Cassandra French

Edwina the Exquisite Cassandra French

Her name is Edwina the Exquisite. (Her real name is Edwina Francis Small, but shh . . . she doesn't really like to talk about that.) Edwina the Exquisite is the story of a highfalutin fashion designer in eighteenth-century Europe, whose large hats and grandiose gowns are eclipsed only by her haughtiness and self-conceit. Having grown up as one of eleven children in a world of hand-me-downs and a room shared with ten siblings, Edwina strives to set herself apart in the newly emerging realm of fashion and consumerism sweeping across the Western world.

Having reached the height of her career as the queen's personal dress designer and setting the standard for all of English fashion, Edwina is completely caught off guard when the simple beauty of a flower from the hand of a mere peasant girl unearths everything she has come to know of true beauty. The course of her life is forever changed as one fateful flower stirs within her a desire to create something even half as lovely, only to find that her every effort falls short. For Edwina, what at first seems like failure turns out to be the greatest success of her life.