Wonderful historical romance story of a mean girl humbled and she finds her happily ever after. I wasn't sure I would love this story as much as I did because I have issues with mean girls in my past. But Celia was brought down big time and learned her lesson. In reality the meanness was a mask, a cover for fear of the ton finding out her position in society was one step from financial ruin every day of her life. It was her armor to keep others from looking too closely at her life. Her father had a title but he was a terrible gambler and just one step ahead of his creditors. Her mother was an actress and left her money with her daughter when she died to take care of Celia. When her house of cards fell because of a bully duke she had to find employment and disappeared from society for 10 years. I loved seeing Celia Trent learn her lessons and finally find genuine love.

Celia is the Duke of Dowden, Sebastian Fanshawe puppet, he pulls her strings. He knows her secrets and for his own entertainment has her say mean things and start rumors within her circle of friends. As we see through this story he's the real bad guy here. Later he shows up as the bridegroom to the sister of her former hopeful bridegroom, Lucien Ramsay. She had hoped to have Lucien offer for her but when a practical joke intended for his twin, backfired on Lucien. She ended up labeled Lady Infamous and disappeared from society. Her father left her alone and penniless as well.

The story picks up 10 years later with Lucien & Richard's little sister's wedding event over Christmas. Celia is now employed as a companion to Sebastian's aunt's friend and they go to the wedding. It's the last place Celia wants to be but she needs her job. As the event unfolds, Richard digs into Sebastian's background as he has always tried bulling Richard. Richard is sure he needs to stop the wedding. He's also getting to know Celia as he finds her fascinating.

I voluntarily red and reviewed an advanced readers copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What an unexpected story! I loved how the story not only focused on Celia and Richard but also Phil and Lucien. I adore the Bridgerton vibes with this one and the sexual tension between the couples is unbeatable. It took me a little longer than expected to get through it, but still such a great read.

I've never read a Minerva Spencer book before and this one did not disappoint! I do wish I had read the rest of this series before but it didn't take away from it! I really liked the characters and the backstory as well as the fact that the villain was actually a villain! Can't wait to read more from Minerva Spencer in the future!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

It was really hard to like Celia at first. She was such a mean girl. She tormented people because of her own problems. It all came back on her and she paid for it for a long time. Richard and his twin brother Lucien were both attracted to her. Lucien was going to ask Celia to marry him. Richard doesn't believe in love. Celia trusted the wrong person to help her and she ended up losing everything. Years later, Celia is working for an old lady who is invited to the wedding of Richard's sister. The sister is marrying the man who betrayed Celia in so many ways. He still likes to torment her. She can't expose his secrets because it will expose so many of her own. Richard finally believes in love and Celia knows that if he finds out her secrets, he will not be in love with her but disgusted by her? How can she get out of this mess?

How the one time mighty have fallen! Celia was at the top of the marriage mart as part of a Regency Mean Girls clique, but now she is known as Lady Infamous and working as a lady's companion.

Celia is the character you love to hate in the beginning of Infamous, the third book in Minerva Spencer's Rebels of the Ton series. She weaves and plots and puts her trust in the wrong people. When the plot goes wrong, it is her downfall.

Spencer deftly redeems Celia and brings love into her life when she least expects it. As a young man, Richard was infatuated with Celia. She was too young and naive to appreciate Richard, but now the sensual chemistry between them cannot be ignored. Richard finds that Celia's self-sufficiency and independence makes her even more attractive to him.

You will really appreciate the character development of not just Celia and Richard, but also Lucien and Phyllida. Both couples achieve hard-earned happiness, and the bad guy gets his just desserts. Bravo Antonia!
I would love to read her story!

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

The twins Richard and Lucien get their stories! In Infamous we get the mean girl of the ton getting her long-winded just desserts, an accidental compromised marriage, and an aloof naturalist (think entomologist) just being himself.

Celia, the absolute pinnacle of beauty uses her looks and her sharp tongue to wedge herself among the cream of the crop of the ton. One night she plays a trick on the Redvers twins that inexorably changes the trajectory of all their lives. 'That Night' led Celia low. Now, 10 years later, she is serving as a widow and lady's companion to make ends meet. As her employer is invited to the house party of the season, she finds she must face all those that she had wronged and the high stationed used-to-be ton "friends". But now she must do so as a servant.

Infamous is a story about redemption, not only Celia and the whole cast (pretty much) but also between Lucien and Phyllida. I absolutely love when we get to see character growth on-page. It is great that we get to see the high and mighty Celia fall because we hate her mean girl-ness at the very beginning. But we also get a view at peeling back the layers as to how Celia got to where she was and now (or, well, in the story). Phil and Luc's story was a huge miscommunication from the start. While I love that they do finally get themselves sorted, I just wonder how people can live like that for 10 years. Seriously, 10 years?!?

Oh, and the bad guy? Uh, he was just so... evil. I know we needed a bad guy. And he was pretty much a despicable slug, but I NEEDED more resolution with him. Both Richard and Antonia get some licks in, but I need for him to suffer similarly to how Celia lived 10 years on her own trying to make it. But he probably didn't. Blast the patriarchy.

The secondary characters were a huge plus for me. The overall storyline was a bit heavy at times, so they created a much-needed layer of entertainment, support, and sometimes comic relief. I could absolutely read a whole book about Hugh and his wife (whose name is escaping me at the moment) and his children.

There are a few potential triggers in here for off-page rape and sexual harassment. So just be aware if you need a bit of a warning.

All in all, I feel like Infamous made up for Outrageous (which I spend the majority of hating the male lead). I'm not sure the author intends to continue the series or if this was the end. In the end, I don't know if Minerva Spencer is the author for me... the angst, the prodigious lack of communication troupe, the high levels of male patriarchial/misogynistic brutishness, and the absolute gauntlet characters have to pass through to get their happy seems a bit more than I have in me. I think this will be the end of the series for me at least.

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This is the third book I read from this series and I enjoyed them a lot.
This book is completely different from most historical romances. Our heroine used to be mean and hateful, and our hero awkward and clumsy. They both had change a lot in ten years when they see each other again in a weeding party. She is a companion now and a humble one. He is this famous bookish second son who everybody knows about. And then, there are two side characters that have to fight a different war: Lucien, Richard’s older twin, and Phills. They had to married because one of Celia’s pranks and they never try for a real marriage. Now, with the woman that brought them together under their roof, they need to sincere about their fears and dreams in order to achieve happiness.
Two couples, a sister who insists to marry the villain, many, many kids, nice loving parents and parrots that only know awful words, are just some of the entertaining highlights that made this story page turner and compelling.
I loved to read stories that surprised me, and this one did. In a marvelous way.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is an incredibly compelling story of a former mean girl whose bad behavior has been more than rewarded with punishment even before the story begins.

Once the darling of the Ton, known for her clever set-downs of anyone who was a bit different, and a master of punching down at people poorer or less socially apt than herself, Celia Trent was one of a very fast set surrounding the heir to a Dukedom and part of his inner circle. She was close to snaring a rich marriage with the heir to an Earl, one Lucien Redvers, who was set to ask for her hand.

She also used her position to torment a poorer, wallflower, former schoolmate, Phyllida, and the intellectually-inclined twin brother to her beau Lucien, Richard. When asked by the future Duke to pen letters to Richard and Phyllida to trap them together in a room and create a scandal, one letter was mistakenly delivered to the Earl's heir, Lucien, instead of his twin brother. He and Phyllida were trapped into marriage and it was revealed that it was all Celia's idea (she'd written the letters after all), earning her the name Lady Infamous and drumming her out of the Ton.

In the years since that time she has come far down in the world, eventually landing as an elderly Lady's companion. This lady just happens to be the Aunt of the Duke who ran Celia’s former set, who is now planning to marry the younger sister of Lucien and Richard. Celia has to go to the home of her former beau and the woman she once tormented as a servant.

It ends up being nothing you'd expect and that's the best thing about this book. The entire storyline is fresh and interesting.

Celia is genuinely remorseful, and not just because her cruelty precipitated her own downfall. And she is a far more sympathetic protagonist than you'd imagine. Her life has been incredibly hard as an impoverished former noblewoman. And she has genuinely suffered while all those she tormented have prospered. And she’s not bitter about that. She’s glad things came out well for them.

Those she tormented are mostly far more gracious than you could expect. But they always were decent people, unlike Celia.

Needless to say, Celia has changed so much that she now falls for one of her former victims, Richard, who has become a famous naturalist. And she is an object of interest to him, not just because she remains extremely beautiful, but because he always wants to know what makes people do what they do.

I don’t want to spoil too much, because this ride is such a fun one. And you get two romances for the price of one, as Lucien and Phyllida, who got off on the very wrong foot in their marriage, also get to work things out during the story.

I have read a lot of regencies and this one wasn’t just a retread of something else. There’s genuinely new ground being covered in portions of it. The characters are well-rounded and fresh and they seem like real people, not one-note. There are some that are very quirky, but they are quirky in a real way. Lucien and Richard, though twins, are totally different instead of being interchangeable as are so many twins in stories, and it seems that Richard is on the autism spectrum, which is also handled very, very well and explains both his social difficulties and his inability to care about society’s concerns at all. Their mother is also described similarly, so heredity is even evident.

There is also a well-rounded villain or two. Rich kids getting away with it, and I think we’ve all encountered a few of those.

This is the first book that I’ve read by this author, though I’ve found the covers intriguing for some time. I will be seeking out more of her work.

I will not lie, most of the books by this author are not may favorite and I usually do not review them. But this book was different. The author write her books in series where the main characters from one book know or are related to the main characters of another books. Unlike most authors, this author jumps around. For example, the main hero and heroine met ten years before, and the heroine was involved in a prank which caused the hero's twin brother and the hero's teacher's daughter to be married. And they were not in love. In fact the hero's brother and the hero both loved the heroine at that time. But the hero's brother and teacher's daughter married, and the heroine suffered from the notorious repercussions and she was considered ruined. They meet again at the hero's brother's estate, ten years later when the hero's younger sister is marrying the person who told the heroine to do the prank. So,we have 3 couples in this book. We have the main couple, the the hero's brother and his wife, and the hero's younger sister and her fiance'.
This book was so very well written that it is easy to keep track of the couples and what and how they interact in the main story. This author reminds me of Eluzabeth Hoyt who also writes stories that are intersected. They can be read as stand alone, but who would want to do that when there are interesting side stories the meander through consecutive books?
I do not recall reading the last 2 books by this author, but I liked the age gap, 3 years, and the time gap, 10 years, and how the characters developed and grew. We learned some.of the important things in the childhood of all of the characters. As a reader, I felt compassion, anger, empathy, humor and a wish for a happy ending at some time. Happy endings can last for a long time and do not stop at the wedding. I encourage reading this story even if you haven't read the rest of the series. It is a 5 star book on it's own.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars! This book was chock-full of angst, but in the best way. There are two romances in this story, and I wasn’t sure how the author would go about making sure each romance was fully developed, but she did a phenomenal job!

My heart ached for Celia throughout the story, I just wanted her to find a bit of happiness. After being a bully and part of a prank that went horribly wrong 10 years ago, she’s had to go through a lot to get by. Now a servant, she’s forced to accompany her employer to the wedding of the sister of the men whose lives she ruined years ago. It's awkward, it's angsty, and it's very emotional to see how that one night impacted every person so profoundly even years into the future. There are a lot of unresolved feelings, but her arrival jumpstarts the start of two relationships; both of which were so well-done!

The primary romance between Celia and Richard, the blunt and thick-skinned brother of the man she had hoped to marry was great. I loved Richard’s occasional socially awkwardness, and his scientific mind. And let me just say their love scenes were HOT! Richard being a dom in the bedroom was unexpected and I loved it. And the secondary love story between Phil and Lucian was so tender, I loved seeing him court her (after 10 years of marriage) and them fall deeper in love.

The reason why I took off a bit is because I would’ve loved to have seen more resolution between Celia and Phil over their shared history, AND what would’ve made the ending more satisfying is if Celia saw the bad guy get what was coming to him; I felt like the ending was somewhat abrupt otherwise and I just wish more justice had been served. But overall, I loved this so much - I wish there was an extended epilogue with straight domestic scenes that I could devour because I love seeing the couples happy. :’)

TW: off-page rape and mentions of sexual assault

This book was a delight to read and reminded me how much I truly love historical romance which I honestly don't read as much as I used to.

Celia is the lady with all eyes on her this season including the young Earl Lucien Redvers. While she is set to take the Ton by storm, a prank goes horribly wrong and the society who loved her has now thrown her aside. With her father in debt up to his eyeballs and shunned by the people she thought she belonged to she now has to make her way on her own. A decade later while working as a ladies maid she is thrown back into the life she thought was hers. Now she is seeing things and people who she deemed beneath her from a different perspective.

Richard Redvers, younger twin to Lucien also had his eye on Celia but he knew that was a venue always closed to him. The younger twin, not quite as handsome and wholly absorbed by his beetles was not the one who drew the eyes of the society ladies. But now the object of his youthful affection is back and he sees the women she's become.

This unlikely duo may soon be the talk on the Ton.

We also get the added story of Lucien and his wife Phyllida's story which was such a fantastic added bonus.

Loved this book and got completely swept away.

Received ARC through NetGalley. Voluntarily reviewed

Life changing moments!

I love Richard, Viscount Redvers, the nerd who's not a nerd. The man quietly simmers. Entomologist, naturalist and adventurer, Richard is returning home for his sister Antonia’s wedding--to a man he loathed, Sebastian Fanshawe, the Duke of Dowden, slithery as a snake and twice as poisonous.
Unknowingly, joining the party is the widowed Celia Pelham. She is now Dowden’s aunt, Lady Yancy’s companion / maid. Ten years ago Celia had been known as CT , the brightest star of her season, and whom all thought was going to marry Richard’s twin brother Lucien, including Celia. At that time, Celia secretly filled all Richard’ thoughts even as he knew Celia was all the woman his brother was determined marry. That was until a scandal threw Lucien and Celia’s friend Phyliida Singleton into an unfortunate situation. Celia as the instigator of the occasion is tagged Lady Infamous by Society. And just who was the behind this? Well let’s just say that whilst Celia might have pulled the trigger, the architect it seems was none other than the tardy bridegroom-to-be.
To be fair, in the here and now, the house wedding party was the last place Celia wanted to be.
Heaps of drama and nefarious doings happen, as our entomologist comes to find out that relationships aren't always down to survival of the fittest, there’s sometimes something more.
The thing is I'm never sure whether I like Celia. I really had to think about how to respond to her. Certainly in her “infamous” incarnation she's a mean girl, a cat and a bully. As the story moves forward we learn why. I can't help but be shocked by her being only seventeen when the story first begins. Now she's ten years older and wiser. A survivor. As much a victim of male perpetrators as others. How does a seventeen year old protect herself if there's no one to stand by her side? Sebastian is all that is bad. And the perpetrator who never stops persecuting Celia, even after all this time. I did love Antonia's way of handling him.
Redemption comes for Celia, as other threads of the story come together. Not without heartache and despair.
Another sparkling tale from Spencer bringing together parties from previous times such as those of the twins’ and Antonia’s parents, Baron and Baroness Ramsay.

A Kensington Books ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Celia Trent 10 years ago was the darling of the season but a very mean girl. Celia was young and reckless making many mistakes that saw her become an outcast of the ton and end up a lady’s companion to survive.

10 years later Celia ends up at a house party of Lucian the man she was hoping to marry until she played a cruel prank on him that forced him to marry someone else. The prank was meant for Lucian’s twin brother Richard and Phyllida whom she teased terribly.

Celia is praying she will go unnoticed at this house party but that is not the case and she is forced to own up to her past and plead for forgiveness. This is harder than it looks when she is attracted to Richard and could possibly be falling in love with him.

This was a well written and fast paced book with a great cast of characters. I love Minerva Spencer’s writing style as she always draws you into the story. This book is a great addition to the series.

Infamous is the third book in Rebels of the Ton series by Minerva Spencer. It’s a Regency romance set in the early 19th century England and the world of its aristocrats.

It’s a series only in a loose sense. People featured in this book made only a brief appearance in the epilogue of the previous book and vice versa. However, most of the characters have been introduced in Spencer’s previous series, Outcasts, and are familiar to readers of that. I haven’t read them, and as the author assumed familiarity, it left me feeling a bit of an outsider throughout the book.

The book begins a decade before the actual events. Celia, the pet of the ton is also its meanest person. Egged on by an equally mean duke, she creates a scandal that forces two people, Lucian and Phyllida, to marry. But the scandal destroys her too and a decade later she’s living retired life as a companion of an old lady. She’s learned her lesson and is transformed, but when she’s forced to spend Christmas at Luce and Phil’s manor, old hurts surface. As does her old attraction to Richard, Luce’s twin brother.

Richard hasn’t been bothered by the scandal, living his dream life as an entomologist and travelling around the world. His sister’s Christmas wedding forces him to return home, only to find Celia there, the woman he was attracted to a decade earlier. But her sister’s fiancé is the same horrible duke that ruined Celia’s life—and Lucian’s too.

There are two romances in this book, with own point of view chapters for every party: Richard and Celia, and Luce and Phil. Despite having been married for a decade, the latter are strangers to each other. Celia’s sudden presence forces them to take stock of their marriage and build a better relationship. I was more invested in their romance. I found it sweet and a bit heart-breaking too.

Richard and Celia were a more typical couple. Since Richard didn’t feel ill-done by Celia, there wasn’t a great baggage between them. Their romance was built during time spent together. They were good scenes, but at some point I began to grow bored, as they didn’t really drive the plot forward, making the middle part of the book slow and too long.

There was only a minimal plot outside the romance. The dastardly duke made his move at the end of the book, but until then no one tried to do anything about him, not even to stop an innocent girl from marrying him. Plot-wise, then, this was a bit of a disappointment. But the writing was good, people were interesting and there was a happy ending for everyone involved, so it left me feeling good.

Ten years. Two love stories. One stupid decision that changed everything.

Richard Redvers has spent most of his life in the shadow of his twin brother. Truth be told, Richard prefers it that way. Why care about Society when one could be out in the world in search beetles?

Celia Trent has spent most of her life desperately avoiding obscurity and maintaining her status in society by any means necessary. One fateful night, a mean-spirited prank went horribly wrong and Celia lost everything she cared about. She also changed the lives of two other people forever. Ten years later, Celia finds herself face-to-face with those people once again when she accompanies her employer to a holiday house party culminating in a society wedding.

Many things have changed in the past decade, including the way Celia is affected by the now-handsome and world-famous natural scientist Richard Redvers.

This is the third book in the Rebels of the Ton series and I think this may be my favorite. Richard and Lucien’s stories managed to regain a certain tone from the original Outcasts series that was lacking in Notorious and Outrageous. Also, Richard is an entomologist! I loved the glimpse of what that field of study looked like at that point in history.

I loved returning to Lessing Hall and seeing what Daphne, Hugh, and their ever-growing family have been up to since the events of Barbarous. It sort of felt like catching up with old friends you haven’t seen in years.
I was a little taken aback when I realized that not only would this book feature Richard, but it would also include a ten-year jump. The Outrageous epilogue set up a completely different potential romance which was totally ignored in this book. It felt like a bait-and-switch. It’s unclear whether that other potential romance will get its own book or not. The Outcasts series ended after three books, so I’m not sure if Minerva Spencer is going to keep going with Rebels, spin-off into a new series, or step away from these characters entirely.

Side Note: This book includes a brief discussion between two characters about how dresses should have pockets, and I’m so here for it!

Once mean girl and darling of the ton Lady Celia Trent has fallen on hard times and works as a companion to an elderly curmudgeonly lady. In her role as companion, Celia attends a house party only to confront the past.
The house belongs to the titled gentleman who was once madly in love with her and had hoped to make her his bride. The lady of the house is the lady that Celia once made completely unfashionable amongst the ton and Richard the man that she had once called Odious has grown into a magnificent specimen of manhood.
Perhaps Celia could have held her head up high and slunk through the days of the house party if her nemesis, a duke who was actually a nasty piece of work under his charming exterior wasn't threatening her with exposure and ridicule.
I quite enjoyed how the story came together with the multiple romances that played out. Of course Richard was attracted to that younger Celia and continues to find her fascinating and it appears that his affections are returned in all ways. His brother and sister-in-law have had a cold standoffish relationship ever since they were forced to marry ten years ago but the current circumstances force them to finally confront the past and find the love they bear for each other.
I like the unvarnished truth of Celia's life and Richard's acceptance of her as she is. Antonia's strength and how she stands up for herself and the maid in the household. The story highlights how fear and peer pressure forces us to do things that might not be totally comfortable and can leading to long lasting consequences. All in all this is a great story that I read cover to cover in almost one sitting.

I loved this book. It was the third book in the Rebels of theTon series and my favorite of the three.

Infamous refers to mean girl and society darling Celia Trent turned ladies companion and pet wrangler Mrs Pehlam. It's been ten years since she did some pretty horrible things and now she's come face to face with those that she wronged.

She has come along to a house party and is now in the same house as Richard, the man she once ridiculed, his twin Lucian and Lucian's wife Phyllida. Celia is responsible for the prank gone wrong that resulted in the two of them being forced to marry.

This book features two separate love stories. The sparks are flying between Richard and Celia and Lucian and Phyllida are finding their way to happiness. After years of coldness in their marriage.

I felt so deeply for all of the characters and was whole heartedly invested in their Happily Ever Afters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My favorite of this series so far! Minerva Spencer just hit all the things I love with this book, from a bad guy you love to hate, a nerdy sexy naturalist and a strong woman down on her luck. Then a secondary romance that just had me smiling.

Celia was a scared teenager and it made her act like a horrible person. But ten years later she’s a lady’s companion and going to a wedding held by a family she hurt years ago. Richard was attracted to Celia, even when he knew she was cruel. Now he sees her as more than a beautiful woman, he’s getting to really know and like her. But she has a reputation and there are those who won’t let her live it down.

Infamous is the third book in the Rebels of the Ton series by Minerva Spencer. A historical romance that takes you away to another place and another time. The characters are realistic, with intriguing backstories that make it easy to relate to. Infamous is a fun, fast-paced read that was hard to put down.

This is a 2-for-1 romance – both Redver twins get their story told in this amazingly wonderful story. This book is right up there with Scandalous as my two favorite books of Minerva’s. The writing is incredible and Minerva made me feel very uncomfortable during the story which is not a bad thing, it is a thing to relish. Never knowing what was going to happen, what was going to be said, or what secrets were going to come out deliver us into a world of feelings. The main romance is Richard who is such a geek but a beautiful sexy geek that draws the women and Celia, bless her heart, is the beautiful fallen woman who realizes her young mistakes and tries to make amends. I love their romance. The secondary romance is Lucien and Phil who were caught and had to marry way to young. Can their forced marriage become a marriage for real? Oh yes it can. I am still reeling from reading this magnificent story.