Whilst Georgiana and Thomas's relationship was one of my favourite aspects of the novel, perhaps the most interesting dynamic is between Georgiana and Frances. Croucher captures the dizzying excitement of a new friendship, especially with someone you regard as outgoing and popular, and the way this can crumble from beneath you if there's a misunderstanding about who the other person really is. We delve into the dangers on transactional friendship, and the way that aspects like class and hierarchy come between them. It's frenemies excellence. Estava It’s a little under a year since I read @Lex’s first book and, honestly? They just keep getting better. Compulsively readable, hysterically funny, and touchingly relatable casting genuinely human characters who are clearly more than a little Neurodiverse chafing against the stifling manners of regency England. Overall, Reputation is a fun, historical romance, but it also includes some darker themes which were handled with care and added a lot to the book. Definitely worth a read! Book Description Abandoned by her parents, middle-class Georgiana Ellers has moved to a new town to live with her dreary aunt and uncle. At a particularly dull party, she meets the enigmatic Frances Campbell, a wealthy member of the in-crowd who lives a life Georgiana couldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin for an arc provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. If Bridgerton and Sex Education had a book baby, it would be Reputation. A classic rom-com with a feminist Regency twist, the debut novel from Lex Croucher is this season’s incomparable diamond. Lex Croucher is a writer, producer and You Tuber based in London, with over 100,000 followers across her social media platforms.I received an uncorrected proof copy for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review.

It was always his father’s hope that Valentine would marry Miss Arabella Tarleton. But, unfortunately, too many novels at an impressionable age have caused her to grow up…romantic. So romantic that a marriage of convenience will not do and after Valentine’s proposal she flees into the night determined never to set eyes on him again. I loved Georgiana and Thomas so much and that scene in the cellar when they almost kissed was delicious with tension and everything you want in a romance plot. I would have loved to have seen more of Frances and Jane's relationship and I'm hoping that might follow in a sequel...

5. To Have and to Hoax – Martha Waters

As for Frances herself, she by the far the hottest mess in the book. Which is complicated because she’s both mixed race and bisexual. Her charisma is undeniable, but she’s also undeniably damaged, and her relationship with Georgiana ultimately becomes toxic, with Frances behaving extremely vindictively over a perceived betrayal. So yes: conflict thoughts. I mean, practically everyone in this book (with the exception of the romantic lead) is to some degree a villain, including Georgiana, but while the Biggest Bad hat has to go to one of the gentlemen, Frances makes a pretty hard play for the title of “the worst.” Except for the fact she’s … you know. Really human, capable of great charm and great destructiveness, a destructiveness she’s just as liable to turn on herself. Some storylines also peter out into nothing, or felt overly gratuitous. We get a brief monologue from Frances about slaves and racism (she is described as mixed race), and one passing mention of Frances's mother being talked about in town while she gives money to the poor. But beyond this? Nothing. We also get hints of trouble at home for Frances, but again it's over in one scene. If as much care and thought had been put into these passages as they had for the many party scenes it might have had more of an emotional impact and feel less like an oversight. There was so much missed potential in Frances's mother. Frances is so sparkling, so vibrant and lively and witty and daring, that readers will be forgiven for thinking that she’s Georgiana’s love interest. Certainly, Georgiana is instantly smitten. Croucher understands the fierce, passionate crushes girls have on their friends—the yearning to be in another person’s orbit, to have them think of you as clever and charming. Romantic attachment makes the heart beat faster, but friendships burrow deeper under the skin; you feel them all the way to your bones. And that’s ordinary friendship. Frances is anything but ordinary. In addition to the giddy pleasure of her company, she exposes Georgiana to a world of fantastic wealth, endless indulgence and absolute debauchery. It’s fun, it’s dizzying, it’s literally intoxicating—and it’s very, very dangerous. The handling of sexual harassment felt perhaps a little too twenty-first century, but I wouldn't have wanted it to be any other way. So much of how we write fiction set in the past is revisionist anyway, so why not imagine a past where people really did believe women?