Dictatorship of the Dress

Much “I Do” About Nothing Novel

By Jessica Topper

Synopsis

As the dress-bearer for her mother’s wedding, Laney Hudson has a lot more baggage than the bulky garment bag she’s lugging from New York to Hawaii. Laney is determined to prove she’s capable of doing something right, but running chores for her mom’s fairytale nuptials is proving to be a painfully constant reminder of her own lost love.

So when she’s mistaken for the bride and bumped up to first class, Laney figures some stress-free luxury is worth a harmless white lie. Until the flight crew thinks that the man sitting next to her is Laney’s groom, and her little fib turns into a hot mess.

The last thing Noah Ridgewood needs is some dress-obsessed diva landing in his first-class row. En route to his Vegas bachelor party, the straight-laced software designer knows his cold feet have nothing to do with the winter weather.

When a severe storm leaves them grounded in Chicago and they find themselves booked into the last available honeymoon suite, Laney and her in-flight neighbor have little choice but to get better acquainted. Now, as her bridal mission hangs in the balance, perhaps the thing Laney gets right is a second chance at love.-

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Tracey’s Review

At first glance, Laney Hudson and Noah Ridgewood seem to have little in common. Thrown together by chance, the two accidental seatmates find themselves stuck in a snowbound Chicago on the way to their respective destinations. Laney, illustrator extraordinaire, has been designated dress courier for her mother’s wedding, and Noah, a tech-savvy entrepreneur, is on the way to his bachelor party in Las Vegas. But the more time they spend together, and the more they reveal their pasts to each other, it seems like maybe chance has very little to do with things, and that Fate may just be at work.

My favorite reads are the ones that come out of nowhere and surprise me. The description for Dictatorship of the Dress by Jessica Topper grabbed me, and I am so glad that I took the opportunity to read it, because this book is absolutely one of my favorite reads this year. Laney and Noah are far from the one-dimensional stereotypes they may seem at first. Both are made of so much more than they appear to be to each other, and, after days spent together under unusual circumstances, the layers are peeled away to reveal that they may just be exactly what the other needs. This book is categorized as a romance, and there is definitely that element to the story, but there is so much more. Characters with rich backgrounds hiding the ‘real’ them, dialogue that had me laughing out loud throughout, vividly drawn secondary characters, all combined to make this a book that I could not put down.

“I see you picked up a couple of souvenirs in Vegas,” I murmured.

“Just a couple of good-luck charms,” he replied.

“Oh, so now you believe in luck?” I chided. “What happened to strategy? And product placement?”

“I still believe in all that, too,” Noah said, gently setting me down. “And fate. And being in the right place at the right time.”

This is a read that will surely appeal to a wide variety of people, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I look forward to reading more from Jessica, and give Dictatorship of the Dress six stars for one of the most enjoyable books that I’ve had the good luck to read lately.

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About Jessica Topper

Jessica Topper is an ex-librarian turned rock n’ roll number cruncher. She can trace her love for the written word back to age three, when she memorized Maurice Sendak’s “Chicken Soup with Rice” in its entirety.

After her daughter was born, Jessica left the Manhattan library world and began working for her husband’s music management company. He offered her a part-time bookkeeping job so she could “stay home for the baby’s first year” and pursue her dream of writing.

The baby is now thirteen, and Jessica has been working her full-time, sold-her-soul-for-rock-n-roll job as Office Manager for veteran jam band moe. ever since. She may have traded in books for bookkeeping, but the written word is never far from her mind, or her heart.

Jessica lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter and one ancient cat.

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