Well, this is a hard one to review since I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked. I found myself skimming through the last few chapters because it was dragging and I wanted it to end. The chemistry between the two main characters was lacking and felt forced. The story had an element of mystery, but it's not hard to figure out what that is. I'm rounding this up to a 3 since I did enjoy the begging part of the story and was interested in seeing where it would lead. Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC.

Lila runs a gaming club out of her house. She decided many years ago that she would not attempt to aspire to respectability - something that would probably have been beyond her grasp in any case, as the daughter of an earl and his Indian mistress. She embraces her reputation and admits to anything she might have done. But when Ivor asks her to stop her liaison with his father, she's taken aback - she's never slept with the man, and has never even wanted to. She can't stop a liaison that hasn't ever started, and she's offended that Ivor hasn't done any research about her, so she rebuffs him and his request. Lila and Ivor are thrown together again when an accused criminal comes to her for help - and Ivor is the one doing the accusing. Soon they are working together to find the true culprit...and if they happen to fall in love along the way, who's to stop them?

Lila's family dynamics were fascinating and heartbreaking - one of the most intriguing parts of the book. We also appreciated the nuanced take on the SA that informs most of the book. Ivor 100% believes his cousin even as he works to clear the name of the accused. The resolution to this subplot wasn't traditionally satisfying, but it felt true to life and to the characters. The book emphasizes the racial and economic strata in British society, which is a welcome change from the glittering fantasy so often presented in a traditional historical romance.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

This enemies-to lovers story had an intriguing premise combining romance with mystery.
Lila Marleigh is the bastard daughter of an English earl and his Indian mistress. After her father’s death, she and her sisters are sent to England to live with his widow and their half-brother (and the new earl), Jonathan. Neither Jonathan nor his mother have any warm feelings for Lila and her siblings and make life as miserable as possible for them.

In #UnladylikeLessonsinLove, Lila is running a gambling club and is estranged from her sisters. Ivor Tristam enters her life to convince/bribe her into ending what he believes to be an affair that she is having with his father. Although Lila is not his father’s mistress, his attitude and accusations infuriate her so much that she refuses his offer of money and does not tell him that he is mistaken about the relationship.

Circumstances bring them together again when Maisie, the daughter of Lila’s childhood nurse and a former playmate shows up at Lila’s door, desperate for help to try to save the father of her child (Sunil) from hanging. Sunil has been falsely accused of attacking Ivor’s cousin, Tiffany, in Ivor’s home. Tiffany, who is an heiress, is hoping to marry Lila’s half-brother, Jonathan, despite the disapproval of Tiffany’s father and Ivor. Lila and Ivor find themselves working together to try to determine who is actually responsible for the attack on Tiffany and why it took place.

Although the lead characters had interesting backgrounds, the story suffered from a couple of significant flaws. The writing style slowed the pace down and made it difficult to stay immersed in the story. There is a lot of needless repetition of words, phrases, plot points, thoughts and details. Some of this may be streamlined in the final published book, however, it is so persistent in the review copy that it seemed to be an intrinsic characteristic of the author’s style.

The other main issue is that it the true explanation of the attack on Tiffany seemed like a viable possibility fairly early on, yet this alternative did not occur to Lila or Ivor until three-quarters of the way through the book. The solution to rescue Sunil also came off as melodramatic and rather implausible.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #AvonBooks for the ARC.

3/5. Releases 5/16/2023.

For when you're vibing with.... diverse historical fiction, "but she fucked my dad"/did she tho?, heroines who know what they're about.

The daughter of an English earl and his Indian mistress, Lila Marleigh was taken from her home as a child--with her sisters--and sent to be raised by her father's wife (who wasn't, like, THRILLED to do so). Making the best of it to grow into an independent, strong-minded woman, she's on the cusp of diving into a mystery when Ivor Tristram comes onto the scene, accusing Lila of being his father's mistress. Working together to uncover more than one truth, Lila and Ivor are drawn to one another... and quite unable to resist.

So--this is a case of a book being marketed incorrectly, in my opinion. The writing quality is good and there is a lot of interesting work being done here. It is a capital "R" Romance, though? Not so sure.

Quick Takes:
--I wish I was more into this, because I do like the way Amita Murray writes. There are cute things like a character named Tiffany. There's a clear effort made to highlight the diversity in England beyond Lila and her sisters, as well as a solidarity between women of color. The thing is, I think this works better as historical fiction with a mystery a plot and a romantic subplot than a romance.

--I just wasn't super convinced by Ivor and Lila's clashes or what drew them together, and I think that some of that is because the story didn't super prioritize them either. The mystery is a big deal. If you like mysteries with romance, you'll probably like this. I need mysteries to support a strong romance plot, and as such I don't think this book and I could match.

--I will say, I did have questions about the portrayal of one supporting character. I'm not entirely sure if her role in the story landed the way it was supposed to (and I'm trying to be vague for a reason). Generally, I think that if the mystery had been less prominent, character development could have gone further in that sense.

--Lila being a woman in her mid twenties who isn't a fragile, chaste flower and isn't insecure about being unmarried was cool. In general, I liked her a lot. Do I think her hero was bringing as much to the table? Not really. I've read another book with the "she fucked my dad OR DID SHE" plot, and honestly, I don't think we got enough guilty conflict bonerism from Ivor. But then, how could be? He didn't have enough of a POV. I keep saying--a lot lately--most romances really need a good POV split in order for the reader to buy the love story.

The Sex Stuff:
It's good. It's not super descriptive, it's not super vague. Lila isn't a blushing virgin and does assert herself during sex--but when you are dealing with a non-virgin heroine, especially in a historical where that's not as common, why not make it a bit more creative?

Again, this is all well-done in many ways, but it felt like it was trying to be a romance when it really wanted to be something else, and so it didn't quite hit for me. I think it will for other readers, and I do appreciate what Amita Murray is trying to do here.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for providing a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF, I wish this author well, but this story wasn’t for me. I didn’t find the story that well developed, and I could already tell the romance was going to be overwhelmed by the mystery aspect.

Summary: Lila, the illegitimate daughter of an English earl and his Indian mistress, is the popular hostess of a gambling salon she runs. She is wrongfully accused by Ivor Tristram of being her father's mistress, but rather than deny it, uses it to leverage Ivor into helping her find the true culprit behind the attack on Ivor's cousin and exonerate an innocent man.

My review:

First I applaud Amita Murray on the diversity portrayed in this book. England at the time was a lot more diverse than a lot of historical romance readers like to believe, in part because historical romances tend to keep to the upper classes. Here, Amita writes not only about Lila and her sisters who skirt the edge of respectability as educated but biracial women, but also an Indian lascar (sailor) and a Black woman of Black Caribbean ancestry who was previously forced to prostitute herself. All from places England has colonized.

Lila lives on the fringes of a hypocritical society. People flock to her salon for entertainment after hours and indulged in Indian culture to a degree, but that also doesn't stop them from hurling out the microaggressions. Because of this, we see Lila does not talk about her Indian mother, and she does not speak Hindi either. Men are attracted to Lila even as they disparage her morality and her country of birth. It's difficult to stomach at times, particularly since Lila's own half-brother is one of those men.

The main conflict in this story is fast-paced and grew a lot heavier than I expected, which made me more invested. It begins with Maisie, a childhood companion reaching out to Lila about her beau Sunil, the aforementioned lascar. He has wrongfully been accused of assaulting a white woman who happens to be the hero Ivor's cousin. As the mystery unfolds, it also exposes the overlying power dynamics of nineteenth century England: Sunil, an Indian man, is being wrongfully accused of assault by an upper-class white woman, Tiffany. A white aristocrat is targeting a poorer people of color by using law enforcement and the courts against them. Tiffany is upset after the attempted assault because she feels like the men around her are condescending her. They are all situations that resonated with me, I imagine will resonate with many other historical romance readers.

There's surprisingly little animosity between Lila and Ivor initially, despite Lila ostensibly being Ivor's father's mistress when they first meet. They're immediately attracted to one another and there's little mention of "oh I'm attracted to them despite my best judgement because I totally hate him/her". This is a progression that worked for them: Lila is not looking to marry, and Ivor doesn't offer initially despite them sleeping together. However, as their feelings continue to grow, Ivor's jealousy over what Lila's hostess duties entail come to a head. It's always interesting to see a historical romance hero skirt the line between outright slut-shaming and expressing hurt feelings but Ivor did an admirable job lol.

The sex:
Lila and Ivor's first sexual encounter actually made me laugh a little: The second Lila admits she's not anyone's mistress, Ivor IMMEDIATELY fingers her. The Fingering of Triumph, if you will. Otherwise, the sex in this book was fairly standard for HR. Neither Ivor nor Lila are virgins. They both knew what they were doing. I did appreciate that Lila was always an active participant and wasn't afraid to ah, adjust Ivor, if necessary.

Overall:
I enjoyed this book, and the main conflict kept me on the edge of my seat. I only wish we'd gotten a little more of Ivor and Lila throughout the story rather than most of their development occurring during the first half of the book. I would recommend it to anyone looking for diverse historical romances that don't skirt around societal issues that are still very relevant today.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I started this over two weeks ago, made it through 4%, didn't find myself interested, picked up many a "something new," didn't end up going back, and unfortunately now can't remember anything I read. So sorry to the publisher and the author for being unable to provide anything constructive as to my rating on this, other than I wasn't gripped and it wasn't interesting for me. I did look at the start of chapter 4, and the writing is solidly okay.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC.

A gorgeous cover and a unique main character drew me into this story. Our heroine is the half Indian illegitimate daughter of an Earl raised with her sisters by his widow. That was the first of many strange and implausible things that happened in this book. I can typically suspend reality in a book if everything else comes together (writing, plot, character development). This book was just all over the place, it was as chaotic as the heroines personality. The was way too much internal dialogue telling the story rather than letting the story tell itself. It just did not work for me. Hopefully once it goes to editing this will be worked out.

While the premise of this book was intriguing, the execution was lacking. It started strong, then meandered, then fizzled. It seems to be the first in a series, though, and I will pick up the next one to see if it is better realized.

This was my first book by the author and so far I’m intrigued and may check out the next book in the series. There was something about the book that didn’t feel fully realized and I think it may have been the male main character. The POV dispersal is uneven, we spend far more time in the heroines head than the hero’s & I think for me that left him feeling a bit underdeveloped and since I’m a big fan of dual POV romances that was a downside for me but in general it was a very engaging book!