virgoreader

★★★★★ Picture this: a Victorian-era lady-gang hell bent on taking down awful men and looking good doing it... with a love story between a scandalous lady and a loyal and protective hero who proves some men deserve rights.

I have wanted a Sesily/Caleb story SINCE Day of the Duchess. Remember when their story was originally going to be a bonus novella - maybe not even in print?? I am so happy that Sarah took the time she needed to craft this story. 

I’ve loved almost all of Sarah’s books, but I’ll admit Daring and the Duke (her last published historical) wasn’t my favorite. Combined with the fact that I haven't picked up a historical in ages, I really had to pump myself up to read this one. But once I started... I couldn't put it down.

First of all, the friends...

I love a good found family and this one presented a found family I haven't seen before: powerful, slighted, and forgotten women of the early Victorian era who come together to reclaim power and protect each other. I loved the dynamic of the four main friends, and how we're slowly introduced to their exploits. While I'm not sold on the concept of book 2 of the series (Heartbreaker, a road trip romance between a wallflower and a duke due out in August), I'm jazzed for book 3, which should follow the explosion-enthusiastic Imogen and Inspector Peck. And I can't even imagine where we'll go with the lofty and influential Duchess. 

The quartet had come together in circumstances born of serendipity and necessity. The duchess had been looking for brilliant women who had little to fear from society, and she’d found them in Imogen, who came with an expertise in things both extremely useful and extremely dangerous; Adelaide, whose meek exterior made her a superior thief; and Sesily—scandalous Sesily—who had shocked society so many times that few even noticed when she disappeared from a ballroom, scoundrel in tow.

I loved this line of dialogue, of Sesily explaining to Caleb how she fell in with her friends: 

“When you’re a person who wants something different than what society offers you . . . than what society tells you is the only correct path . . . you are grateful when a different one is illuminated. Even more so when it becomes clear that others are on the path. And that they will walk it with you.”

The writing was pure magic. I haven't read a historical, much less a Sarah Maclean, in so long that I forgot how... wonderfully poetic they can be. I feel like it's more rare in contemporary/modern settings for the writing to be truly fun - like two partners fencing. Not just the dialogue, but the inner monologue - the character's thoughts, struggles, inner voice. I was literally giggling with delight at how happy the writing made me. 

And of course, the love story. It's why we're all here, right? 

The Sesily/Caleb story was teased in Sesily's sister Sera's book, Day of the Duchess, which I highly recommend. Caleb and Sera became friends in America and returned to England to open a bar and for her to ask her husband for divorce. Strictly platonic, Sesily is attracted to him immediately but he holds her at arms length. We get a cameo of them in the Bareknuckle Bastards series but again... arms length.

Even for most of this book, Caleb appeared indifferent. But we as the audience get to hear his inner turmoil. 

I am yours.
The words flashed, but he did not say them.
He was not a fool.

While I may not be particularly passionate about Sesily/Caleb as "one of my favorite couples of all time" - this is certainly a new favorite book, for all the reasons above. 

This book is everything I want from a historical romance, and has the lovely aspect of feeling more modern with the inclusion of characters of color, though neither the heroine or hero are. I could go into a whole tangent of how today we retroactively think of 1800's England as glaringly white, but it wasn't. It's nice that stories are starting to exit the all white aristocratic cast and include everyday people from the era as well.