I’m going to be a hundred percent honest, I almost didn’t finish this one because it was just too slow for me.

I haven't read many historical romances and I'm actively trying to change that, which is why I requested this book. It was a good read but didn't wow me much. I don't know if that was just this book or the genre in itself that caused it. It's not a bad book, it's just not as good as I was expecting.

Who doesn't love a historical romance!?! I eat these books up like no ones business. The Worst Woman in London was such a fun read I am obsessed. Bennet did an amazing job taking you back and reliving the culture.

After binge watching Queen Charlotte this was the perfect read. It was a great read and I finished it quite quickly. Anyone a fan of women's liberation and Bridgeton esque romances will enjoy this.

Couldn’t get into it. Don’t like the affair and spying premise, the couple felt more like friends, not nearly enough heat and passion and smut,

I understand historical context but this gave off big forgive the abuser vibes simply because he didn’t love her enough to be good. He still sucks. The two leads in this are great and fine and I enjoyed their story and it was very steamy and he was good to her but her ex was an absolute piece of shit and did not deserve any of the good things that happened to him in this book. Again, I understand historical context, but the misogyny in this book was infuriating. If you like steamy historical romances you will like this book, I just want to throw hands (and rocks) and her ex husband.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the author for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The concept is really unique and the story enjoyable!

A wonderful victorian historical romance. The plot was good, I liked the husband’s best friend trope. I like the characters, but I was expecting more spice.

This one was gooood!

I enjoy historical romances. And this one was a doozy. The main character was married! Which I've only read like once.. or twice before. It makes it much more difficult to remember back in those days how hard a divorce could be.

I enjoyed that it wasn't instalove. They grew into it. And of course it was made more difficult that she was married... to his friend. Yikes. I respected Francesca so much. She knew what she wanted, and she was accepting of her what her circumstances were going to be if she kept on towards divorce.

I really wish her ex could have been flogged or jailed though. He was awful. Not like, abusive awful but I wanted him punished, for being a louse and a cheat.

Defiant wife, historical fiction, a fun and quick read? All things I love

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Worst Woman in London is one of the most fascinating romances I’ve read in some time. When divorcees appear as characters in romance, it’s often after the fact; they’re independent women, and while they might be dealing with the consequences of a divorce, it’s something in the past. In The Worst Woman in London, divorce is fully in the present, as Francesca has decided to divorce her husband when no one but Francesca wants her to do this.

James is her husband Edward’s friend, and Edward enlists him to try and convince Francesca to return to him when seemingly nothing else is working. But as James meets with Francesca, he realizes that his old feelings for her could easily deepen into something more. And Francesca, scarred by her marriage, is both interested in and scared of James and their potential feelings. But her situation, and his need to marry someone his elderly aunt approves of to gain his fortune, are dampers on their mutual interest.

This is a melancholic romance—Francesca is dealing with an impossible situation, and she and James fight their attraction because she must appear blameless. I loved how Bennett delved into this complex subject, and that made for compelling reading.

However, I struggled with the men in this book. James doesn’t want to move forward with Francesca because of his friendship with her husband, but once that’s resolved in his mind, he immediately makes advances on Francesca. So it’s OK if his issues are resolved, but all the problems that a current relationship would create in her divorce suit if they’re discovered—are fine? This diminished James in my eyes, and I had a cynical view of him for the rest of The Worst Woman in London.

The secondary plot centers around Edward, and Bennett creates an intriguing situation with that. Edward has to be rotten enough for us to support Francesca’s divorce decision, and he makes decisions over the course of the book that made it challenging to consider the ending Bennett gave him. This combined with James’ actions dragged the book down for me.

Bennett creates a telling portrait of what it was like to be a woman in a divorce suit in Victorian times, and it was not pretty. Seeing a romance dig into a matter that’s often glossed over made this book a unique romance read.

This is a fun read to pick up between seasons of Bridgerton. The writing is pretty good, the second half has some steamy scenes and lots of complicated romantic entanglements. It was a fast read that I generally enjoyed. However, I will forever object to the attempt at rehabbing Mr. Thorne after making him so unbearable and awful. I feel like there wasn’t enough development there for redemption.

No lo termine, tal vez más adelante lo siga, pero me resulto un poco aburrido lo que leí y no me engancho.
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I didn't finish it, maybe I'll follow it later, but I found what I read a bit boring and I wasn't hooked.

Can honestly say this is the first regency-era romance I’ve read about a divorce and it did not disappoint.

Fran is ten years into a sham of a marriage with her cheating husband Edward. Instead of doing what society expects her to and just accepting his awful behavior, she files for divorce. Even though this means getting the cut direct from her relatives and most of society and the legal barriers she has to overcome require her to basically be a pious saint.

In the midst of this she does quite possibly the worst thing for her case — she starts to fall for her husbands best friend James. The two just can’t seem to say away from one another, despite the consequences.

This book was filled with nuanced and complex characters that felt both modern but appropriate for the era they were in. The book also felt incredibly well-researched from a legal standpoint. I loved getting a glimpse into each of the main characters motivations, even when they were contradictory and confusing at times.

A unique read for this genre & I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and Julia Bennet for gifting me a copy of your book in return for my honest opinion.

2.5/5

This was a hard one to get through. It was a very slow read and throw in chapters that were in the secondary characters pov and it was hard to get through. I did really like reading about divorce in Victorian London but even that couldn't help the pace.

I found myself struggling to really root for the main characters, Francesca was a likable enough character but other then her and a few minor/secondary characters I wasn't really drawn in. I will say that the characters did experience growth through out the book that did keep me entertained but I still found them bland and unenjoyable.

All in all this was a great concept that needs some tweaking to help push this book over the edge and fix the pacing problem. I really wanted to like it but it wasn't it for me.

Chaotic and Scandalous! A captivating slow-burn regency romance!

This book is more than just a forbidden affairs between unhappy married woman and his husband long time best friend. It tells us how woman in 1800s trying to liberate themselves from how society expect them to behave as a wife and gain rights to stand for themselves against the estranged and unfaithful husband. There's actually many conflicts arises, especially concerning about status, dignity and honor of one's family and reputation. I understand the context of how its considered as scandalous and a nightmare in that era, but the revolutionary and modern thoughts of Fransesca and James (eventually, as the story goes) to beat those odds are so satisfying and revealing. I feels like this book shows us how people are not just plain black or white, dark or bright, good or bad. We're human and we would never be perfect, flaws are inevitable and bound to be. However, as the story goes, the characters thoughts and principles are progressing too, there's a lot of amends and growth could be found in the development of the four main center characters. Everyone got their parts to own their mistake, grown up, and improve themselves to be better, also the groveling!

I have to admit that it tooks a long time for me to finish this, but I'm glad that I take those time to engage with the story. Fransesca and James started to grows on me. Their chemistry is inseparable and undeniable. It turns out I like this story more than I expected to be. Overall rate would be: 4.25/5 stars.

Unfortunately, I found the novel to be a disappointing reading experience. Although the cover and title are appealing, the plot proved to be overly complicated and the characters lacked depth and chemistry.

I was particularly annoyed by the inclusion of chapters written from the point of view of secondary characters, as they interrupted the flow of the main story and did not add much to the plot development. Also, the ending, in particular the fate of one of the secondary characters, was unsatisfactory to me and left a sense of dissatisfaction.

As for the narrative, I found it to be unfocused at times and the central love story simply failed to hook me or make me feel emotional. The abrupt tone of the first chapter was also a little disconcerting, and while I could understand the plight of the main characters, their nasty, misogynistic behaviour did not appeal to me.

In short, while "The Worst Woman in London" has interesting elements and an engaging historical setting, the lack of depth in the characters and the convoluted plot made the novel a disappointment for me as a reader.

Many romance readers give a hard pass to anything that looks like cheating in a romance, and they’ll want to avoid our final book. But they will be missing out, because Julia Bennet’s THE WORST WOMAN IN LONDON (self-published, paperback, $7.99) is the kind of historical I’ve been dying to read.

The first thing our heroine Francesca does in this book is marry the wrong man and stay married to him for 10 years. Edward Thorne is proud, embittered and perennially unfaithful. Fran can try to divorce him, but it’s expensive and difficult and socially ruinous — even her own family is urging her to accept a separation, and preserve the pristine shell of her rotten marriage.

Fran decides to divorce him anyway.

So Edward sends his charming best friend, James Standish, to persuade his stubborn wife to back down. James is heir to the fortune of his tyrannical aunt, so he knows a few things about playing to appearances for the sake of material comfort. He’s a teasing, unserious type of person, but the more time he spends with Fran the more he starts to think she’s better and stronger than the rumors suggest. Fran’s friends in publishing give him hope that there’s some practical use for his knowledge about art and culture — maybe there’s something more to expect from life than endless etiquette and the mere facade of goodness.

And the delicious question from almost the first page is: How long until Fran and James end up in bed together? Can they hold back until the divorce is granted, or will their affair give Edward precisely the leverage he needs to destroy Francesca in court? Bennet concocts a very classic romance mood, where the sex is spectacular even when (or because?) people are painfully conflicted about it. On the angst spectrum I’d rate it less chaotic than Scarlett Peckham but more messy than Tessa Dare.

Certainly it’s one of the most complex and satisfying explorations of the idea that everyone is the hero of their own love story — even the villains.

I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would. This type of story just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t stay interested in the book. I found it kinda boring

this was such a fun victorian romance! i’m a sucker for this era and it immediately throws you into the world of politics and forbidden romance.

this did make me very grateful i live in this century because…the things they let men get away with 🙄