What the late Olivia Goldsmith did for the movie business with the excellent Flavor of the Month, here, in FASHIONABLY LATE, she does it again for the fashion world. Yes, her characters may not be as finely tuned, but the novel is never boring. It is a fast and witty read with a touching undertone. Recommended.-----Martin Boucher

I was dissapointed. I liked a lot of her other books but this one seemed to drag on and i kept waiting for something to happen. Not one of my favorites.

I've enjoyed other books by Olivia Goldsmith, but as a mother of an adorable son who happens to be adopted, I can't get past the negative adoption language that is peppered throughout the story (at least the first part of the book) and the negative stereotypes of adoption that are reinforced here. I imagine the language (e.g. "real mother" when referring to her birth mother) and stereotypes (e.g. the character's mother prefers her biological daughter over her adopted daughter) would be offensive to any adoptive parent.

It's a shame, because I chose to read this book because it's a fictional story that includes adoption as a part of it, but I just can't bring myself to finish it. For that reason, I can't recommend the book at all.

I liked First Wives Club and Young Wives alot better than this one. The fashion element intrigued me to pick it up, and the subplots were interesting, but like another reviewer said, all karen kahn did was to put down "regular" women. She mentally made them over, wondered whether mainstream America would "understand" her designs, and despised the "bridge and tunnel" crowd as being unforgivably dowdy and out of touch. That aspect of the book really turned me off! We read Vogue out here too! She sounded really elitist. Is Goldsmith trying to make a point? She only tried to see the other point of view when at the end, she was forced to. All of a sudden, the American woman was inspiring! I also wanted to see what would happen to Tiffany. I liked all of the other characters except Karen. Oh well, I hope her next ones will be better.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is a relaxing read and doesn't require one to devote a lot of mental power to understanding the message. As a female, like most of my gender, I am interested in the fashion world. Goldsmith, in this tale, gives a key-hole view of the fashion world as it were at the time of her writing. The fashion world has changed a little since then, but, not much. Models still starve themselves, or binge then purge, or manage their health through a good exercise and food intake program or are naturally thin. Message her is THIN IS IN. Hopefully, the readers are motivated who choose this profession to follow the healthy approach and not the obvious unhealthy ones.

As long as we follow the practice of clothing our bodies in our society, we will be concerned about what we wear. Now I give the provision of wearing clothes because from what I am seeing in our society today, we are wearing smaller and smaller amounts of clothing. The tiny tops and bottoms that are in fashion for the ladies and men, border on returning to the Tarzan and Jane era--meaning very little clothing.

Karen Kahn does a sizable job of revealing to us the competitive nature of her the fashion designing profession. Weave into her workworld are the pressures she faces in her private and/or home life. For her, home life was not very good. Her husband, sister (half), and mother (adoptive) all had contradicting programs which made for little harmony for her. Facing pressures from home life and work life make for a pressure cooker environment. Sooner or later something must give. Now many of us, who live in the real world, have experienced or are experiencing such a pressure driven environment and can identify with her plight. Thanks to her, we now know we can work our way out of that sick environment and live a healthy life ever after.

I love heroine stories and hope Goldsmith keeps them coming.