I went back to see what type of rating I'd given to the first Kitty Zeldis novel I'd read, Not Our Kind, to see if I'd felt similarly. I did. But not for the same reasons.
I can't think of a concise way to describe what this novel is about. Bea is an "older" woman who has had to start over in life several times. First in New Orleans after she needs to leave Russia when things got tough for the Jews there. Then from New Orleans when her business is no longer practical. And then from Brooklyn, when all the secrets she has kept over the years start to unravel.
Bea moves north to Brooklyn with Alice, an orphan whom she'd taken in back in New Orleans. The two open an unique dress shop in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. (Hence the title of the book.)
Catherine is a woman living down the street from the dress shop. She's happily married and longing to have a baby.
The lives of the three women intersect and that's when the secrets start to be revealed.
What I enjoyed most about this book were the references to locations that I'm familiar with in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I loved reading about Alice and Bea's creative approach to designing dresses. What I didn't love was the character development. That combined with the way conflicts were addressed and resolved left me wanting for more.
I'm also not sure what relevance there was to Bea being Jewish. It was an integral part of the beginning of the story, it was brought up once or twice towards the middle of the book, but then never addressed. She could have been a displaced immigrant from anywhere.
Not a bad book, but nothing I'd strongly recommend.
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