This is a Regency murder mystery which was fun to read, steamy in quite a few places and a plot twist at the end which I hadn't expected. I thought Elise as a character was well-formed and relatable; her self-preservation reaction to the abuse given by her late husband (whom society believe she has murdered) was dealt with sensitively by the author and I enjoyed seeing her grow in confidence and heal as the book went on. I didn't immediately like Oliver, the detective she hires, as his character was very domineering to begin with, however he softens. There were several scenes which didn't quite fit or which were inappropriate, however overall I enjoyed it.

**Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read an advanced e-copy of this book. All opinions are my own **

I can totally appreciate the idea behind this story. I just did not enjoy the writing as it felt way too repetitive, lagged in places, and skipped too fast in others. I became frustrated reading this book and that is unfortunate as it took my attention away from the actual story.

I am hopeful this story got some additional copy and line editing before it hits the shelves.

The description and the stunning cover were what attracted me to add this to my reading list and I don't think it disappointed me at all. This historical regency (not my usual preference) murder mystery romance filled with mixed genres was such a delight to read. It was quick, short, and nicely paced. Some parts were impractical and should have been a little more thought out, but overall I enjoyed it. The mixed reviews were what caused me to be hesitant and put it off a while longer but I'm glad I read it nonetheless. I loved Emmy's view of women empowerment in contrast to Elise's self-shame filled with pain which showed two different points of a woman's life that can be caused by their past. The plot twist was an interesting one, and I should have thought of it, but I was too wrapped up in the romance. There are some grammatical errors that the author should take into account before publishing the final version.

I really enjoyed this one. I suspected one of her friends and was quite surprised at the end even though there was some kind of foreshadowing.

It was am entertaining read but I’m not sure if I’d read another book in this series (it seems as if it’s supposed to become one).

What I didn’t like was that the names were either sounding familiar or there were too many characters mentioned so that I lost track a little bit of who is who.

Still, i enjoyed this book.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review

The plot twist at the end was actually pretty unexpected. I'm quite mad at myself for not noticing it from the beginning.

The protagonist was pretty plain, personality-wise, but not totally unlikable. But she was not exactly memorable either.

The novel was engaging for the most part. It was fast-paced and well-written (except for a few typos every now and then)

First of all - many thanks to Netgalley and IBPA for this advanced readers copy, it was my first ARC read and now I feel like a real reviewer! The Murderess of Mayfair was a little questionable, set in Regent England (think Bridgerton - netflix), it’s a murder mystery with some very steamy scenes and a couple of decent plot twists. A lot of the writing strayed into dangerously predictable and overly-cheesy waters, and the grammar was frustratingly all over the place, but I truly didn’t guess who dunnit - so there’s that!

The plot-line centres around Lady Elise Bristol, a girl who was forced into an arranged marriage in order to raise her family’s status into the British aristocracy. Her husband (of many years her senior), was a cruel, malicious Lord (think cartoon villain but 18+ version) who kept her locked up and tortured for the first couple of years of their marriage. Then, one night, she is awoken by a loud sound and finds him face down with a knife in his back. Of course, society assumes that she did it - and she is on a mission to prove her innocence. With the help of a broody detective and his feisty brother, Elise re-enters society in an effort to clear her name and find a safe match to prevent her from falling into poverty again. She is strictly against romantic arrangements, and seeks only a wealthy man who is happy to marry her, and maintain a very separate bedroom arrangement.

Contrary to some reviews, I actually think Shannon delicately scripted the ways in which trauma can present itself, especially sexual trauma. I think this is fairly impressive given the genre of this book and the amateur-ish aspects of the rest of the novel. She could have easily disregarded PTSD and extreme self-preservation in survivors of domestic abuse, but she didn’t. The erotic scenes build up in a bit of a will-they-won’t-they back and forth, and eventually unfold on the basis of trust - which again, was a major plus.

By way of constructive criticism however, there were definitely major moments of cringe in the erotic sections. My pet peeve of ‘small but ample breasts’ being a good example - I mean really, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?! It’s also pretty hard (pun intended) to write about a penis in any kind of way that’s not a bit funny - you know? Maybe thats just me… Anyway, cringy parts aside, there were too many occasions where the writing felt clunky, repetitive and in need of some real editing. Setting the tale in the regent era could have allowed for a lot of play with scenery and costume, which fell flat and felt like a missed opportunity. The brothels and ‘gaming hells’ were unrealistic and uninteresting, and there could have been much more development on class disparity and gender roles, which seemed would have added realism and depth.

Overall, not one I’d read again.

CW: rape, torture, abuse, kidnap, murder, patriarchy

The book description on NetGalley and the cover image totally caught my attention, but the writing is so clunky that I found it difficult to make it through a paragraph without stopping to reread and make sense of what I'd just read. The voice did not keep my attention.

The 'romance' seemed forced and sudden, which in turn led to a really good guess at the ending from the first chapter.

I will not be finishing the book because of the writing style, which makes it difficult to read through.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for this review.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me.
I prefer my cozies to have a bit of humor, but I didn't find that here. The language doesn't seem to match the time period & the characters weren't interesting enough to make me want to continue.
There were also some distracting grammar issues that hopefully won't be in the final version.

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

This had a unique premise - abused Lady of the Victorian ton is trying to remarry after the murder of her husband but has trouble since everyone thinks she did it - but the writing felt amateur and I didn't get a strong sense of setting at all. Another few rounds of editing would likely help a great deal.

The Murderess of Mayfair’s story premise was promising but the execution was wholly desultory. There needed to be excessive editing for this story to be an actual story. This book was a shambles.

I received an ARC from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Cute characters and story but hard to read with the myriad of edits needed. I want to like it overall, and do, overall. It lacks a final edit to tidy the story up.

The Murderess of Mayfair was an intriguing book, and I really liked the concept. However, the execution felt flat. The premise is just like Loretta Chase's Captives of the Night: Elise's abusive husband is found murdered, and she's suspected of being the murderer. To clear her name, Elise hires the debonair investigator to find her husband's real killer. The book had pretty interesting elements, but some parts were really slow.

It seems horrible to say, but I feel like Elise's post-abuse trauma was just too angsty. I hated how everyone and herself referred to her as 'broken' and incapable of doing anything. While I understand that this may be the reality for many survivors of abuse, I felt all the emphasis on this and her dependency on Oliver really took away her agency. Also I feel like they definitely have a foot fetish or something??? I had to skip over some smut scenes because there was just too much foot stuff going on 😬

Also, Elise's husband just seemed to cartoon-villainy and was thrown in just to push plot. Also in terms of plot pushing, the people's words and actions in the last few chapters just seemed so out-of-character? Usually, I hate it whenever either (A) the male tells what the female to do and asserts his dominance as well as when a (B) female is told not to do something illogical but she turns around and does it anyways. Somehow these characters combined both of these elements, leaving me very irritated with their actions.

Plotwise, this book was pretty interesting and did have some major plot twists, but it could be much better with more character development.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishing house for sharing this ARC with me!

While the idea behind the story was enjoyable, the writing was not. Unfortuenly, this definitely needed much more editing. There were many errors and the pace was all over the place. I wasn't able to connect with the story or the characters at all.

I'm sorry, but I didn't like this book at all. The blurb attracted me, but the writing was not executed at all well and it needs a good edit and rewrite. There are many strange sentences, repeated information, some typos and grammar errors re comma placement etc. It's a historical romance/mystery set in high society 1843 London and unfortunately I wasn't transported there, because I kept finding things wrong with the story. If I have to stop reading to analyse, then my reading experience is unfortunately compromised. The H/h find themselves in 'insta-lust' for no apparent reason and in-depth character development is sorely lacking.

Elise was all but accused of her much older husband's murder three years ago and has been shunned by society ever since. She is destitute and the estate is broke, but apparently the servants stay with her out of love - although she's cold and unapproachable. She persuades a handsome retired bow street runner, who is apparently a rake, to find her husband's murderer so she can get married again. I'm not sure why the new Marquis - a young distant nephew of her dead husband - is not not in residence with his own family. Why is Elise's brother looking after the estate? Makes no sense.

Situations are contrived and the story doesn't flow and seems clunky. I had a difficult time imagining the hero casually paying his brother's gambling debt of five thousand pounds, when that amount of money in reality was a fortune and equates to over half a million pounds today. I'd also like to know how Elise had tanned skin all the way down her back - in January - in Victorian England. Sorry, I got to 20% and could not make myself finish. My thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in return for my opinion.

Elise Lady Bristol enlists the help of a Bow street Runner to clear her name so she can rejoin the ton and not live a life in the poor house.

I thought Elise was a fantastic character who stood up for herself, and really had tremendous depth of emotion. Her character growth was really fantastic.

I didn't like Oliver as much, he had his redeeming qualities in the end but it took a while for me to like him.

Overall I think the author did a nice job capturing the emotions behind forced marriages, as well as the strength it takes to continue on.

The Murderess of Mayfair is about a widow named Elise whose husband has been murdered. She is looking to remarry now that money has run out but is hesitant to let a man into her life lest he's as controlling and abusive as her husband. But first, she wants to clear her name from the title of the Murderess of Mayfair so she approaches Oliver to help solve the unsolved case of her husband's murder. While working alongside one another they are not only closer to catching the killer but also to each other.

I went into this book with lots of expectations but unfortunately, these expectations were not fully met. I was not a fan of Oliver's character especially in the beginning and throughout the middle and almost DNFed the book because of this. His character was extremely pushy and despite Elise saying several times that she was not comfortable with doing something, it made no difference to him. And this was shown in several scenes in the book but in the end with little to no build-up or thought process, Oliver changes.

I also felt that Oliver's and Elise's relationship was just too fast. I think it was in Chapter 6 and they had already crossed several relationship steps, and in this scene we see Elise being uncomfortable with something but Oliver paid no heed to it until she freaked out.

I also wished a little more about the murders were given rather than short glimpses. A lot of scenes surrounding the murders could have been added in which Elise and Oliver could have actually had time to actually understand and talk to one another.

Overall, this would, unfortunately, be a 2 star read for me. There were too many things that I was not comfortable with. The two stars given are mainly for some aspects and glimpses that were written on feminism and Elise finally standing up for herself in the end.

On the first page of chapter 1, there's a sentence that reads: "She had to OF stood barely over five feet..." I understand typos are not uncommon in ARCs, but this is a pretty bad one and right off the bat, too. There are more, but I also didn't like that on page two, Oliver is already popping boners and using his size to intentionally intimidate Elise. Not how I take my romances, thanks, especially since the prologue described mental and emotional abuse (as well as hinted at physical and sexual abuse) in her first marriage.

I have no interest in reading on to chapter 2.

(Rating does not reflect an opinion)

This book was really well done and definitely had me hooked early on. I thought the chemistry in the romance was really believable, and I appreciated the emotions both characters displayed. A fun, romantic read and historical romance reader would enjoy!

I thought this historical romance was absolutely delightful. The characters were relatable, and the author did a really good job helping the reader feel the protagonist's myriad of emotions. I really liked the mystery aspect as well. While the story revolved around the romance, there was always the mystery element behind the actions. It was fun, sexy (although could have been sexier), and overall a good debut for those who truly love the historical romance genre.

While this was a cute premise, and the heroine was amusing, this was a DNF because the voice didn't hit the spot for me. The paragraphs were too long for the flow of each paragraph and there was too much telling and exposition paragraphs in the beginning of the book. Rather than showing the issues with the "Murderess" and starting off with a bang, there was a lot of information dumping. Not enough action to pull me through the chapters or to keep reading.