Synopsis:
From the Diary of Leonie Noirot: The perfect corset should invite its undoing…
Lethally charming Simon Fairfax, Marquess of Lisburne, has reluctantly returned to London for one reason only: a family obligation. Still, he might make time for the seduction of a certain redheaded dressmaker—but Leonie Noirot hasn't time for him. She's obsessed with transforming his cousin, the dowdy Lady Gladys, into a swan. Leonie's skills can coax curves—and profits—from thin air, but his criminally handsome lordship is too busy trying to seduce her to appreciate her genius. He badly needs to learn a lesson, and the wager she provokes ought to teach him, once and for all. A great plan, in theory—but Lisburne's become a serious distraction, and Leonie's usual logic is in danger of slipping away as easily as a silk chemise. Could the Season's greatest transformation be her own?
Review:
After the stories of Sophy and Marcelline, this is the story of the last of the Noirot sisters, Leonie. This young woman, like her sisters, has a talent – in her case, it’s her brains that help in the shop, especially her knack for maths (just to remind you, Marcelline is very good at drawing dresses and Sophy has a special touch with written word and the descriptions of the dresses previously stated).
With a life that is a bit different now that her sisters are married with members of the nobility, Leonie feels a bit left alone taking care of the dress shop and the charity institution that she and her sisters had created. She doesn’t blame them at all, and she supports her sisters’ choices, however, she finds herself a bit lost with all the weddings happening around her. But that does not stop her. She is determined to keep the shop open and so she goes after a new client (a difficult one), to help her with her clothing and her behaviour. Lady Gladys, cousin of Lady Clara Fairfax, whom we’ve met in the previous books, is the daughter of an army man and he had given his daughter a military education. This wasn’t the kind of education you wanted to see in a young lady in London, at the time, for it did not give her the best sense of behaviour.
It’s at this moment that our main characters meet, in a gallery in London, admiring the following painted, that I decided to leave here because, besides being very beautiful, it is important throughout the book:
Venus and Mars, c.1485, Sandro Botticelli, National Gallery
This painting that we see here is almost like a motto to the whole book , and even though I thought Leonie’s love for Simon Fairfax, the Marquess of Lisburne, was a bit rushed, I can forgive it because of the (large) amount of times that the author tries to remind the reader that Leonie’s family always falls rapidly in love.
The dresses’ descriptions are still one of my favourite parts of the book and I quite enjoyed the fashion evolution you can sense throughout the series.
I missed the companionship between the sisters and I have serious doubts about what is going to happen to the shop, now that the three sisters are all married and with a title – yes, because, at the time, if you have a title you should not be a merchant.
It was a fast paced reading, very pleasant, maybe not as much as the second book, yet still fun to read with bets, poetry and theatre mixed all around.
