Rating: 
Summary: Terrific idea, poor execution
Review: I wanted to love this book because it uses the real book "Elegance" as part of the plot but it's just no use. The heroine is such a silly little girl that I want to smack her upside her head. None of the characters are likeable and plot falls into place a little too easily.
Rating: 
Summary: This book captured my heart
Review: I was looking in Harrod's book department and came across this gem. I saw that it won a best book award from the London Times last year and thought it might keep me occupied on the long flight home.
It was so much better than I expected. It takes you on a journey similar to others in the British Chick Lit genre, but the low notes in the story, the jaw-dropping pain she sometimes endures makes her eventual rise all the sweeter.
I loaned the book to my best friend upon my return and she loved it as much as I did. I'm thinking of starting a book club...this would definitely be the first selection.
Rating: 
Summary: A Big Drop, clumsily
Review: If you are like me, a reader who after passing page 50 must continue until the end because every read book is a goal, then let me save you the first 50 pages. This book, very appealing to women due to it's instructive allure, is not really about elegance. Instead, it's about English life, English people, and looking and acting like Margaret Thatcher, something I hope no woman is striving for.
Kathleen Tessaro begins her novel with lots of instructions and hope, I even envisioned myself buying an expensive purse. But it all turned flat, sour, and boring, the life of a 32 year old who, "surprise," lands a beautiful younger man, after attending a, check this, weekend getaway with rich, rude, English people. By page 213 I was reading so fast to finish the book that I did 75 minutes non-stop on the stationary bike. Hey, at least I got some lost calories out of it.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good for chick-lit, I imagine
Review: If you're looking for a fun, quick, girlie book, then you probably don't need to look further than ELEGANCE. I mean, it has everything you're supposed to get with chick-lit, like the dumpy gal living in London who has relationship problems but feels better after shopping, and it's written in a fun way, with excepts from the real ELEGANCE by Madame Dariaux. But . . . I don't know. I really liked the idea of Louise finding happiness by simply becoming more elegant, and was really hoping she wouldn't realize that true happiness is found beneath the surface or any of that same old same old. I wanted to read more about her wearing chic dresses, augmented with charming accessories and less about her teenage abortion. I wanted her to BE Madame Dariaux by the end of the book. I wanted a big finale where she outshines her mother-in-law at The Ritz or something like that, but all that seems to have happened, elegance-wise, is that she wound up with a smaller, more expensive wardrobe. Don't get me wrong, though. I really enjoyed this book, but wish it was a tad more brainless.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Beauty...Elegance
Review: Kathleen Tessaro manages to sum up in a novel what every woman wants, or should learn to want; elegance. It's better than being born with beauty, wealth, or fame. It's the Jaquie O, the Grace Kelly, the Audrey Hepburn that all of us girls wish we had- and this novel is the wonderful story of one woman's journey to find that inner poise. She stumbles her way through the trends of pucci skirts, and see through robes, until she finds, not only how to pick out the perfect pair of shoes to go with THAT dress, but how to love, and how to let someone love her in return. Sprinkled with wise words of wisdom at the beginning of every chapter, this is a book that will become more of a reference for life, than just a good novel.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book soooo much.....
Review: Kathleen Tessaro writes a book that rings true. Don't let the cover dissuade you (it looks silly). This is a wonderfully meaningful book from cover to cover. I chuckled at parts and cried at others. I learned alot from this book, some fashion advice but more importantly a clarity about myself my family and my friends. Only a great book can do that!
Rating: 
Summary: more than just chick lit
Review: Louisa is a transplant from Pittsburgh to London, and married to a man who shall remain nameless when this book opens. She and her husband attend a photography exhbit hosted by her mother-in-law, a former model who still looks stunning. While at the exhibit -- which she didn't even want to attend -- Louisa relaizes that she is just plain frumpy and depressed compared to all the stunning older women around her.She finds a book titled "Elegance" in a used book store the next day and uses it as her own personal bible. As she developes style and elegance, she starts to take control in other areas of her life. She also gives the reader a look into her past -- her depressed mother who would spend lots of money dressing her up as a child, her good friend who gets snippy the day Louisa dresses up a little and gives her a little competition, etc. This is well-written, and divided into chapter alphabetically i.e. "G - Girlfriends" "H - Hats", etc.) Very entertaining!
Rating:
Summary: A story of transformation
Review: Louise embarks on her journey of transformation by reading a battered old copy of Elegance by a french author. Tessaro met with the original author in Paris and gained permission to reprint some of the original text in her novel. It makes for a clever segue to engage the reader from one chapter to the next. Parts of this book were very funny but on the whole not hilarious like "Bridget Jones Diary" although it will make you think about BJD. I look forward to her future work.
Rating:
Summary: A step above chic-lit
Review: Louise's life is going nowhere - her job, her marriage, her life - they are all grey. She comes upon a book that instructs on how to be elegant, and through working on how she looks, she completely changes her life; and along the way she discovers how her past has effected her present. There are some interesting observations on what passes for fulfilment in this modern world - how looking the part can sometimes get you the part; and could be seen as a meditation on finding out what you really want out of life and going for it. This book has its faults - the narrator/protagonist is not very likeable, and how can someone on a part-time job afford to buy multiple items from La Perla?? But if it is taken as a light, slightly posy name-dropping label obsessed step above chic lit, it could be extremely entertaining. Or maybe I am just fashion/style obsessed and shallow. (But the send up of the modern day Sloane Rangers is very funny).
Rating:
Summary: A DELICIOUS "CHICK-LIT"
Review: Not being a regular patron of the chick-lit genre or even a regular reader of Vogue or Cosmo, I was hesitant to pick up what clearly reeks on the cover of a girlie novel. And to an extent, I guess I was right in that the theme is not altogether unique -- a woman of means, Louise, finds herself at cross roads in life following a debunk marriage, thus sliding into a state of self-discovery and self-pampering. Distraught at what becomes a small but life-changing incident, she rebuilds herself and her life (and btw, her health, her wardrobe, her career) inspired and guided by the chic advise of Madame Dariaux. Except that she makes mistakes, gets things going topsy turvy, and has to improvise and update the advice she is so carefully living by. However, despite the somewhat annoyingly effeminate quirks of preening and primping, the very Vogue flair of writing, the tried and tested (ok, "hackneyed") theme of good old fashioned love gone awry, the somewhat predictable setting of - ahem - London, and even a gay best friend for our protagonist Louie, which apparently is an essential accessory for the modern woman...this novel is actually quite a page turner. The style of writing, as I mentioned, is very Magazine. A clear break from too much dense literature on the subject of dour romances. In its accurate potrayal of a woman's psyche, especially at an age when it is somewhat late to be making self-discoveries, the novel smacks of the class of Nick Hornby's "How to be good". The characters are very well developed without getting too prosaic, you will end up liking almost everyone (even the errant husband who was at the root of all grief). A quick-paced romp through the vagaries of high-soc life in London. With, as you probably imagined, a happy ending.
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