LynneC’s review of Silk is for Seduction (The Dressmakers Series, Book 1) by Loretta Chase
Historical Romance published by Avon 28 June 11

I’ve spent the last year looking for a new historical romance author to love. I failed. But when I turned back to my old favorites, I found this. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what I mean. This is a historical romance that will give you hours of sheer pleasure. Vivid characterization plus a recreation of a world long gone add up to an absorbing read.

Marcelline Noiret and her sisters own a dressmaker’s shop, and they want to become the best shop in London. The sisters between them have flair, a business sense, and numerical skills. Marcelline has the flair. Hearing that the Duke of Clevedon is to return home for his long-awaited wedding, she is keen to attract him to the shop. They need some high-profile clients. So she hies off to Paris to enchant the duke. Don’t ask. It works. Of course, they are engrossed with each other, but Marcelline, aware that her sisters and her little girl depend on her to do her part, doesn’t get carried away. I really like that about her. In common with most of Chase’s heroines, she’s an immensely practical woman. So when she does get carried away, it really counts.

Not that she does that for some time.

The duke is a big man, and he’s never quite felt like he fit into English society. I like him, but he isn’t as vividly drawn as Marcelline, especially at the beginning. No matter. He turns out to be a complete sweetie. He’s not an out and out bounder, like Dain of Lord of Scoundrels, but he’s not a goody-goody either. He’s been enjoying himself in Paris and he doesn’t really want to come home. But his foster-brother tells him he has to or his sister will consider the marriage off and start to look elsewhere. He needs direction. And, boy, does he find it with Marcelline, although he doesn’t realize it at first.

Their attraction, an engaging supporting cast, plus a touch of industrial espionage add up to an absorbing read.

Chase avoids the clichés I’ve read recently with admirable skill. The Other Woman, Clara, is a statuesque blonde, but she’s a nice person (and probably, I have to say, sequel bait). She and Clevedon like each other and they’re not opposed to marrying. When Clara and Marcelline meet, they are naturally wary of each other, but they tolerate each other and respect each other, too. I can’t see them ever becoming bosom buddies, but I like that, too.

Realism. Well, there are books about milliners, dressmakers, florists and so on becoming duchesses, but I tend to avoid them. This, people, is how you make it plausible. You set it in an era that is about to take seismic changes—the 1830s, when the aristocracy were about to take a tumble and the middle class to rise. You give the heroine a touch of good birth, enough to make her just about acceptable. You make a hero who isn’t happy with his life, a duke who isn’t as powerful as some other peers, despite his title, because he hasn’t bothered to pursue the connections and business interests that he should. You don’t hide the problems and make it all a fairytale at the end.

And you add the right detail.

Oh my God, what a difference this makes. Chase adds detail as it should be there. Detail the characters take for granted. Unusual aspects are seen through the eyes of people who would notice. And they take their way of life for granted, they know about hackneys and gas lighting and comfortable furniture and shop fittings. You don’t have to think about it because Chase does. There is a delicious undressing scene in the book that makes it obvious that a woman had to take a ton and a half of clothes off before she could get naked. Chase knows her way around an 1830s woman’s wardrobe. Drawers, which didn’t come in for all women until Victoria’s reign, but perfectly acceptable for a dressmaker to have. All those petticoats and padding and corsets, and—well, the scene is superb. Thank you for knowing that a woman had to work hard to undress. Completely different to my beloved mid-Georgian era, when women didn’t wear knickers, briefs, or drawers and wore stays, not corsets. I know Chase would know the difference, as I do.

The result is that I feel transported into the past. Chase does what I always ask of a writer of historical romance. She takes me into a different world, into her world, which seems increasingly to be the 1830s. Not strictly Georgian, as there was a William on the throne, and a time of transition. I believe this world. The behavior and expectations of the characters are right for this time, or seem so.

Silk is for Seduction isn’t without its flaws.

The book is set in the 1830s, which is, in my opinion, one of the ugliest fashion eras ever. Women’s skirts were ankle length and bell shaped. They had huge puffed sleeves and hairstyles were, frankly, weird, when women thought nothing of wearing a Hello Kitty style bow on their heads that was made of hair.

Chase knows this period. Sure, there were a few slips (dollhouse is an Americanism, and is anachronistic, but I’m sure Chase was aware of that), but I don’t care. They don’t intrude, and they didn’t stop me reading. If this book had been about these two characters without the care Chase takes to get her details right, it would have been interesting, but nowhere near as good as it is.

There is a fair bit of sequel bait. There is Clara herself, her brother Lord Longton and his attraction to Marcelline’s sister. There is another sister. I have no doubt we’ll hear their stories in due course.

I can’t wait.

Grade: A

Summary:

Brilliant and ambitious dressmaker Marcelline Noirot is London’s rising star. And who better to benefit from her talent than the worst-dressed lady in the ton, the Duke of Clevedon’s intended bride? Winning the future duchess’s patronage means prestige and fortune for Marcelline and her sisters. To get to the lady, though, Marcelline must win over Clevedon, whose standards are as high as his morals are . . . not.

The prize seems well worth the risk—but this time Marcelline’s met her match. Clevedon can design a seduction as irresistible as her dresses; and what begins as a flicker of desire between two of the most passionately stubborn charmers in London soon ignites into a delicious inferno . . . and a blazing scandal.

And now both their futures hang by an exquisite thread of silk . . .

Read an excerpt. (scroll down)