She Walks In Beauty

Title: She Walks In Beauty
Author: Siri Mitchell
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0433-3

From Goodreads:

For a young society woman seeking a favorable marriage in the late 1890s, so much depends on her social season debut. Clara Carter has been given one goal: secure the affections of the city's most eligible bachelor. Debuting means plenty of work--there are corsets to be fitted, dances to master, manners to perfect. Her training soon pays off, however, as celebrity's spotlight turns Clara into a society-page darling. Yet Clara wonders if this is the life she really wants, especially when she learns her best friend has also set her sights on Franklin De Vries. When a man appears who seems to love her simply for who she is, and gossip backlash turns ugly, Clara realizes it's not just her heart at stake--the future of her family depends on how she plays the game.

My Take:

This is one of those books I wanted as soon as I saw it listed. One of the reasons was because of the author. She always puts ... depth into her stories that make them even more beautiful than what they are if you don't notice that deeper message. Then there was that cover. I'm ashamed to admit it ~ but it has to be one of the most beautiful covers I've seen and I am guilty of being drawn to a beautifully decorated book.

Clara is a young woman who feels a little more like a beautifully dressed pawn being moved about in a game she isn't even sure she knows the purpose of. She knows she is supposed to catch the heir. Why ~ she isn't certain, the how she can't always abide and seems not to be in her best interest most of the time. Plus she is competing for him with her very best friend. She doesn't even like him.

When she does find someone who likes her for herself alone and doesn't make her uncomfortable, she is confused between what her head and heart tell her and what her family tell her is her duty to them. Add a mysterious newspaper column that seems to know her every move and makes accusations about her family and Clara is not sure what the right course of action is.

The author did a wonderful job of painting a picture of what these debutantes went through trying to achieve the fashionably beautiful look and how that could hurt their health. Clara not only was forced to endure these techniques, but she was used by those who should have loved her the most in order to achieve their own ends. This is wonderfully contrasted by finding someone who accepts her for who she is and tells her about God, who values and loves her just as she is because He created her.

Women today still struggle with whether or not they are beautiful. They have a hard time accepting it no matter what their loved ones say. Beauty is more than fashion ~ fashion changes. Beauty is knowing and understanding that you are loved by your creator - who makes no mistakes. Don 't accept anything less than that in your life.

This is a beautiful love story and one of my very favorites this year. I hope you enjoy it as well.