Enjoyable, light reading. Set in the 1920's, Pandora's father is a tennis pro for a wealthy family in New York. She is able to mix and mingle with the upper crusty set and hopes to marry a wealthy man and become a fashion designer. After an initial disappointment and reality check at the beginning of the novel, she moves on with her life and gets serious about her design work. She is offered a huge compromise which will give her seemingly everything she ever wanted. Will she take it, and what happens next?

Great for beach reading. Light historical fiction

Thank you to Author Anita Abriel, Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC. All opinions shared are my own.

I'll admit, I was very close to DNFing this after the first third. Pandora comes across as incredibly immature in her relationships and views on life, but I hoped that as she aged, she would grow. Even with all the huge life events she experiences in the story, she remains largely the same with a very self centred view of the world. It's really hard to commiserate with a character like that.

I enjoyed the historical elements captured throughout the story; it was fun to see what the world looked like for the US elite before the stock market crash and subsequent changes to their lifestyles. These were easily the best aspects of the book and had clearly been well researched.

After reading the ending, I felt that many plot points in the book became obsolete and I had guessed the ending right at the beginning. A little more mystery and a growing maturity to Pandora would make such a huge difference!

Set in the 1920s, in a world where "getting married is considered more important than graduating", Pandora, born into a modest family, flirts with high society, dreams of becoming a fashion designer, a wife and a mom, but when her life takes a turn she has to find a way to move on.
I have to be 100% honest: I requested this book on NetGalley solely based on the cover, which reminded me a lot of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (which I loved). So I went in completely blind... and it turns out it was very different.
This is a historical fiction. I have read in many reviews that Pandora is seen as a very strong character, but I don't see it. Maybe because I felt she didn't really have any substance. I think she was kind of letting life happen instead of living it. I also would have liked to learn more about all of this side characters. Overall I would've liked to see a deeper dive into some of the plot points and a shallower one on others (the start is super slow and repetitive , and some things felt like filler - Pandora is good at tennis but would like Owen to see her as more than that, we get it, no need to spend 15% of the book on that...). I would've loved to see more of Pandora acheiving and living her dream of becoming a dress designer. If you like historical fiction with self realization of the main character, this one may be for you!
I received an advance review copy of this book for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Pandora was raised by her tennis pro father on an estate in 1920's New York. She has her whole life planned out- wealthy husband with a loving family, a beautiful house, and a boutique to sell the dresses she designs. When the object of her affection gets engaged to someone else, a new man appears. But he is not exactly the person she had in mind. Will Pandora get everything she wants?

I liked this historical fiction book with some romance, it was an easy read. I loved the setting and some of the characters. However, it felt like it was taking the easiest storyline paths and used a ton of stereotypes. I really hated that the main character's name was Pandora- every time I read it, it took me out of the story completely. I also felt that some of the writing was also very simplistic- it almost felt like it was a YA novel. Unfortunately, this one was just okay for me and I'm not sure I'll remember it at all.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Meh. The best part of this book was the time period and the cover
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Here’s what didn’t work for me:
* Repetition issues
* Awkward pacing
* Very predictable plot
* Pandora - it seems that all she wants is to marry a rich man and any man will do
* Short book - just under 300 pages and as a result, the plot and events were not as well developed as they could have been. There were large jumps of time - Pandora comes up with a plan, then suddenly it’s a year later

This is all about starting over. Pandora thought she had it all until her marriage went crashing to earth so she heads to France where one of her father's tennis proteges lives. And then there's the stock market crash, Pandora is always sort of an outsider- she lived with her father on an estate and associated with the wealthy but wasn't one of them. She didn't quite cut it in her husband's social circuit. She wanted to have. dress shop more than anything than perhaps Archie, her childhood friend. There's, oddly, not a lot here despite the period and the potential drama. That said, it makes for a fast and somewhat entertaining read, Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Historical fiction.

"I started reading this book thinking it was just another romance and I have been pleasantly surprised. With a firm setting, rich in believable elements, and a protagonist who grows through unthinkable difficulties, we are given a story to treasure. The first pages paint us an immature Pandora: ambitious but naive... as the plot progresses, she flourishes into a determined woman, sure of herself and in charge of her life. A woman who is forced to reinvent herself, starting from scratch. She finds true love, but never allows it to steal the spotlight from her own story.

In short: Applause for the author, who knew how to create such incredible female characters."

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the chance to read The life she wanted by Anita Abriel. This should have been a 4 star read for me, but it pales besides some of the other books I have read recently (Last dress from Paris, and The wedding dress sewing circle). The beginning was slow and spent too much time on the early days of Pandora as she desperately wants to design dresses and own a boutique. The book meandered, and didn't actually become interesting until after the 50% mark. I expected more about Pandora's becoming a dress designer, but found it was a small portion of the book. I do recommend this book for anyone interested in the 20's era.

The Life She Wanted a beautifully well written and truly inspirational story. I was not disappointed in reading Pandora’s story, a young naïve, ambitions woman full of dreams and breaking down the views of the times, learning and growing to fulfill those dreams with the support of friends and love. A highly recommended, unputdownable novel.
I would like to thank Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this complimentary copy for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Pandora wants to be a dress designer. She works hard and marries well enough to finally open a shop, only to have tragedy strike. Can she recover and flourish.

This just didn't work for me. I did not connect with the characters, and because this was a character driven novel, it just fell apart. The characters were flat and lacked personality. They should have been strong enough to carry the story, but they weren't - only Virginia sort of interested me. Also, the writing did not thrill me. It needed some serious editing. There was too much telling and way too much info-dumping, especially in the beginning, which bogged the story down and made the beginning very rough and hard to get through.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this new novel by the talented but new to me author Anita Abriel titled The Life She Wanted. Although this is Anita’s fifth book, it’s a departure from her previous books’ topics which all deal with WWII and its aftermath. This book, by contrast, takes place primarily prior to and during WWI and then the stock market crash and Great Depression. It’s a bird’s eye view into the lives of the rich and famous of the gilded age and the decadent lives they lived in New York before it came crashing down around them.

Most of the characters we meet aren’t very likable, as one would expect. However, the protagonist of this story is a young girl who’s always been on the outside looking in, being the daughter of one of the estate’s live-in tennis pros. Nonetheless, growing up on the estate she has forged indelible, close bonds to the siblings there, both of whom are around her age and who do not treat her any differently than any of their other friends. In fact, they seem to treat her with an even higher esteem, including her in their social events when they finally “come of age,” though many of the rest of their peers and their families do not.

When she finally thinks she’s been fully accepted into their midst by marrying one of their eligible bachelor friends, life still is less than ideal and becomes worse when tragedy strikes, leaving her a widow with a young child and her dreams of becoming an independent woman with her own career shattered.

Although I felt I was able to predict the ending early on in the book, it still was a satisfying conclusion. Thank you to Ms. Abriel, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me an advanced reader’s digital copy of this novel to read and allowing me to share my personal experience with it voluntarily.

Thank you for the chance to read this lovely historical fiction! I loved the time period of New York in the 1920s, and the characters love stories. There was a bit of a slow start, but I enjoyed the delightful story and look forward to more books by this author.

This book was like a present…as I continued to read so many interesting facets came to life within its pages. Set in the tumultuous 1920’s Anita Abriel depicts the life of Pandora, a young woman who grew up on the fringes of extremely wealthy families due to her father’s prowess as a tennis coach. Her dreams were many and the hurdles were high. The reader is treated to scenes of tennis matches, fashion designing, travel, love, and heartbreak. Pandora is an interesting main character but there are a myriad of other characters that drew me in - her mother in law, Adele, her best friend, Virginia, and her lover, Maurice, her daughter, Esme, and finally her husbands, Harley and Archie.
The descriptions of the fashions, the settings, and the parties brought vivid pictures in my mind.
I would love to read a sequel of this book as I so cherished the relationship between Adele, Pandora, and Esme. I can’t help but wonder how Adele and Virginia will handle Pandora’s news.
My sincere appreciation to Anita Abriel for taking me to a period of opulence and despair. Thank you for your delicacy in sharing Harley’s secret. I so enjoyed this read. Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for affording me the pleasure of reading an arc of this just published read.

This is a new author for me, and I will definitely checkout her other novels. I really liked this book. Set in the 20s and 30s, in upscale Hyde Park, we follow the story of Pandora Carmichael, the young daughter of a tennis coach for the very wealthy Van Luyen’s family. They live in a cottage on the estate, Pandora helps out in the kitchen, and is best friends with the Van Luyen adult children, Archie and Virginia. She is often include and invited to social events at neighboring families and feels very much a part of the Hyde Park “high society”. She even has her sights on the son of one of the wealthy families, but whether she will be found suitable for marriage is a big question.
Her talented dressmaking, keeps her well dressed and knowledgeable of current fashions, that rival her more well to do chums. When the handsome Owen that she has fallen for and awaits a marriage proposal, announces his engagement to Lillian Clarkson, the daughter of a steel magnate, she is devastated. So she sets her sights on Harley, the gentle handsome son of a New York City bank owner, and they soon become close.
This is a well written tale of life among the super wealthy and a young girl, far below their status, that hopes to improve her station in life.Anita Abriel is a talented writer with a riveting story and interesting characters. It’s easy to picture the glitzy life of the super wealthy New Yorkers and the young woman raised among them, reluctant to take a place in employment as an office clerk or factory worker. She has plans to take her dress designs to Manhattan.
I rated this novel with five stars because it has everything that a fan of romantic women’s fiction enjoys. My thanks to *NetGalley *LakeUnionPublishing and the author, for the ARC. All comments are my own.

The Life She Wanted is a story filled with wealth, dreams, desires, scandal, and also looking for love.

Pandora dreams of being a designer but also wants to be wealthy enough to be able to afford to open a boutique of her own. She is stuck in a world of barely meeting her needs and in the world of wealth due to her friends. She does find her happiness but with a cost.

I liked this novel for the portrayal of the 1920s fashion and the descriptions of the grandeur of its era. Virginia probably was my favorite character in the book, but we see very little of her. Overall, this book is a good paced historical fiction with wonderful fashion!

Thank you, Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley, for this book.

History comes alive in this brilliant, highly-imaginative, and vivid novel. Immersive and revelatory and a pleasure to read!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Life She Wanted by Anita Abriel is historical fiction set in the glamorous world of 1920's New York. Pandora Carmichael comes from a family of modest means, but since her father is a former tennis professional who now coaches for some of the wealthiest families in the area , she has grown up as a companion to their children and now dreams of her impending engagement to a wealthy young man, who will support her in her ambitions to become a dress designer with a boutique in the city. When that engagement fails to happen she feels as if her hopes are destroyed but eventually picks herself up in time to meet another young man who she soon comes to realise is a much better match. Unfortunately everything is not as it seems and he is hiding a secret that could blow their marriage apart and cause a scandal for the ages.
This is a charming story that spans the glamorous and golden 1920's in New York, the crash that destroyed the lifestyles of so many and on to the French Riviera where Pandora embarks on a journey of self discovery that will lead to her greatest happiness. The most enjoyable thing about this book for me was the character of Pandora, she is very sympathetically written and it would be difficult not to feel for her in her naivety . I also loved how well the author conjured the settings, really bringing another time and place to life on the page.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This was an excellent read. A well constructed storyline with an aspirational lead. It explores the growing independence and increased opportunities for women in the 1920’s yet also demonstrates the level of gender, sexuality and class prejudice inherent in society. In the end it becomes a voyage of self discovery, assertiveness and a love story. Definitely a HEA

It was 1926 and Pandora Carmichael's father had played at Wimbledon and was now a tennis coach. While not poor, they weren't wealthy like the families they knew, and the privileges those families knew were not Pandora's. She wanted to become a dress designer - it was all she'd ever dreamed of, and owning her own business was a part of that. When Pandora met the son of a family friend, and fell in love with him, her future seemed assured. Her wedding was beautiful - perfect for Pandora, and his parents made her feel like part of the family. But tragedy and scandal were to follow, in part the stock market crash, and it wasn't long before Pandora was fleeing New York for the French Riviera where a student of her father's lived.

Would she survive the scandal that was still front page news in New York? Could she return - or would she work on her designs in a place she'd grown to love?

The Life She Wanted by Aussie author Anita Abriel is set in an age of new beginnings, a time when women weren't able to earn a lot of money, where they couldn't get a bank loan unless it was in their husband's name. Pandora was filled with ambition and although naïve at the beginning of the story, she soon came into her own, finding herself and the person she was meant to be. Recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.