Did I spend the last four days on the various motorways of this country, listening to this book with a massive grin on my face because it was everything I never knew I wanted in a book?

Absolutely.

This book brought me so much joy. It’s a coming-of-age story filled with friendships, relationships, secrets, arguments, and questionable decisions, but all set in regency England. Although you can’t help but draw comparisons to Bridgerton and Mean Girls, this book stands on its own two feet. It is, how do you put it? So. Fetch.


Georgiana Ellers has had a very sheltered twenty years of life, so when she is sent to live with her aunt and uncle she takes the first opportunity to have all the adventures she has only ever read about. She meets the charismatic Frances Campbell, and gets drawn into a life of raucous parties and scandalous situations. Soon, however, she becomes aware of a dark side to some of her new acquaintances and her own character – plus her newfound friendship – is put to the test.

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The cast of characters were what really brought this book to life. Georgiana, while painfully naive, had a fantastic character arc that carried the book through its conclusion. Many of the characters – particularly Cecily, Frances’ dim but kind friend, and Betty, a plain but ultimately heroic girl often left on the sidelines – surprised us as the book went on, showing more depth to their characters in a way that made them extremely likeable. Even the prickly Jane was hard to dislike, and the love interest, Mr Hawksley, really came into his own in the second half of the book. The dynamics between the friends felt very true to life, and it was a joy to be a fly on the wall for their shenanigans!

As much fun as this book is, it did have some much darker moments and themes than I expected. (If you’re considering reading this book, I would recommend checking the content warnings on StoryGraph and the author’s website; be aware that this book contains sexual assault). The different tones and themes needed were perfectly balanced, and although some of the characters do go through some traumatic events, the story was still about the characters themselves, their own strength, and how they coped with what happened to them. Croucher was able to portray very well, through the unworldly eyes of Georgiana, a character slowly dealing with and coming to terms with her trauma.

I haven’t read many regency romance books, but I’ve read enough to know that they are obsessed – and I mean, obsessed – with propriety and scandal, especially for an era that was much less morally conservative than the later Victorian era. It was a pleasant change to read a modern regency book that featured very few spinster aunts clutching at pearls, and scandalous behaviour that we with our modern eyes can also disapprove of, not just fabricated scandals about necklines and chaperones. It was also great to see a diverse group of characters in historical fiction done in a historically accurate way. Two of the characters are mixed-race, both of them with aristocratic fathers who married women they met abroad. There were also some queer characters who in their own ways have to deal with their queerness in a society that has no space for them. Importantly, though, none of these things were the most interesting part of any of the characters. They all felt well-rounded and real, just like any other group of young people set loose in the world for the first time.

This book was like no other. It was a breath of fresh air to read, and is hopefully the first of many wonderful novels from Lex Croucher. A special shout-out to Bessie Carter as well, for a fantastic audiobook narration.