Notorious by Minerva Spencer is the first novel in the Rebels of the Ton series. This is a historical romance novel full of wit, humor, intelligence. We see two characters Drusilla Clare and Gabriel Marlington tied together is a not so conviencing marriage.

Drusilla Clare is a strong headed, having her own opinions kinda lady who meets Gabriel and cannot stop herself from driving towards him. She finds herself drawn towards her best friend Eva's brother since the time she first saw him. Drusilla is a very sharp-tongued, exasperating woman who has her own views on marriage which does not match with the society's views of that time.

Gabriel Marlington, brother of Eva is a charming, rich yet hedonistic male who cannot stop himself but always thinks of women as lower than males. Gabriel even finds himself challenged by her unusual philosophies. But Gabriel still is very much intrigued by her intelligence and charming appearance.

The couple goes through a lot of obstacles the entire time, like Gabriel's past mistresses, Lord Visel and also Eva for that matter. Then their's Samir, who we reveal the truth about quite later on in the story. There are few events in the book which occur but are not explained properly.

I liked how the plot has been narrated and the twists and turns at very point and time in the story. I absolutely enjoyed seeing how their marriage progresses across the story as well as their own individual character development. It was full of emotions and I cannot wait for the next book in the series to come.
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Thank You to Kensington Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

Full review at All About Romance to appear closer to the release date. I will update with the link.

I was excited to start Notorious after I realized the novel was linked to Ms. Spencer's earlier Outcast series (which I enjoyed), but that excitement quickly faded once this story - and this marriage of convenience - gets underway.

Drusilla, our heroine, is deeply in lust with her best friends brother and wishes he would notice her. This, despite the fact that he has a reputation as a ladies man and is notoriously - and happily - involved in a three- way relationship with a pair of bisexual women deeply in love with each other, and the fact that most of their interactions are marked by animosity and teasing (of the insulting variety), AND Drusilla claims she doesn't ever want to marry. But besides all those things (huh?), she wants him.

Meanwhile, Gabriel has never paid any attention to Drusilla, is quite content with his mistresses and their arrangement, and is "sort of" dating another young woman of the ton. Kitty? He finds himself rescuing Drusilla after she's nearly raped by a madman and when they get caught alone in the aftermath, he's forced to offer for her. The set-up is clunky and obvious from the moment Drusilla leaves the ballroom to the contrived manner in which Gabriel finds and rescues her and afterwards, when they get caught. I COULD SPOT THE DASTARDLY PLOT FROM A MILE AWAY, and although Drusilla is nearly raped by a near stranger, it isn't the last time she finds herself in a dangerous situation with a man because of poor planning and just plain carelessness with her person. I digress.

Anyway, these two are forced to marry and lust saves the day. For real.

Since this is a marriage of convenience plot, I assume the author heaped on the unnecessary character details to prove how very unlikely it would be for these two to wind up together and find happily ever after in their fake marriage. Unfortunately, she did too great of a job at it! I was skeptical of these two from the start, and nothing - except their sexual chemistry (which appears out of nowhere) - about their relationship convinced me they were meant to be.

Gabriel hates giving up his mistresses, while Drusilla is thrilled she snagged the man of her dreams despite her objections to marriage (ahem). She's happy, but still treats Gabriel like she hates him, and the two of them bicker and fight over every stupid thing in their lives because neither of them is willing to be honest with the other about...ANYTHING! They have odd friends/siblings/moms who make everything about the relationship harder and stranger (no one wants sex advice from their mom), and super amazing sex is the glue that keeps them sticking together. I mean, Gabriel is some sort of Casanova in the sack and Drusilla, brainy Drusilla, is a quick study in bedroom too. FRIENDS! COME ON. It's almost impossible to understand why Gabriel is attracted to Drusilla - she's mean, dismissive, and secretive, or to believe Drusilla would so easily settle into a role she swore never to play. She's against marriage! Oh, and there's a villain - sorry two, and neither of them do much more than complicate an already overdone mess of a story.

I had high hopes for this one, but I can't and won't be recommending it.

This is my first Minerva Spencer book, and, for the most part, I enjoyed it and will be looking for more of her books!

I super wanted to love this because of the awesome premise, but the writing style is just not clicking. Wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished and rated it lowly. DNF.

I wanted to like this book but I found it kept surprising me unpleasantly. The first chapter was great. The banter! I liked the heroine quite a bit, but at times she was frustratingly reserved to the point of not talking to the hero about things that would have been natural to discuss. We spent a lot of time in their heads avoiding each other and not enough action. The sex scenes were lovely but seemed somewhat arbitrarily placed and the first one especially did not feel earned. The hero spent more time being lovely to his two mistresses in the first 40% of the book than thinking much at all about the heroine. I think this was supposed to show him as a good kind of harem keeper as opposed to his father (who was an Algerian sultan) but that rubbed me the wrong way as did descriptions of the hero as "exotic."

There was a lot of telling of scenes in past tense that would have been better to have experienced in real time and not skipped over. There was a general lack of action, then an arbitrary dramatic event involving danger to a minor at 90% as a part of a villain subplot that honestly did nothing for the book.

Others may enjoy this book. Overall, the writing itself at times was quite good, but the story was not executed well, had some problematic elements, and the plot went off the rails. I would have DNF'd but I pushed through in order to write a valid review. I thank the publisher for allowing me to read and review.

Delightful & steamy!

I love a story about strong women, especially in a time where women were ornamental at best. Strong, sassy, and self-sufficient, Drusilla Clare knows who she is and her worth. She isn't the belle of the ball, but she has a fantastic friend in Elizabeth (cannot wait for her story to come out!), and spends her time trying to raise up women and help the impoverished improve their lot in life.
Then, to protect her honour, she must marry Gabriel, a man that she is sure despises her for all they do it battle and poke barbs. He is the brother of her dear friend, and she is a wallflower.

One thing I loved about this book is the fact that Gabriel is not just another English gentleman. He knows what it is like not to fit in, and to be town between two world. His mother is firm, fierce, and uncompromising in her views. He respects her greatly, and knows that she will take him to task if required.

Loved how this book was true to the time -Spencer did not put the virtues and values of women today on these women. Rather, she showed how they were strong in their own right, and how they navigated society to create their own autonomy.

Also - STEAMY. Not contrived, awkward, or gratuitous , and actually served to further the plot.

"The cure for a willful wife......is a smitten husband."

The blurb on this book drew me in, and for the first few chapters, I was hooked. Unfortunately, the overly deep dives into characters' backgrounds, and the constant hot to cold banter between Dru and Gabe, made this book hard to muddle through. Dru came off as cold and snippy rather than strong-willed in my opinion. I did not like her as much as I would have liked to.

I did enjoy a few of the twists that popped up in this book and feel as though the over-explaining of the characters might be because this is going to be a series.

First in a series of Ton rebels in regency England. As with many regencies, the "rebels" are pretty mild and mostly due to circumstances of birth than actual questioning or rejection of societal values.

Gabe and Drusilla are forced to marry after being caught touching in public. He is very unhappy to marry his sister's BFF, but she is cool with it bc she's been in love with him for years. Their relationship is constantly tested by both internal anxieties and pride as well as other people - Gabe's son/nephew, his mistresses, and a traumatized vet/Earl and his Nice Guy cousin who wants Dru for himself.

Gabe and Dru and likable but very different from one another. For internal conflicts, they work through understanding each other and trying to communicate and spend time together. I was a little disappointed to see that a lot of the bending and reaching out first was done by Dru. While Gabe did reach out to make the best of their situation, he immediately went alpha male when one thing happened that he didn't like.

The ending was a culmination of all the external factors getting together in a very (extra) dramatic ending. I did not like the choices the author made for Dru at the end - I found it a little slap-stick with tragic results which was odd.

There is a cliffhanger ending for the next book about Gabe's half-sister/Dru's BFF. I'm not sure if I'm going to be in on it.

I thought the author did a nice job of developing the MCs relationship and the siblings and family surrounding Gabe.

#Notorious #NetGalley

I am not a big fan of historical fiction but the blurb of "Notorious" pulled me in.

A savage protagonist, Drusilla, who refuses to be oppressed by society's norm and conventions with a hate to love transformation with lots of witty and engaging chinwag. I did get that but after a few chapters it became sophomoric and I was not quite interested as I was when I started it, it died out.

Thankyou NetGalley and the publishers for an e ARC in exchange of an honest review.

The book is generally written well. There were a few surprises that made for an interesting story and allows the reader to keep pressing forward to find out what will happen. I think many readers will find this to be an enjoyable book because it does have its moments, but I do not think it was a good fit for me. I had high expectations for the novel but was left disappointed. It became difficult to finish reading when it was clear Drusilla was relegated to a supporting character in Gabriel’s story as opposed to sharing a leading role with him. He often dictated and she had to respond to him.

The summary of the book paints her as a liberal thinker, shunning the expectations of marriage and creating a group that takes up social causes. In the first half of the book, she at least seems to be that person. She banters with Gabriel while trying to hide her feelings about him. She doesn’t mind that people are aware of her ideologies. By the second half of the book, she is boxed into the role of a wife and the independent thinking woman disappears. The Drusilla we are left with is one who pines after Gabriel and who continually reminds herself that he doesn’t love her. So much unnecessary angst and frustration for characters and the reader could have been prevented had Drusilla and Gabriel just talked to one another. Outside of the bedroom, the most we get from Drusilla is excitement when Gabriel accompanies her to the seamstress. We see a spark of who she used to be toward the end, but by that time I was already frustrated. It was infuriating to see her turn into one of her greatest fears. She stopped standing up for herself, going so far as to take the blame for some of Gabriel’s flare ups and hardly ever demanding an apology. We don't see her do anything about the social causes she claimed to care about despite her insistence earlier on that she be able to continue to do so should she and Gabriel be married. Then the book shifts focus to Gabriel, despite alternating viewpoints, leaving us to accept this new version of Drusilla. If there is one thing that I dislike, it is how female leads like Drusilla go from independent to complacent as soon as they are paired up, which feels completely out of character. I would have been more understanding had I seen it coming, and the expectation was that she would change for marriage. The argument could be made that it was the time period and this should have been expected, but Drusilla verbally fought against this. After giving up on Drusilla, I found Eva becoming an interesting character but by the time she became interesting, the book was already coming to an end.

Individuals may be able to pick it up and enjoy it especially if this is a time period that is of interest to them. It is fast-paced filled with unexpected twists. On the other hand, if individuals are looking for a strong, independent female lead, they may be left disappointed.

Everyone in this book is “notorious” and I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out who the title was alluding to. Turns out it didn’t matter much at all since I loved them all. Gabriel and Drusilla are evenly matched in wit and the high-handed moments of Gabriel are explained away but I still wanted him to be better than that and just have a conversation.

Drusilla seemed sad to me most of the time. Either insecure or so desperate for Gabriel’s love she accepts thing without even a conversation which I think would’ve been fair when your husband comes home and says he has a 6 year old son.

Generally I liked the plot of this and the pacing of their relationship and story of their marriage becoming real for them both was well done. I have about 1,000 questions about Gabriel’s sister now so I guess I will have to wait for that book anxiously.

Drusilla has been helplessly in love with her best friend Eva’s half-brother Gabriel for five years. But since he is a notorious rake and unbelievably handsome while she is more ordinary, she hides her feelings. She hides them so well that Gabriel thinks she dislikes him.

But when Gabriel’s enemy Lord Visel places Drusilla in a compromising position the only way to silence the gossip is for Gabriel and Drusilla to marry, despite Gabriel courting the beautiful Miss Kittredge and Drusilla following the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft who opposed marriage.

The young couple face numerous obstacles, including Gabe’s mistresses, Lord Visel, Eva, one of Drusilla’s admirers and their own feelings.

This was a fast-paced, sexy historical romance. My only criticism would be that some situations were set up and then nothing happened, I can tell from the teaser for the next book in the series that there is a reason for at least one of these but it was a bit disconcerting.

There is a lot of backstory, which I now see is because Gabriel’s mother had her own book Dangerous, however it was easy to read this as a stand-alone and I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I love Minerva Spencer's books and I looked forward to reading this one. I already knew some of the back story from Dangerous, one of Spencer's previous books, which is the Marchioness of Exley's story. I was delighted to read more about the Marchioness' son, Gabriel. In this story, Drusilla, the best friend of Gabriel's step-sister, Eva, has been in love with Gabriel since she was a teenager. Drusilla is the daughter of a wealthy merchant, a wallflower who is interested in social reform. As an outsider in the ton, Dru is so convinced of her inferiority and that her feelings can never be reciprocated, she does everything to push Gabriel away. However, the two are forced to marry to save Dru's reputation. Much angst and missed communication occur until things between the couple are finally resolved.

This story has many of my favorite tropes: enemies to lovers, forced marriage, best friend's brother, and unrequited love. I loved the characters, the plot, and the drama. However, I thought there were a few bumpy transitions between scenes in the book and I felt the story resolution was achieved a bit too quickly at the end. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it kept me up at night to read "one more chapter." The story ends with a teaser about Eva's story and I cannot wait until the next book to read it!

When I first started this one I really kind of didn't like the characters. They annoyed me so much. The story itself was overly done with sexual exploits (from their past) and well it made it hard to love. Overall, I think that some people will enjoy this one but for me it just wasn't the right fit.

Dru is a woman who knows her mind and opinion and it's afraid to show it. She just shows the wrong side of it around Gab. Takes a while for these two to figure out they are perfect for each other but when they do sparks fly!

I found this book to be different from books that I have read from Minerva Spencer. The characters I found quite entertaining. They brought great dialogue to the book. The plot was good. I was looking more for the Victorian history romance aspects from the book.
I would like to read details from the wedding. It’s was hard to push through reading Gabriel making out with his mistress the day before his wedding. I would like to have seen more romance scenes from Gabriel and Drusila. The book started out good with the banter between Drusila and Gabriel, but after Gabriel went to talk to his parents the book hit a slump. I voluntary reviewed this ARC after receiving a free gifted copy. <img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/4c2082eade28a9b5297515683f15ceaa5f1ea57d" width="80" height="80" alt="10 Book Reviews" title="10 Book Reviews"/>

Very much enjoyed this read from Minerva Spencer. Drusilla (a name so bad, it's good), has been in love with Gabriel for years, but is so convinced it can't be reciprocated, does everything to push him away. Of course, events unfold, he marries her to save her reputation, and he figures out she's not the ice queen he thought, and he's not quite what she thought either.

The characters in this book are wholly original. Dru is a reformer of the merchant class, and Gabriel is the son of the Sultan of Oran, raised in a Harem. I did find Gabriel's backstory a little confusing, as well as the sheer number of characters. It might have helped to read Dangerous first, which is the Marchioness of Exley's story (Gabriel's mother), which is definitely now my next read...as well as all of Spencer's other books.

Starring Mr. Gabriel Marlington and Miss Drusilla Clare.

This is a Taming of the Shrew, Enemies to Lovers, Unrequited Love, and Best Friend’s Older Brother tropes.

I was on the fence about Drusilla for most of the book. She’s been in love with Gabriel for 5 years, but she has build spikes around her heart, where he’s concerned, so that she doesn’t hurt every time she hears about his philandering ways. I get it, her being snappish at him was a defense mechanism, but sometimes it got to be a bit too much. I did like her towards the end when she started letting Gabe see the real her.

I love that Gabe is not the typical hero. He is a son of a sultan, was born and raised in Oran, Algeria... which makes him quite exotic. He is also half English and adapting to that side of his heritage has been a struggle, but he’s making it work. I wanted to give him a hug every time Drusilla showed him her claws. He really did not deserve her animosity.

There were a few scene changes that I thought were very abrupt... that made me think that I missed a chunk of the story. We went from Drusilla secretly going to see Gabe’s ex-mistresses... then page turn and we are suddenly at the masquerade ball. It took my mind out of the book coz I actually had to go back and forth within that section (and skimmed ahead to see if there were any mention of the meeting) was coz I thought I had pages missing.

This is my first Minerva Spencer experience and I did enjoy it enough to want to read more of her stories. I’m really curious to see what happened to Eva, Drusilla’s best friend/Gabe’s Step sister.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily review it and the comments are 100% my own.

My star system: 3 1/2 stars
Characters and storyline were good. There was just a few things that distracted me from the story.

If ever there was a year I truly needed an escape, 2020 is it. Luckily, Minerva Spencer has come to the rescue with this swoon-worthy new release. If the rest of this Rebels of the Ton series is as sexy, funny, and angsty as Notorious, I may survive the craziness of the world today.
Drusilla Clare had been a quivering lump of fool for her best friend’s brother since the first time she’d laid eyes on him, but she’d kept her attraction secret knowing no man as beautiful and perfect as Gabriel Marlington would be interested in someone like her. In an effort to mask her attraction, she tended to do all in her power to annoy him. Gabe was perplexed with his sister’s brutally direct and opinionated friend. Never had anyone spoken so slightingly to him. When these two are thrown together in a not so convenient marriage, I knew I was in for some sizzling chemistry and lots of bumps on their road to an HEA. I just didn’t know how absolutely fun that journey would be.
The interactions between Gabe and Dru were taut with misunderstandings and stumbling blocks but the witty banter, scorching chemistry and seriously hot sex made the journey to their HEA a delectable delight. I love romances with a generous dose of passion, humor, and sexual chemistry. And when it involves a marriage of convenience, that just adds extra sprinkles to the conflict and drama. Those slight intimacies that evolve as two people get to know each other and see each other in a new light. They’re off balanced, unsure, and hesitant to trust each other. There’s nothing better than those slow discoveries of each other and their feelings. And Minerva Spencer makes it all the more wonderful with her fast paced, easy to read, and humorous writing style. And man, can she write a love scene!
If you’re looking for a book with realistic characters, fascinating plot, intrigue, deception, and off the charts sexual chemistry, Notorious may well be your most divine escape of the year.

Drusilla Clare believes women should not need to marry to be an important part of society. However after an altercation with a high handed man at a ball, the only way to keep her reputation in tact is to marry the brother of her best friend. A man she has been in love with for 5 years, not that she has ever admitted that to anyone.

This was a great read full of mysterious twists that kept me guessing, and the steamy parts were 🔥. The cliffhanger ending (not about Dru and Gabriel’s story, that was wrapped up beautifully) has me very excited for the next instalment.