Mr. Malcolm's List

3.5 stars. The thing about regency romances I've noticed is that they're SO LONG. This one is not. It's almost novella length, so the story feels like it moves at a much better pace. I also liked that the “villain” is more spoiled rich girl than truly crappy person & therefore can learn & feel bad about her actions rather than being one-dimensional.

All that being said, while this story was enjoyable, it was Hallmark movie rather than Oscar-worthy entertainment.

last quarter of the book fell short, overall fell short :-(

i really thought this was gonna be some sort of feminist take and it had a lot of potential to be a jane austen novel with the commentary on steroids but unfortunately that wasn't the case. dear reader, i... wish there wasn't any marrying once again

also i would've married henry ossory on the spot js

Mr. Malcolm's List was truly a middle-of-the-road read. Parts were very amusing, but not the characters weren't developed enough to truly engage with the story.

I didn't realize going into it that it was a novella, so it was a quick read! It was very tell-not-show, so the characters felt very flat. Motivations and actions switched without really building a groundwork why they would do that. After Julia's efforts at the masquerade party, she switches to rooting for Selina and Mr. Malcom after about 5 minutes of consideration. Her motives were always not great, but it still didn't make sense for her to change her mind so quickly.

If you're going to read Mr. Malcolm's List read it for the plethora of romance tropes and ridiculous situations it manages to squeeze into a relatively short time!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.