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I'm a sucker for a Regency-type (the cover text describes it as "gothic-style," which is accurate; and, strictly speaking, it's Georgian not Regency) romance where the lady wears breeches and engages in business pursuits.

I should keep track of how I end up reading things, though. This must have come up on a list of some kind, or been offered by the GoodReads recommendation system, when I was looking for LGBT Regency romance novels; this is not that, but since it has kink/BDSM, I guess the recommender system figures "close enough." And since the lady wears pants for at least part of the book, I'm not mad.

But it's a very standard m/f pairing, to be clear.

It is, however, somewhat longer and angstier than your (well, my) average Regency-type romance read. It's still a romance, with a happy ending, but it's got a very different feel to it than, say, the work of Cat Sebastian or Courney Milan.

I was on Twitter complaining about all of the very gendered romance books out there, and multiple people replied, "Coral, have you read Cat Sebastian's Unmasked by the Marquess?" So I did.

Overall, I really like this! It may be unfair of me not to give it a full five stars, but it kind of stressed me out, honestly. I spent a large part of the novel worried that they'd get caught, because one of the big things in Regency romances is how little time people spend alone, and how common it is for servants to walk in on the gentry. I think a re-read, knowing that isn't what's going to happen, would be more fun than the initial read was. (Which is great. I'd like to support this kind of fiction existing, and the copy I read came from the library. Going out and buying it when I want to re-read it feels like a good thing to do. After a less-stressful re-read, I might change my rating.)

I've already checked out the other two in this series (knowing they aren't all going to feature non-binary protagonists, no).

Book 2 is kind of the break from Big Trauma in this series, I guess.

I still like this one—it has the best date activity, hands down, of the entire series (so far?), and both of the main characters are really likable—but like the first book, parts of it make for really unpleasant reading. The book starts with one of the characters leaving an abusive relationship and (this is both a spoiler and something that needs a content warning) being raped by her now ex partner. So that's awful. And I don't like the way the kink the main characters explore feels kind of tied to the previous abuse by the narrative; this isn't something I know a ton about, but I don't? think? it works? that way?

I'll read more books by this author if I come across them, but I'm going to choose a little more carefully from now on. I ... just ... I feel like we should be able to have f/f romance without So Much Heavy Shit.

I do want to add, though: while I might want and need fluffy romances that don't hit too close to home, I also think there's value in these existing. Abuse survivors (this book) and people with eating disorders (book one of this series) also deserve romance and to be loved, and having books that say as much is a good thing.

I think it's interesting that this is classified (by Overdrive, at least) as a romance. There is a romance element to it, sure, but it's unconvincing and underwhelming. It's also not really the point.

To my mind, this is a book about the relationship between two women who have always competed with one another, despite (or really as part of) calling each other friends. I kind of hate them both, which makes the whole book a lot less readable for me, but I think that's a lot more about me than about the book. I can imagine other people enjoying it more, especially if they are interested in publishing as a business.

There is a tiny bit of a mystery in there, too, which is neat. I like when books jump genres. And since the person at the center of the mystery is even worse than the two ladies the book is about, that part is really enjoyable.

It's ... fine? I keep jumping between giving it two and three stars. If this were LibraryThing, it'd be a 2.5.

I didn't love this, but I didn't hate it. I liked the lady character and her friend/coworker, and I hated their boss, as the reader is supposed to. Unfortunately, though, I really hated the dude character and kind of wondered why the author had the lady character end up with him and not with the lady who had a crush on her, who just seemed like a better choice in every possible way. (Because it's a romance written by and for straight people, I know. I don't have to agree with it, though.)

The writing style doesn't work so much for me. I won't say it's poorly written, because I don't think I'm the person to judge that; instead, I'll just say there seem to be many unnecessary lines of dialogue and some weird choices of wording used throughout. It just really wants another run-through by an editor, I think.

Anyway, this was another library read that I'm fairly pleased not to own.

I am not really sure what I expected this book to be, but it was ... not this. "Bisexual polyamorous matriarchal werewolves" seems like an OK premise, and I figured if it was successful enough to have become a 10 book series, I should probably give it a try. (I'm not the kind of librarian who gets to do readers advisory, but because sometimes I pretend I might be, I do try to keep on top of what's happening in urban fantasy and paranormal romance.) Long review short: I did manage to finish this book, but I'm definitely going to stop there.

It turn out that there's at least one scene where one character is human and the other is not, and that is, it turns out, very much Not My Thing. I can't even recommend this book to you if that Is Your Thing, though, because the author is also really big into rape, not only as major recent backstory for one character, but as something two of the characters arguably do to each other "on camera," so to speak, within the story. And it isn't as though the plot is especially compelling, or the metaphysics especially satisfying, either of which might (maybe, potentially) be a mitigating factor. I've got nothing to base a recommendation of this book upon.

This is a funny thing to admit, given how many romances I read, but lately, I find myself skimming or mostly skipping sex scenes in a lot of books. Anyway, it turns out, if you do that for this book, it is a VERY quick read. Which might be a recommendation, for some readers? But I know it's an anti-recommendation for others.

I'm happy this was a library read and not something I bought, at least.