MOVING ON
Pearl Clearge's I Wish I Had a Red Dress, was a warm, sensitive story about wanting to live again. Joyce's heart froze some five years ago when her husband fell through the ice and drowned.

She still missed him and she still dreamed about making love with him, but …more Joyce was finally realizing that life goes on. Her heart was beginning to thaw and her thoughts were on her loneliness and her wardrobe. What she really wanted to do was meet a nice man and
get herself a daring RED dress.

All the men in Idlewild were either old enough to be her father or young enough to be her son. But maybe dinner with her best friend and her husband, would change all that for Joyce, there was a new a coach at the local high school and her friends wanted her
to meet him.

Along with Joyce's desire to live again was her dedication to the young women whom she lived for at the Sewing Circus, this was a group she started for young women to meet and learn different skills. She was trying to teach them how to be free women. Most
of them had started adult life much too soon and Joyce was trying to slow them down or at least show them a better way.

Ms. Cleage's gift for telling a story made this tale of Joyce's rebirth so sweet and she again reminded us how Joyce handled drama with such ease. Pick up this book for a nice quiet read and find out if Joyce really had the nerve to wear a 'Red Dress'.

Reviewed by aNN Brown of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers RAWSISTAZ Book Club
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