I really enjoyed this, as I really enjoy all of Sarah MacLean's books. It's why she's been one of my favorite romance authors for years. It's sweet and fluffy and full of independent heroines blowing things up and setting powerful men up to take the falls they deserve. It has a hero who is absolutely gone on the heroine before the book even starts and he never wavers. He even crashes a carriage because he's too distracted by her hair when he's supposed to be racing her.

The plot is not the deepest and there are many things that are convenient about it, but I don't read Sarah MacLean for deep plot or intellectual puzzles. I read her books for swoony romances that have fiercely independent and unusual heroines. I read them because Sarah MacLean does a great job writing convincing characters who are resistant to love or have determined they can't have it, and then making them fall in love anyway. They don't *have* to have deep or twisty plots because the characters and their banter carry the story and I can't help but root for them.

Adelaide and Clayborn are no exception. They are strong and independent and both secretly believe they do not deserve love, but they quickly fall for one another no matter how hard they resist. They are stronger together and their banter is off the charts. I loved watching them ostensibly competing and it quickly turning into working together. I loved how fierce they both were when they believed the other was threatened. I loved how perfectly matched they were.

I also loved the glimpse of Imogen and her poor beleaguered inspector near the end. I absolutely cannot wait for their book. It will be explosive. Literally.

I really enjoyed the audiobook; the narrator did a great job bringing the characters to life, especially their banter. I found the voice she chose for Adelaide to be annoying (and of course she's the main character) but otherwise I quite liked all the voices.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for providing an early copy for review.

Heartbreaker is the second book in the Hell's Belle's series and I couldn't put it down. This is Adelaide and Clayborn's love story. I loved the banter between the characters, the heat, and the humor. I am looking forward to the next book in the series! Highly recommended.

I'm so glad I dove back into the world of Hell's Belles for Heartbreaker. I love the concept of ladies doing crimes and righting great wrongs however they're able. The Hell's Belles serve up vigilante justice of the best type-- a perfect mix of wild chaos and premeditated cooperation. Adelaide's a femme version of RDJ's Sherlock in a brawl with the added bonus of being the best thief in London, born the daughter of a crime lord. The story starts with some major Assassin's Creed Syndicate vibes (love) when Adelaide steals a puzzle box, sneaks past guards, gets into fistfights, and does some parkour through London locales both shiny and more circumspect. Plus, she gets to do it with a handsome duke on her heels, sealing the adventure with a kiss.

The romance has all kinds of fun tropes and weaves together joy, mutual longing, and high-stakes drama (see: explosives, carriage races, and stabbings). Adelaide and Henry, Duke of Clayborn, engage in a fierce competition that includes chasing after a young couple who intend to elope. Along their cross-country journey, they try to uncover one another's secrets, not for leverage but for the curiosity and the fun of it. The most delicious is a puzzle box containing the Duke's greatest secret-- a box Adelaide stole and now works to open in increments from Henry's clues. Other most excellent tropes include a fake marriage, only one bed (heartily supported by our characters and by me), "touch her and I'll kill you," and nursing back to health. The cherry on top is that both Adelaide and Henry never thought they would find love or fight for it, and I treasured their surprised enthusiasm once it falls in their laps.

In terms of swoony and spicy content, this book does it all. There's tension and follow-through. There are tender moments and feisty ones, sometimes right on top of each other. And on the topic of swooning, the premise is that Adelaide is a woman whose livelihood demands she goes unnoticed, but the Duke has always noticed her-- whether she's picking pockets or sneaking into a gang's warehouse. Henry's a man who never gives up on the woman he loves even when she's afraid of reaching for what she wants (him), so he provides comfort and security while she works herself up to it. FETCH THE FAINTING COUCH AND THE SMELLING SALTS, PEOPLE.

Last but not least, this book does not leave us hanging from a political standpoint. We've got queer people in the wings that made me cheer. From a Black, trans woman whose bar is a safe place for women to a throuple of highwaymen/woman, the rainbow is not only present but also integral to the resistance, as we should be. The story also has prison reform vibes and a stance against child labor that doesn't seem radical until you think about the fact that my state is literally in the process of ~rolling back~ legal protections in that arena. Send the Hell's Belles stat. I want explosions and tear-away skirts. Send the Duke to make a speech and punch people. At the very least, someone please send me book three to balance out the next wave of infuriating news headlines please and THANK YOU KINDLY. And an actual thank you to Avon for my copy of Heartbreaker to read and review!

"Sometimes the best man for the job is a lady." Sarah MacLean is the queen of Regency Romance that is fun, fresh, and a little dangerous. Heartbreaker is the second of her Bombshell's series, and the continuation was everything I wanted and more. This book follows a "wallflower" who was raised as a thief and knows how to blend in, and a duke who wants nothing more than to protect his family as they both fight to stop a scandal and unearth the ton's secrets. It was delightful. Witty banter, perfect spicy scenes, everything you could want from a Regency Romance novel. If you haven't read MacLean but enjoyed watching Bridgerton- get to it!

It's not puzzling why HEARTBREAKER has burrowed its' way into so many readers' hearts. The A+ banter between our heroine Adelaide and our beloved stern Clayborn had me sprinting to the bookstore to pick up a hard copy on pub day. For fans of popular tropes like only one bed, oh no we have to pretend to be married, and "good girl," the latest entry in the HELLS BELLES series is sure to become a comfort read for many historical romance fans.

INCOHERENT SCREAMING!

I loved this book so much. SO SO MUCH. Watching Adelaide and Clayborn circle each other, coming ever closer was an exercise in pure romantic caper joy.

I’m a huge Sarah MacLean fan and I’ll say while The Barnuckle Bastards series will forever be my favorite, Hell’s Belles now have a special place in my heart. Addie is a literal firecracker who meets her match in a duke that knows how to throw a punch and grow a beard and pleasure a woman. Their chemistry was off the charts. I think the plot could be stronger, especially with the ending. Definitely recommend for the relationship, not for the depths of the plot.

Sarah MacLean is the successor to Julia Quinn in the romance novel genre. She has fresh fun stories and heroines you want to be friends with. Heartbreaker is book two in the Hell's Belles trilogy. The Belles are renegades outside of the ballrooms of London. They flirt with crossing the line of respectability. They stand up for those who can't protect themselves from the men who wish to rules their lives. Helped by the mysterious Duchess who funds their activities, Adelaide Frampton uses her skills as a master thief to find dirt on unwanted grooms. She is known only as the Matchbreaker. Polite society thinks she is just a wallflower at the balls she attends; but she grew up on the streets on London, her father is a leader of an infamous gang.

At one of these balls the Duke of Clayborn insults her and she is still holding a grudge. When Adelaide tries to steal a record book from her father's desk she is interrupted by a man also trying to steal something. That man is the Duke of Clayborn and they are discovered by a guard. While fleeing they have a battle of wits and Clayborn calls Adelaide by name. How could he recognize her she thought her disguise was perfect. No one ever recognizes her. Now that Adelaide thinks about it the Duke had skills no Duke should have.

So begins a merry adventure to stop a wedding while falling in love.

The Hell's Belles are back, raising the stakes as they expand their efforts to bring down powerful, abusive men. Give me a smart, capable heroine and a hero who's immediately gone for her and devotes his efforts to being the best sidekick he can anyday.

I have some very mixed feelings about this book. I actually really enjoyed the latter third or so, but the first half or two-thirds had me furious and annoyed. I had a similar struggle with the first book, but Adelaide was almost worse in a way and I had some issues with their girl gang. This group is all about women being independent and making their own decisions, so I was flummoxed by their audacity in thinking they had the right to make decisions for Helene. Their steadfast belief that they can protect Helene better than a powerful duke and said duke’s her, the man who she loves, is ludicrous. They would have done much better, and made for a more enjoyable read, if they had worked as a team with Henry and his brother from the outset, but no. This group’s insistence on deciding what was best for Helene and how best to keep her safe without consulting her just smacked of shortsighted hypocrisy.

Adelaide herself was not better, criticizing Henry for being arrogant, when she definitely seemed to have much more of that trait than he did. Given how many times Adelaide betrayed Henry’s trust in the first few chapters alone I was very skeptical that they’d ever come to be in a believable, functional relationship. Now, to give this book its due, that is exactly what happened. Adelaide finally got over herself a bit as she gave Henry a chance to show her who he really was, and then their relationship began to make more sense. Nonetheless, this didn’t happen without Henry being hurt unnecessarily and thrown into dangerous situations without all the facts, simply because Adelaide was afraid to trust him because of her own issues and not anything he’d actually done.

Henry was a likable hero, a caring brother and a willing partner to Adelaide, also very good at praise, but that’s about all he is. His character got the short stick when it came to actual development and it just felt like he was written as a good man but grudgingly, like it is something bad to admit that there are good men out there. I’m still not entirely sure Adelaide deserved Henry or appreciated him properly, but she was at least making strides in that direction. Her treatment of him was still grossly unfair, however, and that went on a bit long for this to have a truly romantic feel to me, though I did appreciate the hurt/comfort scene, I think perhaps because this was the point where we finally got some emotion. I think my main complaint with this book is that the romance was lacking just because I never really understood exactly what Henry saw in Adelaide beyond his admiration of her skills, simply because I don’t think she let him see much of anything else. I definitely believed that the chases and forced proximity would lead to the romance, but then the romance itself received a light treatment. Henry was still getting shafted in the end, forced to make his confession of feelings in front of all the other Belles, who for some reason still felt the need to protect Adelaide from him. If anything, he needed protection from her, and they needed to go on somewhere and let him at leave have some privacy with his love.

I liked the concept of this elaborate network of women (and some men) working to bring justice to those who may not otherwise get what’s coming to them. Unfortunately, the execution was a bit off and the group just comes off as a pack of insufferably arrogant know-it-alls. There’s a distinct lack of character development, especially for the male characters and that doesn’t make me want to fight the patriarchy, it makes me wonder why we’re alienating lots of potential allies by painting all men with the same brush as the ones we know to be bad men. I was also not thrilled by the insinuation that women who have a connection to the men who are truly bad must somehow atone for it themselves. What? No.

The male characters have been watered down to supporters of the female characters’ feminist ideals and goals and providers of pleasure to said females and that’s basically it. The female characters’ are similarly flat with their characterizations consisting of a loose background and their over the top goals within this secret society. None of them feel like they have any true substance. The incessant condescension to all the male characters in this book was appalling. We wouldn’t stand for the hero talking down to the heroine this way in a romance book, but it’s perfectly fine for Adelaide to mock Henry’s fighting skills despite his having shown multiple times that he’s more than capable of handling himself. Once again, her judgement of him for being born an aristocratic male, something he can’t help, was way too hypocritical for me.

There was also a painful amount of repetition about Adelaide’s humble beginnings and the reasons these two can’t be together and that felt like flat filler which I just found annoying. It played too much into Adelaide’s odd need to be some sort of martyr and undermined the closeness she and Henry were building even more.

I wanted more partnership between Adelaide and Henry, a coming together of equals. That’s what feminism means to me, and though we do get there in the end, the narrative leading up to it just felt too over the top and frankly killed the romance as the Belles were all grudgingly accepting of Henry but not genuinely happy for Adelaide to have found love. That doesn’t feel like joy or supporting the sisterhood or whatever, it feels like more hypocrisy and agenda pushing. This book wasn’t bad; it had some great scenes and I did like it more than the previous book, but it just felt like a cookie cutter ‘strong independent heroine’ book without the depth it needed to be truly memorable, and my hopes were high enough that I expected something more.

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

I put off reading Heartbreaker for so long. SO LONG. And for why?? It was absolutely fantastic. It felt like a triumph on the level of Brazen and the Beast for me. Heartbreaker is one of Sarah MacLean's best books in my opinion. It is sexy and fun, full of heart and a dash of angst, and with a cast of delightful characters that you want to spend even more time with. Everything about Heartbreaker was genuinely fantastic. I adored it and I hope that you will too!

If you're unfamiliar with the series, the premise is that these four women have banded together to take down bad, powerful men. This particular book follows Adelaide, who is the best pickpocket Mayfair and, for that matter, South of Mayfair have ever seen. The women are trying to fully bring down this truly awful Marquess who has done a lot of terrible things and in order to do so, they need Lady Helene. Only, Lady Helene is on her way to Gretna Green with the Duke of Clayborn's brother. Some shennanigans later and Henry and Adelaide and traipsing the country and also being injured and also taking BATHS. I mean. Listen. A great book was had, y'all. And then end? That little chapter with Tommy and Imogen?? God, I cannot wait for Knock Out! I swear I will read it faster than I did this one. Probably.

I was unable to finish this novel before the publication date. My library owns a copy and it is used for displays and reader's advisory.

I am a big fan of this author but this one didn't quite hit the mark for me. While i loved the premise and the strong female characters, the setup of the book felt more important that the development of the relationship of the hero and heroine.

I have enjoyed this author's previous books (she writes such angsty scenes) and this one is no exception. Fun and adventurous, this was a quick easy read!

After reading this book, I have found that historical romance is not my jam. I did enjoy the main character and the storyline, but just didn't love this book because of the language used. I now know to stay away from historical romance. I am also unfamiliar with Sarah MacLean's work, so wasn't sure what I was getting myself into storyline wise.

I thought this was an ok read. I loved her previous novel but struggled a bit with pacing on this one. Might try to get back to it later

This series is just pure gold. I love that it takes regency romance and adds action, feminism, and intrigue in a way that makes it an all-around fun experience. The steam feels like an added bonus!

Interesting and enjoyable.
Many hanks to Avon and Harper Voyager and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Loved this second Hell's Belles novel even more than the first. With a strong feisty heroine and a hero who's got her back, these two make a great pair. Looking forward to the third in the series!

Sarah is the Queen of HR and one of my absolute fave series from her has been Hell's Belles. Heartbreaker is no different and tells the story of Adelaide Frampton and the Duke of Clayborn. This is the perfect wallflower romance and I loved every bit of it