Reviews

Lady Vice by Wendy LaCapra

jackiehorne's review against another edition

3.0

2.5

rjordan19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

Overall: ⭐️⭐⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥
Humor: Not much
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? plot
How did the speed of the story feel? medium to fast?
When mains are first on page together: Immediately (chapter 1, 1-2%)
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Not really
Format: listened to audiobook from library (Hoopla)

Should I read in order?
This is the first book in LaCapra’s Furies series.

Basic plot:
After a very public separation from her husband, his death brings suspicion to Lavinia’s door. It also brings her former love to try to protect her.

Give this a try if you want:
- Georgian (1784)
- widow heroine
- murder mystery
- second chance
- hero pursues
- protective hero
- I don’t know if I would say enemies to lovers but there’s definitely some lingering misunderstandings/animosity between the mains
- lower steam – I could have missed something but I only noticed 1 full scene

Ages:
- Didn’t catch either! I would guess late 20s for heroine and same or possibly early 30s for hero?

First line:
Maxamillion Harrison’s heart beat for a single purpose.

My thoughts:
I really struggled with this one! I don’t love murder mysteries or second chance, so this book was just having bad luck with me before it started haha.

I read one by LaCapra years ago and just loved it so much. So I think my expectations were pretty high and I wasn’t expecting so much busy plot – I definitely wanted the mains together more than they were. And I felt like all of their relationship had already happened off page.

It’s a heavier book and I think I just wasn’t in the mood for it.

Those that love a faster paced, slightly dangerous second chance might love this one though.

Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.

- scene of a mob with heroine is danger
- awful marriage remembered with forced exhibitionism
- heroine’s husband was murdered
- gun danger/gunshot wounds
- some mentions of British occupation of India (hero used to practice law there)

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

Safe sex: 

I don’t believe so? It’s not super detailed (just ‘he released’.) 

Hows the consent? 

It’s good/implied 

5% - kiss
31% - kiss
51% - kiss
67% - kisses, oral for her, missionary

“I have wanted you and only you for a long time.”
His breath whiffed on her skin.
“In my mind, I have made you mine a thousand times. I have undressed you and then kissed you here,” he circled his knuckle on her neck just below her ear, “mercilessly beguiling you until you writhed.”

100% there’s some minor implied scenes 
 

 

jasmyn9's review against another edition

4.0

This is going to be a very interesting series. I love that it takes a look at historical women who have found a way to take charge of their own circumstances and make a living - even if it is running a gambling yard. They have found a way to be successful and I love how devoted to each other they are.

Lady Vice is married to an awful man, and when he is found murdered, people blame her. She needs to bring her allies close quickly to find the true murderer before she finds herself at the hangman. Enter her ex-love, Max. Separated by a big of confusion, they have a lot of assumptions about the past they really need to deal with. They have to learn to trust each other all over again, and that can be a difficult task.

My biggest complaint was that Max wasn't up front about everything from the beginning. Everytime Lavinia finds out he wasn't forthcoming about something, she backs off and he can't seem to understand why. The suspense behind this story was fantastic. It really helped to carry the characters from page to page in a way that threw them back together again to work out their problems. It was also a nice look into the other two Furies, which I'm sure will have their own book soon.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

gonturans's review against another edition

2.0

Going to DNF and give 2.5 stars this because frankly I didn’t understand why the hero and heroine were into each other besides having been in love prior to her marriage and now that I’m in quarantine it annoyed me too much to finish. I liked the female friendship even if that seemed... not as deep as it was supposed to be on page. I’ll probably pick up some other books by this author to see if this one was a fluke. More complex plots and lots of characters are actually a favorite of mine as it adds more depth so that didn’t bother me like some other reviewers.

The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran offers similar plot beats but better execution.

gemmalaszlo's review against another edition

3.0

A lot of characters to keep track of. Cleary this book is setting up the next books in the series. Author’s voice is a bit long-winded and flowery for my taste.

It got to halfway through and skipped to the end to see who the killer was.

corinnas's review against another edition

2.0

I just could not get into this book. Only made it 30% in, and even that took more than a week. There was nothing that I overtly did not like about it, I just think I will move on to something else.

booksuperpower's review against another edition

5.0

Lady Vice by Wendy LaCapra is a 2015 Entangled: Scandalous publication. I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

This story is an edgy historical romance with a darker tone and I for one am happy to see some stories with a little more depth for a change.

Duty, honor, and trust are the themes that run through out this story. Max went away to secure a more stable future for Livinia, only to find himself held prisoner in India. While he was away his fiance' marries another man. However, he worked for Livinia's parents and was like a son to her father despite Livinia's marriage and subsequent fall from grace, which resulted in an estrangement from her family. So, when she is accused of murder, Max sets out to clear her name... after all it was his duty.

Livinia' marriage was a ghastly nightmare and she has managed to leave her husband, but has been cast out of society. She is now working in vice- hosting gambling parties with several other women. When her husband is murdered and Livinia becomes the primary suspect, the man she has blamed for all her troubles, Maximilian Harrison comes to her rescue, promising to stand by her until they get to the truth and her name is cleared. But, she doesn't allow herself to believe for one moment that he is helping her for any other reason but his feelings of duty towards her.

Max suffers from PTSD but he doesn't know how to label this malady, so he soldiers on without saying much about his fear of closed in places and panic attacks, refusing to let them control him. As difficult as this is to live with, it's his broken heart that he suffers from most of all.
Livinia's abuse has left her emotionally damaged, bitter, cynical and hardened , especially towards the opposite sex. Is it possible these two wounded souls can come together once again and begin the healing process together, or will their differences of opinion keep them from gaining back all they lost?

I love a light regency romp as much as the next person, but lately it seems all the regency period historical romances are exactly alike and I find myself stifling a groan every time I pick one up and it's more of the same old, same old. I don't like to read super dark novels all the time either, but I am so pleased to see historical romance authors dipping their toes into deeper waters and tackling difficult issues. The author does this and still manages to stay true to the period. I actually learned some things about this period of time I had never heard of before, like wife auctions, the poorer classes way of ending a miserable marriage.

The mystery was intriguing and a few unexpected twist come into play along the way. Our baddie is truly one sick puppy. However, there are still some loose ends to tie up and it looks like Livinia's friend Sophie will have to pick up the slack in the next installment.
Although the storyline is a little more menacing, the romance doesn't suffer from that. The story still has some really sweet and sexy moments.
Max was someone I could fall in love with easily, his character is just so sweet and despite everything, pure, although at times his dialogue leaned toward the “flowery” side. Livinia has a harder road to travel, and at times I thought she was too hard on Max, but now that the enemies are at bay, at least for now, the couple can begin work on the future they were robbed of in their youth. 4.5 rounded to 5