What a shame. It's a relatively good historical romance, but certainly not enough history for me. Probably, for a romance writer, coming out of that kind of writing must be difficult. What I wanted out of this was a good take on the beginnings of Christian Dior's design empire. What we got was a romance between a weirdly nicknamed American who is the opposite of the ugly American and marries a rich Russian count. It wasn't until the Author's Note that the real story seemed to come out. I'll take the suggestions at the back of the book to learn more instead.

An entertaining work of historical fiction that blends the serious historical problems of WWII Paris with the every day human need to will for something more beautiful. Gabriel achieves what I expect from the genre--his characters are relatable and although it is neither biography nor history it feels authentic. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a beach read, I couldn't put it down and enjoyed it thoroughly.

By the time I decided I didn't like this book at all, I was 70% finished. I should have just stopped because that last 30% was just so bad. So. Bad.

The dialog, where it existed was stilted and odd. The characters were flat, as if the author read Wikipedia pages and tried to turn them into stories.

Near the end the MC gives birth and complains that no one warned her it would be terrifying. No one needs that warning. The whole scene is easily the worst birth scene I've read in a long time, and possibly ever.

There are lots of phrases like "spill the beans" and "good job, kid". There is a gay man, a cocaine-addicted prostitute, a lesbian (who is repeatedly described as "athletic" and "strong"), and Hemingway makes a few appearances - all of which are strangely contradictory. It's as if every stereotype of Paris in the 40s had to be represented. Now that I think about it, there should have been at least one black person, a la Josephine Baker.

Unless you are a Dior fanatic, or you love super cheesy historical fiction, there's not much reason to recommend this one. Francophiles might like it for the fact it's set in Paris, but even that's a stretch.

I liked the time period it was set in. the characters didn’t seem to have much depth.

A Kindle First Read. I really enjoyed most of this book. I could have lived without the graphic details about Copper's relationship with Suzy (this type of sub-story seems to be present in most newer books for whatever reason). I would have given it a 4 if it hadn't had that odd side relationship - it took away from the rest of the book.

It took a little while to get into the book, but once it started rolling, it was a great story. I know nothing of fashion so I didn't read it for that aspect, but for the historical fiction portion. I enjoyed learning about the history of fashion that is so prevalent in today's world, though.

Review coming

The Designer is not the story I was expecting going into this one. I was expecting a historical romance set in post war Paris involving a fashion designer. However, the story revolves around an American girl living in Paris after leaving her husband and trying to make her own way. The story wasn't what I would consider a romance and "the designer" isn't even the main character. On top of the plot not being what I expected, the story moved along very slowly. I was 25% into this 330 page book when I decided I couldn't stick with it anymore and hardly anything had happened.

My opinions on The Designer see to be in the minority. The book has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon with over 2,000 reviews, so if this sounds like your type of read, you may still want to give it a shot. You may feel the complete opposite of me.