Elegance
by Kathleen Tessaro

List Price: $10.95
Our Price: $1.89
You Save: $9.06 (83%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of Elegance

Book Review: Is elegance something you have, or something you can create?
Summary: 4 Stars

She is overweight and self-conscious, an American married to a British man who calls her pumpkin which she doesn't like, and doesn't care about her looks. But, he is also not the most loving man. He met her when he was trying to escape his "other" life, and she saved him from it. Unfortunately, she was not saved.

She stumbles upon a book entitled: "Elegance," by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux, which is a real book. She has allowed the author of this book to use bits and pieces from her own. Every few chapters or so, in alphabetical order, Madame touches on ways to give yourself style and class. She touches on accessories, beauty, daughters. "The more simply a little girl is dressed...the more chic she is." She feels the same way about Quanity/Quality. "...she buys very few garments: her goal is to possess a single perfect ensemble for each of the different occasions in her life, rather than a wide choice of clothes to suit every passing mood."

Louise starts to use this book as her bible, slowly changing her appearance and attitude, and others start to notice. Of course, when you start to alter your life, some people aren't always as happy as you are. Her husband, for example, was annoyed that she wanted to change. She didn't know why he cared so much to begin with, when he didn't care about her looks in the first place. But soon, we find out that his "other" life, that we thought was gone, reappears.

She soon moves in with two friends, and her real life begins. She is likeable aside from her "food issues," and even though the ending is a tad bit predictable, it was still an enjoyable book. I found it an original idea to take the older "Elegance" book, and fit it in with her own. It added to the storyline, and made me want to read the book this story was based on.

Quick read!

Summary of Elegance

Louise C. wants what Jackie O had ...

Unhappy with her looks, her life, and her empty marriage, Louise Canova needs help -- and she finds it in a secondhand bookstore. A forty-year-old encyclopedia of style titled Elegance, this slim volume by formidable French fashion expert Madame Dariaux promises to transform even the plainest of women into creatures of poise and grace. It is a fairy godmother in print, an A-to-Z manual with essential advice that Louise vows to take to heart. But within its pages lie not only clues from her past, but also powerful lessons for the future. And as the old Louise gives way to the stunning new, she's about to find out that there's more to every life than what appears on the surface ... and that everything, even elegance, has its price.

Women's Fiction Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction
• Romance