A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

2 stars. Very frustrating with a lot of wasted potential.

An amazing historical romance book is hiding somewhere inside this novel... It just wasn't let out to play!

This book has a very slow start, which I didn't mind, as it was doing a great job at setting up the story. Similarly, the writing style could be seen as pretentious and trying too hard. But to me it read more like over-the-top, sarcastic, almost witty humour. And as such, it worked very well! It was very funny. . . . For the first 30%.

After that the book just stalled, it kept going around in circles - replaying the same moments over and over again - without ever moving forwards and just throwing in meaningless side stories along the way. I was incredibly bored. And the writing style started to become very tedious to read.

The romance was less slow burn, than no burn at all! Everything was very surface level. It had so much potential, it could have been so swoonworthy, all the pieces were there! But it just didn't work and I didn't really care in the end. The romantic plot was barely moving and neither cute nor sexy. Not even funny!

They are both very intelligent, which makes for great banter because they are so equally matched! The writing has this great bite to it when they interact. Sadly, all their moments are cut short and summarised in a few sentences! We don't get to spend any quality time with them!

I also think it's such an odd choice to make this a closed door romance. It feels off structurally and makes no sense, given how openly and non-judgemental the book discusses the female protagonist's mother's life as a courtesan! (Not a spoiler. The reader finds out about that right at the start.)

Every now and then the book tries to delve into a discussion about money and women's place in society. But it never goes anywhere meaningful.

Overall, it was just so bitty! There are too many little snippets and none get enough room to fully develop. We just moved on to the next bit. And the romance was practically non-existent. It just felt so directionless!

I wonder who the audience for this book is supposed to be? There isn't enough romance for the historical romance readers and not enough plot or social commentary for the historical fiction readers. I enjoy both genres and still felt very unsatisfied and let down by it. This book just doesn't know what it wants to be. There are too many different things happening and none of them are truly successful.