Infamous
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: Regency Romance
Author: Lex Croucher
GR: 3.65

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: 22-year-old aspiring writer Edith 'Eddie' Miller and her best friend Rose have always done everything together-climbing trees, throwing grapes at boys, sneaking bottles of wine, practicing kissing . . . But following their debutante ball Rose is suddenly talking about marriage, and Eddie is horrified. When Eddie meets charming, renowned poet Nash Nicholson, he invites her to his crumbling Gothic estate in the countryside. The entourage of eccentric artists indulging in pure hedonism is exactly what Eddie needs in order to forget Rose and finish her novel. But Eddie might discover the world of famous literary icons isn't all poems and pleasure . . .

My Thoughts: I was fortunate enough to get a digital and audio ARC for this story. This story is a regency romance set in historical era with a queer twist with humor along the way. I loved that the author touched a bit on negative racial stereotypical behavior. Our protagonist main character is bi and some of the supporting characters are queer. I loved all of the representations in this book and felt the author did it well.

The story is narrated in a single person POV by Eddie. Eddie and Rose are secretly unknowingly in love with each other. Rose gets a proposal for marriage and Eddie cycles down, this frustrates you to no end, but it is written purposefully. This is a character driven book. The characters were well developed with witty banter, charismatic, and just written vibrant for life. The author’s writing style was complex, crisp, engaging, and flowed very well. The storyline is set in the regency era and everyone knows that queer love was extremely taboo during that era, if at all, and a female writer was unheard of, however, I loved Croucher’s ability to get you lost in the story and era truths are suspended a bit.

The narrator does an amazing job at voice variation and stepping into each of the characters, they really immerse you into the storyline. From the first page, I rooted for Eddie and Rose’s love. If you loved Croucher’s first book, Reputation, this one will be right up your alley. I would highly recommend picking up for a read or listen.

Infamous by Lex Croucher was a sweet slow-burn romance. If you're interested in Regency Era romances or in women writing in historical fiction, I think this could be a good fit book for you. It at times made me think of the Emily and Sue plotlines in 'Dickinson', and the focus on the main characters writing also made me think of Zelda Fitzgerald and all the other writers who were thought to be published under someone else's name. But, while the cover advertises this book as Booksmart meets Bridgerton, I didn't totally feel either the laugh-out-loud humor of Booksmart or the sexy tones of Bridgerton through the majority of the book.

At times I questioned how old the characters were. While I was glad the author aged the characters up more than the typical regency-era romance characters may be, they sometimes came across as sort of immature. I think my favorite part of the book was the plotline surrounding the main character's book and writing aspirations and I would have loved to hear more about this story expanded. However this understandably wasn't the main focus of this romance novel, but I didn't quite feel the tension between the two women serving as the romantic leads in the novel.

**Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Goodreads for this ARC in exchange for an honest review**

Thank you to the publisher for this ALC. Lex Croucher doesn't miss and her audiobooks are truly just the best time.

These books are honestly so much fun and I devoured this one on audio! Absolutely loved and enjoyed it so much. Just a fun time.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This was a really great book!! i love historical fiction so i knew i would likely enjoy reading this book but it being a romance i was a bit worried, it was super cute though! would recommend!

OH MY. I really just heavily disliked this book. I took a couple days to been review because i wanted to digest and decide how i truly felt but i just did not enjoy this at all.

I felt that our MC was excruciating frustrating and just continued to make dumb decisions. I couldn’t connect and due to that it was painfully difficult to get through this.

I hated the end of the book, and just wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.

LGBTQIA+ Pride Month #1 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

rep: bi, lesbian

I was promised a queer best friend romance. Instead, Eddie ("short" for Edith) spends more than half the book mooning over the poet Nash Nicholson. If he were alive today, or I suppose alive at all, he would 100% be a fuckboi screenwriter living in Silver Lake. And that's one of my red flags. An extra star for Rose, the only levelheaded character in this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

What a cute story! I’m pretty much obsessed with anything that remotely feels like Bridgerton, so INFAMOUS gave me all of those vibes and more.

The audiobook narration was fun, and I highly recommend this addition to the story of friendship, and queer romance.

*many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted audiobook.

This is a "me" thing, but I don't think this author is for me. I know a book is a DNF for me when I stop picking it up and/or start skimming.

Book Review 3.0🌟I received this book as a digital ARC and an audiobook ARC from @netgalley This is second book within the same Regency era as the other Lex Croucher (@lexcanroar) book that I had read called “Reputation”. I liked the relationship between the two main women. The climax at the end left something to be desired. I wanted the main character to get a little bit more “visceral” revenge on him for the terrible things that he had done. As usual, if you are looking for a light-hearted, Regency-era romance with an LGBTQ+ twist, I recommend this book. Link to purchase: https://amzn.to/3OyPFuY #bookreview #bookstagram #arc #netgally #infamous #ilovereading

A forbidden queer historical regency romance! This was so fun on audio! This was such a swoony book and fans of Bridgerton will love!

(⅖)

Rep: Bi mc, Chinese lesbian love interest, queer side characters, black side characters, etc

This book was described to me as Jane Austen meets the tv show, Dickison. As someone who loves both, I had to read this book and I do agree on this description.

Eddie is an inspiring writer and is best friends with Rose. They are the best of friends, having grown up with each other. However, a rift is made between them when Rose has taken an interest in marriage and is courting someone, making Eddie horrified. At an event, Eddie meets Nash, her favourite poet, and he offers to help Eddie with her writing.

I feel indifferent with this book. I think my main concern with this book is how slow the plot is. I did struggle getting through it and found that I couldn’t connect with most of the characters. For a romance book, I think it really lacked romance between the two love interests. I lost interest in this book because of these reasons.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for an honest review.

I tried to get into this but it’s just not for me. I didn’t feel any connect between the MCs and their behavior was very adolescent for their age. I thought perhaps I should read the first book but that didn’t work out either so I’m calling it a day. I’m disappointed as I was really excited for a queer historical romance but I’ll have to find it elsewhere.

Thank you for the advance audiobook copy via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

✨ Review ✨ Infamous by Lex Croucher; Narrated by Ellie Kendrick

Important note: You don't need to remember ANYTHiNG from Reputation, the previous book in the series, before reading this one. New characters and events all around! (I needlessly hustled around trying to remember the plot of the last one lol)

Eddie (Edith) and Rose have been best friends since they were kids -- and the book starts with them in their tree house. But now Rose is engaged and Eddie has met famous author Nash Nicholson, and they must grapple with their changing lives -- can they stay best friends after Rose marries? After meeting Nash, Eddie, and Rose by association, fall in with a wild literary crowd that doesn't live by regency societal norms and proprieties.

Nash, fascinated by Eddie, encourages her writing, and sets up a long stay at his remote lake house that included him and his wife (sometimes estranged?), Eddie, Rose and her fiancee, and a few other artsy characters. Constant shenanigans ensue as this raucous bunch takes the literally crumbling lake house by storm.

This book was SO MUCH fun. I loved Eddie's wild family, filled with silly kids full of personality (I was almost sad when we left them behind early in the book). I really enjoyed the more relaxed setting of the gatherings Nash hosted and the way they broke with societal norms, in the pursuit of fun, drama, and art. The book lagged for me a bit in the middle where it just felt like it was dragging without a lot of development, but otherwise this was such a fun ride!

Like the first, you have to be willing to sacrifice some historical accuracy perhaps for a fun adventure, but I was totally here for this.The audio was enjoyable; occasionally I felt confused about who was actually talking in the story, but this is a minor complaint.

Best of all, this reads almost like really well written Anne and Diana fan fic! This maps onto their personalities so well, and I loved it for this (even if not intended), I shall now always imagine this for them 😂

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: historic f/f romance, friends-to-lovers
Setting: regency era London and middle of nowhere lake house
Reminds me of: Anne and Diana fan fic! :D; Reputation
Pub Date: out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ drunken regency lakehouse romps
⭕️ f/f friends-to-lovers stories
⭕️ writers & artists

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and #netgalley for advanced copies of this book!

I had read the book of this initially and was so eager to see how it was delivered in the audiobook. Croucher's work is nothing short of a delight and I adored the narrator - she made the story feel new again and reframed the narrative to be thrilling and aweinspiring. I listened through twice and adored.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook. Infamous was a slow start for me. It took me a while to get into the characters, and the story really didn’t pick up until the latter half of the book. All that to say, I did really end up enjoying this. Eddie wasn’t a perfect character by any means, but I enjoyed her quirks and flaws. I enjoyed watching her relationship with Rose grow, and I very much liked the twist that happened in her conflict with Nash. I wish the end weren't so rushed because that's where more of the exciting parts of the story were.

I liked the narrator. She did a good job and made an effort to make each character unique.

As for the story, I ger what Lex Croucher is trying to do by making her main characters unlikable but it still bugs me. Don't want a perfect character for a high society period romance? Sure. But Eddie was so rude and idiotic that I can't believe anyone would want to be her friend.

Rose and Adam (Or whatever his name is) saved the book.

While I did like this more than reputation, I think this is my last Lex Croucher book. She's talented but I'm just not the right audience for her work.

This was a good story that kept me guessing for a long time. I really enjoyed the noodle isolated island manner. I think it reflected how the main character felt: isolated, falling apart, unsafe.

I love Lex Croucher’s take on the regency era. This book gave me everything I had hoped for considering how much I loved Reputation!

I loved Eddie and Rose so much and ahhh they were so cute! I want so much more from them!

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This felt a little too slow paced for me to really enjoy it. The characters were decent and I liked the overall premise but it didn't draw me in as much as I thought it would. The narrator was good though.