Tender moments add levity to Jennifer Dupee’s greatly appealing first novel. The story focuses on Larisa Pearl--pushing 40-years-old--who losses her
job in Boston, breaks up with her boyfriend and learns that her 96-year-old
aunt--her father’s sister; a spinster--has died and left her house, “Elmhurst,”
to Larisa and her father. Larisa’s parents live in a New Hampshire retirement
community, where her mother is battling dementia and her devoted father is
lovingly committed to her daily care. This leaves Larisa to set off on her own
to Elmhurst, located in the small seaside town of Kent Crossing, Mass. Elmhurst
is in need of repair. Thus, she enlists the help of Jack Merrill--a
disillusioned, married father of triplets, in his late 30s--the part-time
caretaker of the estate. Larisa and Jack were friends who grew up together,
spending memorable summers at Elmhurst.
While grappling with her mother’s
deteriorating health and re-acquainting herself with the allure of small-town
life, Larisa decides--on a lark--to try on a beautiful wedding gown displayed
in the window of the local bridal shop. Unbeknownst to Larisa, the shop owner
is one of her former teachers, now retired, who happily presumes Larisa is
finally getting married. Not wanting to disappoint, Larisa gets roped into the
assumption. This choice escalates in hard-won ways that challenge Larisa’s
perceptions of happiness and love.
Dupee successfully combines the
pull-and-tug of romance with family drama to deliver a more serious message
about facing up to the often-harsh realities of life.
The Little French Bridal Shop: A Novel by Jennifer
Dupee
St. Martin’s Press, $26.99
Hardcover, 9781250271525, 304 pages
Publication Date: March 9, 2021
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NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (March 9, 2021), link HERE
