Scandal Wears Satin

A scheming milliner finds love with an obstinate lord in 1830s London in Chase’s delightful second Dressmakers installment (after Silk Is for Seduction). Dressmaker Marcelline Noirot married a duke and earned the enmity of the wealthy Lady Warford, who subsequently blackballed the Noirot family dress shop. Nonetheless, her sister Sophy intends to keep dressing Lady Warford’s daughter, Clara, despite Sophy’s inconvenient attraction to Clara’s rakish brother, Lord Longmore. When scandal forces Clara into an engagement to the scheming Lord Adderley and threatens to deprive Maison Noirot of its star client, Sophy must put all her cleverness and charm to the test to save the business without losing her heart. While the situation of the Noirots often strains belief, the lively romance between two refreshingly direct lovers is generally pleasing, and thorough historical research is displayed to advantage in the detailed descriptions of the exaggerated fashions of the era and amusing excerpts from real and fictional periodicals. (July)