The Woman in the Movie Star Dress

This book was provided by NetGalleys in return for a fair and honest review.

The Woman in the Movie Star Dress by Praveen Asthana is described as a young woman's journey of self discovery, as Genevieve (aka Daisy Bear) overcomes her insecurities through the ability to pick up the personality inprinted on old clothing by their past wearers. Lucky for her, she works in a second hand clothing shop specialized in Old Hollywood movie costumes.

The heroine is supposed to be the adorably awkward, girl next door, overlooked in love lady that we identify with and cheer for. She comes across as insecure, irresponsible (late for work, complaining if the boss asks her to do something) and only interested in men. Not mention judgmental of other women to the point of calling a Marilyn Monroe impersonator a slut for recreating the swooshing white dress for tourists. She also has the habit of treating store inventory like her personal wardrobe, even wearing one of the showcase items (a Grace Kelly dress from High Society) to a party and adopting a hat as her own.

It is hard to talk about the other characters since they are so flat: the boss is supposed to be tough (because she dislikes tardiness and asks her employees to actually work instead of sitting around talking all day), the coworker is nosy and man mad, the guys are all similar, the brother is a damaged soul (might it be because of that family secret?!) and the alcoholic father.

The plot resembles the second hand clothing store, except without the glamour of mostly fake Hollywood dresses. You can find every style and cliche in fiction history in there: a murder mystery, a family secret, a love triangle (square, actually), the girl who is too shy to deal with men, a supernatural ability, etc. At the same time, a lot of pages are wasted on endless conversations about men, speculation about men ("top shelf men" - really?), etc. The plot could have been tightened up, the extra material removed and the trite situations rewritten. Sorry, it is hardly convincing to have the point of view character thing about "the thing that changed everything" (or similar phrases) and still string the reader along before telling the horrible secret.

The editor could also have reworked a lot of bad sentences like the previously mentioned "top shelf men". Or "there was something about him that stirred something in her."

Overall, it is a weak book. Between the unconvincing characters and plodding plot, I felt like giving up a third of the way through.