked up A Veiled Deception, the first of the Vintage Magic mysteries, a few weeks ago and just decided to read it the other day. Just after I finished it, I happened to be at Borders with $5 in Borders Bucks, happened upon the sequel and picked it up.

In the first book, Madeira Cutler goes back to her (fictional) home town of Mystick Falls, Connecticut to help with her sister Sherry's wedding to Justin Vancortland. At a dinner party on her first evening home, Maddie finds an ex-girlfriend of Justin's strangled with Sherry's antique veil. Of course, Sherry is the prime suspect.

As Maddie rushes to find the real killer before the wedding, she discovers some interesting intuitive attributes she didn't know she had.

While Maddie, who works for a top New York fashion designer, is in Mystick Falls, she learns that a disused mortuary building is for sale,and decides it would be a perfect home for the vintage clothing store she's always dreamed of.

The second book begins as did the first: with Maddie's arrival in Mystic Falls. Now owner of the old morgue building, she's preparing to open her store. When she drops by on the way to her father's house, she interrupts an intruder, frightening him off, although he just returns later.

The plot of Larceny and Lace is a little convoluted and there seems to be an abundance of villains. But the characters are appealing and story is engaging, and I found myself rushing to learn the conclusion.

These books are a lot of fun, and the supernatural element isn't terribly sinister. I'm looking forward to Death by Diamonds, the next book in the series (excerpted at the end of Larceny, though no publication date is given).