Emma's Review: The Dressmaker's Secret by Michelle Vernal

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Sabrina Flooks was lost as a little girl, then raised and trained by talented dressmaker Evelyn. The historic bridal shop on Bold Street is all Sabrina has ever known.

Since the kind shop owner took her in, Sabrina has followed in Evelyn’s footsteps, stitching and bejewelling gorgeous wedding dresses. She’s buried herself in the rich fabrics, closing off her heart rather than face the pain of what happened all those years ago…

Until the sparks that fly between her and handsome Adam Taylor take her completely by surprise. His quiet charm and kind smile encourage her to let her guard down. Just a little.

As love truly begins to bloom, the only way she can overcome the fear of being abandoned again and learn to feel safe in Adam’s warm embrace, is if she finally finds the truth about her identity and her past. And the way to unravelling it all may be closer than she ever thought possible…

Because the rails full of petticoats, veils and skirts hide a secret. One that could have her walking a path through the past.

Could the journey through history give her everything she ever dreamt of? And even if she uncovers the truth, will she make it back to Adam in the present day or will it take Sabrina away from everything she holds dear?

Book Link: Kindle

Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Dressmaker’s Secret to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.

This is the first book that I have read by Michelle Vernal. I’ve seen some of her Little Irish Village series mentioned on Twitter but have never gotten around to reading them yet. It was the title and the blurb that drew me to this book, The Dressmaker’s Secret, as it sounded like the type of historical fiction book that I enjoy reading.

The book opens with a brief introduction as a young mother wheels her daughter down Bold Street. The mother closes her eyes for a minute as she felt she was having a turn. When she opens them her daughter has vanished from her pushchair and despite every effort to find her she seems to have disappeared without a trace. A mystery it seems has just occurred and it will take many twists and turns and journeys through time to solve it.

Part one takes us to Liverpool in 1981 where Sabrina and Evelyn, whom she calls her Aunt Evie, work in their shop Brides of Bold Street where they create the dresses of every brides dream. I adored the descriptions of the shop and all the wonderful fabrics and creative tools that it contained and in fact I wanted more of this but I soon came to realise that despite the potential for storylines that the shop presented that this was a different book. 

Evelyn and Sabrina make a good team and Sabrina is always so grateful to her for taking her in when she found her lost on Bold Street as a three year old. Still despite having a loving home, it eats away at Sabrina that she doesn’t know who her real mother was and why she has she never come looking for her. She has long wanted to find her mother and discover her reasoning for abandoning her. Was she unlovable? Sabrina wants to make her own dreams of meeting a man, falling in love, getting married and having children become a reality but she feels this can only occur if she can find and fix herself first and locating her mother will do that for her. She believes that nobody should be expected to love her when she wasn’t even sure if her own mother had.

Flo, Sabrina’s best friend, will always back her in anything she chooses to do and I thought the two had a great friendship. Typical young women who love fashion and going to the pub and trying out the dating scene. I forgot this section was set in the 1980’s and to be honest it felt a bit weird to think of the 80’s as a period in history but that’s what it is as it’s forty years ago yet it feels like yesterday in so many respects. A chance encounter with motorbike enthusiast Adam and his friends sets the cat amongst the pigeons for Sabrina. She feels a connection to him but god she was so frustrating in that she was hell bent on finding the answers to her questions and only then would she let love in. Adam was there perfect ready and waiting and he told a story that was intriguing and for me at first a bit unbelievable but as I came to understand and appreciate what way this story was going I found myself tossing aside my incredulity and just sitting back and taking in everything that was occurring.

Part two was the best part of the book. I adored it and felt as if I was back on familiar territory in terms of historical fiction. The reader is taken back to Liverpool in 1928 and Jane Evans has just started work as a housemaid for Magnolia Muldoon who is a widow with a son named Sidney. Magnolia still believes she has the trappings of wealth that her husband’s antiques business had once afforded her and she has the attitude to match. But the number of servants has been drastically reduced and rooms closed off and she now a widow with Sidney left to run the business to the best of his ability. So now it is just Mrs. Brown the cook and Jane who longs to be back in working in the cotton factory in Wigan where she lived a far different life with her family. But times are desperate for them and the money Jane earns needs to be sent home so her family can survive. I loved Jane’s insight into what was a whole new world for her and especially when Sidney returns from travelling where he as searching for antiques for the business. Things did a u-turn then and again I did think would this really have happened in real life at the time given societal constraints but then again when the heart says one thing the majority of the time you do have to follow it. 

Jane was like a fish out of water in terms of where she found herself and what begins to unfold but at the same time she does know what she wants in life and would love nothing better than for her family to rise from the poverty they find themselves in. Sidney as a character surprised me as well in that he also didn’t conform to the rules of society and he was independent and a free thinker willing to go against what his mother expected of him. A surprise visitor didn’t seem to throw Jane and I thought she was very accepting in what she was told. I have my suspicions as to why this visitor arrived and I could see links between the 1920’s time period and the 1980’s emerging but I could be way off in my guesses but I like to think that I may turn out to be correct.  

There was a huge surprise at the end of part one, in that this was a time slip story with an element of fantasy. Being 100% honest I don’t think I would have read this book if I had known it was in it because time slip/fantasy books would not be my thing at all. I need to see concrete and tangible evidence of something or a solid explanation for something occurring needs to be present. I wasn’t sure was I going to get that here. I feel the blurb is misleading in a way. Yes, it says the rails of petticoats, veils and skirts hide a secret but that could have been anything and not what it turned out to be. I think a lot of readers will be expecting what I thought the book would be about and they will either love it or find it a bit farcical. 

I’m split between the two points of view and given the way the book ended and the fact the there are many burning questions that still need to be answered I think I will definitely give book two, The Dressmaker’s Past a go. It also makes sense now why book two is published more or less coinciding with book one as people will want answers and also when I looked up a bit about the books I saw that they had first been published back in 2020 with a different cover and title. The new title and cover are much better and a wider audience will get to try out the story. Overall, The Dressmaker’s Secret was a good read with part two being the strongest as I have said but I think I was thrown that it was so vastly different from what I had been expecting and it took me time to settle in to it. That said, I am eager to find out what is next in store for Sabrina as the author certainly left the reader with a dramatic cliff hanger ending.