I was compensated for this BlogHer book club review, but the views expressed are all my own… 

The Magic Room is tucked into the second floor of a small town Michigan bridal boutique known as Becker’s Bridal. Once a bride-to-be has found the dress she loves, she is escorted to this room that is aesthetically designed to help her feel her most beautiful… 

It’s a lovely idea, this Magic Room, and it is the intended subject of Jeffrey Zaslow’s latest book, of the same title. Reading, at first, like a compilation of various news interviews and columns, what the Magic Room becomes is a story about life and living. From the personal and heart breaking stories of the six Becker brides he focus’s on, or the family tale of the Beckers themselves- the constant underlying theme to Jeffrey’s latest work is life. Somehow he manages to captures the perspectives of every person he mentions, in a way that is not at all unfocused, even though it seems like it would be. 

The early consumer reviews for the Magic Room don’t seem very favorable. I tried not to let that little Amazon star rating affect my perspective as I sat down and cracked the cover. I am really glad I didn’t because I fell deeply in love with this book. Perhaps I read it the way it’s author intended it- or maybe I got something different. I don’t know. I laughed with the funny, radiated a bit with the proud and beautiful and cried on multiple occasions with the heart ache. By the time I closed that back cover, I felt like I’d made 8 new friends and I knew that I wanted my daughter’s donning dresses from Becker’s Bridal- whenever their special days occurred… 

The Magic Room is a beautiful story for mothers. It is a beautiful book for daughters. It is poetry written in real life and circumstance. It taught me more in the afternoon that I read it, than I have learned from a book in a really long time. I am really looking forward to sharing this book with you, and engaging in the weeks of discussions ahead…