i've been reading since i was 3 years old, and i currently work in a bookstore, so i'm surrounded by books ALL the time. i read over 3 books a week, easily! these reviews will mostly be on teen books, since that's what i read, but really anything at all could show up here!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Breakfast At Bloomingdale's - Kristen Kemp

I picked this book up a few years ago for something ridiculous like $2 on clearance. Given my giant backlog of books, it was inevitable that this book was going to get lost in the crazy mess I call my room. I forgot about it for so long - it was only while cleaning up recently I managed to find it again. I was looking for something light to read, and this seemed like just the kind of thing I needed.

The first thing couple of pages grabbed me immediately. The opening setting is not one that is used often in books: Upstate New York. (I know, I know, saying "upstate New York" is very vague. For native New Yorkers, "upstate" is anything that's not NYC or Long Island.) Specifically, the book opens in Queensbury, NY, a small city located north of Albany and Saratoga Springs in the Adirondack mountains. This is especially significant to me as my family has a summer cottage in the Adirondacks, and I often find myself in Queensbury. It was fun to read about a place that I have actually been to for once! :)

This didn't last long, though. Very early in the book, the heroine, Cat, moves to New York City to reinvent herself as a fashion designer. She has a dream to accomplish, one that she once shared with her recently deceased grandmother: sell her Audrey Hepburn-inspired clothing line, Breakfast, in Bloomingdale's.

Of course, this doesn't go as easily as Cat would hope. She meets a group of people who redefine the word 'eclectic', including the book's love interest: a hot guy who happens to moonlight as a clown.

This was a very funny, fast read, though it did lose me at times. In a nutshell, this book is about fashion. While you don't have to necessarily be a designer to understand this book, I imagine it certainly would help. I have an appreciation for fashion but know next to nothing about sewing and how clothes are created. There were many scenes in this book describing how exactly Cat is creating the clothes; I imagine the author either researched this book a lot or has worked in fashion. Picturing some of these outfits in my head, especially those made by the people Cat is working alongside, was a chore at times.

Overall, though, I did enjoy this book. While it was not the best book I have read this year, month, or even week, it was still fun and fast. I didn't LOVE this book, but I did like it. It didn't bring anything new to the table... but that's exactly what I was expecting. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has a passing interest in fashion.

SCORE: 7/10
IF YOU LIKE: The Daughters (Joanna Philbin), Ripped At The Seams (Nancy Krulik)