Violet Turner is the owner of Hourglass Vintage in Madison Wisconsin. Her shop is filled with delightful items from an array of decades. Violet loves her shop, her location, and the stories that the items she sells hold. When she discovers that her landlord is looking to sell the building Hourglass Vintage is in, Violet panics. She has the option in her lease to buy, but nowhere near the money being asked. Violet realizes she can not do this alone.
April Morgan is 18 years old, 5 months pregnant, and hurting from the loss of her mother as well as the broken engagement to be married that came as a shock. When April brings the vintage 1950’s wedding dress to Violet’s shop in hopes to return it, a surprising connection starts to develop…
Amithi Singh brings items of her heritage to Hourglass Vintage, items she had believed she would pass on to her daughter but her now grown daughter has shunned such traditional items. Reeling from shocking news about her husbands fidelity – or lack there of – Amithi is looking to find her way, and she may have made a right step by coming to Violet’s store…. What can these women of very different backgrounds find in common that may be able to help Hourglass Vintage?
Vintage by Susan Gloss was a fun read about a strong woman trying to make it with her dream vintage clothing shop. Each chapter starts with a unique item found in the shop, the description, approximate date of the item, and where it came from. It made for a fun look into a vintage clothing shop and the characters that shop there or the ones that drop off their items. Vintage is a light and fun book and fit in with what I needed at the time I was reading it. There were a couple “hmmmm” moments in the book for me but for the most past this is a book to not take too seriously and just enjoy the read.
Bookies Review
Our book club the Bookies read this book and we Skyped with the author Susan Gloss. We enjoyed pizza (mentioned in the book), spaghetti, wine, cheese, and desserts. One of the girls in our group had vintage items from her own history which was incredible cool (see pictures below). The Bookies over all rated the book higher than I did. For the most part they found the book to be enjoyable and over all the 16 of us came up with an average rating of 4 out of a high rating of 5 which is pretty good. 
How to host a book club event around this book
- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 2, 2014)
Book Journey 
This book sounds like fun, and like a good one for your Bookies. Thanks for sharing….
I’m definitely going to pick this book up. Your book club just looks like too much fun! Always so happy to see a post by you, Sheila! 🙂
Great ideas for the group and so glad to see your post! I especially like the vintage items.
Sometimes a light, fun book is just what we need! Love how your book club gets into a “theme”.
Just the title alone is fun sounding. And who doesn’t like to look at vintage clothing? I love the section of the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian that features the First Ladies Inaugural gowns. What a treasure trove of vintage clothing!
This one sounds like a fun read and I love anything around vintage clothes. I do hate when relationships happen super quickly but it does seem to happen in these kinds of books with ensemble casts. Thanks for sharing!
I love vintage things and our heirlooms are so precious. I’m glad you had a good book to read and your wonderful book club to share it with. You ladies really do it up 🙂 And I’m thinking those drag queens were in there just for “color,” nothing more, so back story wasn’t necessary. Just customers that needed vintage clothing, I’d say. Nice to see a review, Sheila 🙂
Sounds like a book I would enjoy so I am adding it, although I tend to see how those two things you mentioned would annoy, but I could live with it. The book club meeting looks great.
I read this book some time ago. It was terrific. I loved it. I have two, vintage, hand-me-down coats from my centenarian aunt and my mum – a cashmere one and a camel one. The cuts are unique, ultra feminine, and slimming.
I read this book a while ago and loved it. Great review!
A very good book along the same lines although it is non-fiction, is Alligators, Old Mink & New Money. And Sheila I would like to recommend for you the book In the Cleft Joy Comes in the Mourning: A Story of Hope After Tragedy.
I also enjoyed this book, Sheila. Wonderful post!
I love how your club really gets into the book!
The book sounds fun to me!
Light and fun – sounds like just what you needed.
I love how your book group gets so into your books – with related foods, the vintage items, etc. – how fun! And I love being able to interact with the author – really deepens the experience of the book.
Glad you got out and spent time with friends.
Sue
This is on my bookshelf. Sounds like a perfect vacation read for me!
I really enjoyed this book while reading, then felt disappointed at the end, but I don;t know why. It definitely set itself up for a sequel or series.
Sounds like a fun time! You all look adorable and I’m glad you had a fun night with friends.
I’ve always loved your “Bookies” posts. You always do such fun things.
I love this kind of story. Will definitely put it on my tumbling TBR. Hugs.
Sometimes I think my bookclub just enjoys a book because it has a message that’s easy to understand and writing that is straightforward.