This book took me a while to get into. However the descriptive element of the writing was very good.
A great read with two wonderful characters

Nice read, quick and lighthearted. Enjoyable and would recommend for summer. Desiring my perfect dress (and man) as a result! Thank you!

Weddings! I love reading about weddings and all the frippery that goes with it, despite never having been there, done that. So when a book like this comes along that pretty much guarantees nuptials, it’s definitely one for my TBR shelf.

So Fran is a sweet girl, running the Whispering Dress wedding dress shop. She doesn’t sell your usual mass-produced gowns, not worried about a quick sale or big commission. She wants to make sure her brides get the right dress, not necessarily what they think they want but what Fran knows they need. All her dresses are described in so much detail by the author, you can see them. So when she finds a one-of-a-kind exquisite dress in a house clearance, you are drawn into the history of the dress just as much as Fran is.

Of course, it helps that Raf happens to be the guy giving the dress away. Whilst he is gorgeous and captivating, at the same time he is moody, arrogant and very secretive. Both Fran and Raf have baggage, all of which is ensuring that their relationship will not run smoothly. We find out Raf’s secrets first because he lets his guard down first to the point you think it’s all worked out but just then Fran’s emotional luggage holds them back.

Ultimately it all comes down to the dress. It both drives them apart and pulls them together at different points in the story.

Sewn together like the lace and silk of the wedding gowns within, this romance is both beautiful and full of mystery.

Overall Rating
4 out of 5

This was a sweet enemies to lovers story.
Fran was an interesting character who collects old wedding dresses, researches their history and then matches them to the perfect bride. I really loved seeing Frans interactions with the brides and her matching dresses to their personalities and history.
Fran and Rafael meet at a house clearance and straight away get off on the wrong foot. I really wasn't a fan of Rafael and found their love story a but far fetched. Rafael was continuously calling Fran dull and delusional in regards to her work with wedding dresses and trying to find the history of dresses. There were lots of small fights and bickering between Raf and Fran and then BAM love and happy ending ... I'm not convinced.
This book was easy to read and flowed well and had a really interesting premise however some aspects fell flat for me.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Really enjoyed this novel. The writing flowed and the characters were depicted very well. Couldn't wait to find out what happens next.

Fran has a wonderful wedding dress shop, dealing only with Vintage dresses. They all have an intriguing history, and she works hard to see that each dress finds the perfect owner.
Discovering a rare vintage dress in an old castle, she comes head to head with its owner, Rafael, who is doing a massive declutter of the castle.
I enjoyed the story ,more for the references to the history of the dress fashions.
I felt that Rafael was very odd, and ranged from being very disinterested and unkind, to being charming. I'm not sure what he was meant to be, but his attitude was somewhat self important. The relationship between him and Fran never seemed to settle down, confusing!
Thank you for a review copy of the book.

This story mainly involves on love and marriage where the main character, Fran works as a wedding dress matchmaker. She helps brides one after another in the hopes that the positive vibes from the wedding dresses may help them have a long lasting and happy marriage. I mean, her intention is definitely there but the future is unknown and anything can happen, especially things that you may least expect it to go.

The special wedding dress, one of its kind wedding dress that Fran found leads to the encounter of a man of huge influence, Rafael. He is the man of a Colt and they both have painful pasts. It would have to be up to them to stop looking back at the past, let it go and move on forward together. Honestly, the romance was a bit mediocre. It wasn't all fireworks exploding and butterflies running down one's spine but I really do love the aspect of Fran's obsession with history and the wedding dresses that come along with it.

The wedding dresses and how unique each of them are made me intrigued. To match the bride with the dress based on their personalities, their aspirations and what they hope more of becoming makes it bespoke and so special. It is not rocket science that every girl dreams of their wedding day and the dress that they might wear walking down the aisle and Fran's role is like the fairy godmother, guiding them to the light and towards happily ever after.

I can relate a lot when it comes to how magical and beautiful romance used to be back in the Regency era. The men were more bold, not as complicated as they come today and full of grandeur that could make any women fall in love with. I just wish that men nowadays would try a bit harder and take them as role models because they can definitely do and be better. 

This book reminds me of the show, Say Yes To The Dress and I would always watch it. It's like my guilty pleasure and that is the main reason that I just had to pick up this book up.  It was an interesting read about love, marriage, moving past painful memories and a whole lot of wedding dresses!

When I read the blurb for The Perfect Dress I was intrigued by Fran and her wedding dress shop. Unfortunately, it all fell a little flat for me. As Fran searches out wedding dresses and researches if they did in fact lead their owner into a life of true love she comes across a beautiful dress, a one of a kind but whose history is full of darkness and mystery pretty much like Rafael the son of the last bride to wear the dress. These two don't exactly hit it off and one misunderstanding after another leads to some kind of mutual attraction. The mysteries surrounding more than this one dress and Rafael's family are slowly revealed and we find out exactly what brought such sorrow into both their lives. I found Fran and Rafael confusing as their moods changed so quickly and the love/hate relationship which leads to them falling in love a little far fetched but as it's a romance it's to be expected. Mick and Janey were entertaining side characters if a little cliched.....Janey the rich out of control girl and Mick the cheeky chappie. The story felt undeveloped and the formatting was all over the place, the additional spaces in words or lack of them between words didn't enhance the reading experience but hopefully, these are things that will be corrected before publication. Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read.

Francesca Delaney owns a wedding dress shop called The Whispering Dress. She takes her job seriously and likes to match a bride's personality to a vintage wedding dress in her shop - she has even researched each dress and their previous dress owner to ensure a perfect fit!

When Fran finds an exclusive vintage collectable dress, she goes about her research trying to find out about the background and ends up meeting the owner's son. Will Fran be able to find her own happiness in the process of assisting others?

This book was a lot better than I thought it would be. I'm not a bit fashionista so I went into the book with a bit of doubt however I ended up really liking the story.

From the blurb, I was expecting a sweet, quirky, and humorous rom-com in the vein of Sophie Kinsella, but this just didn't click together for me, and ended up being more angsty than I was hoping for!

I did really like the concept of the wedding dress shop where unusual dresses are matched with brides who didn't know they were looking for them, and these were my favourite sections. Unfortunately, I felt that the book was let down by the utter mismatch between the two main characters, and how weak the characters were in themselves.

Fran was a quirky manic pixie dream girl type, who was the sort of character that takes risks in the name of whimsy and expects everyone around her to find it adorable. She grates very quickly, with her happy-go-lucky sayings and her irresponsible actions. She has no respect for boundaries and goes out of her way to stick her nose into Rafael's family history and stir up bad memories, going so far as to manipulate him into taking her to Paris so she can ambush him with a particularly nasty encounter from his past. Also, her gay best friend is a stereotype that I thought we were finished with years ago.

Her love interest, Rafael, is a brooding playboy millionaire who drones on about his philanthropy while still being an utter dick, as if giving away his family's money makes up for him treating all the other characters appallingly. His attitude towards his (female) PA is atrocious - he doesn't even view her as a human being - and I could not believe how much I hated him. The author was obviously going for cold on the outside but a heart of gold, but again, donating money does not make up for being an unbearable person - at one point, he throws Fran out of his car and abandons her somewhere unfamiliar after dark. Any woman should know that this is dangerous and malicious behaviour, and not at all romantic. His sister, an alcoholic, is introduced to show a softer side, but here, too, he thinks that throwing money at the problem is going to solve it.

The two of them do nothing but bicker and manipulate each other, and then we're supposed to believe in a happily-ever-after that comes about all too quickly. I also deeply disliked the classism and internalised misogyny that Fran displayed when dealing with one of her brides, going so far as to steal back the wedding dress she sold to her, ten minutes before the wedding, because she doesn't deserve it (from what I can see, because she has fake tan and a tattooed fiance). That was cringe-worthy to read.

As I was reading the book, I didn't have such a problem with it, as the writing is okay (not great, but readable) and the story does roll along quickly, but thinking about it afterwards, it was just let down by two deeply dislikeable characters who should never have ended up together.

I approached Reading this book like any other... However after the first few pages I was intrigued as to where the author was taking this story. I was confused by who old Fran is, its not clearly stated and makes its hard to assimilate with Fran (I think she was 29). This didn't spoil the story in anyway, the way the first chapter unfolds with descriptions of wedding dress try ons is impeccable, I felt like I was there such intricate and descriptive language this got me hooked on the story.
Frank's back story in her past isn't revealed until the end, and this adds to the story as Rafeal story is for front and centre. It's not just about the perfect dress it's about all those who wore these perfect dressess, these were well thought out historical stories that were heart warming and built mine as a reader love for each dress, and in do eager to know more about where each dress was going.
The story unfolded really well, I found sometimes chapters and sections ended abruptly and left me wanting more, it was unclear if this was intentional. The book is a great bedtime cozy read, really enjoyed it.

I was disappointed in this book, I was hopeful reading the blurb, but felt the book did not live up to its promise. Fran has a bridal shop, and she matches brides to the perfect dress, the dress that will bring out her true character and create a happily ever after. It is ironicthat Fran has a bridal shop, as she was left at the altar 10 years ago.
I saw little evidence of depth of character with Fran, nor did her interactions with the bride to be’s have any sense of reality. Then Fran meets Rafael, a wealthy romantically damaged bachelor. Of course it is love at first sight, but with these two love damaged souls, it takes the entire book to get them together.
If you enjoyed this, try Mena van Praag, “Dress shop of dreams”, it is a good read.
Thank you to netgalley and Transworldbooks for an ARC..

Francesca Delaney is the owner of “The Whispering Dress” which is an apt name, as each of the wedding dresses that Fran has found, whisper their story to her. When she finds a new bespoke vintage gown, she researches the history of the owner and when a soon to be bride arrives at her shop, she matches the dress to them. Sometimes the bride is not sure of the dress, but when they put it on, they are instantly mesmerised. However, when Fran finds a 1950s couture gown, designed by the House of Garrett-Alexia, she is captivated and soon will stop at nothing to find out the history of the dress. It is just that she soon finds herself, falling in love with the owner’s son, Rafael Colt, whose philanthropist family established Colt Foundation. What soon emerges, is a story of intrigue, as Fran uncovers hidden secrets of the Colt family, whilst trying to hide her own.
Whilst I was a bit uncertain to start with, the stories behind each dress and the brides to be so wonderfully described, that it was not difficult to also fall in love with the dresses. However, it is the story behind Rafael and his mother and grandmother who both wore the Garrett-Alexia dress, that was fascinating. This story was slowly revealed, explaining all of Rafael insecurities, whilst Fran’s story only comes to light later on, adding a twist. A great read, with two wonderful characters, especially Fran, who steals the show from the start. A must read!
I received an advanced review copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed the book but found it a little unbelievable. I don't think people do really act or behave in some of the ways that they are portrayed in the story. I know that the author was just trying to build up the characters, but I think that in some cases, it went over the top. I loved the idea of the story - having a whispering dress, and think it was a great plot.

The story of Fran and Rafael.

They meet at a house clearance - the house belonged to Rafael's mother

They are complete opposites. He likes order and is quite uptight. She is more of a free spirit and runs a wedding dress shop. They clash over his mother's wedding dress, a vintage piece that is worth quite a lot of money. He wants nothing to do with it, but she falls in love with it. The dress doesn't have happy stories behind it though, so can it bring them happiness together?

First book I have read by this author, and looking forward to more.