This is a "me" thing, but I don't think this author is for me. I know a book is a DNF for me when I stop picking it up and/or start skimming.

Book Review 3.0🌟I received this book as a digital ARC and an audiobook ARC from @netgalley This is second book within the same Regency era as the other Lex Croucher (@lexcanroar) book that I had read called “Reputation”. I liked the relationship between the two main women. The climax at the end left something to be desired. I wanted the main character to get a little bit more “visceral” revenge on him for the terrible things that he had done. As usual, if you are looking for a light-hearted, Regency-era romance with an LGBTQ+ twist, I recommend this book. Link to purchase: https://amzn.to/3OyPFuY #bookreview #bookstagram #arc #netgally #infamous #ilovereading

A forbidden queer historical regency romance! This was so fun on audio! This was such a swoony book and fans of Bridgerton will love!

(⅖)

Rep: Bi mc, Chinese lesbian love interest, queer side characters, black side characters, etc

This book was described to me as Jane Austen meets the tv show, Dickison. As someone who loves both, I had to read this book and I do agree on this description.

Eddie is an inspiring writer and is best friends with Rose. They are the best of friends, having grown up with each other. However, a rift is made between them when Rose has taken an interest in marriage and is courting someone, making Eddie horrified. At an event, Eddie meets Nash, her favourite poet, and he offers to help Eddie with her writing.

I feel indifferent with this book. I think my main concern with this book is how slow the plot is. I did struggle getting through it and found that I couldn’t connect with most of the characters. For a romance book, I think it really lacked romance between the two love interests. I lost interest in this book because of these reasons.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for an honest review.

I tried to get into this but it’s just not for me. I didn’t feel any connect between the MCs and their behavior was very adolescent for their age. I thought perhaps I should read the first book but that didn’t work out either so I’m calling it a day. I’m disappointed as I was really excited for a queer historical romance but I’ll have to find it elsewhere.

Thank you for the advance audiobook copy via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

✨ Review ✨ Infamous by Lex Croucher; Narrated by Ellie Kendrick

Important note: You don't need to remember ANYTHiNG from Reputation, the previous book in the series, before reading this one. New characters and events all around! (I needlessly hustled around trying to remember the plot of the last one lol)

Eddie (Edith) and Rose have been best friends since they were kids -- and the book starts with them in their tree house. But now Rose is engaged and Eddie has met famous author Nash Nicholson, and they must grapple with their changing lives -- can they stay best friends after Rose marries? After meeting Nash, Eddie, and Rose by association, fall in with a wild literary crowd that doesn't live by regency societal norms and proprieties.

Nash, fascinated by Eddie, encourages her writing, and sets up a long stay at his remote lake house that included him and his wife (sometimes estranged?), Eddie, Rose and her fiancee, and a few other artsy characters. Constant shenanigans ensue as this raucous bunch takes the literally crumbling lake house by storm.

This book was SO MUCH fun. I loved Eddie's wild family, filled with silly kids full of personality (I was almost sad when we left them behind early in the book). I really enjoyed the more relaxed setting of the gatherings Nash hosted and the way they broke with societal norms, in the pursuit of fun, drama, and art. The book lagged for me a bit in the middle where it just felt like it was dragging without a lot of development, but otherwise this was such a fun ride!

Like the first, you have to be willing to sacrifice some historical accuracy perhaps for a fun adventure, but I was totally here for this.The audio was enjoyable; occasionally I felt confused about who was actually talking in the story, but this is a minor complaint.

Best of all, this reads almost like really well written Anne and Diana fan fic! This maps onto their personalities so well, and I loved it for this (even if not intended), I shall now always imagine this for them 😂

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: historic f/f romance, friends-to-lovers
Setting: regency era London and middle of nowhere lake house
Reminds me of: Anne and Diana fan fic! :D; Reputation
Pub Date: out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ drunken regency lakehouse romps
⭕️ f/f friends-to-lovers stories
⭕️ writers & artists

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and #netgalley for advanced copies of this book!

I had read the book of this initially and was so eager to see how it was delivered in the audiobook. Croucher's work is nothing short of a delight and I adored the narrator - she made the story feel new again and reframed the narrative to be thrilling and aweinspiring. I listened through twice and adored.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook. Infamous was a slow start for me. It took me a while to get into the characters, and the story really didn’t pick up until the latter half of the book. All that to say, I did really end up enjoying this. Eddie wasn’t a perfect character by any means, but I enjoyed her quirks and flaws. I enjoyed watching her relationship with Rose grow, and I very much liked the twist that happened in her conflict with Nash. I wish the end weren't so rushed because that's where more of the exciting parts of the story were.

I liked the narrator. She did a good job and made an effort to make each character unique.

As for the story, I ger what Lex Croucher is trying to do by making her main characters unlikable but it still bugs me. Don't want a perfect character for a high society period romance? Sure. But Eddie was so rude and idiotic that I can't believe anyone would want to be her friend.

Rose and Adam (Or whatever his name is) saved the book.

While I did like this more than reputation, I think this is my last Lex Croucher book. She's talented but I'm just not the right audience for her work.

This was a good story that kept me guessing for a long time. I really enjoyed the noodle isolated island manner. I think it reflected how the main character felt: isolated, falling apart, unsafe.

I love Lex Croucher’s take on the regency era. This book gave me everything I had hoped for considering how much I loved Reputation!

I loved Eddie and Rose so much and ahhh they were so cute! I want so much more from them!

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This felt a little too slow paced for me to really enjoy it. The characters were decent and I liked the overall premise but it didn't draw me in as much as I thought it would. The narrator was good though.

The Great

Eddie and Rose’s relationship. Friends to lovers, slowly building. Rose Lee is in love with Edith “Eddie” Miller, obvious to just about everyone except Eddie. That’s something so very sapphic to me, being the last one to know what everyone else has already figured out. They “practice” how to kiss with each other and when Rose is trying to kiss Eddie for real, she thinks it’s just more platonic practicing. Eddie holds fast to a childhood promise that neither of them would marry, and for a long time can’t figure out why it’s so important to her, why she feels she is losing Rose.

Eddie’s family. Big and bustling, distinct characters, informal atmosphere. Eddie has four siblings and two parents, who all encourage her education and her writing.

Casual diversity. The real world regency era in England would not have been as square and homogenous as most movies make it out to be. There are gay, lesbian, and bi characters here, but of course they are not “out.” There still would have been private pockets of society for the alphabet mafia, especially with the literary or artistic crowd. One set of Rose’s grandparents are from China. We normally don’t see Asian or biracial with one of the races being Asian in historical fiction. But they definitely existed. One character from the literary scene is Black and an abolitionist. Sadly we don’t really see the rest of the crew actively engage in abolition, more of just general, bland encouragement for his writing.

Rose Lee. Rose knows exactly who she is and firmly sticks by what she wants out of life. She doesn’t hide her Asian heritage. She picks a marriage to a man that she thinks would give her the best life, under the circumstances. She knows she is only romantically interested in women and has chosen her homosexual soon-to-be husband so that they can make their home a haven to what would be termed today as LGBT+ people. She is far quicker to understand people’s character and predatory notions than Eddie. She lets Eddie know what she thinks of her decisions, she doesn’t tend to let things fester inside. It’s easy for the reader to fall in love with this character.

The Questionable

Eddie Miller. Most reviewers seem to hate how oblivious Eddie is about Rose, about Nash, about life in general. I think it’s realistic for Eddie to not realize she has feelings for women, Rose in particular. Especially with biphobia and bi-erasure. It took me until about her age to realize that I kept assuming I would have sexual attraction to a guy in real life because I had for fictional men. Yet I assumed I can’t be attracted at all to women because I hadn’t felt real-world attraction like I had felt for fictional women. Had to battle my own bi-erasure. So putting Eddie about 200 years back into regency England, it makes sense why she wouldn’t realize her feelings.

Eddie cont’d. I think Eddie not realizing how vile Nash is has more to do with her own ideals rather than examining the reality of the situation. She wants to be acknowledged by a literary idol, be taken into the London literary scene, and be deemed fit to be among them. She wants to be constructively critiqued then published then adored. It’s not uncommon for people to dismiss the idea that someone they deem a hero from an institution they love is capable of villainy, of moral and legal crimes. We see that with football stars, with politicians, with musicians. People do not want to believe that they could be duped or that their institutions need questioning. They sometimes mentally equate accusing a hero of theirs with accusing themselves and cling more as the logic against their devotion piles up. Eddie experiences a small version of that with Nash. At least that’s how I see it.

Also Rose literally has a maid named Jemima. My first thought was: how did that make it through? I’ll assume that there isn’t the same connotations in Britain.

The Bad

The crumbling waterlogged mansion scenes. Looking back, we definitely spend too much time here, making Nash too much the focus of the book. Especially since so many things get unresolved from this portion of the book. Did Nash kill that guy? That didn’t seem like it would be solely from Eddie’s delirious mushroom episode. Did Nash assault that servant; is that guy okay? It was never talked about again.

Also I could have used a romantic scene with Rose and Eddie once they had returned to their normal lives or years into the future. It does make sense how the use of documents was employed to show a realistic way their relationship would have gone on. But that’s a really subjective critique.

Also I personally would have liked more time with the recourse of the stolen manuscript, with Eddie exhausting her avenues of getting the truth out there before a big internal moment of despair, then getting back up to write another novel. This happens quickly at the end, and it doesn’t seem like she actually tried to get the truth out there. Again, a really subjective critique.

Overall

I enjoyed reading most of this book, and really enjoyed each of the characters. I think others’ enjoyment of this work will depend upon if they absolutely despise the main character being the last to figure out things or if they can allow some leeway for the main character to make these mistakes. Also depends on if they like the first person POV, romances with a small bit of spice, and historical fiction.

I’m giving it a 7/10 mostly worth the read. Recommending for others involved many asterisks.

A great audiobook narrator really helped this one.

Thank you Netgalley for this audiobook ARC.

I definitely think i wouldn’t have made it through this book had it not been an audiobook I could just pop on and do chores to. Ellie Kendrick is an excellent, engaging narrator and I enjoyed their delivery of this novel very greatly.
I didn’t like the overall pacing of the book - I saw the ending coming a mile away and felt that a lot of the content was prolonging the inevitable. Eddie is a very obtuse character and it was hard to like her sometimes. Her age felt more of a 16-17 year old’s instead of a 22 year old.
I think I would like to keep reading more of this author’s books, as I found the story engaging but perhaps this one was just not for me.

I enjoyed listening to Infamous. The narration I kept me entertained and hooked the whole time.
Thank you Netgalley for ARC in exchange of my honest feedback

This was my second Lex Croucher book, and pretty much my second chance for this author.

Her first book didn’t hit well, and I was hoping it was just because of the tropes. When I found from listening to this book is that her stories are more young adult/new adult and romance adjacent. Pretty much, her stories are geared towards a younger audience, and more towards learning life skills, and becoming a functioning adult/person, then finding romance and you’re happily ever after.

That said, I did enjoy this book a lot more than her first. The story focusses on Edith, and aspiring writer as she deals with a fan obsession, being mentored by her idol at the dealing with her best friend, moving on with life and planning a wedding.

I enjoyed the way the author included, alternate lifestyles and queer positive spaces in this story.

As for the audio narration, Elli Kendrick does a great job narrating this dual female MC story. Her delineation between the characters and their voices is clear and easy to follow. Her voice work tends to lean towards this younger age group, and fits in well with the story.

Overall, this is a solid audiobook, and a better showing for author, Lex Croucher.

I have mixed feelings here. The story was well crafted and there was good blend of diversity in the cast characters that lent well to the plot. The problem? I saw the twist coming from the moment certain characters were introduced. There were too many clues, I could just sense it and I didn’t want to be right. It actually would have been more of a twist had that not been the outcome.
I was almost unsatisfied until the nice little summation in the epilogue - retribution attained in the cleanest and most honest of ways. Which is nothing short of what we would expect from our heroine (and her best friend/lover).
I love a good regency tale of love and this book did not disappoint in that respect, despite the MC’s cluelessness throughout most of the book. She was lucky she had other redeeming qualities, otherwise I may have given up on her.
This is a tale of friends to lovers, fierce heroines, rogues, the arts and independence.
This is a 3.5-4 star read, for me. Rounded up to 4 because of how loveable that dog was and did like the mini-mystery hidden within… and Henry.
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for and audio copy of the book. The opinions expressed are honest and my own.

I was very excited bout this work because I had recently read a lot of period romance pieces. However, something about the vibes in this book just felt off. I did think the writing was well done, but I genuinely hated many of the characters, one of which being a main character.

I feel like if a few of the romance elements had been changed, it plus have been a lot better for my vibes.

Even with that I think the narrator did an absolutely amazing job in the performance of the work. All of the voices were uniquely done, an the dramatization was superb.

In the end I gave this a 3 stars, and I would like to thank NetGalley n the publisher for this audio arc

Lex Croucher’s last book was a hit with me so when I saw her new book available I knew I had to have it! I love how she brings a different time period time life for me!

I really enjoyed reading Reputation last year after being intrigued and persuaded into Regency Romances after watching Bridgerton! Croucher certainly writes this one with the same level of wittiness that I relished in but I must admit that this one was just missing a little something for me that I can’t quite pinpoint.

The queer friends to lovers trope shines bright and Eddie and Rose have some great chemistry and make for quite a dynamic duo! I found the general angstiness of this one entertaining and it’s certainly a fun modern integration into the regency era.

I’ve seen a lot of bookstagrammers love this one so please don’t let my indifference make you hesitate from picking this one up!