I loved this book even more than I loved Sophie Irwin’s debut. The tricky thing about reading a book that is THIS good is that you can’t put it down, you end up staying up too late reading it and you feel sad whilst you’re devouring said book because you know it will be over soon and there’s a long wait until the next one!
That being said, I still enjoyed every minute. Eliza was an INCREDIBLE character- I loved seeing her develop the “spirit” she was accused of lacking and seeing her and Margaret transform their lives was inspirational and fun to read about. I loved that what might have felt like the “ending” was actually only half way through the book and thus followed various twists and turns which I hadn’t seen coming. Genuinely a fabulous read and I would highly highly recommend. I’m already waiting the next novel with baited breath.

An excellent, delightful, refreshing Regency Romance.

I love the Regency Romance genre, and Sophie Irwin has managed to fulfill all the genre expectations in a refreshing, engaging way that makes it all feel new but still gives that sense of comfort & satisfaction.

Eliza's story is as much about love for yourself, the relationship you have with yourself, knowing who you are, and deciding how you want to live your life as it is a romance. I definitely recommend reading this.

I didn’t like this one as much as the previous book due to the slower pace at the start. However, these books are light and entertaining and a great palate cleanser between weightier tomes. The MC in this one was a little hard to root for since she seemed to deliberately make poor decisions. I do get that many people want Austen without the politics and examination of human nature, or Bridgerton with less squickyness and for those people these books probably do answer. Overall this was fine but probably suffered from me having read three of Austen’s novels not long before!

Good historical romance with unexpected twist, well described characters & great world building. It was good , even though I loved the first book more.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you enjoyed watching Bridgerton and are looking for a regency era read with diverse characters included, I recommend you pick this up. This doesn’t include spice but it’s a light-hearted read with humour, wit, scandal, betrayals and a good dash of feminism.

All the characters were flawed and I loved Eliza’s character development throughout the book and watching her confidence grow. I really enjoyed the representation in this book as well, with mixed race main characters as well as LGBTQ+ rep.

I’m not normally a fan of love triangles but I did enjoy how this was written, and I was rooting for one person in particular.

I couldn’t put this down and highly recommend for anyone looking to add to their regency collection!