Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

This book is disgustingly charming I loved it so much. The front cover blurb calls it "delightfully bonkers" which is the most spot on description possible. If you're reading reviews before reading this you probably aren't the type of person to go in blind, but I STRONGLY recommend that you do you will be in store for the best surprise. I just loved everything about it so much that it made me incoherent!!!

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blewballoon's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I really enjoyed the idea behind the writing and setting. The breezy nonchalance of the wacky situations reminded me of one of my favorite books, The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall. I don't think it handled the zany adventures and "witty" tone as well as it could have, though. I strongly disliked the romance and found aspects of it uncomfortable to the point it sort of ruined the book for me.

When Cecilia and Ned are first traveling alone together, he encourages her to drink 3+ glasses of wine after he realizes she is getting tipsy after a couple sips and she has no idea she's drunk. He is amused as she makes a fool of herself, and contemplates laying in bed with her because she won't know while she's drunk asleep. She's too drunk to consent to anything. Later when they do have sex, the consent feels a little dubious because Cecilia is apparently so innocent she can't distinguish between foreplay and intercourse. I understand this book doesn't take anything seriously, but I don't think intentionally getting someone so drunk they can't distinguish between what they are thinking and doing is funny. And I think sex scenes where the woman doesn't know what's happening are not sexy.

I also think the characters didn't feel much like people, because the tone of the book was more focused on being satirical and humorous than allowing characters to have much depth. The audiobook narration was great.

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skudiklier's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

It took me a bit to get into this, and tbh a lot of it felt so weirdly dissonant that it was hard for me to be super invested. But on the other hand, the romance was well-done and the ~tension~ was high with that. I ended up reading the second half of the book all in one day, so I must have been at least somewhat engaged.

I wasn't sure if I was going to read the next book in the series, but then I found out the author is autistic and the main character(s) of the second and third books are autistic as well. So now I want to if only for that reason--I haven't read a lot of romances with autistic MCs, so I'm excited!

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sarahsbookss's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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louisegraveyard's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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renpuspita's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

We have only three laws in our Society, Cecilia. No killing civilians. Pour the tea before the milk. And no stealing other's houses

Reading The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels remind me when I first read Soulless by Gail Carriger. Both are comedy of manners and sensibilities, set in Victorian era, have fantasy elements and heroine that not afraid to say what in her minds. Although Soulless more like a steampunk historical romance, while Wisteria Society have a "Howl's Moving Castle" vibe on it, because the houses are literally flying.

The first part of this book kinda hard to follow because everything that happen in early chapter seems mundane enough. Like, assassination attempt to our heroine, Miss Cecilia Bassingwaithe (such a handfull name!) of the many Cecilia before her (include her deceased mother, Cilla) is already mundane. Things get explained thoroughly after house start flying in which this book is set in England AU (alternate universe, not fanfic, although if this book start as fanfic first, I really don't have slightest idea), where rather than sail in the ship, pirates chant an incantation to fly their house. Imagine the air traffic, for the love of me, I can imagine so many house flying and we talk about English Home in the Victorian eras here. Must be huge. Cecilia and her overbearing great-aunt, Miss Darlington, are part of Wisteria Society, a sorority for ladies pirate, when they take "No" from men and goes their merry way in stealing and pillaging...jewelry.

Despite the assassination attempt, Cecilia find herself to get romantically involved with her would be assassin, a pirate of many moniker and alias, Captain Ned Lightbourne (that also a fencing master, apparently Italian-how scandalous!, and an agent of sort). It's been so many books for me to finally found a hero that is so rakish and charming. The romance is of course very swooning worthy, make me read this happily sigh, but also laugh because of both MCs acerbic remarks and witty banters! What I liked is, Holton totally use many common tropes like "he feel first but she feel harder", "there's only one bed", "enemy to lover" and she understood the assignment. The romance between Ned and Cecilia is totally chef's kiss, with Ned's courting Cecilia but still understand her boundaries and Cecilia that bit by bit fallen for Ned's roguish charm.

Wisteria Society not only about romance but seems like Holton's love letter to classic literature and classic language as well. English is not my native and I hardly read classic (is The Hobbit count?), so I'm very happy to read this book in my e-reader so I can list many word that I never knew before. Holton make fun of Brontes, like Cecilia's evildoers father, Captain Morvath that believe he's Branwell Bronte's son, also Cecilia that try to finish Wuthering Heights, not forget some bad poetry from men! Cecilia herself is a girl after my heart. I know that she devoted to her great Aunt, with the said aunt keep pestering Cecilia to catch any maladies or God's forbid, the Great Peril (aka the sun itself. You know, it will cause dark spot on your face); but Cecilia also an avid book reader. She constantly searching any library or book to read and avoid unnecessary and dull conversation. Her adventure to save the Society from Captain Morvath that hellbent in ruling England and get rid of women that constantly belittle him is a delight to read. But not only Cecilia, because the (old) ladies pirate of The Wisteria Society is crack to read, especially Lady Armitage that have (un)healthy obsession to Ned, Constantinopla (or Oply for short) that demand she's already in her 19-ish (actually not), Miss Darlington herself and Pleasance, the maidservant of Darlington House that have affinity for communicating with ghost. The villain also pretty much 2D, like Captain Morvath is like your usual Captain Hook type that will swirling his mustache while reciting his bad poems.

This book is pretty much convoluted tbh, but for me, that's the charm. It's didn't take itself very seriously and you don't expect this book is to be serious despite some serious moment like when Cecilia try to kill her father to avenge her mother or when Cecilia doubt about her position in the Wisteria Society. This book is aiming to be fun, to entertain, and yes, it's fun and entertaining. You won't get unnecessary drama and angst here. You will get a book that make you feel warm, also better if you have tea and scones beside you. If you want a unique historical romance with many romance trope done right, have a "Howl's Moving Castle" vibe and lady pirates, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels might be right up your alley.

One can be happy in eternal solitude: a book, a cup of tea, and no company; that was Cecilia's idea of heaven

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itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I picked this up because I fell in love with the premise when I heard about it. While it was a good read I don't think it fully lived up to my expectations. Admittedly part of it was my fault for ignoring the massive, extremely obvious hints that this was going to be focused on the romance over the idea of a society of swashbuckling sky pirate ladies with Victorian sensibilities, but with a hell of a premise like that can you blame me?

I've only read the complimentary preview of the next book at the end of the story, and I hope that Holton manages to do more worldbuilding between the two feuding societies and maybe tones the romance down a tad (or gives her couples dynamics that feed into the plot better).

One thing I will say:

Note to any aspiring authors: If you have to lampshade at the end your heroine was just kind of there at the end and didn't contribute anything meaningful, that's not good writing even if it's supposed to be for comedic effect. It's just annoying.

Some other assorted things I liked:

It's a decent example of enemies to lovers. I still think Ned was a bit of a flat character who existed to give Cecilia what she needed, but he was funny enough.
I think I'm in the minority when I say that the writing style didn't bother me, having read similar styles before (e.g. Jasper Fforde).

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