marmaladereads 's review for:

The Gentleman's Book of Vices by Jess Everlee

4.0

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This was okay, 3.5 stars rounded up. The beginning its quite stronger than the end. I loved the depiction of pornography in the Victorian era, and the time spent inside the molly bar. I also really enjoyed the interactions with the side characters, it's really quite a cast of characters and they're all fun and interesting in their own way. Also, finally a historical romance that deals with middle class (albeit upper middle class) characters and not a Duke in sight.

The romance itself happened a bit too quickly for my taste. It starts off as kind of a temporary sex only arrangement, but the sex is closed door, so a lot of the interaction between the MCs and how their romance builds is missing.

And the ending for me was grating. It felt like Miles had very little agency. I actually think I would've enjoyed an ending where

Spoiler

Miles goes through with the wedding and they still live happily ever after,

instead everything gets tied up in a neat bow in a way that felt very hand-wavy.

Overall, I think historical romance fans will enjoy it quite a bit. It could use a bit much polish, but overall not bad for a debut novel.