Review Detail

The sewing pains of love in the spotlight. How sweet and unique.

Your Dream for Me by Alison Schaffir is YA contemporary novel that follows Scarlett, attempting to follow her dreams of becoming fashion designer. But the fact that her life is nothing short of a fashion disaster, keeps her from achieving said dream. Until she stumbled through the costume racks of her high school theater club, where she meets the classic love interest Nathaniel Wilder. Tasked with creating 50-unqiue fashion pieces as part of her admissions process for her dream school, Scarlett relies on Nathaniel with his expertise in the dramatics and the simple use of sewing machine. What's the worse that could happen?

What I liked most about Schaffir's novel, was her characterization of Scarlett. Instead of being the softy and lofty expected protagonist, she wasn't afraid to kick butt and take names. Though I really wanted to like Nathaniel, I found him to be a bit whiny and cookie-cutter-esque in terms of being exactly the love interest I expected, discombobulated to the point of frustration and nearly throwing this precious book against a wall. In a good way.

However, I found this book to be quite confusing in the sense that the plot was a bit messy in terms of it's pacing. Especially in the way, it was setup with no clear indication that time was shifting forward. Like, one chapter was about the winter formal. Then the next would be about prom. I just wish Schaffir included all the juicy details of the in-between. Don't even get me started on that ending, either.

Regardless of my many aggravations with pacing and the ultimate need to know what happens to Scarlett following the final line, I will most definitely pick up anything by Alison Schaffir. Especially if she writes a sequel to this lovely piece. Goodbye for now.