Review Of THE DRESSMAKER'S DOWRY By Meredith Jaeger-5*

Title: The Dressmaker's Dowry

Author: Meredith Jaeger

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: * * * * *

Publishers: William Morrow Paperbacks

(Feb 7, 2017)

Paperback: 384 pages

ISBN: 978-0062469830 

For readers of Lucinda Riley, Sarah Jio, or Susan Meissner, this gripping historical debut novel tells the story of two women: one, an immigrant seamstress who disappears from San Francisco’s gritty streets in 1876, and the other, a young woman in present day who must delve into the secrets of her husband’s wealthy family only to discover that she and the missing dressmaker might be connected in unexpected ways.
An exquisite ring, passed down through generations, connects two women who learn that love is a choice, and forgiveness is the key to freedom...
San Francisco: 1876
Immigrant dressmakers Hannelore Schaeffer and Margaret O'Brien struggle to provide food for their siblings, while mending delicate clothing for the city's most affluent ladies. When wealthy Lucas Havensworth enters the shop, Hanna's future is altered forever. With Margaret's encouragement and the power of a borrowed green dress, Hanna dares to see herself as worthy of him. Then Margaret disappears, and Hanna turns to Lucas. Braving the gritty streets of the Barbary Coast and daring to enter the mansions of Nob Hill, Hanna stumbles upon Margaret’s fate, forcing her to make a devastating decision...one that will echo through the generations.
San Francisco: Present Day
In her elegant Marina apartment overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, Sarah Havensworth struggles to complete the novel she quit her job for. Afraid to tell her husband of her writer’s block, Sarah is also hiding a darker secret—one that has haunted her for 14 years. Then a news headline from 1876 sparks inspiration: Missing Dressmakers Believed to be Murdered. Compelled to discover what happened to Hannelore and Margaret, Sarah returns to her roots as a journalist. Will her beautiful heirloom engagement ring uncover a connection to Hanna Schaeffer?

I love that this story takes place both in the present day and in 1876. It also takes place in San Francisco, a city ripe with history. The story is wrapped in a murder mystery which is another love of mine. I often stopped to Google a place or incident that arose during the read and it was obvious that Jaeger did a lot of research on this time in SF.

Though I figured out who the murder was and part of the why, there was a twist at the end that totally surprised me. A fast paced story that I throughly enjoyed.