Lackluster. ( )

I first got the book because the tittle and book looked interesting to me , and i will say it was a great book and i could easily read it, but i have read books which are better than this.
Sometimes i was reading it and thinking what is this about but when i re-read it i know it again but maybe that's just me.The book was o.k , i feel like i didn't connect with the book when it was about robert or genevieve i just can't imagine them in my head , how they look like. But i did like that not the whole story was about how obsessed genevieve was about her shoes. ( )

This book was dumb... not about shoes or queens OR about the steamy affair that the book jacket promised. Now I'm not always super keen on "quivering love pockets" and "rock hard swords" but if I'm going to read a freaking book that pretends to be about one woman who will stop at nothing to get her hands on the best shoes in the world, then there better be a little something exotic/erotic in there, or I'm just stuck reading a stupid story about a stupid lady and some stupid shoes. Seriously. ( )

The Shoe Queen by Anna Davis was an interesting read. Set in Paris during the 1920’s, it captures the glittering life of the authors and artists that had flocked to this city, and the swirling dedication to living life to it’s fullest that this war-torn generation had committed itself to. This party life-style was paid for by the haute mode and rich Americans that also arrived in Paris at this time. Drinking, fun and outrageous behavior was the style of the day.

There is much name dropping throughout the 400 pages of this book. Celebrities of the day such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, E.E. Cummings and Coco Chanel all appear at one time or another. Other characters are obviously based on real people that were living in Paris during the 1920’s.

The fashions and styles of the day are described in great detail, particularly the shoes. But, unfortunately, what this book was lacking was a good story. The main characters are a self-centered, shoe obsessed, spoiled rich girl and her wet blanket of a husband. It was hard to have any feeling about the disintegration of their marriage or have any sympathy for either of them. There was some effort to show that she, at least, had grown and matured by the end of the book, but by that time, I hardly cared.

So, an interesting read about Paris in the 1920’s, but disappointing that the author couldn’t have provided a stronger storyline to compliment this marvellous setting. ( )

I really enjoyed this book, although I expected it to much more light hearted than it was.

The main character is Genevieve Shelby King, an Aristocratic English beauty, who has moved to Paris with her rich American husband.

Genevieve is obsessed with shoes, and has over 500 pairs (and the descriptions of shoes in this book are so intricate and lovely that I wanted to go and buy lots of shoes at once)! She also has a rich and devoted husband, a beautiful apartment and a hectic social life, with her best friend Lulu, a popular bohemian singer. But when Genevieve spots the most beautiful shoes she has ever seen on one of her society rivals, she becomes obsessed with getting a pair of shoes for herself, by the man who made them, Paulo Zachari.

Zachari is famous for picking his customers, rather the other way around, and he is very discerning about who he will make shoes for. Genevieve becomes obsessed with the shoes, and subsequently, with Zachari himself. She becomes miserable in spite of her happy life, and is forced to confront a painful memory of her past, and try to find out why her life feels so empty. ( )