I'm a little bit iffy on this one. The plot was intriguing but the pace was rather slow and it was difficult to get through at times.What I most enjoyed was the writing. It wasn't too simple or too loaded with imagery and info, but right in the middle. I really liked Wallace's description and how she described each of the character's lives and how they interacted. 

This is an own-voices novel featuring a black mc named Grace who works and partIy runs her father's tailoring business.  I loved Grace and her love for her family's company and the amount of time and dedication she put into it. I  (spoilers!) was quite sad about the fate of it but was more excited about Grace opening her own business (end spoilers). I loved her family dynamics and how the business affected each of them and how it pulled them together or apart. This had to be the best part of the book for me. 

As for Dakota, I'm not really sure. I can't say much on the trans/non-binary/butch representation for Dakota but something just felt off. She was described as butch, androgynous, gender fluid, etc. and since I don't identify as any of those I still feel as if it wasn't handled entirely too well especially as Grace was educated on it. Dakota seemed to say one thing but her actions turned out to be another. also couldn't quit grasp on her reputation and her actual self because I never got the sense that she lived that party life. I also didn't like her much of a character at all and never got the charm that she supposedly had. 

Despite all the interactions between the two women I wanted to see them together more especially when they officially get together. As I felt the attraction between both of them I never got much of the fluff or romance I was expecting. It was mostly their thoughts about each other while apart, but I loved how it wasn't insta-love but more gradual as the two got to know each other more.

Overall, I wasn't entirely disappointed by it but I wanted more out of it. I'd say this was a good first step into the romance genre for me and I am interested in reading more of Wallace's books in the future. However, I would not recommend this to anyone who identifies as trans/nonbinary/generfluid because I feel like it may be harmful in some part of the story with the representation presented. Xan West's review on Goodreads who identifies as enby  gives a great explanation on how the rep is presented in the story.

 Also, throughout the story I felt like bisexuality was tossed entirely out the window especially with the interactions between Dakota and her sister. It was like either you're gay or you're straight and officially claimed the possibility of bisexuality in it, only lightly hinted. That's what irked me while reading it (as a bisexual girl myself) because in any story featuring gay characters discussing sexuality with straight characters and so on, bisexuality seems to not exist. 

Note: In all honesty I would not have preferred to have the main focus on romance tossed out the window and just have the story focus on Grace starting her own business and all her adventures with minor romance on the side. I loved reading about tailoring.

DNF. It started to get too slow and I ended up losing the mood to finish the story.

An enjoyable romance that hit several harder-to-find demographics in the lesbian romance market: a religiously observant protagonist, an interracial relationship, & a gender-nonconforming protagonist. I found the descriptions of Grace's work as a tailor more interesting than Dakota's work as a model, but both women's careers are well sketched, as are their families (Grace's parents are active churchgoers and supportive of her sexuality; Dakota's family is not).

Grace is a tailor running the family business. She's a lesbian who only dates feminine women, and never dates customers. Dakota is a...well, as she says, "whatever I feel like on any given day", or in simplest terms possible, an androgynous lesbian who works as a male model. And now she has come to Grace as a customer because she needs a suit made for her sister's wedding.

Grace is attracted to Dakota, but really, she couldn't date someone like that, could she? Dakota's not her type--and she attracts too much attention, and she doesn't do "serious". There seem to be a hundred reasons for them to stay apart, and yet none of them are good enough whenever they're together.

I enjoyed this book largely for very personal reasons. Really I just loved Dakota, and I felt like I related to her a lot. I appreciated how the author wrote about her gender identity being kind of "it's complicated", and I also thought that both Dakota's and Grace's relationships with family members were well handled. Often authors write off any level of conservative bias in a family as reason to be estranged from said family forever, but while both Dakota and Grace have tensions with their family, they still love their families and want to be connected with them even when it's hard. I related very much to that.

And then, on a very basic level, just...the suits, man. As I read this book I couldn't stop craving a nice suit. Every time Grace started talking about how she needed to cut the fabric a certain way or Dakota started talking about how to dress so that she appeared androgynous and her gender remained ambiguous I just straight up died. I was jealous of Dakota for her lovely suits, but I was happy to live vicariously through her. Imagine being at the level of androgynous beauty that you, a woman, can get work for thousands of dollars as a male model! The dream...

Grace kind of frustrated me, though, because of her self-imposed rule of dating feminine women. I could definitely empathize with Dakota's frustration with that rule since again, that's something I've definitely experienced. I did like how Grace was slowly won over by Dakota, seeing her personality over her appearance and then eventually admitting she liked her appearance as well. And Grace's plot arc was also interesting to me because Grace in this book is learning more about transgender, gender fluid and nonbinary individuals--for example she starts serving more transgender men at her tailoring business during the book, and thinking about what pronouns she uses. At one point she actually asks Dakota if she's incorrectly assumed Dakota's gender identity, which for me meant that she had begun to care about Dakota on a level above how much most people would care. So Grace is trying. But still, it was frustrating to me to read a love interest who couldn't accept Dakota as she was--or on some level even felt like she shouldn't.

In general, there is a certain amount of cisgender bias in most characters' approach to gender here. Dakota, despite saying she is gender fluid a couple times, is basically treated as a woman. This didn't bother me as much as it might have, because although it was frustrating in a way, it did feel like a reflection of the real world--and also because I felt like Dakota's feeling gender fluid in a way but still identifying as a woman felt real and again, I could relate. But it still kind of stung, and it might bother someone else more than me.

So, if you're like me and you like some androgynous female protagonist in your f/f romance, and a little slow burn mixed with lots of tailoring and modeling, I would recommend...with the qualifications noted above.

Note: I do not recommend this book to trans and/or non-binary readers, or butch readers. 

I wanted to read this because it was a romance with a Black MC who was a tailor of bespoke suits. I was excited for all the tailoring details, and that it centered around a long-time Black-owned Brooklyn family business in a neighborhood that was gentrifying (Williamsburg). It promised complex family dynamics and a bunch of ownvoices Black characters navigating family and business in tandem. These things were absolutely the best part of this book. 

Based on the book description, I was looking forward to a meet cute between a butch queer woman who works as a male model and needs a bespoke suit and her tailor. It was definitely a meet cute that I enjoyed, but Dakota wasn't a butch queer woman...I don't think? Dakota works as a male model, and generally presents as masculine of center, and is very clear its not only for work but an expression of her gender identity. Her gender identity is a bit unclear even after finishing the book. She is described as genderfluid, as butch, as androgynous, as not using pronouns, as not interested in labels (but then constantly referred to by she/her pronouns all throughout so that is what I will be using), as both a woman and not a woman. As an enby reader, I read her as enby, and MoC, and beyond that I wasn't sure if maybe she was agender or maybe she was a trans butch or maybe she was genderfluid but I didn't get to see her gender flux or if she just didn't think any of the labels fit. I don't necessarily think this is an issue, a lot of times folks aren't sure ourselves; I just wasn't sure that was intentional or just badly researched, given the rest of my issues with the enby rep in this story and the references to Dakota in the author's note. 

This romance read as a very classic trans acceptance romance, in that the cis MC struggles to accept her feelings/attraction for the enby MC and that's the central conflict in the romance that doesn't resolve til the end. Her struggle with Dakota's gender is multilayered and placed at the center of the story, and is constantly referred to. Each time she enjoys Dakota's company or experiences attraction, she then pulls herself back primarily because of Dakota's gender (sometimes because she reminds herself she's only into femmes, sometimes because she thinks of Dakota's gender as a spectacle that will put her in the spotlight, sometimes because she is certain her family won't approve of her dating someone who isn't a femme woman--she's not wrong about this, her family says terrible cissexist, gender policing and trans hating things about Dakota). She does have other concerns about a relationship with Dakota that could have created a perfectly good conflict on their own, and that do come up as well, but it's the gender-based conflict that is centered. 

This romance comes with some of the more classic things you might expect from a trans acceptance narrative. It centers a cis person who has never encountered trans people before and learns a lot about them in the process. It includes multiple infodumps about enby identity and trans experience that are both confusing and full of misinformation. It centers a cis persons journey towards acceptance, at the expense of making the enby character a full complex character with her own growth arc that's unrelated to her gender. Instead, we have an enby character whose every conversation, work related difficulty, daily life detail, family struggle, and relationship challenge is centered on her gender identity. And the push-pull nature of the cis MC's feelings about the enby MC mean a large amount of trans, butch and enby hating things are woven into the story; things the MCs family says, things that she thinks, arguments she has with herself about her attraction. This includes things like the cis MC talking about the enby MC as "the best of both worlds" while they are having sex. It includes the enby MC asking if she's right, that the cis MC thinks she's "not woman enough for her", and the cis MC nodding. It also is clearly written in a way that centers cis readers. 

Acceptance narrative oriented romances are generally written in ways that are harmful to the marginalized folks they have the more privileged MC work through their issues to accept. In this case, this book is likely to be harmful to trans and/or enby readers (I certainly found it so). 

The enby acceptance narrative at the center of this story made it so that I could not root for these characters to be together. I thought Grace was a spectacularly awful match for Dakota. She spent the entire book unable to be okay with Dakota's gender identity, and I would not wish such a relationship on any trans or non-binary person. 

Trigger Warnings: Trans acceptance narrative. Gender policing. Trans hatred. Slut shaming. Sexual harassment on the job. Casual fat antagonism. Misgendering of secondary trans characters. Misgendering of the enby MC at the conclusion of the book, which is described as loving and validating. On the page sex. Bicycle accident leading to injury. Substantial alcohol use. References to familial rejection for queerness and gender expression.

This book is a kind of fairy tale, by the way it is developed and especially by its end and there are some things that are not quite coherent. It is clear that many of the characters in romantic novels are very stereotyped, but I believe that in this case, Dakota has too many topics. Also, does not it seem that her behavior is absolutely credible, being a top model and working as a bicycle messenger? Fairy tale. Then, the doubts of Grace and her changes of attitude towards Dakota seem somewhat artificial and with little logic. Of course, love has no logic, even less in fairy tales. 

The secondary characters that could be more interesting, like Rich and Lillie, they appear very little in the story. And besides having very few sex scenes, one and a half maybe, the end is a bit hasty.

Grace is focused and driven to succeed within her families tailor business. She likes her routine and is sure of what she wants in life and the type of woman she wants to share it with- feminine and beautiful. Until she meets Dakota. Dakota is a model who plays with gender representation and is most well known for her very masculine style and her many conquests in the bedroom.  

When Grace meets with Dakota to design her a suit she questions everything she thought she wanted in her relationships and Dakota begins to wonder if her endless number of one night stands are coming to an end. 

Tailor-Made follows as both the women figure out what they truly want, examines gender representation and family expectations. If you're looking for a happy book with not much drama this is it!

I usually do not read romance novels, but when I saw Tailor-made on NetGalley and read the description, I thought it sounded interesting and cute and that is what it turned out to be.

Despite their differences, it was clear from the beginning that the protagonists Grace and Dakota are meant to be together. Over the course of the novel, they have to find out if they can overcome the obstacles in their way. I cannot really say if I like one of them better than the other. Grace Henderson is a dedicated tailor, very feminine, and looking for a serious long-term relationship. Dakota Lane is a bike messenger by day and a male model by night, tom-boyish, and only looking for the occasional woman to take home for the night. The two could not be more different, yet they are instantly attracted to one another. Grace is confused as she usually likes feminine looking partners and Dakota, who came to fame modeling male clothes and is often taken for a man, is wondering if she could settle down with Grace.

I really like how Grace's profession as a tailor is interwoven in the narrative and how the story evolved around it. While New York as a location is not really original, the setting of Grace's shop is and gives the romance a unique touch - like the suit Grace is making for Dakota. Moreover, it is nice to read about homosexual characters that more or less are not confronted with homophobia. Grace's family is really supportive of her and wants her to find a woman for life. While Dakota's family seems less open to their daughter's lifestyle, this is not elaborated on in the story and their disapproval has more to do with Dakota's lifestyle than her sexual orientation.

It was nice to see so many happy lesbian couples that are not used as mere plot devices but just as befriended couples of the protagonists. You can detect that Wallace is writing from an own-voice perspective. Moreover, Wallace might not be a professional writer, but she is an experienced one. You will not find awkward dialogue in this novel and the few make-out scenes do not seem fetishised or exaggerated. Yet, the story often is foreseeable and the absence of any big plot twists makes it less thrilling than it could be.

Wallace tried to include elements of the LGBTQIA+ discourse in her novel, e.g. preferred pronouns and in general, characters who identify as anything but straight (not only homosexual but genderfluid etc.). Although Tailor-made is a romance, she still tried to address these important issues for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Although I am not a huge fan of romance novels, Tailor-made is a cute, entertaining read.

It's funny when I read the blurb I wasn't drawn to the book however I do enjoy Yolanda Wallace's previous books so thought I would read it anyways. I enjoyed the story more than I thought I would which was a nice surprise. I did struggle a bit with Grace as a character who I found to be a bit judgmental. Her sisters just sounded like brats so they weren't great additions to the book. 

I didn't love the book but still enjoyed it enough to finish. The characters won't stay with me. A quick light read with your normal f/f romance story.

Finally a book about a POC that wasn’t too cookie cutter and annoying. She does end up with a non POC it was still a very good book. I liked Grace I could really relate to her predicament with her hair. Although a small part of the book this tends to be a huge issue in communities of color. I thought the addiction of Dakotas sister was awkward and unnecessary. Like why did she go to NY? There was never a good explanation and if she was having serious doubts about her marriage I don’t think it could be fixed in two conversations. Oh well I thought Grace’s family was written poorly and very one dimensional. I also have problems with Gays who go to church that just seems idiotic to me. Overall a good story of a tad unbelievable. And there was a protagonist who is African American which you don’t read a lot of in these lesbian romance novels and if you do they are written so stereotypically they aren’t all that interesting.

Loved this book, great storyline and you could really feel the attraction between the characters. I grew to love the two women and was really quite sad for the book to end. Will definitely read this author again.

Grace Henderson knew from an early age she would, like her father be a tailor designing suits for men, women. When she's contacted by model Dakota Lane to make her a suit for her sister's wedding she finds herself, for the first time in her life attracted to a Butch. Not any Butch but a top model who's specialists in modeling men's wear. Dakota is happy with her life being with women who like herself only wants a good time but when she meets Grace she starts having feelings for a woman who wants more than a few nights. Problems arise when Grace's family become involved. Ms Wallace knows how to tell a story that on the surface looks like a typical romance but as you read you realise is so much more. Excellent read.

An interesting story of Grace, who has expectations for relationships and her career as a bespoke tailor that are perhaps different than those of Dakota, a gender fluid bike messenger (and model).  I enjoyed the glimpse into the professions of tailoring and modeling.  Definitely worth a read.

Hello, opposites!  Dakota is a playgirl and party girl.  She’s such a playgirl that there’s an off-hand comment that one of the security guards at a building she delivers to is always good for a “quick round of athletic sex in the supply closet.”  That’s some serious dedication to hookup sex!  Dakota is confident in her sexuality and the androgynous image she models, and isn’t interested in relationships.  In her words, she’s “never met anyone who makes me want to come back for more.”
Grace is set in her ways, so much so that she won’t even change her hairstyle.  She puts her family and work responsibilities ahead of everything else in her life, including her relationships.  She’s known she wants to follow in her father’s footsteps as a tailor for as long as she can remember.  Though Dakota and Grace have a definite chemistry from the beginning, Grace doesn’t want to be another notch on her bedpost.  She’s looking for someone she can have a relationship with, and Dakota definitely doesn’t fit!
“Butch women might not be her cup of tea, but they deserved to be able to express themselves in any way they chose. In the immortal words of the famed philosopher RuPaul, everyone’s born naked and the rest was drag.”
I’d expected Dakota to be the hold out in this relationship, but instead it was Grace.  Grace typically dates feminine women – think Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston – and while her family seems fine with her being a lesbian, they disapprove of butch women.  Grace, outwardly at least, seems fine with butch women even if they aren’t who she normally dates, until confronted by her attraction to Dakota.  She keeps coming up with excuses for why a relationship with her won’t work – she doesn’t mix business with pleasure, her family would disapprove, etc, etc.  Grace – despite being a tailor who understands the power of clothes reflecting the person wearing them – cannot accept Dakota for who she is.  This was a really sore point for me.  Grace seems to vacillate back and forth between paying lip service to being true to your inner self and being a prejudiced idiot, and eventually ends up breaking up with Dakota in the worst way possible.  I started out liking both characters and then gradually came to dislike Grace more and more.
“I want to be with someone who gets me. Someone who’s willing to accept me for who I am and doesn’t make it her mission to try to change me into something I’m not.”
As for other cons, there seemed to be lots of secondary characters, none of whom felt particularly well fleshed out, besides Lynnie, though it was nice to see them surrounded by other f/f couples.  Also, the ending felt rushed.  Both families suddenly reversed course and accepted Grace and Dakota’s relationship.  One of Grace’s sisters was particularly cruel earlier in the book, to the point where I had to walk away from the book for a while I was so upset,  and I was disappointed to read that she had at least the beginnings of her own HEA in the epilogue.
Overall, I did enjoy this book.  There were several adorably cute scenes – Dakota coaxing Grace to ride on the handlebars of her bike and them kissing in the rain were two of my favorites – but Grace’s actions really brought the book down for me.  If that’s not as much of a dealbreaker for you, this is a fun and cute book!

Another amazing read from Yolanda Wallace with complex and engaging characters that draw you in and don't let go to till the very end and even then they stick with you.

A fairy-tale-ish story about two dramatically different women searching for love.

Grace is a tailor looking to expand her father's custom suit business. She's been on blind date after blind date, until model/bike messenger Dakota Lane walks in wanting a a custom suit for her sister's wedding. Dakota is nothing like Grace is usually attracted to: hard edges instead of soft curves, gender bending instead of distinctly feminine, and a player with lots of previous conquests. There's no denying the burning attraction between the two, but can they overcome their differences and internal baggage to give love a try?

Almost a DNF, as I hate romance that breaks down the bodies of the characters, and I especially hate lines that are along the lines of breasts straining buttons on shirts. Icky. And it's insta-love. But it picks up and it gets better, having the characters deal with careers, family expectations, family in general and friendships. I loved the f/f friendships that are scattered throughout, and Grace's welcoming acceptance at corning at niche market in the male custom suit world.

This is a pretty standard romance novel, and by that I mean a m/f romance except we're talking f/f. And guys, the lesbian sex is realistic. I REPEAT, THE LESBIAN SEX IS REALISTIC AND HOT HOT HOT! I'm fanning myself as I write this, honestly. Until this book, I didn't think that a f/f romance with realistic sex actually existed. BUT IT DOES. AND IT IS HERE.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

From the beginning I didn’t really click with the book and it didn’t get better until the end. I didn’t like the dialogues and the main characters - they didn’t have any chemistry in my opinion. I did not enjoy it but it could be great for someone else

What a great romance! Tailor Grace Henderson is assigned the task of measuring and designing a suit for gender-fluid model Dakota Lane. There's instant chemistry, but Grace has the voice of her conservative father in her head, warning her that Dakota is too much of a wild child. Or it just that Grace is afraid of her own feelings for Dakota, who's nothing at all like the woman she usually dates?

There's a real sense of fullness in this story, with Grace and Dakota both having rich backgrounds of family, friends, workplace struggles, and the weight of expectation--both from society and from themselves. Yolanda Wallace does a fantastic job of describing each woman's inner struggles with all of those issues as they engage in a tentative relationship. Even though I wanted for Grace to be more bold and brave, it's clear that she really struggles with how to please herself and her family. Dakota knows who she is and is proud of it, but her character isn't hard or full of bravado. The obstacles they face feel real, and although some of the inner conflicts seem drawn out, it also feel genuine---this is how real people are! We want so badly to be brave, to make dangerous choices, to be risk-takers, but it's hard and scary and takes time. 

I loved this book!

A much improved work by Ms. Wallace, with relation to plot direction and character interactions.  However, problems persisted regarding the treatment of gender by the author (specifically, its discussion and the language used during several exchanges), the hurried, somewhat cliched positive ending as well as the sudden resolution of the rifts between the protagonists and their respective families.  The romance was standard fare that was most substantially hampered by those issues in the last third of the story.