The Keeper of Happy Endings

Product Information

The characters are developed really, really fabulously. ( I can see one of my adverb-hating friends rolling her eyes in frustration at this sentence. 😛) At no point would you wonder why he/she did what he/she did. Every single character is well-defined. Every emotion, on the dot. Every decision, realistic. The mother-daughter connections especially touched a chord. She tells Soline and Rory’s story by describing their experience and expressing sympathy. It drew me in and had me anxious to know more about their past. Another winner from Barbara Davis, THE KEEPER OF HAPPY ENDINGS is the perfect read for anyone who believes in happy endings, whether they come from magic, fate, or the perseverance of strong women. And last but not least, I loved the slight bit of the paranormal that was presented in the magic that is handed down from generation to generation of Roussel women. The characters, for me, were so completely likable. And there is a lot of dialogue which makes reading the book go faster for me.

The Keeper of Happy Endings - SuperSummary

Soline Roussel is a young woman from Paris, descended from a long line of women in her family who have an exclusive bridal shop in Paris. If you are a fan of historical fiction with a twist of magic, this book needs to make it onto your “must-read” list. The characters are well developed. There are subtle hints to see beyond the obvious and delve deeper into the character’s mind. That’s clever writing. Historically sound with a thread of supernatural intrigue, this exploration of shared experiences, learned adaptations, and the power of trust is a book that fans of Catherine Ryan Hyde, Erica Bauermeister, and Lucinda Riley will fall in love with.” — Booklist Just as there have always been daughters who knew better. It’s a contradiction that is part of every woman’s journey—the need to shape in one’s own image versus the aversion to being shaped at all.”I’m eagerly anticipating “The Care and Feeding of Old Books” about an owner of a vintage bookstore who finds an intriguing book in a box of donated items. but it just didn't do much for me. Too much telling, not enough showing. Or sewing, for that matter, given that it was supposed to be a central theme. We didn't really see the "dress witch" using her magic or making her charms. We could have seen the stories of some of the brides she'd helped, or have desperate Parisian women queuing outside her door during the war, clutching worn out dresses, handkerchiefs or even rags for her to embroider charms into to keep their loved ones safe. We didn't even experience her making one of her classic wedding gowns. Neither did we see Rory working on the textile art which apparently means so much to her. Soline Roussel made wedding dresses for her exclusive bridal salon before a fire burned down her studio and left her with hands unable to hold a needle. Rory Grant is barely living ever since her fiance disappeared on a mission in Africa. We follow both women through their sorrows and their successes - one whose sorrows started during WWII and the other present day. The last few chapters of the story were heavy with cheese, too-perfect happy endings, and on-the-nose dialogue in which each character says the sorts of direct things nobody would actually come right out and say. But I enjoyed them anyway, especially because I really didn’t expect things to turn out so well. (Modern stories generally don’t; it’s like there’s an unspoken rule against them or something.) The book certainly lived up to its name, though!

The Keeper of Happy Endings - Barbara Davis - Google Books The Keeper of Happy Endings - Barbara Davis - Google Books

Just in case you prefer to “listen” to your books rather than read them, here’s a nice opportunity to try Audible free for 30 Days. Although the 1943 setting in France certainly had some very serious and heartbreaking elements in it, given what was going on in France at that point in time in history, there was still a heartwarming element to the story which stayed with me through the entire book. Decades later although she is established in her own bridal shop in Boston, her heart has not moved on. After an incident that means the shop is almost destroyed she allows it to sit there empty refusing to sell it. A young woman Rory Grant who has ambitions to own an art gallery is interested in leasing the My third venture into Ms Davis's books, I'm glad I started with the excellent The Last of the Moon Girls as I may not have read further with this one and When Never Comes.Just the kind of book I always hope for. Two women, Soline and Rory, from different eras and with different pasts come together in a twist of fate that leads them to a stunning and unexpected discovery that changes everything.

The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis | Goodreads The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis | Goodreads

I’ve lived a good many years, and seen a good many things, and one thing I know to be true is that we are all scarred, all broken in our own way. Some of us may break more quietly than others, but break we all do, when this world dishes out its worst.” My only quibble would be that people during the war didn't really know where the Germans kept their prisoners or the conditions there until the end of the war, whereas in this novel, it seems that everyone knows. but this is really a minor thing.

This book is an emotional journey charting a young French woman Soline Roussel who had a wonderful mother who owned a enchanting bridal shop and taught Soline to sew where a touch of magic worked with the needle & thread. Everyone who buys the gowns seemed to have a happy ending.

The Keeper of Happy Endings | C.A. Gray Review of The Keeper of Happy Endings | C.A. Gray

Which of the women in the story was your favorite? Least favorite? Why? 5. Did any of the heroines make choices you didn’t agree with? What would you have done differently? Errors aside, I enjoyed the story again and she has some lovely little remarks in it, such as, "There are all sorts of heroes, and almost none of them will ever have something shiny pinned to their chests" and I love the idea of the echoes as well. This made me smile-"I've been warned about Americans, all disarming smiles and apple pie" and the passage about a bride's spine is a tremendous one as well. Certain things that occurred I guessed were going to be the case but I enjoyed it nonetheless and a couple of parts had me decidedly sniffy....There are so many beautiful quotes in this book. One of my favourites was “ I’ve come to believe we create our own curses and carry them through life because we’ve been told it’s our lot. We’re taught to relive our mothers’ heartaches, to accept their sufferings as our own, and pass them on to the next generation, again and again.”