Reviews - The Gentleman and His Vowsmith

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204 reviews for:

The Gentleman and His Vowsmith

Rebecca Ide

3.81 AVERAGE

venneh's review

4.0

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This ended up being a really fun read, even if it took me a bit to get into it. (I had to return this to the library before I was finished with it, and then reread it when it came back to me because I remembered loose details, but not a lot.) We get a locked room mystery that takes place during a seclusion to write up a marriage contract for a reluctant son who's been called up, and an ace young woman. The person writing the contract (which also involves magic)? The son's ex lover. So our triad gets to deal with all of that, and family mysteries over past contracts, and, you know, everyone getting picked off one by one. Fun library read.

biancamoodreads1's review against another edition

4.0

I absolutely loved The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide. It's the perfect blend of regency romance, fantasy, and mystery. The gothic vibes of the locked estate were so rich and eerie, with dark mists, whispers of ghosts, and unsettling mechanical figures adding to the tension. The murder mystery unfolded at just the right pace, and I had so much fun watching Nic and Leaf work through the twists together. Leaf may be one of my favorite female characters I’ve read this year. She was hilarious, so strong-willed, and an absolute delight in every scene. The romance between Nic and Dash? A slow-burn, forbidden love that had so much heat, I could feel it simmering off the page. It was also wonderful to see asexual representation in the story. But what really made this book stand out was how it balanced all these elements while still feeling like a grim yet cozy tale, with moments of humor sprinkled throughout. If you love historical fantasy with a haunting, romantic edge, this one is a must-read!

Thank you Saga Press for the gifted ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

cryingwhileimreading's review against another edition

3.75

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

A fun mystery and a sweet romance, but definitely could have used some editing.

alt_air's review against another edition

4.0

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

lisinwnderland's review

3.5

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

I enjoyed this, and I loved the mix of queer representation. Leaf was amazing and I think I would have enjoyed her POV. Nic was a great narrator. I thought this was a really fun and addicting, i was super hooked at the start. Loved a locked room mystery. I think it would have been really fun if there had been a map of the house in the book.

But I agree with the other commentor's that there were too many characters with too many nicknames and I lost track of who was who a few times. I really enjoyed the premise but this didn't really stick the landing for me. I wish the magic system had been explained more.

I will definitely read more from this author.

ccpprrjj's review

3.75

emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I liked parts of this book. I thought that the characters were great and that their dynamics were really fun to read about. Leaf especially. I loved her and her relationship with Nic from the moment she showed up. Dashiell was also an enjoyable character to read about, at first, when he was still mostly a mystery and neither the reader nor Nic understood his motivations. He became less interesting to me once we got to know him better, though. He just felt a little bit bland, and a lot of the details about why he and Nic were having conflict felt very contrived. Nic was great though. He was a fun main character and his POV was really enjoyable. It was hard to keep track of the plot details and the side characters and their relationships to each other, at least for me. It ended up feeling like the author really wanted to write about the murder mystery plot and the previous generation's messy relationships than the romance and the current generation's character development. When the younger characters were generally much more interesting to me and had a lot more potential. Oh well. It was still a fun read.

kaygray's review

5.0

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense 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: No

I didn't know that gay gothic mysteries with romance and spice would be my genre, but here we are! A lovely book, and a very classically done gothic mystery. The struggles between the characters, and between the characters and the house itself, was very well done. And there's a romance plot, so I'm happy!