Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What a lovely feel good read this was, everything about it made me smile. Would recommend

What an absolutely lovely book this is, especially for someone like me who loves fashion, fabric and arts and crafts. The author's sumptuous details of all of these themes made the book an absolute haven for me. She even had a reference to William Morris and his home in Walthamstow.

Fran runs a vintage wedding dress shop but there is so much more to it than that as she traces the history of the original owners of the dresses. She also has a kind of second sight and can sense things by holding dresses. Early on in the book there were some things Fran did that I thought a little strange, but I just went with it whilst wondering if she was trying to self destruct at times.

I loved the part where the Instagrammer wanted a wedding dress, so on trend and believable too. All of the fashion details were spot. I also liked the veiled reference to the Liz Hurley dress, easily missed and not important to the story, but for someone who knows fashion it was the icing on the cake.

Mixed in with all of this is a little romance (and a little saucier at one point) at times it felt almost Austen like with a modern day twist in it's plot. I just loved the ending.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and look forward to more from this author.

My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC to review.

Quite a sweet novel, although the heroine was rather irritating at times. Some of the situations were rather implausible - would someone really break into a house to try on a wedding dress? Surely no one is that obsessive.
Despite this, a reasonably enjoyable, easy read.

This was a nice easy read.
Fran runs a vintage clothes shop specialising in wedding dresses. These she finds from private buyers, house clearances, and charity shops.
When she finds a dress , she likes to discover it’s history and that of the bride who wore it, to restore it and match it to a modern day bride. A bespoke service which is not available in modern day shops.
A 1950s couture dress found in a house clearance, enables Fran and Rafael to meet. It was his mother’s/ grandmothers dress with a horrible story behind it. He wants nothing to do with it, but Fran falls in love with it! The book covers their story.
The book was enjoyable, the descriptions of the dresses were excellent, the characters were quirky. The storyline was a little unbelievable at times, but it was a story!
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House uk for enabling me to read this book in exchange for an honest review

This is Louisa Leaman's debut novel inspired by a V&A exhibition of wedding dresses from yesteryear. It is a celebration of vintage wedding dresses, depicted through the slightly other worldly and fey Francesca Delaney, with her atmospheric vintage shop, 'The Whispering Dress', that she runs with her assistant and close friend, the gay Mick Haigh. She offers a bespoke vintage wedding dress service to her clients, the complete antithesis of the high street wedding dress stores. She scours far and wide for the right wedding dress, including going to house clearances, going to considerable efforts to discover its history and the bride who wore it. She has a gift in being able to tune into the dress as it whispers to her about its past. She is convinced that a dress with good vibes carries its past, bestowing its energies on a future bride, and she can intuit which dress will work its magic on a particular client, even when the client is a bridezilla with preconceived ideas of what she wants.

While Fran can work wonders for brides to be, her romantic life has been an arid desert for the past 10 years, when she was left broken and emotionally distraught, let down by the man she loved. Tipped off about a house clearing in Epping Forest, Fran goes to Dryad's Hall, the family home of the cold, distant and unfeeling Rafael Colt. He expresses absolute disinterest when she unearths a one in million wedding dress worn by his mother, Alessandra, telling her to take it. Fran feels an instant affinity to the rare find, a dress, made by The House of Garrett-Alexia, famous for exquisite ballgowns made in the 1950s. She is desperate to know it's past and the bride, Alessandra, but Rafe is unwilling to reveal anything about his dysfunctional family, and has no compunction about rudely shutting down Fran. He runs the well known Colt Foundation, raising huge funds to distribute to charities. Despite apparently having little in common, Fran and Colt are drawn to each other, but are the emotional burdens they carry too much for any relationship to work out?

This is an immensely enjoyable and entertaining read, Leaman hits all the right notes in this story of wedding dresses and brides from the past, with Fran matching them to the right bride in the present. We are given a riveting picture of Fran in action as she opens the eyes of her brides to be to their perfect dress, even when it's not what her clients envisaged. Fran's heart and dreams may be in the world of brides and dressing them, but her personal life has precluded the possibility of being a bride herself. When she meets Rafe, Fran faces an obstacle strewn path in her search for personal happiness that will capture the heart of the reader. An absolutely lovely read. Many thanks to Random House Transworld for an ARC.

A thoroughly enjoyable read. I loved the descriptions of dresses from times past. Good characters. Loved it.

Very well written romance between Fran, a wedding dress specialist and Rafael, a serious business man. They both have fled from the past, hurts well buried. Can they get past them and be happy ever after? On paper they are unsuited.....

An enjoyable.tale about the whispering dress; Fran seeks out vintage wedding gowns to lovingly restore and match with their modern day bride. Lovely premise for a story.

A quirky tale which was very enjoyable. Who doesn’t love reading about pretty frocks and even better, their histories. Throw in a handsome stranger and some romance and this book is it. Well worth a read. Not as light hearted as you would think but definitely intriguing to the end.

Thank you Netgalley.

I really enjoyed this book, The characters and the stories behind the dresses and the brides were well written and the descriptions linking historical date added to the success of the book.
Francesca Delaney, who owns the shop “The Whispering Dress” is a lovely character and it is easy to get involved in her story and feelings. The vintage dresses are described beautifully and the modern twist at the end if very funny.
I would recommend this to anyone who is a romantic and likes a happy ending.

This one just wasn't for me, but I can't say I hated it. I think it was a case of wrong person for the book, rather than being an issue with the book itself. It was a bit too over emotional, and there were times where the tone felt a bit stilted and uncomfortable for me. Also, I wasn't really a fan of the romance element - sadly it felt quite flat and unbelievable.

That being said, this book did have perhaps one of the best openings i've ever read. The whole first chapter is a masterpiece, and it dragged me in instantly. I do genuinely believe this could be a good book, I think I just didn't have the interest in the subject area required to be properly gripped.

A lovely story with a great ending.
The stories relating to each dress are detailed and interesting, and she has a pinboard of bridegrooms to match the dresses.

Fran wedding dress shop has everything; stories, romance, and woman who had a HEA. Fran buys wedding dresses based on their stories, their love, and their owners commitment to marriage. With each dress, she gets a sense of who the woman were who wore them and how their marriages would be. It makes her believe the dresses are filled with - my words - good omens which she passes on to the next bride that wears the dresses she deems worthy to sell them to.
The way the story comes across, these dresses, it's as if they - the dresses - were just waiting for Fran to find them. They talk to her. Whisper their stories.

When she hears of a house clearing and roams through the old estate in the middle of nowhere (isolated within trees and an overgrown garden) she finds a dress. Not just any dress. But the owners wedding dress whom recently just died. But the secrets it holds... Fran can't wait to find out. Until the son of the owner, Raf, he throws the dress away showing Fran what he believes of its worth and his mother's marriage.

Fran sets about to prove Raf wrong, that these dresses she collects hold a certain magic. But he doesn't believe in love or what Fran believes in (a happily ever after); but is that a lie? Because the more time he spends with Fran, the more he is changing, letting his guard down, but also showing that his life is a closed book not to be opened. He'd rather ignore it and just allow what is developing between Fran and himself to unfold without confronting the past. But Fran just can't stop digging. (She takes the dress back.)

As quick as their relationship blooms, it crashes down to earth with shattering secrets and lies to do with his families past that Raf tries to keep buried. But he can't forget Fran. As the book comes to a close, their feelings are bared. But their HEA is tainted with ghosts of their past - of brides (and his mother and her dress) and their stories.

Raf asks her to do one thing, search down all the brides she sold dresses to, and find out if they were/are still happy, if what she believes, the "magic" these dresses hold is real. As she does, Raf is overcome with need for her, to see her but knowing how cold he was when he ended things - and when Fran thinks all is lost between them - he is suddenly there and there is no going back. What he feels he can't hide anymore.

The ending is sweet, no cliff hanger. It's definitely worth a read. I rate it 4 stars, because I felt the story was dragged out in places.

At first I thought no, not another a wedding dress shop with outsized women in mind, or with some fairy or other magical creature involved. But then it went into another direction. The concept of a vintage dress shop was lovely. And I was almost tempted to find one and give them mine. Yes, I still have it. And no, it hasn’t gone into the dressing up box. But no, it won’t fit me - or my daughter, but who knows, maybe a grand-daughter? It is very much of its era. Victorian themed with sprigs of lilac flowers on cream. Long sleeves and tucked in waist. Full length of course - but then I needed to hide my cast on my leg on the day!
I liked the idea that a dress ‘whispered’. But really felt that a dress can only tell you about the day and not what happens afterwards.
Overall, I liked the story-telling and the romance and the exploration of what happens behind closed doors in a wedding and its reasons.

I absolutely adored this, I don’t think I’ve read a book that had my heart melting so much in a long time, but. Have to admit I’m a huge romantic and a big fan of wedding dresses, so I think this book was my perfect match. A great love story, wonderful characters and a book you won’t want to put down. This will leave a smile on your face and a happy heart in its place.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Really Deep down I am a hopeless romantic and love a good wedding story, I also love an old cheesy romance film like they play on movies 24 don't ask me why, I just do! So I just adored this book from start to finish. It centers around Fran with her unique bridal shop that stocks vintage preloved dresses which she matches to her brides. Each gown has a story and what a story the "Garrett-Alexia" dress holds. Cue Rafael the handsome, rich philanthropist jaded about love and the hate to love story between the two unfolds.

Louisa Leaman has a lovely style of writing and I got a real feel of all the characters and their surroundings, the story flowed coherently which made it a nice easy quick read and you close the book with an "aww" and a feel good feeling.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for the ARC

Francesca runs The Whispering Dress where she sells wedding dresses to brides that she has paired to the dresses they buy. When she meets Rafael Colt at his family home during a house clearance, life changes immensely. From very different backgrounds and both afraid to commit to anyone.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it is a well written story that hooks you in.

Fran owns The Whispering Dress. A shop full of vintage wedding and evening dresses which Fran matches to brides by looking into the history of the dresses and the lives of the women that wore them beforehand.

Fran finds an amazing dress at a house clearance and is desperate to find out the history of this one of a kind couture dress.

This was a sweet book that I managed to read in one go but I felt that there was something lacking. None of the characters really had any depth and poor Fran put up with an awful lot more from Raf than I ever would have.

Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Fran runs a wedding dress shop where she matches vintage wedding dresses to brides. When she discovers a dress in a house clearance she meets Rafael, the dress has an interesting history behind it.

Didn’t particularly enjoy the book and the story was a bit predictable. However, some good, lovely and charming sections.

The Perfect Dress is a delightful novel. Fran has an amazing insight to find any bride the perfect dress for her special day.
Fran has to know the story she feels from each dress and this shapes the type of bride it will flatter and bring to life.
The tragic story behind the dress of dreams is very troubling and Fran embarks on a journey of discovery that changes her whole life. It's not a very serious book but it is beautiful and the whole thing comes alive when reading it.
I loved it.