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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
I liked the chemistry between the protagonists and the very real stakes of their romance. A little underwhelmed by the plot itself, but definitely looking forward to the next installment, which promises some very interesting characters!
This was just a fun romp!
Spoiler
I don't think I'll go to book two because while I would love to read a book about two chaotic bisexuals and more Percy and Kit, I didn't really care for Marian or Rob in this first book soooo I can't imagine really enjoying the next one.
I don’t quite know what it was, but I struggled a bit with this one. While I certainly enjoyed the latter half more than the first half, I found myself a bit...bored with the storyline at times. However, the second half was much more enjoyable and I’m glad I stuck with it!
Thanks to the publisher for sending me an e-ARC via NetGalley.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me an e-ARC via NetGalley.
The perfect mix of fun, sex, and anti-capitalist behavior to win me over. It wasn't totally predictable, but it also didn't feel at all far-fetched.
3.5 stars
I once said I wanted a gay Regency romance but with gentry. This was it. I can’t say I liked it as much as I wanted to.
I once said I wanted a gay Regency romance but with gentry. This was it. I can’t say I liked it as much as I wanted to.
Absolutely grand! I’m not going to lie, it took me a little to get into the story, but I’m going to blame that on a stressful week at work. Once I got into the story I could not put it down and slowed down my reading pace to enjoy Cat’s wonderful writing.
Kit is a working class, former highwayman who gave up thievery when he was disabled during an attempted robbery. He is gruff with a hard exterior but a warm nurturing interior (for example, he refuses to disrupt the spider that lives in his doorway). Percy is rich and foppish, and where the book is set in the mid 1700s it provides some wonderful descriptions of the silks, wigs, and face powder with patches he is frequently wearing.
Their attraction grows as they work together to plan and prepare the robbery. It’s a case of opposites attract and I am 100% here for it. I don’t want to give away any plot details but there were some fun twists. Some that I saw coming and some that I were surprised by. I was thoroughly entertained throughout.
One small detail that stood out to me was acknowledgment of that Percy’s money comes from exploitation. So many romances brush over where the aristocrats get their money. In this book Kit actually calls out Percy for loving his family house that was funded by plantations in the West Indies. In addition to this reference to slavery, there is also a lot of discussion about how land owners exploit their tenants. At one point Kit states, “No such thing as a good landlord… There are horrible ones, like your father. And there are ones who manage to refrain from doing actual evil. But I’ve never heard of a good one.”* It was honestly refreshing to read this in a historical romance.
As with all of Cat Sebastian’s books, there is wonderful dry humor found throughout. A few of my favorite lines with no context:*
“He was not an unpleasant-looking man. Maybe even handsome, in a bland sort of way.”
“He wondered if rich meant took of their wigs while f–ing, and then got very annoyed with his prick for not finding wigs sufficiently unattractive.”
“Unchecked power gave a man a certain look; it set him apart from normal people.”
“You think I’m going to pass up a chance to kick a lord? Been dreaming of this since I was a little girl.”
“He took the tie out of his hair. Then he put it back again. There was vanity, and then there was lunacy.”
“How many rings did a man need? He had a dreadful certainty that the answer was zero.”
“Sometimes you need to cry into the bath.”
I really hope that this book is a first in a series because there were several secondary characters that I want more of. Honestly, I can’t wait for whatever Cat Sebastian writes next because most likely I will enjoy it, whatever it may be.
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
*Quotes are based on my ARC copy, and may or may not be the same as found in the final published edition.
Kit is a working class, former highwayman who gave up thievery when he was disabled during an attempted robbery. He is gruff with a hard exterior but a warm nurturing interior (for example, he refuses to disrupt the spider that lives in his doorway). Percy is rich and foppish, and where the book is set in the mid 1700s it provides some wonderful descriptions of the silks, wigs, and face powder with patches he is frequently wearing.
Their attraction grows as they work together to plan and prepare the robbery. It’s a case of opposites attract and I am 100% here for it. I don’t want to give away any plot details but there were some fun twists. Some that I saw coming and some that I were surprised by. I was thoroughly entertained throughout.
One small detail that stood out to me was acknowledgment of that Percy’s money comes from exploitation. So many romances brush over where the aristocrats get their money. In this book Kit actually calls out Percy for loving his family house that was funded by plantations in the West Indies. In addition to this reference to slavery, there is also a lot of discussion about how land owners exploit their tenants. At one point Kit states, “No such thing as a good landlord… There are horrible ones, like your father. And there are ones who manage to refrain from doing actual evil. But I’ve never heard of a good one.”* It was honestly refreshing to read this in a historical romance.
As with all of Cat Sebastian’s books, there is wonderful dry humor found throughout. A few of my favorite lines with no context:*
“He was not an unpleasant-looking man. Maybe even handsome, in a bland sort of way.”
“He wondered if rich meant took of their wigs while f–ing, and then got very annoyed with his prick for not finding wigs sufficiently unattractive.”
“Unchecked power gave a man a certain look; it set him apart from normal people.”
“You think I’m going to pass up a chance to kick a lord? Been dreaming of this since I was a little girl.”
“He took the tie out of his hair. Then he put it back again. There was vanity, and then there was lunacy.”
“How many rings did a man need? He had a dreadful certainty that the answer was zero.”
“Sometimes you need to cry into the bath.”
I really hope that this book is a first in a series because there were several secondary characters that I want more of. Honestly, I can’t wait for whatever Cat Sebastian writes next because most likely I will enjoy it, whatever it may be.
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
*Quotes are based on my ARC copy, and may or may not be the same as found in the final published edition.
Love, while a fine thing, might be little more than an accident. It was what came next that mattered.
4.5 stars. Terrific! An absolute delight! Reading historical romance like this is one of my favourite things ever; class difference and opposites attract in an actually meaningful way, that I come away from feeling really satisfied. I loved this so much. It's basically "Be Gay, Do Crimes: a Novel".
The premise itself charmed me out of my mind from the get-go. Kit is a retired highwayman; one of the most famous of his time. Percy, son of a duke, would very much like him to reconsider that retirement to pull off one more heist against Percy's own father. They both have their own motivations that are revealed as time goes on, and one of the things that made this super fun and readable is that fact that the author did a great job of balancing things the reader knows and the characters know, and no one is kept in the dark for so long that it feels annoying. There's a bit of mystery and intrigue to the plot, and there were a couple weird moments where it felt like the characters got a piece of information, or got hints, or had hunches/bad feelings, and then didn't do anything about it? As in, things just sorta happened, instead of the characters advancing the plot? But otherwise this was really well-paced, just like a bucket of fun, with some twists and turns along the way. I adored the way it tackled class differences, social injustice, the inherent evil of nobility/wealth, and still left room for characters having complicated feelings about those things.
Any law against this was the sort of rule Kit wanted to break on principle alone.
I've always really liked Sebastian's writing, and this was no exception; I loved the lightness, the wittiness, the absolutely amazing banter. The characters and their personalities jump off the page, and no matter what they're doing, they stay true to those characters as the author has established them, and when they undergo change, it's believable. And I have to say, you know how some authors create great characters but when it comes to love scenes they're very cookie-cutter? That's very much NOT the case here. There's a bj scene in here that had me in tears of laughter. I fell in love with these characters so hard, and when they fell in love with each other it was just. So good!
Listened to the audiobook as read by Joel Leslie, who remains one of my favourite narrators, and he does so well when paired with Sebastian's writing. I love how he translates the wittiness and humour, and how there's real affection in his voice when the characters talk about one another.
I flew through this in half a day; I feel like this book gave me a big old hug. Hugely recommended.
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