Overall: 3.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Intimate Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: A touch
Perspective: Third person from both heroines
Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: No
Format: a very old advanced reader copy in e-book form that I’ve let languish on my kindle for years

Should I read in order?
I don’t see this listed as a series on goodreads, but I believe its the first of a series. (Her Countess to Cherish features a side character from this novel).

Basic plot:
Jacquie and Nora strike a bargain – Nora will get Jacquie invitations if she can help set up her up with a husband.

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency time period (1813)
- London setting
- Lots of balls and social gatherings
- F/F pairing
- low to mid steam – 2 full scenes but they were a touch on the short side. Walsh’s scenes are explicit enough that you know what is happening but were a touch on the flowery side for prose and ended a bit abruptly for me
- touch of instalust
- forbidden love
- you’re okay with scenes of other woman/other man jealousy

Ages:
- Jacquie is 26, Nora is 25

My thoughts:
Overall I think this was a sweet story, but it had focus on a couple things I’m not a big fan of in romance so it ended up not being a favorite for me.

Jacque is delightful – she has this bright and energetic personality and she came off as one of those people you just cannot help but enjoy when you are around them. She lights up a room. This is her sixth London season as her parents are really hoping to use her good looks to gain them a title and bring them up in society.

Lady Nora has good society connections but her shyness impedes her social interactions. Jacquie helps bring her out of her shell and she really blossoms with a friendship together.

This is a really cute story – it does have a bit of instalust between the mains, but they hold off a bit by striking a bargain. Jacquie will help secure Nora a husband and Nora will invite Jacquie to all the best society parties. This results in what becomes a friendship until passion is acted upon. I really loved both heroines!

There were quite a few scenes of other woman/other man jealousy and drama that I don’t really get into. Some scenes of cattiness and just general judgments of society made it more of a heavy read for me. So while I maybe wouldn’t reread this one, I would definitely try more by Walsh :) I did like the ending but would have really loved an epilogue.

Love this book so much. Love the romance. Love the characters. I love absolutely everything about this book. Five out of Five stars. :D

Sapphic regency romance, which by rights ought to be my catnip, but I stopped reading halfway through (and had been skimming for half of that). This book had two main problems for me. One was that there is very little awareness of the social and economic forces that underpinned Regency society. I mean, we all make allowances for the protagonists of Regency romances to be extraordinary within their setting, but they still need to be plausible. Very little about the heroine’s family context or voiced expectations made any sense for the era. The attitudes and interactions felt very “modern people dressed in costume.” And on top of that, I simply didn’t like the protagonist as a person. I could find no reason to root for her to get her happy ending. I really wish I could have like this book more, especially given that the author appears to be on quite a roll with three sapphic Regencies out as of this month and a fourth on the way.

“La and taradiddle!”

It’s the season to get a husband and London is the place where it all happens. For Lady Honorah (Nora) Banfield it’s on! She needs to marry well to secure a comfortable future for herself and her beloved family country estate. Under the ever watchful eye of her aunt Mildred she endures – or should I say suffers - the countless balls and assemblies. Oh, if only she possessed the flair and ease of the pretty Miss Jacqueline (Jacquie) Lockhart who’s enjoying her sixth season. With eager suitors flocking around her, Jacquie and her bff Miss Beatrice (Bea) Everson make sure they keep their dance cards filled as they bring their flirting A-game.

Everybody seems to have their eye on the Earl of Sinclair who is in need of a wife. Nora needs to aim high so the Earl would be a perfect match but as a wallflower she isn’t able to catch his eye. She turns to Jacqui for help. In exchange for invitations to the best parties (where all the aristos are) Jacquie promises to snare the Earl for Nora. But then Bea suddenly has decided that 6 seasons are enough and she needs to settle down… with the Earl of Sinclair.

If you have read this far and you wonder where the Sapphic angle is in all of this straight marriage madness, I can assure you there is gay-a-plenty. Author Jane Walsh manages to keep us entertained while the ladies scheme and plot. In Regency times women had to be very clever to find any time away from their restrictive lives and the prying eyes of society. A scandal that could ruin your reputation for life was lurking around every corner. I’m surprised they didn’t develop ulcers from all that stress. Walsh succeeds to show us that oppressive feeling women must have felt back then. Not everything felt as period as it should be, but this being her debut I won’t be too harsh on that.

Her Lady to Love offers some Regency realness for history lovers and covert Sapphic goings on for the romance fans. Check it out!

f/f

Themes: London 1813, wedding mart, hunting for a man of means, sometimes I could slap aunt Mildred for being such a broken record, the importance of being connected to the right people, and what’s with this cover? Why is it so hard to get any historical accuracy when it comes to fashion, hair and make-up?

3.4 Stars

Jane Walsh’s debut novel is set in Regency London and features a f/f romance of opposites attract along with an intriguing supporting cast of other queer characters. Her Lady to Love has moments that truly shine, even if it is undercut at times by issues with pacing and an inconsistent development of the chemistry between the two main characters. I still found enough to love that I would recommend the novel to readers hungry for historical fiction featuring women who love women and want to carve their own way in the world.

*

Lady Honora (Nora) Banfield hails from the countryside and, accompanied by her aunt, comes to London to find a husband. While she feels no attraction to men, she believes her best hope in life is to marry someone who will allow her to retire to a quiet home where she can raise their children and be left to her own devices. Her inexperience in society and difficulty in expressing herself poses a difficulty in navigating the marriage mart.

The vivacious Miss Jacqueline (Jacquie) Lockhart, on the other hand, is in her sixth season – and she still has no desire to settle down with a husband. She enjoys dancing and flirting, and men and women alike are drawn into her orbit. When we meet her at the start of the novel, a woman has just broken her heart, and she determines to pour her energy into having fun and helping her best friend/sometimes lover Beatrice (Bea) to find a match.

A clumsy meet-cute on the dance floor brings Jacquie and Nora to each other’s attentions, and they soon find themselves making a bargain: Nora will use her higher status to get Jacquie into the best social engagements, and the socially adept Jacquie will aid Nora in her quest to find a husband. Unfortunately, Bea and Nora both set their caps for the biggest catch of the season: the Earl of Sinclair, and Jacquie struggles to keep her word to both friends. Along the way, Jacquie and Nora must also contend with the passion burgeoning between them and decide if love is worth the risk in a society so bent on determining a different path for them.

*

I enjoyed the initial conceit of the novel, which serves to bring Nora and Jacquie together with opportunities for intimacy and conflict. At times, Her Lady to Love risked being marred by too much conflict, however – Bea and Nora are pitched at jealous odds with one another for far too long for me, and Bea can be downright cruel, with very little intervention from Jacquie – at one point, the two abandon shy Nora so they can have more fun. In some parts of the novel, I also felt uncomfortable with Jacquie and Nora’s off-and-on again dynamic, where confusion about each other’s motivations and feelings led to a great deal of hurt. I expect conflict in a romance, of course, but the conflict and resolution and conflict again gave me a little bit of whiplash. I questioned why, after numerous misunderstandings and offenses, in which they seemed so quick to doubt one another, Jacquie and Nora continued to reunite. Their attraction for the first half of the book seemed primarily physical, so it proved a challenge at times to want to push through the conflicts and root for their romance. I would have liked to have had more consistent and in-depth intimacy between them, though there is something to be said for the historical accuracy of only being allotted so many stolen moments together. I still felt that their friendship would have benefited from more exploration.

Nonetheless, I fell in love with the characters. In fact, it might be accurate to say that I cared more about them individually and about what their romance meant to the both of them than I cared about the romance itself for most of the book. That’s not a slight against the novel, though – this turned out to be a hugely valuable part of the reading experience for me. Walsh does an amazing job of exploring how both women feel constrained by their roles in a heteronormative society in which their families want them to pursue particular paths. Both have their own internal conflicts as well, and the ups and downs of their love help them to overcome their struggles and grow into the women they want to be. The very things that frustrated me about their romance end up as a kind of crucible for them to know and love themselves better. It’s hard to feel you know and understand another person’s intentions when you’re still trying to figure out yourself and what you want out of life. Their romance doesn’t depend upon one character making the other better, however – instead, the story allows both characters to grow individually and to get to a point where they realize they are comfortable with themselves, with or without love.

Jacquie’s internal struggle lies with the fact that she doesn’t feel herself to be deserving of love. She is spurned by a woman who cast their love affair as a mere curious experiment, whereas Jacquie loves genuinely and has no shame in her sexuality. Jacquie’s parents view her as a commodity, caring only about the social status her beauty can buy them through an advantageous marriage that she has no desire to enter into. She longs for her mother’s approval in particular, and I was hit hard by a scene in which Jacquie’s mother expresses a desire for her daughter to make a match with someone “worthy of [her] beauty” that would raise the family up and “bring [them] to better things.” Walsh shines a keen insight into Jacquie’s character and the plight of many women like her: “Her mood came crashing down and resentment welled at being seen as the only cipher to break the code of the upper echelons, instead of a person worthy of good things because just maybe she was a good person.” Jacquie’s journey gives her the chance to be the person she wants to be and to see that person as someone good and deserving of real love and consideration. I thought Walsh explored that quite deftly and beautifully toward the latter half of the novel.

As for Nora, she is set up as a wallflower in contrast to Jacquie’s belle of the ball for a reason. Jacquie wants to be seen as more than just a pretty face, and Nora just wants to be seen at all – and more importantly, heard. Her aunt is her chaperone in London and has dedicated herself to the task of seeing Nora marry well. Nora believes that her aunt genuinely wants what is best for her, but she never listens to Nora’s wishes – or rather, she never even asks to hear them, and Nora lacks the courage to speak up for herself. When no one seems to care about what you want, it’s difficult to even know what you want, let alone how to go after it. Nora throws her energies into finding a husband because she thinks it’s the only path available to her, but being with Jacquie challenges her to look deeper within herself. Walsh is talented in painting small moments of feeling and introspection, such as this one, when Nora is preparing for a dance at which she expects to see Jacquie: “Deep inside, she was starting to feel the build of something more. Something different. Nora looked into her own eyes in the mirror and realized with an uncomfortable start that she didn’t just wish to know more about Miss Lockhart’s needs and wants. She wanted to learn more about her own.” Throughout the novel, Nora faces a number of moments in which she is silenced or feels trapped, and it’s so satisfying when she stands up for herself and demands that her voice be heard and her will be respected.

This is one of my favorite things about the romance genre – so many of the best stories offer us characters who learn more about who they are and what they want and need throughout the course of their romantic journeys. That is its own kind of love story, and it’s one that I think is especially important for queer characters. Jacquie and Nora find their own strengths, but Walsh doesn’t leave them entirely to their own devices either. An important part of their journey – Jacquie’s especially – is the discovery of a community that neither woman was aware of.

Both women have had their affairs, but the idea that they could actually build a life around their love was something that neither had experience with or a vocabulary for. Throughout the novel, they find advice and support from others who are able to encourage, protect, and advise Jacquie and Nora in their relationship. We get some insight into these side characters’ own stories and identities, and I long to know even more about them, especially the charming trans man we meet later in the novel; they definitely deserve their own book. Overall, Walsh examines the realistic barriers that existed for queer relationships in this period while still offering a place of possibility for her characters. I love how the support and mentorship from unexpected places help Jacquie and Nora to see their love as something sustainable in a social structure that seeks to repress it or at least keep it behind closed doors. I hope Walsh continues to write in this universe because she has introduced some very intriguing side characters I’d be happy to read more about.

I won’t detail the conflict and climax of the novel, but rest assured that Nora and Jacquie reach their HEA, and despite some of my earlier qualms about their relationship, I was rooting for them by the end and happy with how they get there. Both women have their own narrative arcs not exclusively tied to each other, and that was something I really appreciated. They’re both able to finally see themselves as worthy of love and the lives they previously didn’t dare dream of. Although the end is a bit rushed, I still felt that Jacquie and Nora were in a better position to embark upon on a healthy and hopeful relationship.

Her Lady to Love is a novel that, while uneven at times, is well worth a read. Ultimately, Walsh offers a rich examination of queer identity and community that I want to see more of in regency romance, and I look forward to reading her next book.

ARC kindly provided by the Bold Stroke Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There's a lot to love about this one! The period details are impressively authentic, right down to the fine details of the clothing and the interior design. It was effortless to imagine every detail of every scene, especially the numerous balls and parties (which sound quite exhausting to attend, honestly) and I think that's a real strength of this author. You can tell she's done her research and then some.

Sadly, the actual romance let this one down for me. I didn't feel any chemistry at all between the two leads, and much of the book was dedicated to the two of them either being mean to each other or talking about husbands. I think that perhaps it sought to emulate all the most tedious parts of Regency romance and didn't add enough to the genre, besides the obvious LGBTQ rep. I wish that the main characters had been a little more exciting and had more depth to them; they seemed quite flat and, I hate to say it, boring. By contrast, the cast of secondary characters was absolutely great; none of the humour in this book came from the leads, but from their friends, and I really do hope that Walsh writes their stories next. I'd read those in a heartbeat.

This is a perfectly solid debut and I'll definitely read whatever else the author writes in this genre - I just think that perhaps the actual romance took a back seat to the research with this one. I love that more authors are queering the Regency romance genre, and I'm glad to add this one to the corpus of very gay historical romances.

Historical romances are still mostly a choice between one M/F story or another M/F story. So the possibility of a great F/F historical romance made me feel excited. Unfortunately, this story moved at such an absolutely glacial pace, it felt like wading through swimming pool of apricot jam, and it put me to sleep multiple times.

The search for a great F/F historical romance continues.

Wallflower Lady Honora Banfield comes to London with the sole mission of finding a husband, and she has her eye on the most eligible bachelor around. Veteran debutante Miss Jacqueline Lockhart is having a blast in her sixth season. She knows everyone even if she’s got a bit of a reputation, so Honora teams up with her to get all the invites to parties in exchange for introductions to those in the upper echelons of London society. Neither counted on their attraction to each other while husband hunting. As a potential proposal looms, both will have to make some tough decisions about their lives and how they’d like to live them.

This one was fun. I’ve been touring my way through queer, historical fiction of late, and I enjoyed this one more than some others I’ve read lately. I can be a sucker for forbidden romances and love some representation in those historical romances. Sometimes I get a tad bored of debutantes and society and balls and the like, but this one kept me interested. I really enjoyed Nora and Jackie, and the back and forth of huge life decisions helped keep up the tension. I was rooting for these two and wanted them to have a happy ever after (whatever that looks like for them), even though it seems unlikely in the setting.

The pacing was one point. I moved quickly through it in just under 2 days, and I kept sneaking time to read to catch up with our heroines. Again, my backlog is a little ridiculous, and what that means for you is that this is out now, so no wait if you want to read it.

Set in the Regency Era of London, Her Lady to Love portrays the illicit love affair between Lady Honora Banfield and Miss Jacquline Lockhart. Lady Honora arrives in London in pursuit of a great match for a husband, but what she finds is more than she bargained for. Separated not only by station but also by personality, Nora recruits Jacquie and together they devise a plan to secure the most eligible and desired match of the season. But what they didn’t expect was to fall for each other instead.

Though I’m not a fan of this kind of romance novel, Her Lady to Love succeeded in portraying the atmosphere of the Regency era. The many balls, hyper focus on class, and fashion. That is the best part of this book, the culture. This book left me wanting more. More balls, more intricate dresses, more scandals!
As for the plot, I also wish there was more story or at least more detailed events.
I do not hate this book but it’s also not a favourite. It’s a simple palate cleanser. An easy read that you won’t regret.

In her sixth season, Jacqui is determined never to marry. But her parents are relying on her to use her beauty to raise the family's status by marrying a nobleman.

At her aunt's insistence, Lady Honora is making her London debut. Though Nora has a small competency, a wealthy husband will allow her to escape a life of genteel poverty.

When scandal strikes, can these two ladies escape social expectations to build the life they truly desire?

I adored this novel. The writing is superb, the characters delightful. Jacqui can be a little immature at times, but seeing herself through Nora's eyes, she realizes it's time to put aside her selfish ways. It's a joyful experience to see these two characters bring out the best in each other to find their happily ever after.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received.

A cute romance that uses tropes you often find in het romance and turns it on its head.

Have you ever read a romance novel with a female friendship that seems a tad too close and co-dependent and wondered how on earth one of them ended up with the male mc? Well this novel is the answer.

A fun read for a sunny summer afternoon.

I have been getting into the romance genre this year and so when I came across this sapphic historical romance I knew I had to request it. In this book we have Nora who is looking to find a husband to finance her country estate and she enlists the help of Jacqueline who is on her 6th season and has no intention of settling down with a man. The pair are both immediately drawn to each other. Overall I did enjoy this however felt that the pacing was a little off at times and I really would have liked to see more depth to Jacqueline and Nora’s relationship. Overall I gave this 3 out of 5 stars.

This book was the first f/f historical romance that I have read. I struggled with reading the book because I did not like Jacquie and her best friend (and former lover) Bea. They were both quite selfish and demanding. I didn't think that the relationship between Jacquie and Nora was well developed. I actually liked Phin better than Jacquie.

I was sad that this book was missing likable characters and character development.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.

I really liked the cover of Her Lady to Love and I find that I really like historical fiction romances. I feel conflicted after reading this one because I really wanted to like it, but found that it was just okay. The mains are Nora and Jacquie. I liked Jacquie more so than Nora, but neither main are really upstanding people. I think Nora probably was more innocent than Jacquie, BUT her expectation on Jacquie seem out of place. This makes it hard to really want these two people to get together. One thing I have learned is that two not so likable mains makes it harder to understand why this romance should happen in the first place. With all of that said, I think that Walsh made the romance easy to read which can be hard to do. I just didn't care for the mains.

3 Stars

This arc was provided by netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

The slow pace of this story made it difficult to form an interest in any of the characters. The plot had potential but it seemed to get bogged down in unnecessary details.

Set in Regency London, Her Lady to Love follows society women Jacqueline and Honora. Jacqueline is in her sixth season and very much enjoys the parties, with no interest to finding a husband; Honora is in her first season following a family tragedy which resulted in a later coming out, she is searching for the more eligible bachelor possible. Honora and Jacqueline decide to work together to find the best husband for Honora however their friendship quickly develops into something much deeper.

This book required a little suspension of disbelief as some of the naming conventions felt off (they may have been historically accurate but they felt made-up) and there was at least one colloquialism used that was 100 years too early. Despite these couple of quibbles, this book was exactly what I had hoped for and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Walsh writes in an engaging and genuine way which makes me excited at the possibility of more queer books set in Regency London.

I went into this wanting a fun historical queer romance and that is absolutely what I got. .The setting was wonderfully developed, really transported the reader to regency London. I enjoyed the relationship between Jacquie and Nora, I like how they challenged each other and brought out the best in each other, I do wish that we had seen a bit more of the relationship development, it moved from instant attraction to love pretty fast and it would have been nice to see a bit more of this on page. I loved that there was a large cast of queer characters and would absolutely read any spinoffs featuring any of these, but especially would love one following Mr Smith. Overall this was a super fun read and delivered exactly what I wanted.

It is Jacquie's sixth season in London's high society, and while she's formed a vibrant network of friends, she hasn't made plans to settle down. Lady Honora (Nora) has arrived in London for her first season in order to find her match in a husband. She soon falls into Jacquie's circle and as their friendship grows, so does their attraction. But is their romance destined to be short lived as Nora's inevitable marriage becomes closer and closer?

It took me a while to get into the book - it was a touch slow in the beginning and felt a little superficial. However, as it got a little more into politics I think it really deepened not only the story but the characters were much more interesting and well developed. It was easier to connect to them as the reader gets invested in their life. The relationships really developed as well, especially Jaqueline's network of friends. I'm very picky with historical fiction, and this wasn't my favourite style, but I still enjoyed the book and would definitely read more by this author.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My first read from Jane Walsh as she created the ambiance I've come to love in historic romances. The setting is often as important as the characters when it comes to novels that take place in the past. This one was no different.

Honora is ready to experience her first and hopefully only season, planning on securing her future quickly by finding someone to marry as soon as she can. Jacqueline on the other hand is in her sixth season and done with the seriousness of the event. She is determined to take nothing serious and have the time of her life as she gets over old heartache.

Honora and Jaqueline are thrown together and there is some immediate slow burn passion as they get to know each other and puzzle one another out. I really enjoyed the first half of this book and the care that went into their interactions.

However, I do believe the momentum was lost as the story continued. I'm not sure if the author felt like she had done the job and the rest of the book was just the same old same old, but it was really hard getting through the rest.

I'd still love to try another of Jane Walsh's books, but I can understand why other readers weren't able to finish the book.

My opinions are my own and freely given.

DNF at 66%.

I’ve been trying to read this book for weeks now, but I just can’t get through it. It’s. So. Slow. The characters are so flat I barely even want to call them one dimensional — that implies they have literally any personality traits. They aren’t nice to each other, but not even in a bantering, enemies-to-lovers kind of way. They just talk about marrying other people while claiming to be horny for one another, but demonstrate literally zero chemistry.

This is FF historical. I wanted to like it. I just didn’t.

ARC provided by NetGalley.