I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.

Alice Butterworth and Constance Halstead are two women from different states who have a lot in common. They are both recent widows (or at least presumed to be widows), they have both experienced the loss of a child, and they both had to grow up in a man’s world, where women need to stay in their “place.”

But it’s the turn of the century. Alice’s mother gave her a gift when she taught her to sew and sent her away from their prairie home to make a better life for herself. When Alice’s husband fails to return from business, she believes he abandoned her, and she just knows her mother would be disappointed in how her life turned out. Alice soon discovers she is expecting a baby and knows she can’t wait for her husband to appear.

Alice soon discovers that her husband is not who he said he was and goes to New Orleans on a whim, in search of new opportunities. She is quickly paired up with Constance, who needs a dress for Mardi Gras, and who can offer Alice a place to stay. They soon find a sisterhood in one another that they’d never got to experience before. But Constance has a secret she wants to keep hidden, all while dealing with the Black Hand, who keeps threatening her and her family. Alice, too, will find herself keeping a secret.

This was an enjoyable read. It was easy to figure out what was going on (with the help of a few errors in the writing, but it really wouldn’t have mattered either way) and what the big secret would be. I kept waiting for the ball to drop and for both women to uncover the secret. There were also a couple of plot holes that should have revealed the secret or at least lead to some suspicion. It didn’t.

I did love the friendship that developed between the two women and the mutual respect they had, but it took forever for the two women to meet. I wish it would have happened earlier so we could have gotten more out of this found family.

I was disappointed in the ending, but I think that this was a great book overall.

The Seamstress of New Orleans - Likewise Book Reviews

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