Thank you Kelly @lovebookstours and for the chance to read and review A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Gemma Sydney!
A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Gemma Sydney just came out on the 30th of January!
Congratulations Gemma Sydney on what is a fantastic debut novel!
I love a good regency romance, but I haven’t really read a lot where the main man is a spy! This is possibly the second or the third, and it was really well done. Sorcha is an interesting character and I love her sense of humour!
“She brays like a donkey.”
“Mm, I was thinking she sounded more like a goose.”
I feel like Gemma Sydney did herself dirty in this one though! I would have liked this to be a hundred pages longer and for us to get to know Sorcha a little bit more. While Sorch’s past is hinted at, with her Irish father who sends us to English relatives, and how everyone treats her England, it would really have been interesting to have that elabrorated on.
In addition, I feel like somethings could have also been cleaned up. I didn’t particularly like how quickly everyone was all like:
“You always do your duty, don’t you? Have you ever thought of doing as you wanted, just once?” she said softly.
Mostly because this was very typical regency romance novel stuff and if it had been done away with the book would have been even better. To the authors credit, the book is also very well edited. I’ve started to highlight this because a lot of indie authors that I’ve read don’t edit their books well.
“I, um, I waited for an opportune moment and I leapt from the carriage.”
“You did what?” Perhaps madness did, after all, run in her family. He wondered if that boded ill for their future children.
That being said, I loved the main and I want a book on Min and Isabelle! I genuinely like that I can be picky and fussy while reading this book instead of just feeling like I wasted my time! I mean I put the book down just because I was mad at the dude for suggesting what he did to Sorcha!
“The way you sit that horse is …”
Improper. Shameless. Outrageous. The voluminous fabric of her split skirt hid the curves of her legs, but he wondered at the shape, wondered whether her thighs would straddle him with the same sure grace. Heat blazed through him. Enough. Far past time to rein in his unruly thoughts. “Is very nearly brazen,” he said at last. She gave him a wide-eyed look.
“Only very nearly? Tell me, sir, what would put me over the limit, so I may go and do it at once.”
I’m definitely going to be checking out more from @missgemmasydney! A Lady’s Guide to Scandal is also available for free for those of us on Kindle Unlimited!
QOTD: Regency romance vs historical novel in a battle? Who would win?
Blurb:
A wicked spinster. An honorable highwayman. An attraction too tempting to deny …
Unmasking the earl …
Perhaps it is the scarlet gown, a color Miss Sorcha O’Neill has never dared wear for fear of scandal. Perhaps it is the mask hiding her identity from the eyes of proper society. One thing is certain, recklessness is in her blood the night of the masquerade. First Sorcha indulges in a wicked waltz with a handsome stranger, then she is so bold as to request a kiss from him. When the stranger turns highwayman and demands that Sorcha hands over a letter entrusted to her by her cousin, she vows to unmask him by any means necessary…
Stealing the spinster’s heart …
Marcus Thorne, the Earl of Brookhurst, is a gentleman. An honorable man. There may be some who would even dub him ‘boring.’ Marcus is the last person who would have expected to find himself in the role of a reluctant highwayman. Still, when his spymaster brother requests aid, Marcus cannot deny him. He is to reclaim a letter. It seems a minor task until Marcus finds a mysterious scarlet lady in his arms and a wholly unwanted attraction flaring to life between them. When he recognizes her as Miss Sorcha O’Neill, Marcus vows to discover if she is a traitor, or only an unwitting pawn, before desire consumes him…
Fans of Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, and Tessa Dare will fall in love with this swoon-worthy Regency romance.
The Girl Who Reads 
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