KJC is back and I couldn’t be happier! I adored this book; it contained all of the joyous plot twists, loveable yet flawed characters and assorted crimes that I could ever want 🥹 Plus my inner-voice is now talking in a French accent; zut alors!

Titus Pilcrow has accidentally inherited a fortune. Previously a shop keeper selling art supplies, he’s now trapped in a nightmare, fending off people who are desperate to get their hands on his newfound wealth. One of those people seems to be the suave, charming French aristocrat Nico, the Comte La Motte, however when the Comte offers friendship instead, Titus is eager to take him up on it.

But something about Nico’s story isn’t sitting quite right with Titus… and Titus has problems of his own, including a terrible ex lover, Henry, who’s threatening to out him if he doesn’t pay him off.

This was just wonderful - I adored Titus and Nico and the sheer drama that seemed to follow both of these men around; I enjoyed their budding relationship and also the slightly nightmarish knowledge that it was definitely all going to go wrong before it got better 🙈 The last 20% of the book was an absolute riot as everything went to hell and the building drama finally exploded!

Read How To Fake It In Society for:
✨ Accidentally inheriting a fortune
✨ Friendship with a sexy French aristocrat
✨ Escaping an abusive ex-lover
✨ Your green jacket is made of arsenic
✨ He’s definitely lying… about something
✨ This is why we don’t go to loan sharks
✨ Genderqueer key side character
✨ Being rich is terrible/ly convenient
✨ Paints & poisons used interchangeably

Thank you so much to PanMacmillan for an ARC, I absolutely loved it! It’s available to in April 2026 💕

KJ Charles’ latest venture is a sweet regency romp, in which a paint maker accidentally inherits a fortune and a charming French aristocrat/con man teaches him to navigate high society.

Titus Pilcrow is in the right place at the right time and ends up marrying a wealthy widow on her deathbed. All of a sudden, the unassuming shopkeeper finds himself the target of every fortune hunter and conman in London, including the charming French aristocrat Nico, Comte de la Motte. But Nico doesn’t start out by asking Titus for money, instead he helps him navigate fashionable society. And in the process, he falls for the man he is supposed to cheat. Their budding relationship is a house of cards built on Nico’s lies – but will the two manage to salvage it when it inevitably comes crashing down?

What a wonderful read – KJ Charles hasn’t missed yet, and I found myself quickly invested in the characters, entertained by their escapades, and by all the random paint facts that were woven into the plot. Pick this up if you want to know which colours were historically made with arsenic, enjoy a splattering of French expletives in your reading, and are willing to fall in love with the main characters and several of the side characters of this regency romance.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Tor Bramble for providing me with an eARC of this title! Review will be posted on my socials a bit closer to publications.

Titus is a paint maker (and a good one), who suddenly becomes one of the richest men in London... which is as much a blessing as it is a curse because suddenly, everyone sees his money before they see him. Actually, Titus isn't too happy with being seen at all. He's not used to putting himself forward.
Nico is a fake in so many ways. His clothes, his demeanour, even his name. Right now, he owes money to dangerous men and he and his cousin are in danger. When Titus offers him a place in his household and an opportunity to make a little money (plus the time and space to work his planned scam), he takes it. But he LIKES Titus. More than likes him... so he doesn't want to cheat him.
I love how Titus is trying to do the right thing by his position and his family, when what makes him happy is thinking about colours and paints and art. Nico gives him the confidence to find boundaries and enforce them. Nico starts off trying to get some money off Titus, but ends up tying himself in an ever more tangled web of lies and danger, especially because he's trying NOT to cheat Titus.
I genuinely enjoyed this story and particularly loved the major dramatic scene at the end where Nico plays to Titus's strengths to get rid of some truly awful men.
This was exactly the thing I needed to get me out of the reading funk that I'd fallen into.

I was given an ARC by NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you!

This was yet another incredible romance by KJ Charles. I particularly enjoyed the character of Nico, the French Comte, a delightfully dramatic and flamboyant man - I might have heard all of his lines of dialogue in Sam Reid's Lestat voice. But there's more than just a peacock to the Comte. Every bad decision he makes feels so logical for him to make, and he's such a lovely character.

And for once - as a French person, for once - the French in the book was perfectly correct, and even, I believe, accurate for the time period. I expected nothing less from KJ Charles, but it is so rare, and so welcome. Thoroughly enjoyable to read Nico lapse into French insults on a regular basis. Loved it.

I also particularly liked seeing the other MC, Titus, flourish into letting himself want good things for himself and allowing himself and his desires and wants/needs to come first. Seeing his journey in that regard was incredible. His nerding out about colours also gave way to a lot of fascinating facts. So much poison!

The emotional resolution was incredible as well, extremely believable and well written. It felt earned and natural and lovely.

As for the plot resolution, it was delightfully over the top in the most perfect way. Loved it to bits.

The cherry on top is the most lovely genderqueer side character. I'd read a whole book about them and their adventures, honestly.

I love when I get to say this - I have a new favourite KJ Charles book!! I binged the whole thing in a day. I adore Titus and Nico, I loved the conflict around money and honesty, I was absolutely howling at the climax, it was all round a brilliant time.

KJ Charles has managed to do it again (I mean, she made me like a rogue and scammer once again). In fact, althought Titus doesn´t get far behind, I think Nico if my favorite character in this one.

That being said, I loved the premise. It has exactly the type o humor I appreciate in this kind of stories: Titus, a humble man who owns a shop, ends up accidentally marrying (I won´t say how, but lol) an old lady. And in doing that, two main things happen. The first, that he inherits a fortune and basically all the problems for a middle class man of the 19th century dissapear... only to be replaced for new troubles, this time for a shy new rich. But hell anyway. The second thing is that, at marrying and soon after getting his money, he attracted a bunch of (maybe) not very nice people who are after the riches. People that includes Nico, the love interest.

There is a lot to unpack here that I liked.

Titus´ background has quite a lot of trauma and abandonment in it. And also, with a former lover that was abusive, I´ll say it was a pleasure to see how his personality evolved all through the plot as he became more and more confident.
Nico, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite. He is (might be?) a count with a rocambolesque family history and is not afraid to walk into society an try be noticed (in whatever form that entains). So imagine my delight when I got to that point in the story where Titus and Nico began to become friends, one trusting too much and the other beginning to think more about the morals of what he intended to do.

This is a story about scammers, murder, awful (and also some good) family members and also the consequences of lying to your partner and trying to comit forgery. Very wholesome, as you can imagine. And very recommended (loved how everything got solved in the end and everyone got what they deserved).

In this queer Regency romance, Titus Pilcrow finds himself coming into fortune in the most unlikely of circumstances. And not a moment too soon. Just a few days earlier, his mean and miserable ex-lover landlord announced a sudden rent-hike which left Titus on the cusp of losing everything: his home, his shop and his livelihood. Little does he know that the miraculous windfall which has solved his immediate problem merely heralds the onset of further difficulties.

This novel was tremendous fun to read with well-drawn characters that I genuinely cared about. I was absorbed in Titus’ journey as he navigated the challenges of transitioning from a shopkeeper to a wealthy and sought-after member of Society. With leisure time, an endless stream of invitations to respond to and no idea what to wear, Titus is hopelessly out of his depth. KJ Charles’ wonderful prose and narrative style truly brought this story to life. Whenever I had to put the book down, I longed to return to the story as soon as possible.

Thank you to Tor Bramble and NetGalley for sharing this eARC with me in exchange for an honest review.

I've read nearly all of KJ Charles books by now and I loved nearly all of them (I have like two that were too short in my opinion to really get into them) so it wasn't a big surprise to me that I loved this one as well! The premise alone was so iconic already and the characters are as always so fleshed out that I wish I could sit together with them and listen to Titus talk about colors. My own love for art played probably some role in liking this book so much but alas I usually don't care for historic settings or royalty and such but make it a KJ Charles book and I can't read it fast enough!

I really enjoyed this. Admittedly there was a few moments at the start of the book I was dubious as to how the plot would unfold but I was very pleasantly surprised and ended up loving it.

The characters are well developed and endearing, I liked how their dynamic developed throughout the story. I also really liked how paint and the artistry of it was woven into the narrative and into Titus's core character.

This was enjoyable and fun, one of the best historical romances I have read in a while.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.