Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

So.…I mean. I guess let me just start this by saying that I have nothing but admiration for authors who are willing to take risks. And, well, the extravagant weirdness of Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match seems like it might be a risk? For me personally though, it was maybe more weird that it was … um. Successful? But please let me emphasise that your mileage is very likely to vary here: as a purveyor of extravagant weirdness myself, I think it’s the sort of thing that can speak very deeply to you if it’s your kind of extravagant weirdness. The fact that AFMEM was not *my* kind of extravagant weirdness is as much about me as it is about the book.

Okay. How to begin. Mild spoilers. More significant ones later, but I’ll flag them up so you can exit the vehicle if you need to.

Loosely inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the basic premise of Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match is that Angelika and her brother Victor Frankenstein are a pair of wealthy, hyper privileged Regency orphans. As one might expect, he’s obsessed with Science!, most particularly the Science! of re-animating the dead, though mostly to spite his never-on-page rival. She just … wants to get laid. Despite her beauty and wealth, Angelika’s intelligence and independence have alienated her every suitor, so she and her brother have hit on the solution of making her one.

So far this is, y’know, a tale as old as time. I mean who hasn’t wanted to build themselves a bf at some point. Of course, it’s an inherently problematic premise because it’s hard for it to be anything other than objectifying but I think where I ran aground, almost immediately, with AFMEM is that it leans super heavily into the objectifying angle? To the extent that its objectifying in ways it, um, kind of doesn’t have to be objectifying—in that sense that this version of Victor can already successfully reanimate the dead, but he specifically wants to reanimate someone composed of sewn-together parts to one-up his rival. All of which again, I think, could probably have been navigated. But then the book kicks off with what is an honestly uncomfortable obsession with, like, the penises of the deceased?

As in, Angelika finds a dead bloke she thinks is hot stuff but then, encouraged by her brother, she decides she’d like him even more if he had bigger muscles and a bigger dick. And I think this is meant to be … maybe … comedic? And probably it is comedic and I’m having a sense of humour fail. I don’t want to play the gender reversal card because, obviously, nothing is that simple, and men and women exist in very different contexts: but I do kind of feel we’ve reached a point culturally that we accept that Pygmalion impulses (especially if they involve fixating on chopping and changing female body parts around to meet specific cultural ideals, like boob size and leg length) are not okay. And I know there is a school of thought that derives empowerment from taking a form of oppression that generally belongs to those in power and applying directly TO those in power, but I have to say I find that very complicated. I mean, I don’t want to deprive straight people of their rights, I just want the same rights. I don’t want straight kids to feel scared at school, I just want queer kids NOT to feel scared at school, y’know? But, again, that’s my perspective: I’m sure, to some women, objectifying men right back is important. And that may well be the case for you and the, uh, whole dick ‘n’ mix situation.

Although I will add that, whatever your position on playing pass the genitals, the fact that Angelika’s brother has strong opinions on how dick size relates to his sister’s happiness might give you the ick regardless. He actually makes several gross comments about Angelika’s sex life over the course of the book but, while he is deservedly called out for treating Angelika like a replica of himself, in terms of how she thinks and feels, his “way too interested in sister’s vagina” behaviour is just left to slide. Which made me feel this was meant to read as “oh Victor, you so wacky” rather than “oh Victor, fuck off out of your sister’s business.”

Anyway, once the body parts have been settled, Angelika and Victor proceed to remix two men from their assorted bits: Victor’s huge lumbering, more traditional Frankenstein’s monster type creation, immediately runs away screaming in horrible anguish and Angelika’s Now With Improved Penis model, also in terrible pain, and confusion, remembering nothing of who he is and finding himself in an unfamiliar body, ultimately allows himself to be bathed and soothed by Angelika. Who has immediately decided he is the love of her life—and actively disappointed that this man who has literally woken up in an unfamiliar body with no memory and a cock he can’t control doesn’t immediately want to make sweet, sweet love to her.

To be fair, as the book progresses both Victor and Angelika are, a little bit, forced to reckon their privilege. They admit to each other that they’re terrible people who’ve done terrible things, and Angelika explicitly tells the man she made that it was wrong of her to blend him like a Spotify playlist. But I never quite believed in either their understanding or their remorse, not least because I don’t think the book itself ever really grappled with either the fact its heroine is Warren from Buffy or the fact that the hero (Will) is living in some kind of perma bodyhorror situation because it’s too busy making jokes about his penis.

Seriously, there’s about eight distinct references to it between the moment he wakes up reanimated at the 6% mark and the moment he goes to sleep at 11%. This includes a servant woman commenting on its erect state. And part of the deal here is that Will’s penis desires Angelika and keeps getting erect around her which, I think, is maybe meant to be cute somehow? But imagine waking up in physical pain, with no memory, with your head sewn onto a body that is composed of bits of strangers, and you don’t even have agency over your own desires.

I, honestly, can’t imagine much more horrifying. Like, to me, that is a Black Mirror episode, not a … not a romcom?

From here the story sort of spirals out in multiple directions: Victor is still chasing down his subject, his wife (who does not get horribly killed by a monster) moves in with them, Angelika is being pursued by Another Man while trying to find out Will’s past for him and navigate her relationship with Will. It feels simultaneously like a lot and not very much at the same time, and the whole book—in the end—had a disjoined quality for me (a veritable Frankenstein’s creation in fact) as it spun from this body-horror-esque, phallocentric romcom to … um. Everyone praying to God? Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for faith to play a role in romance outside of the whole inspirational romance thing, and I’m sure you could write a faith-centric romance about sewing dead men together, but it was just the last thing I was expecting. It felt like the end of a Shakespeare play where, like, everything is complete carnage and then the highest-ranking character comes on stage, be it the Duke or the King (or the next King) and is like AND NOW ORDER HAS BEEN RESTORED EVERYBODY BUY AN ORANGE AND GO HOME. Only. With God?

On top of which, the trajectory of Will and Angelika’s relationship felt almost completely random to me. Like he’s saying things like this to her:

“I permit you to sleep next to me, but I should warn you . . .” He trailed off, lost the thought, and his eyes closed. Then they opened again, with a startling intensity in them. “I’ll tell you now, before I forget. You’ve seen all of me. I want to know your body in return. I’d touch you everywhere. I want to pick you up, to feel your weight. I want to test my body.”

about half an hour after he’s told her he hates her (probably fairly?) for the fact she’s sewn him together from bits of other men. I love relationship arcs that start from unprepossessing beginnings (and you can’t get more unprepossessing than ‘I chopped your dick off because I wanted a bigger one to play with’) but I never understood what was drawing them from moment to moment: the point that Will decided that his body’s desire was his personal choice too, when he decided that he didn’t, in fact, hate Angelika, what made him see the value in her when all she’d done was lie to him and hurt him, what it was specifically that overcame what was holding him back (no spoilers) from accepting her love initially. Mostly he just did a lot of gardening.

Meanwhile Angelika’s thoughts are going like:

“The pain is hard to bear. Imagine a wooden stake,” he said, touching a finger to her shoulder joint, “pressed deep here, and here”— he touched her elbow—“ here, here, here”— wrist and two knuckles. “I feel every bend and every joint. Every movement is an agony, and I’m very cold.”

She ignored the pleasure she took from his fingertip. “Would you like more laudanum?”

Girl, this man is telling you he’s in terrible pain and you’re mainly focused on how much you want him to touch you. And, listen, I am not here for condemning heroines in romance—I love me an unsympathetic heroine or a heroine with a significant maturation arc—but I think maybe “my actions are causing a man to live in emotional and physical torment, but ooh he gives me tingles” might be a line in the sand for me? To be honest, I’m coming to the conclusion that Angelika’s personal arc suffered in much the same way as the Will/Angelika arc suffered: she decides she wants to be a better person because Will urges her to (okay, good) but I never felt I got to see her grow and change in meaningful and consistent way. Although, actually, let me make extra extra clear that I didn’t have issues with Angelika because she was horny or selfish or made some bad choices. It was more the way I never felt she was truly held accountable for the worst of her actions, either by herself or by anyone else.

Urgh, this all sounds like a lot of negativity. I think it’s fair to say that this book didn’t work for me but, equally fair, to note that the ways it didn’t work for me are probably quite personal and it will probably work for others. Probably the book lost me somewhere around the point it had turned into an episode of Trading Places for penises but I kept going on the assumption the book would take me somewhere I wanted to go. But. It ended up not doing that.

Obviously, it’s ST, so the book is really well-written, there’s some wonderful moments of sexiness, banter and pathos, and I felt she adapted her voice super successfully to an irreverent histrom style. Will is certainly a devoted romance hero (to the extent he’s telling a woman he’s in awe of everything she is a day or two after she’s regrafted his penis) so he might hit the spot for people who particularly enjoy those kind of dynamics between protagonists. Angelika, too, has a lot going for her as a heroine who feels genuinely alienated and love-needy, while also being smart as fuck, honest about her sexual desires, and determined to get what she wants. It’s just … did she really need to chop someone’s dick off to get there?

God I love this book. It’s so out there for a romance novel and yet it’s so perfect. It speaks to my undergraduate Gothic Literature loving soul. I couldn’t recommend it more - it’s witty and quirky but also a touching read.

As soon as I saw Bridgerton mixed with the addams family I knew I had to read this book and it didn't disappoint. Iloved everything about it, the writing was beautiful, the charcaters were well developed and I loved them and of course the fact that its a retelling makes it fantastic in my eyes anyway.

Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match is a masterpiece.

Sally Thorne just does not miss.

MANY SPOILERS AHEAD.

Firstly, I truly believe that this is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. The way Thorne has written the love between Angelika and Will was such a pleasure to read that this book genuinely had me in tears by the end.

I don't usually like books that stray from the modern day, nor do I tend to read love triangles, but to my utter surprise and delight, I loved both.

A and W's chemistry was so great and they had such big obstacles between them. I liked how much sense they made. I felt that some of Will's apprehension eg SPOILER ALERT: his unhappiness at being handed everything from Angelika and not being a man of his own making, was overcome fairly quickly and wasn't wrapped up all that well.

I will say that sometimes the writing took me a little while to understand because of the 19th century language used, but ultimately it added to the ambiance of the book.
Another part of the book that didn't make much sense was SPOILER ALERT: the old priest's manipulation before Will collapses. We're led to believe that his overexertion digging the grave was to blame for his collapse, not the old priest's words, so why wasn't this part wrapped up? Because of this, this small detail seemed a little unnecessary.

I really liked how much the story mirrored Mary Shelley's. But it was still so original and fresh.

I'm unsure how believable Will's (and Adam's) survival is, but considering the fantasy-ish genre and my love for a happy ending, I'm glad he did. I also think the blood transfusion was a really good explanation for his survival.
Lastly, I'm not sure if a lot of readers will agree, but some parts of the story were a little predictable eg Will turning out to be the replacement priest, Angelika's pregnancy in the epilogue, and Will's survival.

Ultimately, despite its *very minor* issues (many of which come with the pitfalls of writing fantasy-esque plots), this story was beautifully written and really touched me. I truly believed in Angelika and Will's love and was definitely rooting for them to work it out. I liked EVERY side character and cared about every single part of the story - from Christopher and Clara to Adam and Will. I didn't expect to love this book, but it is truly a masterpiece.

4.5 stars.
This was a startlingly colourful and romantic mix of Tim Burton and Lemony Snicket, with all the brilliance and fervour of Sally Thorne’s previous novels.
This was refreshing and funny, romantic and mysterious, quirky and fabulous, and a joy to read from beginning to end.
It appears writing is effortless for Sally Thorne. Her characters are engaging and real, her dialogue is perfection, and she does it all with class and humour.
Although this is quite different from her other novels this is still romantic fiction at its finest.
I simply adored the unabashedly brilliant Angelika, and completely fell in love with every character; even the love sick pig!
It was a privilege to spend time in this story with these fabulous characters!
Many thanks to Sally and the publisher for an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise was intriguing but it was just too weird and not that well executed. I will seek out others by the author as the writing was good and historical details but the story didn’t quite work for me.

This historical romance was nothing like I have read before, it has a very unique concept.

Angelika is twenty-four and she desperate wants to get married and start a family, but none of her suitors have come close to propose to her. Her brother is about to get married and Angelika is all the more desperate to follow.
Nothing weird so far, right? Well that is until Angelika decides to make her perfect man, she picks the best parts he must have, stitch it up and voila, here he is, resurrected from the dead.

Their love is instantly, at least for Angelika, her perfect man, doesn't have any memory of his former life and that is troubling him, his old self is holding him back and he can't move forward without knowing who he really is.

This is how a quest starts to find out who he is. Which brings forward a new man in Angelika's life. It turns into a love triangle, with a mystery, very witty remarks and very entertaining scenes and characters.

Victor, Angelina's brother is such a character, he is too much at times, which really is his charm.

All Angelika wants is to fall in love and be loved in return, she just goes into extreme measures to get what she wants.

Sally's writing style is present in the book and it is spectacular as usual. The plot is unique and the characters memorable, maybe they aren't not always right but they learn how to be better, the characters developed is beautiful to watch.

If you enjoy quirky stories with mystery elements, I think you would enjoy this book.


*I received an ARC and this is my honest opinion.

What a concept! This was absolutely surprising in all the best ways. Sally Thorne knows how to write romance... even when it involves essentially building your dream man... out of spare parts. Angelika Frankenstein is now my icon.

I think I must have really missed the plot with this one, because I just couldn't connect with it at all. The idea that Viktor was building his 'monster' for his sister just felt all kinds of odd for me, and I have read some strange premised books before. The fact that we open with the two of them discussing a dead man's package should have been enough to give me the ick but somehow I slogged through.

i was intrigued by the title and i wasn’t disappointed by the book,
the story of angelica and her quest to find her perfect man’ and the perfect love story when what she actually finds is so much more… her own humanity
i loved this book and it certainly was an unique read

So I think the problem with this book is that everyone who wasn't part of the conversation/community post where someone said they would read anything by Sally Thorne and I think made the joke that even if it was Frankenstein? I don't know the full details but I wasn't involved in that until I almost dnf'd it and had to check online others thoughts (minus spoilers)

I went into it not knowing that to start with and I almost didn't finish it, I was like 12% in and I was like what is it? It's weird, the conversations with the siblings near the beginning about finding a larger certain body part for his sister was icky, but the premise still did hold my interest.

Although happy I continued reading because a 3 star books is not a waste or a bad book in my opinion there were times where I was like "this is very bizarre" or "what did I just read?" So many people will grab this or want to read it because they loved The Hating Game but this is nothing like that and people are going to be disjointed expecting a historic love story like Lucy and Josh's and it's just not that. Does that make it back? No and I had a laugh reading it and I really loved the character of Will from the moment he was introduced, worth a read even if just for him.

This book surprised me! From the outward perspective I thought it would be a lot more stoic than it was, in fact it was downright silly and I LOVED it.

It made me giggle out loud, I loved jelly’s crassness, her unwavering dedication to who she was and what she wanted, the complete opposite of the norm for the time it takes place.

Will was her perfect match from the start but it wasn’t always clear how it was going to progress so I was enraptured from start to finish!

I found the relationship between brother and sister both hilarious but also quite heartwarming as they only had each other and yet they were both unapologetically themselves, in a position of privilege but also kind and yet still there was some essential character development in Angelika’s case.

Will was always honest with jelly and forthright with his feelings, he also didn’t pander to her and let her get away with whatever she wanted like she had become used to.

Having already been a fan of the author this book was so different and I thoroughly enjoyed it, perfect if you want a summer read that will make you laugh.

Sadly I didn't enjoy this book and didn't feel able to complete the whole story. This was just very strange. Because it is written in a very frivolous way I didn't feel any connection to the characters or between the characters. I also don't find continuous jokes about spontaneous erections all that funny.

I feel like the synopsis was a little misleading. It leads you to understand Angelika simply happens to think, whilst helping Viktor, maybe this man will like me when we bring him back to life. In actual fact he was sepcifically designed to be mate for her. It actually came across as rather propriety and frankly, almost predatory.

This is an incredibly difficult book to review. I am a huge Sally Thorne fan and a huge historical romance fan so to say I was excited about this book would be an understatement. This, however, is not a typical Sally Thorne book (which isn’t a problem - authors should have fun and experiment and not be tied to our exacting expectations) but it’s also not really a historical romance either.

As an experiment I think this book is a cool idea, the premise - Victor Frankenstein’s sister wants to create her own dream man - is clever and funny. There are bits of this book that are really witty and that made me laugh, there are characters I grew attached to, but there was also something slightly stilted about the language and it took me a long time to invest in the plot.

The main sticking point for me, I’m afraid, was that I simply could not get past the ick of the beginning. The choice to chop someone up to give them “better” parts forcing them to be reborn with no memories and live in excruciating pain so you can have a living sex toy was not really the light hearted set up I was looking for. Even though Angelika sort of reached this conclusion it felt like she brushed it all aside and the whole power dynamic of the romance made me super uncomfortable. There’s also a peculiar relationship with religion and motherhood in this book and it all left me feeling a bit sad.

I can already see that other readers have not had the same experience and that’s great - I’m sure there will be people who enjoy this as a quirky read, it’s just not for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match' by Sally Thorne.

'Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match' was a strange read for me. I've only read one other Sally Thorne before - Second First Impressions - and I felt that this book was different in terms of the content but also the same in execution.

From the beginning I was drawn to this book like a moth is to a flame but as it progressed, I felt like I was forming into a slump and the book didn't feel as appealing to me.

4.25 stars
This has to be one of the strangest romances that I have ever read, which is rather obvious when you see the title or read the blurb.
A lot of it was odd and even a bit uncomfortable. Firstly, straight off the bat, Angelika and Victor's brother-sister relationship is super weird. Seeing them discuss their sex lives with one another and looking at corpses anatomy, if you know what I mean, was pretty shocking. And it kind of continues that way throughout.
The 'will-they-won't-they' of Angelika and Will does get a bit frustrating and is rather long drawn out.
Plus, the way that religion and Christianity are kind of shoehorned in didn't really work for me.
But I struggled to put this down, reading it over the course of one day.
It did truly feel like a gothic novel though, other than the current day romance that is intertwined.
I liked the way that it was written, in terms of being quite similar to the classic genre but with a new take on it.
I also enjoyed the ending and the allusions to Mary Shelley.
This is certainly a unique romance and unlike anything that I have ever read before.
It's definitely no The Hating Game but it's intriguing enough that you should still pick it up.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A highly entertaining novel and it is highly recommended by me, because I really enjoyed it and the characters were well drawn. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of the book

It's 1814 and Angelika Frankenstein views herself as being old. She is past the traditional marrying age of the period but to be wed and loved is something that she whole-heartedly yearns for. Having alienated all the eligible men in the area, her brother, Victor Frankenstein, uses his reanimation skills to create his sister an ideal husband. Unfortunately, whilst the newly alive have limited memory of their past lives, some of their attributes stick with them.

Will, Angelika's ideal husband in the form of a reanimated corpse, is impressively polite and respectful. Despite his feelings for Angelika, he is drawn to his past life and seeks the truth of who he was. Although Angelika wants to keep him all for herself, she will do anything to help Will, so together, they seek out the answers as to who he was before his death.

A key consideration with reading is why one is reading. Some books are designed to be thought-provoking; they offer an honest and insightful view of humanity. Whereas, other books are purely for enjoyment; we seek nothing more from them than entertainment and, as such, they can be silly and light-hearted. This book is the latter and it does it to such an extent that I knew it is not using a style for me.

Case in point, this line occurs at 56%:
'My love, you are so terribly handsome, I would have your portrait painted inside the lid of my casket.'
I'm sure that for some this is an adorable display of affection. For anyone else, it's cringy and weird. I am firmly in the second category and an entire book (especially the dialogue) written in this fashion was never going to end well.

Although, if you can push through the first 70%, the plot does pick up for the last chunk. The established story threads, particularly the religious elements, begin to come together and it's a more interesting read- but a slog is required to get there.

Some may consider it a spoiler to know but it's worth mentioning (it's also featured in the author's note) that there are strong Twilight notes in the story: a beautiful and feisty young woman has the affections of two men. The one she truly loves flits between devoted and distance, and has permanently cold hands. The other is respected in her neighbourhood and while she loves him too, she can't tear herself away from her 'one true love'; also, he has warm hands. I'd call this book a retelling of Frankenstein and Twilight, with more mentions of the male anatomy.

This isn't a historical romance for those that like historical settings. The dialogue and character actions are all very modern, with just the odd mention of historical manners and decorum. For anyone wanting Twilight, written in the same young tone but with explicit (adult) content, this is perfect.

Between the sickly dialogue, constant fawning over each other and Angelika's insistence on getting into dangerous situations only to be rescued by one or more men (repeatedly), this book has an audience, but I am not it. The prologue is nice though.