A review by haramis
A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde

5.0

This is the rare case of the perfect book for me finding me in the perfect moment to read it. I enjoyed it so much that I immediately reread it. As to the perfect time, after basically three years of having my face in romance books, I finally find I’m a little worn out on them. I have two tags which are “romance” and “romance-element,” and I don’t think that this book would even qualify for the latter. There’s a prickly relationship with an ex and maybe a future relationship with a new person, but neither are even really an emotional blip in the greater plot. The book is, however, a Regency, which means that I’m getting a mystery with my very favorite window dressing. What I liked the very best though is that the author adroitly writes with multiple POVs which gives her secondary characters some real heft, and that the main character is struggling with some very realistic blind spots, while trying to figure out the whodunnit. I absolutely loved this, top to bottom.