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Elegance
Elegance
Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Louise C. wants what Jackie O had ... — Unhappy with her looks, her life, and her empty marriage, Louise Canova needs help -- and she finds it in a secondhand bookstore. A forty-year-old encyclopedia of style titled Elegance, this slim volume by formidable French fashion expert Madame Dariaux promises to transform even the plainest of women into ...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780060522278
ISBN-10: 0060522275
Publication Date: 4/2004
Pages: 336
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 83

3.5 stars, based on 83 ratings
Publisher: Avon Trade
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Elegance on + 93 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
One of the better chick lit books. Louise needs help -- in a passionless marriage, with no joy in her life, she turns to a book, then to the counsel of friends to find a way to live a life that is elegant -- elegant in that she feels accepted, desired and certain of her actions.
reviewed Elegance on + 15 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book was about ten different books crammed into one storyline. While it was alright to read, it would have been better if the author chose just one story line and developed that. Found myself confused about the time line (does this take place over the course of weeks, months, years?) and didn't really like the main character all that much. Book left readers to do a lot of assuming about characters and the relationships with one another. Not one of those books that you finish and give a second thought to.
bolgai avatar reviewed Elegance on + 109 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Louise is a 32 year old living in London with a closet full of shapeless brown garments, romance-free marriage and a job where nobody even notices she exists. One day at a second-hand book store she finds a volume entitled Elegance and decides to regain control of her life.

I don't keep books. In fact, I've decided to read everything in my book case and not buy anything new unless the library doesn't have what I want. And on the rare occasion that I do decide to keep a book it's because I've absolutely fallen in love with it. Guess what, about 3/4 of the way through I knew that this one is a keeper.
It hit all the right notes with its combination of humor and sadness, realism, insightfulness and beautiful writing. The language fit with the story, the characters were alive and relatable, Louise's best friends felt like your own best friends, when she succeeded to cheer and in the end it left me with a smile on my face. What can be better?

Read my other reviews at bibliophilescorner.blogspot.com
reviewed Elegance on + 232 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Want to find the answers to life in a second hand bookstore - Elegance did that for Louise Canova. Small servings of angst, laughter, lively mishaps, intimate details, voyeurs in a lingerie store fitting room, English country weekends all come together to take life down a new turn. Classic? Standards that never change - nice to know that some things never do.
reviewed Elegance on + 377 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
An enjoyable chick lit read, I finished it in just a couple of hours. More bad language than I prefer, but I was pleased to find that unlike most chick lit, there was no sex in this book at all.
Read All 20 Book Reviews of "Elegance"

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reviewed Elegance on + 216 more book reviews
Good summer read.
reviewed Elegance on + 8 more book reviews
Loved this character! A fun book.
ElleS avatar reviewed Elegance on + 112 more book reviews
This is such a cute story- and Elizabeth McGovern narrates it GREAT!
Alot of fun for a long ride in the car-

These are CD's not audio cassettes.
jazzyheather avatar reviewed Elegance on + 37 more book reviews
Absolutely loved this book! I read it in a couple of hours. I could not stop the reading. It is a British Chick Lit and very usual. I was ready to find the Elegance.
MeganLog avatar reviewed Elegance on + 47 more book reviews
So cute and I love how Tessaro involved a real etiquette book that I HAD to wishlist once I had finished this one!
ElleS avatar reviewed Elegance on + 112 more book reviews
Cute story- sort of fizzled at the end-


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