Synopsis

It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street.

Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband, possibly ever. She has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl, from whom she’s inherited her penchant for drinking too much and dancing ‘til dawn.

Beth and Gwen are enchanted with each other on sight. And it doesn’t take long for Gwen to hatch her latest scheme: rather than join the husband hunt, they should set up Gwen’s father and Beth’s newly-widowed mother.

They had a fling years ago, after all…

Review

Although this was a fun read, it was a bit too ridiculous for my liking.

Parts of it felt entirely implausible and others were downright inaccurate; there’s no issue with writing a Victorian romance in a more modern style, but this didn’t feel like it respected the reality of the period. Whilst the Victorians may have been much less suppressed than traditionally believed, it was hard to believe how open everyone was to Beth and Gwen living together as friends and carrying on together.

At times the girls were very immature, in terms of their pranks and scheming, but that was then switched up rapidly in their more intimate scenes where they seemed much older. The sex scenes were handled very well, and felt genuine in terms of their feelings, although it again seemed like the girls had a lot more freedom than in reality.

What was interesting, was the undercurrent about the The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, which helped to ground the novel and stop it from being entirely farcical. Before this came up I thought the book was a Regency romance, considering how it was told.

It’s an enjoyable read, but there are much better sapphic romances out there.

Thanks to Penguin Books for my copy. Opinions my own.