First off, the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous! It's eye-catching in its design, but I think it may have set me up for disappointment. I was expecting a bit more about the bridal shop, and less about the renovation of a historic home. Also, the lies... again, my expectations were at fault here, I thought the little white lies would create a humorous lighthearted read and depicted with the cover, was most definitely expecting a feel-good HEA. My mistake - I should have paid more attention to the blurb. This is definitely more self-discovery of anything else, and I honestly didn't really enjoy Larisa or Jack - they came across as immature and selfish. The story as a whole had potential and the author did a fabulous job in portraying the challenges of caring for a fragile elderly parent, but overall, I think I set myself up for failure on this one and it just wasn't what I expected and a few of the plot points irked me. My thanks for the opportunity to read and review.

Normally this one would be a book I'd love, but I just didn't connect with this one. I picked up the book for the title and cover alone, and just didn't connect with the characters or the story. I think the dementia aspect didn't work for me as that's a trigger for me. I can see why others would love this book though.

This book fits in nicely with my current obsession with Paris books and my year of virtual travels through reading. Larissa Pearl is going through a bit of a personal crisis after losing her job and her boyfriend. She heads back to her small seaside hometown in Massachusetts to manage her great aunts estate. Then one small impulsive moment and one little fib spirals out of control and takes on a life of its own. How on earth is she going to make this right? Part romance, part self discovery, and partly a book on how to deal with dementia and aging parents... The book occasionally seems to experiencing the same type of confusing crisis that Larissa is. A sweet and enjoyable story 😊

DNF at 33%.

This is in no way an insult to the author or anyone who enjoyed this book.

This book was not for me.

The characters were so cringe. Unlikeable.

Even on audio this book was painful.

I am still very thankful to St Martins Press and NetGalley for granting me an early copy.

First, the title and cover are misleading. The titular Little French Bridal Shop shows up in two scenes: one at the beginning, one at the end. This book has nothing to do with the bridal shop.

Second, I found both lead characters are unlikeable. Larisa, is supposed to be almost 40 (but if she was 10 for Diana's royal wedding as stated in the middle of the book, she'd be almost 50....) and acts like she is 20. She's immature, self-centered, impulsive, and compulsively lies. Her "trust fund" bails her out of a lot of trouble.

On a whim, she stops into the bridal shop, tries on dozens of gowns and buys one. Fine, it was a killer dress, Say yes to that dress, then go figure out your life. Instead she concocts a fake wedding and sets her sights on a married father of three as the potential groom. She continues to lie as she meets with a florist and takes a joy ride in a Rolls Royce. She's taking advantage of kind people who only want the best for her. I did not find this to be a cute misunderstanding that got away from her. I also thought the redemption/change of attitude didn't ring true. I understand why she was acting out but it didn't change my mind about her or her actions.

If the fake wedding / bridal shop / trying to marry a married man part was eliminated, this could have been a great book. It sets the story up for a totally different arc and that really made the book frustrating. Larisa is dealing with the loss of her great aunt and the impeding, slow decline of her mother, along with leaving her floundering relationship and being fired (with cause). That's enough to manage. Maybe then she meets up with DIVORCED Jack as she figures out everything else.

The author's writing style is very approachable, with good pacing and excellent detailing. Especially when describing things like the antique house, sailing, Dungeons and Dragons. I could picture having tea with the aunt in the greenhouse while listening to classical music. I also very much enjoyed the relationship of Larisa's parents and their transition from sweethearts, to retirees, to patient and caretaker. In reading the author's acknowledgements, I was pleasantly surprised to learn she is a triplet, so it was neat that she gave the lead male and his wife triplets.

Also there were cousins mentioned off-handedly in the book. How come none of them are involved in the selling of the house? They were close with the aunt until the parents moved them away. That was an odd little tidbit that wasn't resolved. The rest of the book made it seem like Larisa's father was an only child, and she was his only child and thus the only two living heirs.

I would read another book of hers because I liked the writing.

*I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and I am required to disclose that in my review in compliance with federal law.*

The Little French Bridal Shop by Jennifer Dupee

First of all, this title is a complete misnomer. There’s a small role for this shop (very much not in France) at the beginning of the story, but that’s it. Following Larissa, this story begins as she’s just come out of a long term relationship and lost her job and has headed back to her Aunt Ursula’s estate to figure out what’s next. She stumbles across a bridal shop in the small town and is enamoured with the perfect wedding gown, buys it, and pretends she’s engaged, the town is thrilled and the lies snowball from there.

This wasn’t an overly enjoyable read for me. The unlikeable main characters, Larisa and Jack, were very unlikeable. So unlikeable I almost dreaded reading the book. Larisa’s selfish and at times hurtful immaturity wasn’t pleasant to read. While I appreciate her character growth, I think I would have been more invested in her story if she showed more redeeming behaviour earlier on. While ugly, I appreciated the realistic nature of these characters, but the story appeared marketed as a more upbeat book, and it was hard to root for the characters personally.

I thought the dementia related content was very well done. Realistic, heartfelt and relatable. The author did a really good job. I think if the love story/coming of age story for someone in their thirties was secondary somehow, and the title/cover changed, I would have received this story in a much more positive manner.

The setting was also very well written; I felt I was strolling around Elmhurst. I am interested to see what the author does next; while this debut wasn’t a favourite for me the author peaked my interest in her writing and her storytelling.

Thank you very much to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for access to an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It’s available now!

This book describes the dilemma of a woman caught at a crossroads in her life, and also caught up in her own web of lies. The most meaningful yet sad part of this book was how the main character dealt with her mom's dementia.

I received this book from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Larisa has lost her job and boyfriend and now must clean out her great aunts house. She spent a lot of time with her aunt and so is known and knows many in the community. On an impulse, she goes into the bridal store and suddenly finds she has bought a wedding dress. However, there is no fiancé and no wedding! One thing leads to another and before you know it, Larisa has found herself trapped by her own lies. She is also barely dealing with her mothers health issues. A light read but the character of Larisa did not ring true for me and I found her inability to face her family problems somewhat childish.
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I did not review this on my blog. I hated the main character. She lies and she steals...just not the best for me.

There's no good way to say it so I'm just going to come right out with it: I didn't like The Little French Bridal Shop. I wanted to enjoy Jennifer Dupee's debut novel. I really did. But it very quickly fell apart for me and it could not redeem itself.

Here's the book's description:
Is a lie of omission still a lie? Larisa Pearl didn't think so and it got her into a heap of trouble.
When Larisa Pearl returns to her small seaside hometown in Massachusetts to manage her beloved great aunt's estate, she's a bit of an emotional mess. She's just lost her job and her boyfriend and she's struggling to cope with her mother's failing health. When she passes by the window of The Little French Bridal Shop, a beautiful ivory satin wedding gown catches her eye...
Now, to the delight of everyone in town, Larisa is planning her wedding. She has her dress, made floral arrangements, and set the date. The only thing missing is the groom. How did this happen? All she did was try on a dress and let her fantasy take flight. But word about her upcoming nuptials has reached the ears of Jack Merrill. As teenagers, they spent time together on her great aunt's estate, building a friendship that could have become something more had they chosen different paths.
Lost in a web of her own lies, Larisa must first face some difficult truths, including her mother's fragile future, before she can embrace her family, straighten out her life, and open her heart to finding love.

From the description, I knew the story would be a bit ridiculous. I mean, who lies about getting married? I could understand it, I suppose, to a point. I expected cute and funny hijinks but the way it actually came about? A bit odd and...painful. You learn early on in the story, when Larisa is trying on the wedding dresses, that she's been having a lot of issues. She's been lying about all sorts of random things - her height on her driver's license, for example. Plus, she's been shoplifting, too. She loses her job in a fairly public and unbelievable way (it was definitely warranted - she was not kind). Basically, she's been behaving in an extremely childish manner and I couldn't get over it. I'm not one that has to like or understand all the main characters I encounter but when I expected this to be a contemporary drama with a sprinkling of romance (I mean, come on, look at the cover!) and all of a sudden I have a character who has some serious shit going on that she's not addressing and is acting like a kid instead? I didn't like her and nothing she did could convince me otherwise.

All of Larisa's issues seem to stem from the fact hat her mother has recently been diagnosed with dementia. She's struggling with that, understandably so, but, again, she's acting like a child and running away from the issues instead of having a discussion with her father, who's acting as caregiver, and learning more about the disease and how to make the relationship with her mother work with her diagnosis. This led to a heavier storyline than I expected. Normally it would be welcome in a book but there wasn't any indication and it didn't really feel...like it worked with the story, I suppose.

I'll fully admit that I skimmed this book. Heavily. I wanted to see if Larisa could redeem herself (she did, sort of, but I had stopped caring) so I didn't want to completely give up on it. So, because I wasn't reading closely and wasn't very committed, there could be some nuances I missed. But I wasn't looking for or expecting many nuances in this kind of story. I love when my contemporary books pull in something heavier but whatever Dupee was aiming for really didn't work for me.

Here's a possible spoiler, but you see in the description how it mentions Jack and how they used to know each other as teens? That was part of what drew me to this book. I like second chances and small towns. (The sweet cover was the other part of the appeal.) Well, it turns out Jack is married. With triplet eleven year old sons. It is not a happy marriage. He's bored and is all "poor me, my wife doesn't excite me anymore so I'm going to drown my sorrows at the bar and flirt with the staff instead of talking to her like an adult." I was not here for that. At first you think that maybe things would work out ok, that Jack and his wife would separate, officially, and maybe he and Larissa could start dating (which, by the way, they never did as teenagers). But there's a lot of convoluted nonsense that occurs so you're left wondering what, exactly, he's feeling and wondering who was going to get hurt. (My money was on the kids.) It was just not at all a situation to inspire romance. I know this kind of stuff happens in real life and I know it's not all as black and white as I'm painting it (apparently from a high horse...) but it wasn't what I wanted from this story.

I think my emotions got the better of me when it came to The Little French Bridal Shop. I have no notes on the way it was written because the story and how I felt about it and the characters just didn't allow me to enjoy Jennifer Dupee's debut novel. Was I too harsh on someone who was clearly going through a tough time? Perhaps. That happens in real life but it doesn't mean it always makes for a good novel.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin's Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary advance reader copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion,.

The cover of this book immediately caught my attention and the title as well. I was very excited to get this book but I struggled so much to read it. I hated the main characters right from the beginning and even by the end, still disliked them a lot. Larisa was self-centered and ridiculous, a liar and thief; Jack was a terrible spouse and person with very little to redeem him. The way Larisa treated her mother was deplorable; I would give anything to have my mother back and this part of the storyline was a book killer for me for sure. The bridal shop is almost barely mentioned and the storyline barely tolerable. Thank heavens the book was short, I did finish it but even by the end, Larisa's parents and the poor townspeople were the only characters I liked.

To start I love this cover, isn't it a beaut? This was a charming and emotional read. I was rooting for the main character, Larisa. She was flawed and an emotional wreck (for good reason) but also for me she was such an incredibly unlikeable character, whom I wrestled a lot with.
I am normally ALL for unlikeable characters, they either win me over or not so much! Either way, I am always up for the challenge and can appreciate either of the two outcomes. I love to see which way I'll sway once I close the book.

The romance aspect is not your traditional love story and again, I love romances that don't cross their T's and dot their i's. I would be curious to how others will depict it in their minds!

What I loved about the author's writing was her way of description. I wanted to dive into this novel and be present with all of its scenery.

Overall, I thought this debut was a quick read and the message I took away from it is sometimes life leads you down a nonconventional path to rediscover your true self, and with the way I felt about Larisa I was satisfied with that! Perfectly imperfect.

Larissa Pearl returns to her home on the coast of Massachusetts before she is supposed to get married. Once there she must confront her past and realize the true importance of things. I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

R E V I E W

Title: The Little French Bridal Shop
Author: Jennifer Dupee
Genre: Women's Fiction
Rating: 3 stars
Pub Date: March 09 2021

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

T H R E E W O R D S

Slow start • Growth • Deception

📖 S Y N O P S I S

At a crossroads in her life, and following the death of her Aunt, Larisa returns to her hometown to manage the estate. She arrives having recently lost her job, her romantic relationship in a tailspin, and struggling to accept her mother's failing health. With the help of childhood friend, Jack, himself experiencing marital struggles; she sets out to renovate the house. A trip into town for supplies, finds Larisa entering the town bridal shop on a whim, and buying a dress for a wedding that doesn't exist. Larisa soon finds herself caught up in a web of lies, and she must face reality in order to find herself.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Let me just start with that cover? Before even reading the synopsis, I knew I wanted to read this book based on the cover alone. However, the cover was the best part for me. The story started out very slow, struggled to find its purpose, and the main characters extremely unreliable. The second half of the novel was definitely better, with more character development, better flow and depth to the actual story. I found myself wishing the non-central relationships had been the focus or explored more; the one between Aunt Ursula and Andy, and Larisa's parents. The title definitely fooled me, I was expecting "The Little French Bridal Shop" to play a major role, but its role is minor, and spoiler alert it's not in France! On a positive note, I absolutely loved Elmhurst, the author does an excellent job in setting the scene in her debut novel. And what truly saved this book is the realistic portrayal of what it is like to go through the slow creeping of dementia. Although this book didn't hit the mark for me, I think Jennifer Dupee has the potential to be a wonderful writer.

📚 R E C O M M E N D T O
• Lovers of self-discovery stories
• Anyone wanting a realistic portrayal of dementia
• Non-traditional love story fans

⚠️ CW: infidelity, grief, Alzheimer's

🔖 F A V O U R I T E Q U O T E S

"Larisa took a deep breath and released it. Now was the time to step toward the strife, to face it. Her mother's disease was hard. It was awful. But it would be better to feel it, to experience the grief and pain, than to be absent entirely from the experience."

"How did each flower know just when to bloom? Larisa wondered. After a long winter withdrawal, they each somehow recognized the exact moment at which to reemerge. Maybe humans could rouse such instincts as well."

I haven’t read very many books where I’ve really disliked almost every character in the book, but I can add this title to that label. I mean, the only characters I liked in the end were Larisa’s parents!

I found Larisa to be crazy-annoying! Who makes dumb decisions, one right after another, on purpose? Her actions were just really unbelievable. At first I thought that this was going to be a rom-com, what with Larisa buying a wedding dress and lying about an impending wedding after just dumping her boyfriend. That sounds like it’s a great set-up for a funny book. But the book wasn’t funny and she just kept lying to everyone, about nonsense things. And the side characters were just as annoying. Jack, who I thought was going to be the new love interest, is a man who just cheated on his wife and can’t seem to take care of his family because he is too busy working. And on and on it went. I unfortunately didn’t find many redeeming qualities of the story to swing my interest back around.

But the cover is BEAUTIFUL! It really set me up with such high hopes for this story. Unfortunately, the story focused on annoying and frustrating events instead of being humorous or heartfelt. This was a really big miss.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for providing this book. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy and all views expressed are only my honest opinion.

This was a charming and delightful book, the characters very likable, although I kept wondering why Larisa continued lying about her wedding when she wasn't even engaged. Was it that beautiful wedding dress she saw in that bridal shop? Would she eventually get married? Will it be Brent, her ex-boyfriend who has come back in hopes of getting back together, or Jack, her childhood friend that is helping her renovate her late Aunt Ursula's home? That's something you'll have to find out by reading this book. The lying in one part of the book actually became a little comical that I had to chuckle. While the book was very enjoyable, I found it sad and at times difficult to read because of Larisa's mother's dementia. I've been caring for my mother, who has Alzheimer's, for a few years now and reading how Larisa felt about her mother's disease really resonated with me. I have to say that Larisa's dad had some good words of wisdom about dealing with the changes caused by this horrible disease.

This debut novel was very well done and very entertaining. I look forward to reading more by Jennifer Dupee.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

The Little French Bridal Shop by Jennifer Dupree is a story that explores the life of a troubled woman who is dealing with life around her changing and her inability to tell the truth.

I’m not really sure what to think about this book. The storyline was quite scattered and the themes of finding oneself, romance, dealing with the past, and growing up (at 40 years old) were never fully developed. I found it hard to focus on the story due to all of this.

I really was not a fan of Larisa’s character. She was extremely immature for a 40 year-old-woman, and her constant lies throughout the story seemed pointless. Yes, her lies are the creation of the story, but I feel that it just didn’t work for a character her age. What was her motivation to tell all these lies?

I also wasn’t a fan of Jack’s character and felt that he had no dept. At the beginning of the story we find out that he is married and has cheated on his wife. From there, I realized that this story was not going to be the romance that I thought was going to form a strong storyline in this book.

The story itself was well written. Dupee uses wonderful and vivid imagery and detail throughout the story. The whole time I was able to visually picture myself walking through the story with the characters.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Publishing for the e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

DNF @ 20%. This book had so many formatting issues on my screen and I found it quite boring and odd. Why would a single woman go into a bridal shop and try on dresses and keep up the lie? It didn't many sense to me. There is a lot of writing, not bad writing per say, but it's very wordy. This isn't a bad book-just not for me!

Caught up in a web........Larisa heads home to Massachusetts to take care of her grandmother's stately home, and ends up buying herself a wedding dress and then orders flowers for her wedding. Great, right?

Trouble is, there's no upcoming wedding. There also is no groom.

Follow Larisa on her intriguing journey of self discovery--sometimes funny, sometimes sad, very enjoyable.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. While I did like the general idea of the book the main character seemed to be a bit delusional and I just didn't really enjoy reading it. I do think that my mood is influencing my reading though so I still think that this could be a great read for a lot of people!