The Dress Shop on King Street

October 26, 2020
Clark makes a moving debut with the launch of a series centered on Millie Middleton, the child of an Italian father and African American mother born in Jim Crow–era Charleston, S.C. After her father was murdered by racists and her mother realized Millie could pass for white, Millie was sent away to start a life where no one would know her heritage. As a teenager, Millie meets handsome freight-hopper Franklin Pinckney while stowing away on a train, and the pair disembark in Fairhope, Ala., where they find lodging with a widowed innkeeper in exchange for work. The story jumps time periods frequently, filling in Millie’s backstory while introducing Harper and Peter in modern-day leaps: Peter knows Millie, who is now nearly 80, as a friend of his late mother; Millie has taught her neighbor Harper to sew. After Millie and Harper discover their shared desire to open a dress shop, Peter offers them a building he is renovating. While faith elements are subtle, Millie often turns to God for fortitude when facing the difficult circumstances of her past and the obstacles to finally getting her dreams off the ground. Those who enjoy inspirational time-slip stories will want to check this out.

December 1, 2020
Millie Middleton may be only 16 years old, but she already knows one way she can become a seamstress and establish her own dress shop is by hiding half of who she really is. After a tragic reminder of how violently hostile their 1946 world is to biracial children, Millie's African American mother sends Millie away from Charleston, South Carolina, in the hope that in a new place Millie will be able to pass as white and fulfill her dreams. But the decision leaves Millie questioning her identity, which sets off a chain of events with generational consequences. Clark opens her new Heirloom Secrets series against the backdrop of discrimination against interracial families and follows a family history anchored to an embroidered satchel and its contents. Alternating between 1946 and the present, with Clark's narrative strength most evident in the historical setting, this tale traces the consequences of personal decisions through the textile arts, with Millie standing as a bridge between the two eras.

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