Title: Confederates Don’t Wear Couture
Series: Pilgrims #2
Author: Stephanie Kate Strohm
Publish date: June 4th 2013 by Graphia
Source: ARC provided by the publisher for a fair and honest review
Buy it from: Amazon
Goodreads summary:
Libby’s best friend and fabulous fashion designer, Dev, hatches a plan to jet down South and hawk his period gowns to the wives and girlfriends of Civil War re-enactors. With a pang, Libby abandons her plan to visit her boyfriend, Garrett, in Boston and jumps at the chance to help run “Confederate Couture,” and let her inner history nerd loose in a 19th century playground. But Libby and Dev aren’t whistling Dixie for long. Between the constant travel from battle ground to dusty battle ground (with no Starbucks in sight, mind you), blistering heat, and a violent ghost set on romantic revenge, they quickly realize Alabama’s no sweet home. And the boys. . . well, let’s just say Libby’s got the North and the South fighting for her attention.
Review:
When I finished reading Confederates Don’t Wear Couture, I thought that my review would read very similarly to the one I wrote for Stephanie Kate Strohm’s Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink. Let’s see if I was right.
It’s a year later and Libby’s been talked into spending yet another summer in period costume– only this time she’s following Confederate troop reenactors around with her best friend Dev. I still liked Libby for the most part– her passion for history is evident and the nuggets of information peppered throughout Confederates Don’t Wear Couture were really interesting.
Last time, I think I compared Stephanie Kate Strohm’s work to the Shopaholic series, but for some reason this one put me more in the mind of the movie Clueless– which isn’t a bad thing, really. Libby just reminded me a bit of Cher this go-around. She’s a sweet girl, but some of the things she says had me shaking my head a bit, like calling someone a ho-bag, etc.
There’s also her best friend Dev. Now, I like Dev; he’s a funny dude. But there were times when I wished he was a little less of a gay stereotype. Sometimes it felt like that was his entire identity, and it would have been nice if he was gay– but with traits or character moments that stood apart from that and were just Dev. Does that make sense? I like the diversity he brings to the novel, I just wish it was a little less stereotypical.
Bottom line though: this is a cute novel. If you like a sprinkling of history and you’re a fan of classic “chick lit–” or the movie Clueless– I do recommend it. It’s a short read that I think you’ll enjoy.
Need a second opinion?
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