I was drawn to this book because of the cover and the Charleston setting, but what I got was so much more. I was immediately sucked into the worlds of Harper and Millie. Their stories were compelling and the Charleston location was just an added bonus. It was so interesting to read about a biracial character coming of age pre-Civil Rights Movement. It is heartbreaking to read the lengths that people had to go through in order to protect their own families, but this is/was the reality for so many people. I appreciated the detail the author went into regarding historical restorations and family heirlooms. I loved this book and was excited to see that it is the first in what will be a series.

I love timeslips because they give you the best of both worlds - a little contemporary and a little historical. Many times when I read a time slip, I end up liking one story more than the other. In this case, I was equally enthralled by both. Honestly, because Harper and Millie’s stories are so intertwined in the contemporary part of the novel, I almost felt like this was more of Millie’s life story.

Millie and Franklin’s story was equally as beautiful as it was heartbreaking. Several times while reading their story, it kind of broke my heart. After I read the authors note in the back of the book, my heart really did feel broken. While I loved their relationship, there was one thing I wish Millie would’ve handled a bit differently even though I understood that, for her, it seemed like the only choice. There was also a life changing decision that I wish both her and Franklin would’ve somehow been able to come to a different conclusion for because of the many lives it affected.

The Dress Shop on King Street by Ashley Clark is a story that will definitely touch your heart and one I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Told from multiple perspectives, and in multiple timelines, this book will suck you in from the very start and hold you rapt through to the last page. Harper's story is all told in present day, but Millie's story follows the timeline of her life until both of their stories converge. You'll feel the humidity of Charleston, the hopelessness of the post-Depression South, the constant flux of emotions of a mixed-race person growing up in this place and time, and the heartbreak of a mother... You'll stay up all night long, wanting to know how their stories end.

The Dress Shop on King Street by Ashley Clark is a unique and timely story about how race can affect a person. This story reminded me a lot of The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauck and The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton. This is a split-time story with present time and flashbacks to 1946 and jumping around into the two timelines meet. While race relations and issues may be present in the news, in the fifties and sixties, it was definitely an issue. Today, not as realistic as it was then. While the characters did shine in their glory, the plot felt like I have read it before. While I did enjoy it, it just felt like a repeat story. So it was not that unique or original. As for the romance between Peter and Harper, I didn't buy their relationship at all. When Millie had to announce to Peter that they liked each other, I was like they do. When did that happen? I wanted more to show their emotions blooming on the pages of the story. The writing was well-written. Clark did a wonderful job at showing the storyline, but I had a hard time with not feeling like it was deja-vu. Overall, The Dress Shop on King Street by Ashley Clark reads like a repeat story about race with a little twist to the plot. Fans of Rachel's Hauck's The Wedding Shop or Southern Fiction may find delight in the novel.

I received a complimentary copy of The Dress Shop on King Street by Ashley Clark, but the opinions stated are all my own.

Millie has a dream of owning a dress shop but sometimes dreams will take a lifetime to accomplish. Harper also dreams of owning a dress shop but every attempt fails. The author does a wonderful job of intertwining the lives of these two women to create a story of love, sacrifice and determination. I appreciated Peter's love of history and wanting to preserve it through restoration. Harper's love of repairing vintage clothing and protecting the history is a gift. Millie's story is an important one and is quite intriguing. Recommended!

Oh my goodness what an excellent debut novel!!! I could not put this book down, and I loved not knowing where the story would take me. A beautiful multigenerational story, The Dress Shop on King Street by Ashley Clark, seamlessly weaves together the past and the present, heartache, and joy in this fantastic page-turning story.

The story of Millie Middleton, the great-granddaughter of a slave (Ashley) who was sold at age 9 and forever separated from her mother Rose in 1860. Rose gave Ashley a flour sack containing an old dress, three handfuls of pecans, and a braid of her hair, and two butterfly buttons that continue to appear over the generations.

The story of Millie, a beautiful young woman, the daughter of loving parents, a black mother and an Italian father begins in 1946 when inter-racial marriages were banned and attitudes completely against biracial marriages were sadly incredibly prevalent. Millie's father dies trying to protect her from racist people who did not want her playing with their children. Millie's mother wants her to leave town to find a better life. Because of Millie's light skin, her mom wants her to pass herself off as a white woman to pursue her dream of owning a dress shop and having a better life far away from where she grew up. Millie loves both sides of her heritage and struggles with trying to hide one of them.

"But here on this train between home and new ground, God settled how very deeply she was loved, even as her grandparents before her had been, and the generations before them, She would embroider Rose and Asley's story on the satchel when she got situated in Alabama. Maybe that would bring some closure about the life she had to leave for the life she wanted to live. The hidden heritage that still caused her to ache with pride, regardless of where she called home."

Millie later says of her hero of a husband "Well, I can't speak to what he was trying to find, but what he did find was me, and I'll tell you, that changed things for both of us."

Millis is simultaneously vulnerable, tough, and funny. She & Franklin are very easy to love. "Sometimes life gives us those moments. Like the very first flutter of a butterfly's wings. Moments that are so profound and so purely beautiful, you try to capture them so that you can come back to them later."

In the present timeline, Millie reconnects with her former neighbor and sewing student Harper, who is at a crossroads in her life, and she also connects with a handsome young man Peter who Millie has known for many years. Peter has a great love of history and is trying to unravel his own family history one clue at a time.

Later in life Millie reflects:
"How do you do right by your child when you don't even know what that is or looks like? At times, I was convinced I'd allowed fear to make all my decisions and done everything wrong. other times, some awful act of racial violence would be in the paper, and I'd feel justified."

The themes of the resurrection of hope and dreams, family past and present, and striving towards your dreams, come full circle in this very compelling story. I highly recommend The Dress Shop on King Street!

Thank you to Bethany House and Net Galley for allowing me to read an early copy. I loved it! All opinions are my own.

The Dress Shop on King Street is the debut novel by Ashley Clark. It was a book that I talked about to others even before I had it all finished. The book was a wonderful weaving of stories from slavery to modern day and from South Carolina to Alabama.
The author creates a character in Millie that is totally believable, and you get caught up in the emotions of the moments and what she goes through. The cast of characters that are introduced are very vivid with details that you can just see in your mind. The way that the author describes circumstances and feelings make this book a page turner. Even though it is a modern-day story, the author tells you where in time the memory takes place which weaves the story fabric even stronger with more depth and belief.
The other main characters of Harper and Peter are strong characters the author uses to further tell the story of Millie. She tells of how God puts people in places and circumstances to weave His story. Perhaps this book resonated more with me because I am a sewer and quilter, or perhaps because I am a daughter and mother, or perhaps because I am a lover of history, or perhaps because it is a GREAT penmanship of words.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. #NetGalley #AshleyClark #TheDressShopOnKingStreet

Two beautiful butterfly buttons, tucked into the bag of a little girl who is being taken away from her mother, become heirlooms and connect a young man to his grandmother. Ashley Clark weaves a beautiful story showing the ultimate triumph of truth over lies as we pursue our dreams and God's purpose. Millie and Harper share a dream of opening a dress shop. Both have felt the pain of a dream deferred. We follow their paths in Millie's past story and their present connection. Millie's struggles with her biracial heritage and the racism of her day are heartbreaking and a jarring reality of the work we still have to do. Harper's struggle with self-doubt is a reminder of our daily spiritual battle against the enemy. Using beautiful metaphors with buttons, seams, butterflies, water, and more Clark gives us all a reminder of our Maker and His love in the midst of the toils and troubles of this veil of tears.
There were times when I felt the seams were unraveling a bit regarding the plot, but the writing is beautiful and I look forward to Heirloom Secrets #2.

Thank you to Bethany House and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review. All my opinions are my own.

THE DRESS SHOP ON KING STREET is a dual timeline story, it is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I can't imagine having my child sold, or having to give away one of my twins because one was black and one was light skinned. I was equally captivated by both timelines , the author does a great job with setting the scene and the characters. I will look forward to more from this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bethany House for my copy of this book.

This was a well written book involving three time periods. It dealt well with the issue of race in America through the years and of true character.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review.

I do not always care for books that swing between different time periods but Ashley Clark intertwined these two stories beautifully. I kept wanting to know more about each character. I was invested in Harper, Millie and even Peter. Highly recommended!!

Charleston is one of my favorite places in the world so I loved getting to read about it in the current day and in the past. The way this story tied together, almost immediately if you were paying attention. I really liked Ashley Clark's writing and this story as a whole just felt comfortable even though it dealt with uncomfortable topics. This would be a great book club book.

Themes of race and the pursual of dreams are given a light touch in this easy to read novel by Ashley Clark. Using a dual time line, the stories of Millie, a bi-racial woman who lived a "white" life and Ashley, a young woman Millie taught to sew are intertwined. Millie and Ashley have each had a dream to own a dress shop, but different obstacles have gotten in their way. Finally, their dream seems as if it will come true thanks in part to a charming young man who is important to Millie and Ashley in different ways. This is a clean, charming novel with a touch of romance. Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC ebook edition.

Wow. What a book. As a person who enjoys sewing, I was initially drawn to the book on those grounds. The early chapters speaking to the horrors of the personal toll of slavery were very emotional for me, and reading the personal strength through the generations and how they found their way was uplifting. I loved how small tokens of heirlooms tied the story together and gave clues to the connections.

I received a free ARC from Netgalley.
I like books about dress shops since I majored in Fashion Design for a time in college and the fashion world still appeals to me. That isn't the main focus of this book, but it does weave together the stories of the two main women characters--Millie and Harper. Millie is half black and half Italian, but she can pass for white which leads to both joy and sorrow in this book about protecting those we love from the unjust systemic racism that abounds. A very good read.

The story just took my breath away! This dual timeline story captured me from the opening paragraphs and had me enthralled to the very end. What a poignant story of loss and second chances. The author weaves the stories of Millie and Harper (and Franklin and Peter) together beautifully. Millie’s racial identity has a transforming influence on all her choices. I found myself feeling deeply her agony as she felt she was continually prevented from living out her dream. Harper’s feeling of failure in achieving her life dream also resonates. She is crushed and withdraws into herself. It is only through helping Millie achieve her dream that she finds a way to achieve her own.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is the first book I read by Ashley Clark so I wasn't sure what to expect. What a pleasant surprise!! The book is beautifully written going back and forth telling us Millie's story. I was just as invested in her past as I was in the 'modern time' with Harper and Peter. It was also a breath of fresh air to read a historical fiction book not based around WWII.

Thank you NetGalley, Ashely Clark, and Bethany House Publishers for this ARC.

The Dress Shop on King Street is a heartbreaking yet beautiful story. Racism is the main theme here and I commend Ashley Clark’s bravery in writing such a novel and doing so with such diplomacy. This was a dual time period novel, one beginning in the 1940s and the other in present day. The historic storyline will move you and is a sobering reminder that such events really didn’t happen all that long ago. But this novel will also bring you joy. The contemporary storyline ties in well to the old, however, I did preferred the historic one as it had a lot more depth and felt more realistic. But overall, this was an excellent story, thoughtfully and creatively put together. I’m glad I had the opportunity to read it.

This is an interesting portrayal of how a young woman must deal with her biracial background in the 1940’s. It’s a story of a mother’s love and sacrifice for her family. I’m not a seamstress, but I loved how the author wove this art into the story. Every handmade item has a story behind it, and it is up to us to learn that story and cherish it. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Ashley Clark’s books.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a beautiful story about Millie Middleton, the child of an Italian father African American mother. After her father was killed by racists her mother realizes that Millie could pass for white. Millie is sent away to start a life where no one would know her heritage.
A wonderful story of passion , love and hardship. But so much more!
Will look for more of this authors books. This book does not disappoint!