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28th out of 115 books
—
586 voters
An Unlikely Suitor
by
Nancy Moser
Lucy Scarpelli, an Italian dressmaker from New York, befriends socialite Rowena Langdon as she's making her summer wardrobe. It's an unlikely friendship, but one that Rowena encourages by inviting Lucy to the family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Grateful for Lucy's skill in creating clothes that hide her physical injury, Rowena encourages Lucy to dream of a better futu...more
Paperback, 391 pages
Published
May 1st 2011
by Bethany House Publishers
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Once again Nancy Moser chooses a unique setting and characters for An Unlikely Suitor. She takes us to the Gilded Age NYC tenements and the grandeur of the summer cottages, really mansions on Newport Island. The author creates unforgettable and flawed characters; I appreciated that. The main character Lucy is especially convincing and engaging. I loved all the descriptions of the clothing, coaches, homes in the story. The only reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is that I had a hard time bel...more
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Lucy Scarpelli is an Italian immigrant who has lived in poverty most of her life, as she, her mother and her younger sister, the willful, spoiled Sofia, do piecework to eke out a meager existence. Their luck changes, however, when Lucy finds jobs for them as seamstresses, and even more so when a wealthy client, Rowena Langond, a New York socialite as she works on Rowena's dresses. When Rowena invites the three women to Newport to do some sewing work for her, Lucy and Sofia both find themselves b...more
Nancy Moser is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. She easily transports the reader back in time to another era, an era that we tend to think as kinder and gentler. Nancy Moser reintroduces the Scarpelli family whom we met in Masquerade; this isn't a sequel, but their own story...
The Scarpellis, Lea, Lucy, and Sophia need to move from their long time home, because it is slated to be torn down. While her mother, Lea, and Sophia attend church, Lucy looks for a new home for them. She not o...more
The Scarpellis, Lea, Lucy, and Sophia need to move from their long time home, because it is slated to be torn down. While her mother, Lea, and Sophia attend church, Lucy looks for a new home for them. She not o...more
Lucy Scarpelli wakes up one morning to find out her family is being evicted from the only home she's ever know in New York in just one week. How will they ever find somewhere they can afford in that time? Where there's a will there's a way, and Lucy has more will than most. Determined to protect her family, Lucy searches the city for a place to live without realizing that the place she finds will also be the key to a new life.
An Unlikely Suitor is the story of three women - Lucy, Lucy's new soci...more
An Unlikely Suitor is the story of three women - Lucy, Lucy's new soci...more
Let me preface this review by saying that I love Nancy Moser's Ladies of History series, which is based on real women in history. However, I am not so fond of Moser's original fiction. An Unlikely Suitor is just not on par with the Ladies of History series. Moser makes history come alive, as she's excellent at making the reader feel as if they are experiencing the settings while reading. The original plots just aren't on par with the historical details and settings. I'm afraid I'd have to rate t...more
This novel takes place in New York City in the summer of 1895 during the Gilded Age. Having emigrated from Italy, twenty-four-year-old Lucy Scarpelli, her fifteen-year-old sister, Sofia, their Uncle Aldo, Aunt Francesca and their mother Lea all lived in a tiny cramped apartment from which they were being evicted. The Scarpelli women are all working in a sweatshop sewing for low wages. Poor Lucy has the weight of the world on her shoulders for she is responsible for finding them a new place to li...more
An Unlikely Suitor
Nancy Moser
Historical Fiction
4 out of 5
This beautiful piece of historical fiction is set in the year 1895 and takes place in New York and Newport. It is about three women, sisters Lucy and Sofia Scarpelli and Lucy’s friend Rowena Langdon. The Scarpelli’s and the Langdon’s are from two very different worlds.
Lucy, her sister Sofia and their mother are dressmakers at Madame Moreau’s Fashion Emporium in New York. One day Rowena and her mother come in to have their summer wardrobes...more
Nancy Moser
Historical Fiction
4 out of 5
This beautiful piece of historical fiction is set in the year 1895 and takes place in New York and Newport. It is about three women, sisters Lucy and Sofia Scarpelli and Lucy’s friend Rowena Langdon. The Scarpelli’s and the Langdon’s are from two very different worlds.
Lucy, her sister Sofia and their mother are dressmakers at Madame Moreau’s Fashion Emporium in New York. One day Rowena and her mother come in to have their summer wardrobes...more
"Evicted? We're evicted?" Lucy's family earns just enough money to pay the rent and put some meager food on the table. Now, with only a week's notice, they must pack up and go elsewhere. Fatherless, with the family looking to her to guidance, she sets out to find them a new home. She finds a place beyond her expectations. With a new home, a new job, and even some new friends, might she hope for more in her life? This story takes her out of her native New York to Rhode Island, beyond her circle o...more
MY REVIEW
Lucy Scarpelli and her family lives in NY during America’s Gilded Age. Their family lived in a poverty section of NY and struggled to survive. That is until one day Lucy run into Mr. Standish, a wealthy businessman that owns a dress shop. Mr. Standish not only hires Lucy and her sister Sofia to help sew dresses for the wealthy he hires their mom to make hats to match the dresses. He also offers to rent the mom and 2 siblings an apartment over the dress shop. This is the beginning of a n...more
Lucy Scarpelli and her family lives in NY during America’s Gilded Age. Their family lived in a poverty section of NY and struggled to survive. That is until one day Lucy run into Mr. Standish, a wealthy businessman that owns a dress shop. Mr. Standish not only hires Lucy and her sister Sofia to help sew dresses for the wealthy he hires their mom to make hats to match the dresses. He also offers to rent the mom and 2 siblings an apartment over the dress shop. This is the beginning of a n...more
Satisfying Gilded Age Romance
If you are looking for a clean romance with an intriguing story line and lots of historical detail, An Unlikely Suitor is for you.
Nancy Moser’s story of Lucy, an Italian seamstress, who becomes friends with a wealthy society girl, explores the social divide between the two young women, their families, and the men who court them. Both girls struggle with the roles society demands they play as they seek to find romance and love. Lucy’s younger sister also wrestles wit...more
If you are looking for a clean romance with an intriguing story line and lots of historical detail, An Unlikely Suitor is for you.
Nancy Moser’s story of Lucy, an Italian seamstress, who becomes friends with a wealthy society girl, explores the social divide between the two young women, their families, and the men who court them. Both girls struggle with the roles society demands they play as they seek to find romance and love. Lucy’s younger sister also wrestles wit...more
This is the second book that I've read by Nancy Moser. I liked the first book I read, Masquerade, but I never loved it and it fell short on some levels but I really enjoyed An Unlikely Suitor a whole lot more than Masquerade!
Once again Nancy is describing the Gilded Age in her historical romance and there are some great lessons to be learned and also some characters to fall in love with! I was so surprised to read that the main characters where the Scarpelli's, which happen to be the Italian fam...more
Once again Nancy is describing the Gilded Age in her historical romance and there are some great lessons to be learned and also some characters to fall in love with! I was so surprised to read that the main characters where the Scarpelli's, which happen to be the Italian fam...more
The Gilded Age is a period in our nation’s history that has always intrigued me. The excess and over-the-top way of life for the “haves” compared to the more squalid conditions of the “have nots” is rather mind boggling. So to find a book that takes some of the characters and moves them into the fringes of upper society was a fun read.
What made this such a good book to me was not so much watching the characters in awe of the surroundings of the wealthy, but how they remained, for the most part,...more
What made this such a good book to me was not so much watching the characters in awe of the surroundings of the wealthy, but how they remained, for the most part,...more
I picked up this book largely because of the setting. According to the blurb on the back, I was invited to “spend a season in glamorous 1895 Newport.” I was promised a “compelling” novel of “friendship, devotion, and sacrificial love.”
Um, you had me at “Newport.” Being born a navy brat in Newport, Rhode Island, I’ve always had a fascination with the Gilded Age and the luxe summer “cottages” of the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Astors. This book was going to be great.
The book opens up with se...more
Um, you had me at “Newport.” Being born a navy brat in Newport, Rhode Island, I’ve always had a fascination with the Gilded Age and the luxe summer “cottages” of the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Astors. This book was going to be great.
The book opens up with se...more
I have read a few of Nancy Moser’s books in the past, and while I have always liked her books, I have yet to be able to say I have loved any of them. That is until I read An Unlikely Suitor. I can honestly say that I loved this book right from the start and I did not want it to end.
I think one of the things I liked the most about it was the setting and the time period. The Gilded Age is a time that I find fascinating and Nancy is obviously an expert on that time as she has shared her extensive...more
I think one of the things I liked the most about it was the setting and the time period. The Gilded Age is a time that I find fascinating and Nancy is obviously an expert on that time as she has shared her extensive...more
Hm.... where to start with this one? My initial reaction: I love the cover - it's beautiful and I think it sets the tone very well for the time period of this novel. I love the idea of this book, with the intertwining lives and social classes. The author also does an excellent job of using historical facts in her novel, from the immigrant culture in New York, to the Vanderbilt's mansion in Newport. She even gives a chapter-by-chapter accounting of which parts were actual fact, which was kind of...more
This book was a real conundrum for me. Initially I was quite intrigued by the story and most of the characters...I liked Lucy and enjoyed seeing her provide for her mother and sister, scoring them jobs at a high-class dress shop and finding better living accommodations. Lucy's idea to help Rowena, a client at the dress shop, hide her physical limitations through specially made dresses was really a neat idea and quite interesting to read about. Though they're limited to secretive conversations he...more
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was really slow. I was interested enough to keep reading, but was easily distracted while reading most of the time. I liked the overall story, but it was just ok most of the way.
The description on the back of the book really only encompasses the last 3rd of the book. The first third of the book is set in New York. The story revolves around Lucy and her family getting settled in their new apartment above the Fashion Emporium where they work, their efforts...more
The description on the back of the book really only encompasses the last 3rd of the book. The first third of the book is set in New York. The story revolves around Lucy and her family getting settled in their new apartment above the Fashion Emporium where they work, their efforts...more
Charlotte Beck, what a character! She is a spoiled rich young woman who often gets what she wants. As such, every time she meets a certain wealthy Englishman named Alex Hambly she finds herself getting into some kind of trouble. She is very stubborn and self-absorbed, and everything she does is to please herself without any care to what anyone else thinks. Her father has had enough of her antics and decides that he will arrange a marriage with this certain Englishman by the name of Alex Hambly....more
Nancy Moser certainly makes you feel immersed in the social life and societal expectations of the late 1800's. You can almost sense what the lives of both upper and lower class families were like. The characters were likeable, and they had both strengths and weaknesses. My interest in history was delightfully enhanced by the afterwards at the end of the book in which Ms. Moser explains in detail what was true and what was fictional in the story, and she also includes wonderful illustrations of g...more
Lucy Scarpelli and her family obtain new jobs at a high society dress shop in NYC, where only the wealthiest women shop. When Lucy designs Rowena Langdon’s wardrobe, Rowena and Lucy become very close friends. Even though friendship between a seamstress and a person of higher class is unusual, Rowena invites Lucy to come venture Newport with her as her personal designer. Later on Lucy’s sister Sofia and her mother also come along the trip. There at Newport is where the three girls will change for...more
New York dressmaker Lucy Scarpelli befriends socialite Rowena Langdon as she's designing her summer wardrobe. Grateful for Lucy's skill in creating fashions that hide her physical injury, Rowena invites Lucy to the family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, encouraging the unusual friendship.
As the lives of three young women – and their unlikely suitors – become entangled in a web of secrets and sacrifice, will the season end with any of them finding true happiness?
During my review of Masquerade,...more
As the lives of three young women – and their unlikely suitors – become entangled in a web of secrets and sacrifice, will the season end with any of them finding true happiness?
During my review of Masquerade,...more
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I have decided that if the book is written by Nancy Moser then I need to read it. She never fails to write a unique story with fascinating perspectives and the best part... everything isn't always tied up in a neat bow at the end, but it is always satisfying. "Unlikely Suitor" doesn't fail. Here we delve into the lives of Lucy and her younger sister Sofia and then Lucy's unlikely friend Rowena. As their lives are intertwined we start to see love come to each of them in the most unusual ways. I l...more
This is a fun and entertaining book that takes place in the late 1800's during the Gilded Age. It is a story that tells of the huge differences between the wealthy and the working class. The wealthy had created a kingdom for themselves, one with its own rules and boundaries - one that was wary of outsiders. Among the "elite 400" of New York City, the wealthiest of the wealthy's goal was to show off their money in an ostentatious manner. Much of the story takes place in Newport, RI. Newport was a...more
A slower-paced but very satisfying read. The three different POVs were well balanced, and Sofia's voice was particularly distinct. Of course, everyone got the happy-ever-after, but not in the cliche ways one might initially expect with these kinds of rags-to-riches storylines. And there was at least one good surprise that caught me off guard. But my favorite part of the book just might be the "Fact vs. Fiction" section at the end, where Moser reveals the depth of research that went into bringing...more
Another clean, interesting romance novel. Set in the late 1800's in New York City, the story stars Lucy, a young Italian immigrant and her struggles to help her family with daily survival and still leaving a little room to dream of a better life. Lucy's younger sister and a rich socialite also have their own stories in the book. Money, the haves and the haves-not, and separation between the classes play a big role.
If you enjoy well written romance novels without the sex, you'll like this story....more
If you enjoy well written romance novels without the sex, you'll like this story....more
Listened to An Unlikely Suitorby Nancy Moser. Lucy Scarpelli, an Italian dressmaker from New York, befriends socialite Rowena Langdon as she's making her summer wardrobe. It's an unlikely friendship, but one that Rowena encourages by inviting Lucy to the family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Grateful for Lucy's skill in creating clothes that hide her physical injury, Rowena encourages Lucy to dream of a better future. One day Lucy encounters an intriguing man on the Cliff Walk, and love begin...more
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Book Review: An Unlikely Suitor, a novel by Nancy Moser, c2011
Historical Fiction
Excerpt, pp. 180-181.
~~~
"Oh dear. Pardon me, " Lucy said.
Rowena looked askance as Lucy helped her with her morning dress. "If you don't mind my asking, am I hearing hunger pangs?"
Lucy covered her midsection with a hand. The pains had plagued her all night, receding for a time, only to grab on with new vengeance.
Rowena turned to face her. "When was the last time you ate?"
Lucy decided to...more
Book Review: An Unlikely Suitor, a novel by Nancy Moser, c2011
Historical Fiction
Excerpt, pp. 180-181.
~~~
"Oh dear. Pardon me, " Lucy said.
Rowena looked askance as Lucy helped her with her morning dress. "If you don't mind my asking, am I hearing hunger pangs?"
Lucy covered her midsection with a hand. The pains had plagued her all night, receding for a time, only to grab on with new vengeance.
Rowena turned to face her. "When was the last time you ate?"
Lucy decided to...more
I have entirely mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it had a very slow start and I didn't really get invested in the characters' lives until halfway through the book. On the other, I loved that Nancy decided to write about Italian immigrants and the struggles they had, which is not something I've come across in books from this period. I enjoyed the details about dressmaking and while I wasn't so fussed about the mystery aspect of the book, I loved the conclusion. The plot suddenly g...more
3 1/2 stars
I really enjoyed this book! The romance was sweet, though I do wish it had a little more page time. I mean, there was the first attraction and the end result but I felt like the body of it could have been built up more, especially since you essentially have 3 sets of heroes and heroines. That being said, I liked all the characters and settings, my home state of Rhode Island being one of them :) The friendship and love between the classes made for some sweet and sad moments. And, oddly...more
I really enjoyed this book! The romance was sweet, though I do wish it had a little more page time. I mean, there was the first attraction and the end result but I felt like the body of it could have been built up more, especially since you essentially have 3 sets of heroes and heroines. That being said, I liked all the characters and settings, my home state of Rhode Island being one of them :) The friendship and love between the classes made for some sweet and sad moments. And, oddly...more
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Nancy Moser is the author of three inspirational humor books and a eighteen novels, including Mozart's Sister, Just Jane, and Time Lottery, a Christy Award winner. She is an inspirational speaker, giving seminars around the country. She has earned a degree in architecture; run a business with her husband; traveled extensively in Europe; and has performed in various theaters, symphonies, and choirs...more
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