I got about 10% into this book before I just couldn't anymore, so I DNFed the book. I really wanted to like this story. However I found Eddie to be a bit much and not overly likeable. I really tired to keep going, I wanted to like this book and normally would be my jam. But like I said I really did not like the main character and could not keep going. Sorry.

INFAMOUS review

⭐️⭐️.25/5

👑Another case of me judging a book by its cover and it not working out in my favor. 🤪 I read Reputation this time last year and had mixed feelings on it. When I saw how pretty the cover of Infamous looked next to Reputation I requested it on NetGalley. Unfortunately the story wasn’t quite as appealing to me as the cover. 😂

👑Here’s a summary of the plot:👇
Edith and her best friend Rose have been inseparable since childhood. Edith is fiercely independent and is nowhere near ready to settle down and get married. When Rose announces her engagement, Edith goes to a remote countryside village with famous poet Nash Nicholson to work on her writing. Edith is determined to become a successful poet all on her own without the help of a husband, but the world of famous authors isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…

👑I did enjoy the old-timey Britain vibes, and this story (like Reputation) reminded me a lot of Bridgerton. However, I felt like this story was so predictable. From the very first page I knew exactly how it would end, yet the main character Edith was completely oblivious. Even when the other characters spelled it out for her, she had no idea what was going on and that got to be a bit frustrating to read. 😂 Overall, this one wasn’t my favorite but I did enjoy the setting and the overall vibe of this story!

Thanks @netgalley for my advanced copy of this one! It publishes next Tuesday, March 21.

Infamous by Lex Croucher - audiobook publish date 3/21/2023, original book publish date 7/2022
Audiobook narrated by Ellie Kendrick
An advance copy of this audiobook was provided courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Opinion stated hereby is my own.

I requested this book by Lex Croucher because I have enjoyed her last book, Reputation.
I focus on reading classics and literary fiction, and romcom is my guilty pleasure between heady philosophical discussions. Reputations surprised me with wit and fun, and Infamous' cover was done in the similar style. I don't believe this is a sequel though, and one can read Infamous on its own.
The narration was great.

Infamous starts with two characters, Rose and Eddie, best of friends grown up together, coming to the age where they have to make a decision to marry in Regency-era England. Would they follow the society norm to marry as expected? Rose seems to accept her duty to marry well, especially given her ethnical minority status to lift her family, despite lack of attraction. On the other hand, Eddie struggles with the change especially with her feelings towards Rose. Eddie also wants to be a writer, and euphoric when she meets a well-established poet, Nash, Byron-like, whose Bohemian entourage seems new and attractive to young Eddie.

The book premise is interesting and read like a Regency-era coming-of-age romance story maybe geared towards YA. I was enjoying the book for the first 30% of it. Then the story muddles and sags with various incidents (too many) which doesn't seem to affect the ending, and Rose's character gets pushed to the side while Nash and his artist-type friends gets too many hours of listening. I felt as though the author wanted too many things in this book, sapphic romance, racial equity or lack thereof, gaslighting, and Byron/Shelley-like creative types vacationing by the lake which seems to be very popular nowadays thus becoming cliche and tiring. It felt like an overfilled sandwich on stale bread and I couldn't wait to put it down. The ending is also predictable, and not in a satisfying rom-com way, because both "rom" and "com" are pushed aside so far to the point we forgot all about it by the book end. I really wished the book focused on the first premise, especially on Rose.

I would recommend reading Reputation over this one if you would like to try this author. She can write well, but this book can use further editing and focus in my opinion.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Listening Copy of Infamous.

I really enjoyed this title! It's very much Bridgerton behaving badly. The characters are great and I felt myself liking each of them at different parts of the story and moving along the story with the main character, Edie.

This story is full of artists, secrets and a few queer romances. Definitely check this read out!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of this audiobook!

Love some historical romance! This is my first historical romance where the main couple is LGBTQ. Tbh I was intrigued about how it would be addressed and work out.

It had a great group of characters, apart of the obvious *cough cough* fuck Nash *cough*. Obviously, Eddie and Rose are delightful. I would have loved to see in Rose's head and her POV of discovering herself and her sexuality. But it was Eddie’s story.

And Eddie was not a perfect character (far from it), but she grew and learned which is admirable in a way. But I did want to pull my hair out when she was so smitten/confused with everything going on with Nash. He sucked and it was hard to watch her be so blind to it.

Overall, I was more invested than I thought I would be and I loved seeing Eddie and Rose get the HEA!

3.5/5

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

🎧Song Pairing: Betty - Taylor Swift (because I just love giving Lex Croucher books some TSwift)

💭What I thought would happen:

People in high society acting “poorly”…women trying for equality…200 years later still no change 😂😭

📖What actually happens:

Edith “Eddie” and her bestie, Rose, are released into society as impressionable, naive young women who like to practice kissing on one another. Rose is to be wed to a man whose hobby is raising rabbits and Eddie would rather have her novel debuted in the early 19th century than be wedded to a Damn man.

Nash, the famous poet takes a liking to Eddie, inviting her and Rose to his country home with his cultured social circle. Eddie hopes he will be able to introduce her to his publisher.

🗯Thoughts:

I wasn’t certain about this one until the end, the ending had me in a soft marshmallow state. 🥺 I knocked down the score from a 4 just a little because of this.

I looooved Reputation so this was one of my most anticipated of the year. This genre is usually not a fit but Lex sees me, understands my need for high society drama and writes it. Thank you!

Eddie + Rose are rising high on my new fav duos list! Their chemistry was swoon worthy, get your fans ready. I’ll 10/10 remember this one.

It takes a special kind of regency era historical romance to grab my attention, and Infamous definitely did. I hoped for a bit more depth from the characters, but overall I enjoyed this! It did feel a bit longer than it needed to be.

This was so fun until it wasn't.

The narrator is perfect for this story and I actually think she gave the story an extra oomph that I wouldn't have felt if I read it alone. The audiobook is definitely a better option.

On to the story itself: it was good at the beginning, Eddie, our protagonist, is oblivious about her feelings and it's sweet to watch her navigate them. She's put in a position where she finally has to face that those feelings even exist and yet she takes so long to do so. This failure to come to terms with her feelings is where the book's downfall begins. There are moments where it seems the story is clearly leading us to Eddie realizing she has feelings for Rose, and when I say clearly, I mean there is no other option, and yet the author bypasses the moment. This abrupt dismissal is done BADLY. It reads as if the author didn't realize they were writing in that direction, or they changed their thoughts on how the story should go and forgot to edit accordingly. This was forgivable since love can make people act irrationally, and Eddie lives in a world where she doesn't even know that women can like each other, but then the book got even worse. The middle is slow and Eddie is no longer this intelligent, creative writer person, just someone oblivious and dumb. She idolizes Nash to a sickening extent. True, he is an author she has long admired, but he does things so glaring alarming and yet she continues to act as if he's this grand person. Nash constantly mistreats Rose, and Eddie is "oblivious". But wait, there's more. There's sexual assault in the book and somehow that barely puts a dent in the image of Nash that Eddie holds. The sexual assault is handled poorly by the author and that is the true disappointment. It is handled so poorly, that I even questioned at one point if Croucher realized she had written a sexual assault scene rather than just simple kissing scene. Nash is an insufferable character who's deceit is obvious from the beginning and yet Eddie, someone who grew up with multiple siblings and can spot a lie, notices nothing.

I wish I could say Eddie's foolishness makes sense in regards to Nash being one of her idols but it doesn't. That aspect is underdeveloped or perhaps poorly demonstrated.

The diversity: Rose is meant to be of Asian descent (I believe Chinese) and yet we know nothing of her experience at all. Sure she's not the main character, but she is the main character's BEST friend of YEARS and her love interest and yet nothing is ever mentioned! In all the "years" of friendship and Sunday dinner's that Eddie attends at Rose's house not once has something about Rose's culture been mentioned? It isn't as if Rose is adopted (omg that would've been terrible) or someone who within the story is alienated from her culture for any logical reasons: Rose immigrated as a child with her parents.. why is there no cultural influence in their home? Are we really to believe that her two adult parents just completely abandoned their culture once arriving? Aside from Rose's last name, Lee (another poor choice and cheap attempt at diversity), we only really encounter Rose's race when she experiences racism at the hands of Nash's friends. And yet, Eddie, her "best friend", see's nothing unforgiveable even when her friend tells her she is affected by it. This was a cheap play at diversity for the sake of saying it exist. People of color are not accessories to white characters and this author clearly does not get that.

Eddie is insufferable as the book goes on and that doesn't really change.

Any enjoyment from this book came from the slow burn (in isolation from character development and the story as a whole), and the narrator, who I must insist was excellent.

I do not recommend this title.

Anyone looking for a LGBTQ friendly historical romance will love this book. I am not a big historical romance reader but these two characters made me root for them. It is definitely a slow burn (like most of the other historical romance books I've read) but the tension is amazing. You find yourself rooting for the characters and feeling the self discovery of our main character. Two best friends who slowly navigate a male based writing world with socialites and sexual advances. What could you not like about this story?

As I stated previously I'm not a huge historical romance but I did appreciate the slowburn and the tension. That being said I felt like there was so much going on in this story that the romance was so stretched out. For me there wasn't enough pay off for the amount of build up. That being said I will never yuck anyone's yum. This is definitely a sweet story and our characters are battling with their identity for a good part of this so I understand the delay of realization.

Overall, I would recommend this book for someone looking to spice up there historical fiction shelf. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

Eddie (aka Edith) Miller and Rose are besties since childhood are inseparable.

When they reach the time in their life to attend balls, talke to men and start thinking of marriage and family, Eddie realizes they really don't want the same things. Rose is ready to marry, be a wife and start a family. Eddie wants to pursue writing and become a famous authory.

Rose has a man courting her. Eddie feels left out. Eddie then meets the infamous Nash Nicholson, an author who she adores. When Nash invites Eddie, Rose and her gentleman suitor to his "Estate", they go there for holiday and Eddie is hoping it's just what she needs.

Eddie and Rose dance around their feelings a lot. I adored Eddie and watching her struggle, but grow was an interesting process.

The audio made me feel like I was watching a Bridgerton type story and made it even more fun!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

I really struggled with this one and honestly the narrator is why I made it through as well as I did. The story was nice but there were some elements that I was just questioning a bit. I feel like maybe it’s because of the different times. The writing was good, but the story just fell short for me.

It took me a bit to settle into Infamous. The story had promise but was moving towards it slowly, in my opinion. Yet, I stuck with it and did reap the rewards when it all began to gel.

Rose and Eddie have been best friends since childhood. As they are older now and on the "marriage market," things are changing and Eddie definitely isn't happy about it. Rose is moving forward and embracing it while Eddie is dragging her feet and wants things to stay the same. Then Eddie meets one of her literary idols, Nash Nicholson. a renowned poet of the time. He takes a liking to Eddie and starts to include her in his artistic gatherings. Eventually, she's invited to a house party with many of his other "artsy" friends to work on her novel in the country. That's where things truly come undone.

Even though there were a few things in the plot that I found predictable, there were several that I didn't see coming. The path that this author took to deliver the storyline was clever and well-written and it was an overall enjoyable read.

AUDIOBOOK: I was also fortunate enough to receive an early copy of the audiobook. The narration of this was spot on. It lent itself to the time period and area so I was able to really feel as if I was in regency England. Such a fun book to listen to. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook.

Unfortunately this book was a miss for me. I love the premise of the story, and I do feel like elements of it are very realistic, albeit quite frustrating to read (like Eddie's situation with Nash). However, Eddie was simply one of the most annoying characters ever. Her blatant disregard for the hundreds of red flags Nash threw up went too far to the point that it took away from the sapphic romance. Rose was treated terribly repeatedly by Eddie and despite how cute some of their scenes were, I just felt like Rose could have done better. Also, while I understand that a sapphic marriage may not have been accepted at the time this book is set, to have one of the main characters still wed a man was so weird? I will say, I really enjoyed the narrator of the book which made up for some of the pitfalls of the actual story.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this eARC.

Thank you so much for the audiobook ARC of Infamous!

Overall, I feel indifferent on this book. I do find the cover the be a little misleading. I would classify this story more as a fiction than a romance/romcom. I really enjoyed that the story is a coming of age/bisexual awakening story but ultimately the story felt a little too long with very little of that time given to a romance between the Rose and Eddie. I also felt that this book tried to do so many different things and it was hard to figure out where it was trying to go and what message it was trying to get across.

I did find it very funny and really loved the rep in the story. I am excited to read more from Lex Croucher.

Eddie and Rose are the best of friends. They do everything together and always have. Eddie has always aspired to be a writer, never wanting to marry, thinking the two of them can just be together for life. Rose, however, starts to have thoughts of marrying, which Eddie just can't understand.

Eddie meets renowned poet, Nash Nicholson. He invited Eddie into his world, where Eddie and Rose, along with others, join him on a writing retreat, where Eddie can continue her passion.

Things don't go as planned, and Eddie finds herself choosing between Nash and her writing, and her best friend, Rose.

A delightfully, fun story of best friends, finding ones passion, yet being true to who you are and what you want.

I had a hard time connecting with this book but I loved it once I did. I don't know what ib thought I was getting but the first chapter felt very whiny. And it put me off. Once I got past that it was amazing. I loved it.

I was given an audiobook early in exchange for an honest review. This is an historical romance with a definite twist. It begins with the friendship of Eddie and Rose. They were childhood best friends and even practiced kissing, using each other. As they get older, Rose enjoys the social aspects like the coming out gatherings which is societies ultimate social occasions where Rose is coupled with Alex. Eddie who does not like mingling with people she does not know is devastated by the news. Of Rose and the Alex. She seeks solace by attending the reading did not love it.of the famous poet Nash. As it happened,Nash and Eddie have an instant connection as Eddie was awestruck before she even met him. They had instant electricity when Eddie and Nash discover their mutual love of literature and the fact Eddie is writing a novel which Nash assures her he will get it printed. Nash takes her to his country home that could fall in on itself at any moment,where she can write undisturbed. What follows, I found to be just a commune of people using mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs to spend their time in a different dimension. I am glad I was listening if it had been a book I would have put it down at this point never to return. But the narrator made it interesting enough to keep my attention whereby I finished the book. There is never a romantic relationship between Eddie and Nash. Eddie always looking out for Rose. Special thanks to the following for allowing me to review early. All opinions are my own. You must decide on this one yourself, I liked it because it was different but did not love it.
#NetGalley
#McMillanAudio/StMartinPress
#LexCroucher
#Infamous
👩‍👦‍👦Publication Date March 21, 2023

Infamous by Lex Croucher

This story begins with the heroines, who are lifelong best friends, Edith ("Eddie") and Rose, kissing "just for practice." Rose is starting to talk about accepting a suitor's offer of marriage, while Eddie, an aspiring writer, is struggling with the norms and conventions she is expected to perform as she grows up.

• If you enjoy historical fiction, sapphic romance, and bildungsromans.

• I loved the ending, and overall, I liked this. But it was a ride. A rollercoaster of unexpected angst-- and this time it wasn't really a good angst for me.

• Eddie and Rose seem to be drifting apart from the beginning, and without Rose's perspective, sometimes it felt like they were just meant to go in completely different directions. I definitely would have enjoyed knowing how Rose felt about Eddie from the start.

• I especially struggled with Eddie's relationship with the married poet. Eddie knew it wasn't right. I think most of my stress, angst, and dread had to do with this awful predator poet man and Eddie being in his thrall. It was realistic (the charming mentor preying on the younger woman who looks up to him) and well written... I just... was stressed!!!

• I wish this was a dual perspective novel. I love how Rose supported Eddie's writing, but also stood up to Eddie when she wasn't being fair to her at different parts in the novel.

• Even though there were several things that didn't work for me, these characters were so brave at the end. And I'm glad they figured all of the nonsense out and got together! So, if you get stressed while reading this one -- it's a sapphic HEA, I promise!

🎧 Definitely recommend the audiobook. The narrator has a beautiful voice and brought all of the characters to life for me. I think I would prefer this book as an audiobook to physical reading, so I'm very glad I listened!

Thanks so much for the ALC. All opinions are my own!

I saw many mixed reviews and for those the love Historical Queer rom coms this maybe for you. I just couldn’t really get into it. I thought the characters were annoying, the story just seems to drag on. The best part was the narrator.
Thank you NetGalley for this eARC. I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an Advance Reader Copy of this story. #NetGalley #Infamous

I absolutely adored this book! The description had me at queer Regency era romcom and it was absolutely spot on! Everything from the characters to the setting and the plot will have you absolutely binging this book! If you're looking for a story that mixes Bridgerton and Gentleman Jack together, this is the book for you! The story opens with Eddie and Rose 'practicing' kissing in a treehouse and establishes their long history together as "best friends". Eddie laments being dragged to all sorts of parties and dances during the Season in London, but finds comfort in having Rose as her constant companion. Eddie seems about to bow out of attending any further parties all together when her literary hero and idle Nash Nicholson appears to help stir things up for London's social elites. He and Eddie immediately strike up a friendship by bonding over their shared love of literature (well, specifically Nash's works) but Rose seems to doubt Nash's intentions at every turn.**Spoilers ahead**


I adored Rose and Eddie and was rooting for them the entire time (we never trust a lively but tortured poet to have anyone else's best interests at heart)! Eddie and Rose's relationship felt so natural and established from the beginning that there was no doubt in my mind that they were the endgame and that Eddie just needed to realize that Nash was just a distraction. My only gripe with the characters was just how OBLIVIOUS Eddie was throughout the entire book. She does not interrogate her feelings for Rose, despite the fact that no matter which young man presents himself as an option for her affection Eddie instantly hates them and decides that they aren't good enough for her friend. Nor does she question why it feels so natural for them to constantly touch or kiss. Similarly, Eddie seems to never question why Nash would be so willing to help a young author whose work he has never read before or why he keeps mentioning how miserable he and his wife are and how their marriage is likely to fall apart at any moment (especially when all of his friends assure Eddie that is not the case). Eddie's obliviousness seems at odds with her otherwise astute and informed nature, which is I think what makes the dichotomy between how she perceives other people's relationships and how she views her own relationships so stark. Who amongst us hasn't been oblivious to someone's advances, BUT there has to be a point when the character is not naïve enough to realize what various people want from her and what she might want from them. Do not let this gripe dissuade you from reading Infamous, the book is lovely and an absolute romp! It is mainly just something that kept nagging at my brain through the story.

All in all, this book was so much fun! It has excellent representation and highlights those individuals who inevitably are forgotten or overlooked during this time period. I would highly recommend it! Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillian for an advanced copy of this title!!