Title: The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie AntoinetteAuthor: Bianca Turetsky; Illustrator: Sandra Suy
Publisher: Poppy
Edition: II/eBook English Version
Published: September 2012
Page: 272
ISBN: 978-0-316-20295-4
Genre: Teenage Life, Young-Adult Fiction, Fashion
Synopsis: What if a beautiful dress could take you back in time? Louise Lambert's best friend's thirteenth birthday party is fast approaching, so of course the most important question on her mind is, "What am I going to wear?!" Slipping on an exquisite robin's egg blue gown during another visit to the mysterious Traveling Fashionista Vintage Sale, Louise finds herself back in time once again, swept up in the glory of palace life, fancy parties, and enormous hair as a member of the court of France's most infamous queen, Marie Antoinette. But between cute commoner boys and glamorous trips to Paris, life in the palace isn't all cake and couture. Can Louise keep her cool-and her head!-as races against the clock to get home?
***
Louise Lambert, a teenage Traveling Fashionista, was very interested in vintage fashion. Anything about vintage fashion always made her super excited. Unlike her, her best friend, Booke was very interested in modern fashion. Thus, she became a queen of fashion at school. However, that made no different in their friendship. Speaking of vintage fashion and traveling fashionista, Louise had a very awesome but terrifying experience of traveling back into old ages. In her first experience of traveling backward, she embodied her great great aunt, one who was sailing on the infamous Titanic.
By sliding into a vintage robin-egg old-typical-French dress, she traveled backward into an era decades ago. Far different from her first experience, the second experience led her to embody a colleague yet best friend of the infamous queen of France, Marie Antoinette. During her adventure of becoming Gabrielle, she discovered many interesting facts about France on old days. Better than what she might discover if she flew to France on modern days. Amazingly, she also made friends with some graceful and honored ladies in Versailles.
Befriended by Marie Antoinette, Louise figured out that the young queen had a bunch of interest in fashion as well as herself. At first, she considered that it was the most awesome and trendiest thing on earth way back then, especially, the queen was the biggest inspiration of fashion couture in France (she initiated the fashion revolution for women). As time goes by, she realized that the way the queen spending much money on fashion was no good. It would escort the queen to face a disaster which might endanger herself. Moreover, Louise remembered what her teacher at school said about the "horrible" French Revolution against the royal family due to public poverty and corruption among the royals. It seriously made Louise anxious about what happen next to the queen and to herself as Gabrielle. She must stop it from happening.
The clock kept ticking. Louise had no much time left at Versailles as Gabrielle. She decided to warn the queen about the movement outside the palace, like what Pierre (her accidentally French crush) told her. in which the queen had no idea about. Unless, the queen and other royal family members might face deathly fate. Could she do that alone? Would her warning make difference on the history? How about another Traveling Fashionista she discovered accidentally at a palace in Versailles? Why was her Traveling Fashionista-enchanted robin-egg blue dress missing together with Adelaide? How could Louise go back to her real world if her dress was missing? Louise was run out of time!
~o~
The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette is the second sequel of The Time-Traveling Fashionista written by Bianca Turetsky. It was a good book to read, anyway. There are some parts I like from it.
The main characters mentioned in the story are basically Louise Lambert, Marie Antoinette, Adelaide (a friend of Marie Antoinette), and two peculiar ladies owned the Traveling Fashionista Sale. Louise Lambert is described into a curious teenage who has huge interest in vintage fashion more than modern fashion. Her interest in vintage fashion somehow leads her into unforgettable experiences of traveling backwards to some ages of fashion development.
The basic setting of place is Marie Antoinette's palace in Versailles, France. Meanwhile, the setting of time is during the era of King Louis XIV.
The conflicts face by Louise as the main character are quite complicated (for she was living two different lives; nowadays and far old days). On one side, she was facing a trouble against her parents since her father was fired from his current job. It automatically cut off Louise's dream of enjoying a school trip to Paris, France as consequence. Regardless, she enjoyed her own magical experience in Paris by traveling backward. On another side, Louise, as Gabrielle, was facing a conflict with herself whether or not she must save the queen and herself from the "tragic" revolution.
The plot is easy to follow. Even though the story is promising a historical story combined with casual story in modern days, but the plot is just like reading a recount text. It is interesting, though. How the story ends is smoothly mysterious.
I have to say that this book could feed my hunger of a casual fiction book talking about fashion, despite of Shopaholic Series by Sophie Kinsella. Besides, it blends fashion, enchanting history, and semi-fairy tale in one package. This book is nice to read. Unfortunately, the story is quite flat for me. There is no many ups and downs. To my mind, the first sequel (The Time-Traveling Fashionista on Board the Titanic) tells the story better. But, still, the second sequel is worth reading as well.
My rating: 3 out of 5 crowns
~Happy Reading~
xoxo
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