the_rabble's reviews
111 reviews

Horse obssessed teen with rage issues doesn't think through kidnapping the last book's villian until it's wayyyy too late.

2 main POVs with some additional POVs at the end, 3rd person past tense, spicy, early 1800s, roadtrip romance, significant age gap (19 - mid 30s)

I think Spencer does the work on the age gap - it's still big, but between the chemistry, banter, and the hand waving of "it's old timey Englandtimes" you can at least pretend Godrick is younger. (Eva is an excellent character but 100% a 19 year old.)

The two protagonists are both unhinged and it makes them work. Sometimes it's mean, but most of the time it's just wild and seems to bond them. Just two hot loose cannons who are trying to mitigate the damage they do.

The roadtrip adventure is good. The family dynamics and history on both sides was interesting. Great sex scenes.

Narrator - Heather Wilds kills the narration again. This one has a lot of internal "thoughts to self" and she nailed it.

Marriage of convenience! Vestiges of imperial conflict! Mary Wollstonecraft fan clubs!

Super rich feminist and her best friend's equally rich and fancy immigrated step-brother. He has a past, she has a crush.

2 POVs, 3rd person past tense, spicy, characters in their early/mid 20s, early 1800s London

The tension and pacing are good. The relationship development make sense when it had moments it could have been dicey. The plot moves and keeps you interested.

It does feel like Spencer ran out of room to flesh out these characters and needed to wrap the book or make some unnecessary scene cuts. It would have been nice to spend more time in Drusilla's day-to-day and political activism. [90% in]

Especially since she keeps getting scammed.

Gabe starts off charming and then kinda swerves into flirting with bossy middle eastern traditionalist/misogyny stereotypes. There's not a lot of explanation on why this isn't an instant turn off for our girl, beyond "I've been in love with him for 5 years." He really throws out some red flags and then sort of goes "jk jk" in a way you actually believe. His story even adds some likeable queer/poly representation in the mix. I don't super know who this guy is supposed to be.

Sex scenes: has some strong sex scenes. Spencer does a good job right out of the gate.

Narrator: Heather Wilds was great. She made a few choices that threw me off, (e.g. Gabe's mom is blue blood British but rocks a middle eastern accent) but they still worked.

While this is Book 1 of the Rebels of the Ton trilogy, Gabe and his family are in Spencer's book "Dangerous" in her earlier Outcasts trilogy. (Which I haven't read at this point and seemed fine.)

Gym teacher with secrets meets a sheltered Bingley-level golden retriever. 

2 POV, 3rd person past tense, MCs 23 & 26, light spice with some bad anatomy knowledge, no dates listed so maybe Georgian UK era?

Perfectly charming workhorse historical romance in rural settings. Good for vibes 95% of the time, but definitely a 2000s era piece of work. Both protagonists are interesting but the conflict is very "secrets from childhood" focused and the secret was compelling to want to figure out and then

pretty icky

.

I did spend a lot of the novel worried the MCs were related. They

aren't.

The slowest of burns plus a long discussion about weaponized incompetence in marriages with men. Also, dragons.

Work buds/neighbors go to work in FantasyLand wilds and enforce some laws. One falls for a nerd. The other makes faces about it. She has a bunch of shitty kids. He adopts a wee dragon.

Single POV, 3rd person past tense, both MCs are early/mid 50s parents/grandparents, widowed/divorced, semi-contemporary small town/country fantasy, low spice (implied)

This was a rough one. Twyla's got a lot of body image issues. There's not a lot of action. [Relationship 80% in]

And we don't get any romantic movement in the main characters' relationship, so it feels like it's a little out of nowhere- the relationship has 3 beats - one kiss between friends, one sex between friends (maybe with an orgasm?), together forever(?).

Pacing-wise, it's not doing a lot of "I like this person and I want to put my face on them." Or "our platonic relationship is not as it appears/is changing." It just hits a couple of physical beats and then Twyla is harassed by her kids.

If this had ended with them as

platonic BFFs

, that would have been fine and totally believable. I think the things Bannen wanted to talk about (marriage & parenthood subjugating women to the weaponized incompetence of men [legit] and the horrors of aging [what?]) may have required Frank chapters to move the chains on the relationship. He spends a lot of time off screen.

Overall, it's fine and has some moments. But the heavy lifting is being done by an older, interesting demographic couple and not the intimacy of the couple or the adventure.

Good setup for the next book tho- Rosie the Immortal seems rad as hell. Big Karlach energy.

Sex scenes - Bannen writes interesting sex, but she doesn't do detail (closed door), discuss orgasms, and uses a shit ton of euphemisms.

Narrator - Nicol Zanzarella is a good fit for Twyla's voice and does a good job with the world's characters.

You've Got Mail with Western meets Sabriel vibes

Magical game warden/zombie fighter enemies-to-lovers an undertaker with a struggling family business.

He's a gruff cinnamon roll, she's cheery but cuttingly mean. (Let's be real, irl, she would destroy this soft man. Sheet...)

The eventual relationship [60% in]

is very cute and takes place over a series of months, which is refreshing.

However, [80% in]

the only conflict we see them have is so fucking toxic, it's not believable they would stay together longterm. Mercy sets boundaries and expects them to be violated to resolve conflict, instead of communicating her actual boundaries.

2 POVs, 3rd person past tense, lightly spicy (implications/half detailed sex scenes), otherworld fantasy, lots of death, MCs 30 & 36 yos.

Some played/silly death-related navel gazing and ripped from the screen You've Got Mail scenes. Bannen writes a good action scene, though.

Good support character roster. World is unapologetically queer friendly but still sexist. 

Narrators: Michael Gallagher was great- rock solid sardonic sad boy energy. Rachanee Lumayno was solid, but had some readings of characters that seemed to age them down, but it could have been Mercy's POV prose.

She's the ex librarian of an all-women witch adjacent secret society, he's the brutally mistreated, extremely protective heir of an evil duke. They're each on the hunt for very dangerous books.

It's a good time.

Two POVs, mid 1700s, UK, 3rd person past tense, MC ages - early 20s & early or mid 30s, 3rd book in series

HOT. Just, dang... casually excellent multi-dimensional [kink]

femdom

and an emotionally well rounded (not healthy, but well rounded) and very hot

submissive

partner. The main relationship and their dynamic feels really organic - and Hoyt hits some responsible kink best practices along the way.

While her isolated "raised by recluses" background works for her in nixing high society related inhibitions, Elspeth's comparative age in this context feels off-kilter. She does have some "I'm invincible/inexperienced" moments, so maybe that's why she's written young. (Meanwhile, poor Julian is just a jaded but loveable bad decision machine.)

A good balance of intrigue, plot, and witchy secret society shenanigans. Hoyt's plots haul ass and keep you locked in and this one continues the tradition.

I'm looking forward to where this series goes- Between the Greycourts and the de Morays (& their friends,) Hoyt's set the table for some bangers. There are loose threads everywhere and it's GREAT.

Before you read: Unlike other historical romance series, bc of the moving parts it's probably important to have at least gotten the highlights for the first two Greycourt books.

Narrator: Ashford McNab does a great job- Elspeth's POV is read in a Scottish accent and I liked the flavor added to the prose.

Just a couple of high society nerds being insecure in 1800s London.

Everyone in this series needs a marriage of convenience, so they're all on the hunt. Up next - devote academic and cool-headed gambler.

Two POVs, 3rd person past tense; both late 20s, marriage of convienence romance, spicy

Finn is a very sweet smart boy with a visual processing/reading related disability who's a smitten kitten from jump. Tabitha is a progressive bluestocking quote nerd who wants to change the think tank system from the inside. We get multiple [~40%]

Beauty and the Beast "I got you a library/books"

moments, which is nice.

I really like Eva Leigh and the way she writes mutual care in her couples, but this one was harder for me. Tabitha has a emotional event in her past that flavors everything going forward and I don't think the prose style gets you on the same page with her until a conflict at the tail end of the story. And that disconnect makes her actions harder to lock in on.

Despite that and a desire by both Finn and Tabitha to inexplicably be baby vulcans, both characters are pretty charming. We get some toxic academia and some ableism they face together, which are unique hurdles in historical romance. The world building and support characters are fun.

Sex scenes - Extremely good sex scenes with emotional impact. When I rec the book, this will be top of mind. Our mild mannered hero goes full

dirty talk expert and we get an amazing "let me feast" moment on a dinning table.

I do love that Leigh reliably lets the nerds be freaks.

Narrator - I usually love Zara Hampton Brown, but her high drama flavor made some of the subtle/low stakes moments (which is a lot of this storu) a little rougher. That being said, her managing the tension of big scenes with multiple moving parts and higher stakes was rock solid and she continues to nail sex scene pacing.

If you like Big Bang Theory, you'll prob like this one.

Heroine is too young (19? Def a teenager) to get amped about her love interest being a widower turned rake in need of redemption. The experience gap and the pining are a lot.

I may go back to this bc the series seems fun, but hard to want to watch these two bump into each other right now.

Nothing wrong with this one, just didn't grab me.

Loan was going back to library and 1800s NYCer + sheltered but maybe edgy debutant weren't doing it for me.