This was my first FF historic romance but it didn't suit me. I had troubles with understanding some parts (english isn't my native language), it was slow reading for me and I DNF it 3 times. I had this book more than a year on my bookself.
It just didn't suit me.

As a lover of historical romance and queer woman, I had a blast with this novel. The tension, the romance, and the queer joy made my toes curl with glee. I read this in 24 hours and it was to die for. While the author could improve on pacing their writing style as a whole but it is a solid read!

DNF 21%

I love new nonbinary romances and was so excited about the sounds of this book. Unfortunately I am reminded reading this that this kind of historical romance isn’t exactly my jam. Reading this felt boring and made it difficult to convince myself to continue, even with a nonbinary protagonist.

This queer romance is sort of an enemies to lovers trope but with some nuance. First, I appreciate the time period of this novel, because it’s not one that often gets chosen to set the scene. The highlight of women’s suffrage and blue stockings makes this a book that has deep undercurrents of empowering women and I enjoyed that. Secondly, I LOVE the non-binary rep in this book with one of the main love interests. Because of the nuance of this book’s setup/characterization, I feel like there were some marks missed though. Georgina’s three names made it hard to keep track and honor their character, while Beatrice was such a hard character to like even up to the end. It was an interesting dynamic that played out at the end, but not one that I am sure felt plausible? I have really mixed feelings about this book because I enjoy more queer visibility and rep in novels but I struggle to give understanding when it turns into sort of a mess. I almost DNF’d it but then hung on to see it through because of this struggle.

*Thank you to Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own and voluntarily given*

Georgina and Beatrice are interesting characters. Georgina is interesting because she fights hard and long for social justice and the rights of women. I love the idea and concept of salons. She also fights for herself as a bigender person. Beatrice is interesting because she is helping her family by marrying a titled man yet looking for happiness. Also enjoyable was the setting and clothing description. I appreciated the detail.

I enjoyed this book. I loved the concept of Gina and her gender identification. Now I didn’t love Beatrice in the beginning but you later learn and understand why she did want she did.

She wants to be able to freely love who she loves. And to be able to make decisions because of herself and out of obligation to her selfish family

I loved the ending. I was worried about how this happy ending would came together logically for its time nut I was happy with the happy ending.

Its incredibly hard to find Queer Regency books, I was immediately joyful finding this one. Jane Walsh portrays an amazing talent that proves Regency doesn't always have to be exclusively straight. Georgina will help so many readers feel represented in a way they never thought they could be in the Regency genre. I absolutely I adored this book, the writing, the plot, the romance. It was splendid I cannot wait to read more books from Walsh.

Her Countess to Cherish was a enjoyable regency lesfic. It was not as light of a reading as I initially thought it would be, but I flew through the story.

Word of warning to the reader, while this book is a standalone, it is in many ways a sequel to Her Lady to Love. I did not read Her Lady prior to starting this book and I feel as though I missed some backstory and character conflicts from the first book.

I think the character growth in the story is bigger than the plot. I admit, I did not like Bea at all for a large majority of this book. But her character grew in many ways. Conversely, I liked Gina from the beginning. And I thought Walsh did an amazing job creating a bi-gender character.

This was a little bit of a slow burn story. But I thought it unfolded very organically to match Bea's character evolution.

All in all, a solid story.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC ebook from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for this review.

I really disliked this book. I don't know if it was just that the author wasn't for me, or if its actually atrocious. Both MCs are disappointing and downright mean. I like enemies-to-lovers, but I could not see these two ever being in a functional relationship. I just don't know what to say with about this book. I love historical romance, particularly queer ones, so this was a huge disappointment. Perhaps it would be better as a follow-up to the first book--I guess I'll never know.

I can honestly say that I've never read a romance novel like Her Countess to Cherish, and I desperately hope that won't be the case for long. Jane Walsh's latest is a groundbreaking regency era love story that features a nonbinary person, Georgina, whose pronouns and presentation vary by the day. Georgina is a passionate community organizer who goes to the countryside to set up a salon. Some days he lives as George, a flirtatious gentleman who can enter the all-male spaces denied to women, and some days she lives as Gina, a modest bluestocking.

Georgina is joined on the page by Beatrice, a haughty (bisexual) duchess whose new marriage is off to a rocky start. Beyond their gender and sexual diversity, these are complex characters to root for — as Beatrice drops her obnoxious façade in George's company, she finds herself challenged by Gina's passionate values and efforts to help local trade-workers.

Lushly and lovingly written, Her Countess to Cherish widens the scope of whose stories are told in regency England, and whose love deserves a happy ending.

This was a cute and quick read! It was definitely lighthearted, and I really enjoyed reading from the POV of a queer bigender character. However, I didn’t really feel any chemistry in the romance, so I never felt truly excited by the development of the story. I think it was a sweet read overall, but just not totally for me. I recommend this to anyone who wants a warm and fast queer romantic read.

Thank you Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an e-ARC of this book.

*Review contains minor spoilers*

This book was an extremely sweet, slow burn, regency era romance. It has a huge cast of queer characters. The main characters have fluid sexualities and gender identities. I was worried that difficulties or struggles the characters face the would be central to the plot, but it was refreshing and so enjoyable to see a historical queer romance where characters grappling with homophobia/transphobia/discrimination wasn’t the focal point of the story. I couldn’t help but smile at this.

However, the plot moved slowly at times, and extremely quickly at others. At times it was hard to keep track of all the characters and changes.

The writing was enjoyable, but at times felt unrealistic for the era. This is not a bad thing, but it did mean I had to remind myself at times that it was historical.

The ending also seemed rushed, where all the loose ends had to be quickly tied up into a happily ever after that was unexpected based on what we know of the characters by the end. More character development would have made the plot twists revealed in the last few pages feel less jarring and more interesting.

Overall this was an enjoyable book !

𝗪𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲.

I rarely go for queer historical romances. The only ones I've read are from Jae, who did an incredible job with them. But I developed a liking for storylines about women dressed up as men in historical times after reading Backwards to Oregon, so I decided to give this a try.

I'm not entirely in love with this story but unlike other people, my issue isn't with the characters. Many people find Bea manipulative and self-serving and though that might be true, it didn't bother me at all. I also like Georgina (George / Gina) who is sweet, considerate and gentlemanly and I like them as a pair.

But this book isn't only queer. It is also woke and I find it hard to reconcile modern concepts of sexuality and gender fluidity with the regency era. It felt unrealistic and it was hard for me to be on board with it. The universe that is being set up is homonormative. Almost all the characters are queer and the rest who aren't, are accepting and inclusive. There are also conversations between characters on Georgina's gender identity issues (They identify sometimes as a man and sometimes as a woman) and of women's rights that are definitely better had in the 21st century than the early 19th century.

This book is not bad but it just didn't turn out as I had expected and I found it hard to click with it. But for those who are considering giving this a try, you might like to know that the characters of this book also appear in another book called Her Lady to Love that mainly features Lady Honora and Jacqueline, who now live together in a Boston marriage and in a residence where this book is mostly set in.

Oh wow, this pleasantly surprised me! While I enjoyed Her Lady to Love, nothing about it wowed me, so I was expecting more of the same with this book. But in Her Countess to Cherish, I was impressed with the the plot, the pacing, and the development of the romance and characters. I think that fans of the Feminine Pursuits series by Olivia Waite will enjoy this book because it contains cute tender moments, feminist badassery, friends supporting each other, wholesome queer side characters, and of course, well-researched Regency details!!

Miss Beatrice Everson (27, m-spec), the haughty and flippant daughter of a financially unstable family, is unsatisfied with her sham marriage and promptly escapes to the countryside to visit her friends. While I didn’t like Beatrice much at all in the first book, I’m happy to say I ended up really liking her by the end of this one! Her character development was wonderful to see, and when her likable qualities are revealed, it’s not at all like she turns into a completely different person. Yes, Bea is still a very flawed person with a checkered past, but she’s certainly not beyond redemption.

Georgina Smith (31, bigender, m-spec) has devoted her life to making knowledge more accessible. While she was my favorite character in Her Lady to Love, it seemed like she might’ve been one of those characters who was just too perfect. However, in this book, we see that Georgina is also a flawed person who’s prone to occasional selfishness, and that there are gaps in his (albeit very enlightened) view of the world that Beatrice can help to fill. I love the nuanced descriptions of his bigender identity: for example, how you can usually tell his gender (and therefore, if he wants to be addressed as George or Gina) by the way he’s dressed, but how sometimes certain functions call for him to present as the gender that conflicts with his actual gender that day.

The romance is well-developed and the MCs’ chemistry is so cute! It’s an opposites-attract slow burn with touches of mistaken identity and dislike-to-love. At first Beatrice is romantically into roguish George, but finds his "cousin" Gina to be a boring scholar whose interests vehemently clash with Bea’s preference for a luxurious lifestyle. I love how Bea comes to unconditionally love and respect both genders and all sides of Georgina, and how Georgina is quick to see that there’s a lot to love about Bea. There are countless cute moments for lovers of the little things like me (lake scene, anyone????), and I just love how everything turns out for them in the end!

Lastly, I can’t not mention the lovely cast of queer side charaacters! Nora, Jacquie, Phin, and Hawthorne from the first book are back, as well as some new characters including Georgina’s wonderful transgender valet, Legrand, and a 19th-century drag queen who goes by Petty Mischief. There’s also some focus on the raiding of gay male bars, called “molly-houses,” and how Georgina begins steps to work against this. I appreciated how this unpleasant yet important aspect of history was included.

In short, this book satisfied my ever-constant desire for good queer historical romance. I loved getting to intimately know these two side characters from Her Lady to Love: one who seemed reprehensible and one who seemed nearly flawless, but who are actually both kindhearted, flawed people who complement each other wonderfully!

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I learned, after reading this, that there's a book before this one that introduces us to at least Beatrice. Or, shall I say, Lady Beatrice Sinclair now, after dragging her family out of poverty by marrying Lord Sinclair and having him pay off her father's debts. He's cold and sneering toward her, since she threw herself at him and she and her family apparently ran off the woman he was supposed to marry. Bea isn't really excited about Sinclair, and the day after their wedding and her first night providing wifely duties, she flees to the country to stay with a friend for awhile.

Said friend is living with a friend of her own - who just happens to be the woman Bea shoved aside in order to marry Sinclair. While she and Bea are a little frosty to start, it turns out Bea did her a favor, because now she gets to live with the woman she loves instead of the man she doesn't.

We then meet Georgina Smith, who is also staying, and Bea takes an immediate dislike to her. To me, it seemed that Bea was projecting, because I found Bea to bea not a terribly nice person: she was snobbish, selfish, sour, and unthinking. What Georgina saw in her was a mystery to me, but I know, instalove.

Speaking of instalove, Bea was charmed by George Smith, Georgina's cousin and someone she met at her wedding. Such Bea's luck that George is also staying at this house in the country, too! She hopes to run into him there (spoiler: she does, mainly in the library).

I think what amazed me most about this book is just how many LGBTQI+ people are in this tiny town. It seemed like you couldn't swing a dead cat around without hitting someone that fit somewhere in that group.

One thing I can give this book is that the principals don't immediately fall into bed with one another. It's more of a slow burn of a romance, although I still wasn't a fan of Bea along the way.

Bea finds out she's pregnant, and decides she will divorce Sinclair and marry George instead, without bothering to talk to George about it, which leads to some rockiness. Eventually, she disposes of that idea, and admits to Sinclair she is pregnant but shock of all shocks, he's suddenly turned into an ultra caring, forgiving, and entirely other person in the three months she's been gone. They come up with a solution, and everyone's story wraps up like a nice little gift.

It's always nice to see books with gay+ main characters,but this really struck me as something written as a message book, with long discussions that would be more suitable to 2021 than 1800 England. I'm not opposed to message books per se; my problem comes when virtually every piece of the book is a message the reader is hit over the head with time and again. The ending was rather forced and tidy, but at least there were no loose ends.

I'm going with three stars out of five.

Thanks to Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for the reading copy.

“Her Countess to Cherish” is a sequel to Jane Walsh’s “Her Lady to Love.” This is a slow-burn regency romance featuring a bisexual/bigender couple. It also includes a pretty big cast of queer characters with a wide array of sexualities and genders.

Beatrice (Bea) Everson has finally connived herself into marriage with the Earl of Sinclair. After a disastrous night together, Bea runs off to the countryside to spend time with Jacquie and Nora, the mains from “Her Lady to Love.” After arriving, she realizes Lady Georgina (Gina) Smith and her cousin George Smith are already guests. She doesn’t care for Gina too much but she likes to flirt with George. Bea has no idea Gina and George are the same person. Georgina is bigender and goes by Gina/George depending on how they feel that day.

I’ll admit I wasn’t crazy about Bea in “Her Lady to Love” and in the beginning she’s not too changed from that. I was interested in seeing what Walsh would do with her to get her to change my mind about Bea deserving a happily ever after. She’s still manipulative, snobby, and selfish and I found it difficult to like her for a good portion of the book. In learning her history, it was easier to see why she behaved the way she did even if I didn’t always agree with the way she about things. Georgina on the other hand, I loved from the very beginning. They are truly a kind-hearted person and spends their time trying to make things equal for all by running a bluestocking salon. Georgina is visiting Nora and Jacquie as they are hoping to start another branch of the salon Georgina started in London.

The two of them together brought some funny moments as their personalities are polar opposites. It was especially amusing because Bea doesn’t realize George and Gina are the same person for a while and that lead to a lot of situational humor that I enjoyed. At first glance these two should not get along. They have extremely different views on everything. Bea just wants to spend her time shopping and socializing while Georgina spends all their time trying to make change, especially for women and queer people. They were alike in one aspect. Neither had ever really felt accepted as who they were for different reasons. I liked seeing how them accepting each other as who they truly were changed each of them in turn. In their acceptance they were each able to grow and have more fulfilling lives.

My only real complaint was the pacing. It’s slow-burn, which I loved, but then the last quarter or so felt rushed. Otherwise, this is a fun queer regency romance. Walsh clearly spent time researching as it felt authentic to me.

Like I said, this is a sequel and can be read as a standalone, however, I recommend reading “Her Lady to Love” first to get a better understanding of all the characters and really appreciate the Bea’s change.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An unconventional pansexual romance between a woman, Beatrice, who forced a duke to marry her in order to gain access to his wealth and a woman, Georgina, who identifies as male but is comfortable whether passing as man or woman. Although Beatrice becomes pregnant from a single unsatisfactory consummation of her marriage, she asks for a divorce, most improper under societal rules. Instead, the heroines and the duke concede hostilities to forge a different matrimonial solution, and the HEA presages a new more accepting society that serves the needs and desires of all the protagonists and the child of the marriage. Recommend.

Her Countess to Cherish is a slow-burn regency romance about Miss Beatrice Everson, a woman who married for money and now finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, and Lady Georgina / Mr. George Smith, a genderfluid bluestocking who lives for passion and purpose. They're an odd mix, and their romance takes nearly half the book to develop into even a kiss, but the way in which Jane Walsh so tactfully and respectfully explores a love triangle between two people is well worth the read.

To be completely honest, Beatrice rubbed me the wrong way from the very first page. I didn't like her, I didn't respect her, and I didn't particularly care what happened to her. I found her to be somewhat cold and callous, and while she's not necessarily selfish (she did, after all, marry a man she despises to save her father from his gambling debts), she is most certainly manipulative and self-serving. The first few times they meet, Georgina/George is more annoyed by than attracted to the newly married houseguest, and it's only because I adored them that I was willing to trust their instincts and welcome Beatrice into their heart.

Once I began reading this as a story of redemption rather than romance, accepting that we were supposed to find Beatrice rather sour at first, so that we could better appreciate her becoming sweet later, I found I warmed up to the story. There are a lot of ways this could have gone wrong, especially with the portrayal of Georgina/George, but I loved that Walsh allowed them to be both man and woman, someone happily slipping from one role or persona to the other, and that made the second half of the story succeed despite the odd pacing and rushed finale.

The supporting cast here is strong, particularly in the form of Lady Honora and Miss Jacqueline, whose wonderful relationship has me eager to go back and catch up with Her Lady to Love. Despite a rocky start with Beatrice and my initial uncertainty as to whether I wanted to keep reading, Her Countess to Cherish is worth reading for Georgina/George alone, with their nonbinary representation pairing quite nicely with the bluestocking theme of women's social and educational movement, which embraces all of the characters in one way or another.

Queer regency romances are new to me but definitely something I'm enjoying lately so I couldn't go past giving Her Countess to Cherish a read. After reading the blurb, I was very intrigued by how the author would conclude the novel to give us that mandatory HEA, even though there seemed to be quite a few challenges for our MCs. I thought this was done really well, with all ends concluded nicely and in a way that seemed realistic within the era it was set.

The characterisation of Georgina/George was really well done. They felt like two individuals who just inhabited the same body at certain points. I really enjoyed reading about them both. However, I found Beatrice slightly off-putting for the entirety of the novel. She's selfish and calculating, which didn't make me particularly invested in her or her romantic endeavours.

Additionally, I thought the latter part of the novel was really rushed. Although I think the resolution was good in itself, I wished the author spent some time settling in our characters and their newfound arrangement. We were only provided this very quickly in the epilogue, which also felt rushed.

All in all, an interesting sapphic regency romance.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoy regency stories. There is something appealing about that time period. Queers not only found community, but thrived, and worked for change in those communities. These reads also show possibility and that success has happened before and success can continue to happen. It makes me grateful and proud to be part of the community.

Georgina and Beatrice are interesting characters. Georgina is interesting because she fights hard and long for social justice and the rights of women. I love the idea and concept of salons. She also fights for herself as a bigender person. Beatrice is interesting because she is helping her family by marrying a titled man yet looking for happiness. Also enjoyable was the setting and clothing description. I appreciated the detail. The ending was a little contrived but hey, it is what it is.