1940s Vintage Novel
1940s Jitterbug Novel
Do you like 1940s coming of age with a little romance? Vintage fans are in for a real treat. If you enjoyed reading “The Notebook,” “Water for Elephants,” and the “Secret Life of Dresses,” you will want to read “The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress,” by Tam Francis.
The Past Doesn’t Always Stay in the Past: Sometimes it Comes to Life on the Dance Floor
Enter a world of big band jazz, dance halls and malt shops. 18 year-old Violet struggles to balance her troubled father, seamstress job, and growing passion for a “jitterbug” sailor who moves her to distraction by expertly shifting his leg between hers, delicately pushing her into intricately guided dance steps. They race against his deployment and her grifting father to win a dance contest and tie the knot before WWII interrupts.
Half a century later, another 18 year-old ingénue discovers dirty martinis, old jazz, vintage clothing, a skirt wrapping around a warm thigh on a crowded dance floor.Before leaving for college, June’s mother drops a bombshell: her recently deceased grandmother is not her biological one.
While navigating college and unsuccessfully researching her ancestry, she finds an antique jitterbug dress which may lead her to the one person she’s been looking for, and a quest to find the woman’s long lost dance partner.
“The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress” is the parallel story of two young women struggling with self-doubt, loss, and redemption, united across generations by a 1940’s swing dress.
For more info on 1940s Romance fun, check out the excerpts, reviews, slang, crossword puzzles and blog posts.