Rating: 
Summary: Just Another Brit Chick Read
Review: Okay, I was going to swear off Brit Chick Lit. But the premise for this book appealed to me, and the fact that the author is a transplanted Yank gave me hope. The main character, a transplanted Pittsburgher, is married but frumpy, and then she transforms herself and her life after running across a vintage style manual called "Elegance." The chapter heads, which go from A to Z, detail everything from "accessories" to "jewelry." It's a cute premise, and some of Tessaro's writing is pithy. However, this book suffers from the same plot, same lack of surprises and same plodding pace as other across the pond women's books like "Bad Heir Day," "Pride, Prejudice and Jasmine Field," and countless others. It raises the same question: why can't any one of these authors think of another plot? In a nutshell, this book, and all its clones, has a slightly downtrodden, perhaps overweight or badly dressed heroine. She starts to dress better/loses weight/gains self-confidence. She dumps a horrible crush/boyfriend/husband. She somehow gets out of her dead-end job/parent's house/work rut and achieves fabulous success working for a glossy women's magazine/the Royal Opera House/a hip PR firm. She always gets some new, handsome boyfriend at the end, and she always ends up fabulously happy. I'm all for fluff, but I'm sick of reading the same story over and over again. I'm done with Brit Chick Lit
Rating:
Summary: Interesting...but
Review: Parts of this book are delightful, such as the excerpts from Madame Dariaux's book. The story itself skips along breezily and held my interest. However, the main character in the book, Louise, is appalling self-centered and began to grate on my nerves. Only once in the book does she think about or help others and even then it was in a self-serving manner. And, as other reviewers have noted, Louise does not act her age. She also supposedly has an eating disorder which is resolved in an incrediably unbelievable way. Good beach read, but don't expect much. The best "character" in the book is Madame Dariaux.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy and fun read
Review: pick it up if you want something to read on the beach or in the country. Not a brilliant piece of literature, but light entertainment for a weekend. Correction to the editorial review: Genevieve Dariaux is very real and alive and still impecably elegant - at nearly 90 years of age.
Rating:
Summary: Fun Brigit Jones Clone
Review: Thirty-two year old Yankee Louise is surrounded by chic London socialites, while she miserably stands vigil by her husband's side at a boring gallery opening where she is mistaken in her out-of-date and ill-fitting frock as pregnant. Such disgrace begins Louise's journey to fashion and confidence nirvana with a used book by a French fashion expert as her knowing guide. As Louise whips through the encyclopedic style manual,---we are treated to excerpts in all 26 chapter headings---she sheds not only her excess weight, but her scared-to-come-out-of-the-closet husband. The revelation that 'elegance' merely means looking appropriate for the occasion, for one's companion and for oneself, comes slowly---Louise actually arrives at date with a man at the Ritz in a tarty outfit and panicking must swap clothes with a more classically refined friend --- Tessaro has fun making the most of describing Louise's faux pas along the way to discovering a style of her own. The ending, of course, borders on the predictable---with the dawning of personal taste and an involvement in one's own life, comes the reward, in this case a rather dishy musician who is 8 years younger than Louise. Lucky Louise.
"Elegance" offers yet another glance at the Cinderella story that has been done over and over again, time out of mind. If you've just read Brigit Jones and are a bit tired of deciphering the British slang and celebrity references, I would pass on this one until at least it comes out in paperback or you are in the mood for more of the same. The novel is meant to be fun, there are no grand revelations or great secrets here, just common sense----although some readers are obviously taking it quite seriously as I have read that copies of the quoted Dariaux book are currently big business on E*bay. I will recommend it for those who, like myself, like a fun read about fashion and becomng a swan instead of an ugly duckling---what could be more appealing? I will also recommend it as a springboard to those who enjoy exploring a more classic quieter way of life even though this is just touched upon in the novel. You laughed a bit and found Louise's antics amusing, now, check out "Joie De Vivre" by restauranteur Arbor--a charming look at French life---and Will Clower's "The Fat Fallacy" which explains the French manner of eating to stay slim. "Elegance", the novel will intrigue you by Tessaro's modern interpretaion of Madame Dariaux's "Elegance" where dressing well and looking well are equally as important as eating and savoring your life and push you through to your own thresold to find such a life of your own.
Rating:
Summary: Deeper than Chick-Lit
Review: This book was very interesting- what I assumed from the start would be a book about a bored houseife trying to lose weight and live up to her ex-model mother-in-law, ended up being a much deeper story that slowly revealed itself to the reader. The underlying reasons behind Louise's depression and search for self are revealed in flashbacks that are haunting and disturbing- all slowly molding the reader's image of Louise. I thought this book was a great read. Deep, but also a very quick and entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Charming book
Review: This is a cute story. I laughed, I cried, I cringed. Did I mention I laughed? A self-help book laced within the pages of a chick lit novel. I can hardly wait for the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Fun and quick read
Review: This was a buy for the 3-hour flight to and from CA. Read it in these 2 sittings. Well-written and funny with great little tid-bits thrown in for good measure. Enjoyed it immensely. Of course, this is not a "how-to", it's a novel...but there is something to be admired and even inspired about a woman who manages to get her act together under her own voliton.
Rating:
Summary: a 3 1/2 star read
Review: When I first read the blurb on the dustjacket, I thought that "Elegance" read like a "Bridget Jones" type of novel except that it revolved around an unhappy and unsatisfied married woman (Louise Canova). And then I wondered if we really needed another "Bridget Jones" type of book. Well, while I was a little wrong about the novel being a "Bridget Jones" clone (there are similarities but there are a lot of differences as well), my feelings about this novel are mixed -- there were some things I really liked (like how the heroine manages to take action, make changes and so achieve happiness), there were some things that really irritated as well (like the fact that for a 32 year old woman, Louise has the appalling habit of pouting and sulking whenever things don't really go as she would like them to). The storyline is a very basic one: Louise Canova, a married 32 year old, suddenly wakes up to the fact that she's deeply unhappy, unsatisfied with the turn that her life has taken, and that she has become very frumpish. She has an elegant ex-model mother-in-law she really dislikes (even as she craves her approval and attention), and her husband (who remains nameless throughout the novel) seems more interested in housekeeping than in her. And then Louise, a used bookstore junkie (at least for the first few chapters of "Elegance") finds a copy of a book (circa 1950s/1960s?) that promises to teach plain Janes how to become the very epitome of elegance. Louise begins to take the lessons that the book offers very much to heart, hoping to become the elegant swan she craves to be, little expecting the actual impact the book will actually have on her life. For suddenly, Louise is confronted with some uncomfortable truths about her past, present and the possible future that is in store for her if she doesn't change things soon... If you're looking for a laugh-a-minute, witty romp of a novel a-la "Bridget Jones," think twice before picking up "Elegance." "Elegance" is a little darker, sometimes rather sad and somber novel. There are, it is true, moments of great humour and warmth, and you cannot help but root for Louise to become the elegant swan, get the job, the man and happiness that is her due. But there were also the moments when I wanted to shake our heroine really hard for all her sulking and pouting when things didn't play out as she would have wanted them to. So was "Elegance" a worthwhile read? For me, certain passages/descriptions (like where the authour describes used bookstores and the fascination that some of us have for them and when she describes that feeling of delicious exhilaration when you're not so much with the man as in love with his fascination/attraction with/to you) that really made this book for me. Storywise, you can more or less guess in which direction the novel (and Louise) is going after the first few chapters. But the prose style, the painful lessons that Louise learns, and watching her become the 'swan' she was meant to be, all made the book a somewhat worthwhile read. Though I'd advise either borrowing a copy of "Elegance" from the library, hinting like mad that a friend lend (or give you) her copy, or else waiting a year for the book to come out in tradepaper, as it is a bit difficult to justify spending the hardcover price for this book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother, You've Read this Book Before
Review: When or how did this whole genre of Chick Lit develop? Was it Bridget Jones' adventures? Or was it birthed by the hapless in love but designer clothing diva Carrie Bradshaw of HBO's "Sex in the City?" No matter who started, it must end now. These books follow a tried, true, and tired formula. First, it begins with a neurotic or depressed woman who is either unhappily married or unhappily single. She usually has a glamorous-looking best bud; a handsome but single gay friend; a job in the arts or media; issues with her weight; and bigger issues with her mom. She's socially inept, and stumbles around social situations like Larry David on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" yet her soon-to-be love interest finds this endearing. She makes bad decisions you can see a mile away, and thinks that life will be much better when she has lost 15-lbs and purchased a pair of Prada pumps! Finally, she realizes through some miracle of love or wisdom from a male friend or love interest that she is fine just the way she is. "Elegance," like all books of this ilk, is an overwrought after-school special for adult women. It hardly offers anything relatively new or realistic or believable. The lesson is heavy-handed, and you don't feel at all enriched. The only thing you're left with at the end is the longing to beat some good sense into the protagonist, Louise, and to give her the phonr number of a good therapist. The best thing about this audio book is the wonderful English accents done by Elizabeth McGovern.
Rating: 
Summary: So disappointing!
Review: Wonderful premise, eye-catching cover and utterly disappointing inside! The writing and storyline are lame, uninteresting, predictable and juvenile. I can't believe any woman will feel engaged by Louise, the poorly drawn and dull main character. Don't be fooled by the clever premise, skip this flat, poorly written dud.
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