Felicia Grossman is a gifted writer. Honestly, my favorite part of this was the historical context. I learned a lot about the Jewish experience in 19th-Century England—especially from the Author’s Note! A romance that tackles antisemitism, assimilation and class struggles is certainly an interesting read. It was also very steamy. My favorite tidbit had to be the Pena/dad relationship, they were together, right?! I also enjoyed the nod to my favorite fairytale, Cinderella—down to the mice!

This book was recommended by another author, who also writes about the "secret life of the Jews" in the 1800s, although later in the century. It is a Jewish Cinderfella sort of fairy tale, without a fairy but a guardian angel, villains and and maybe a Golem. The author provides lots of information about the time period, the situation of the Jews in England, women's lack of rights in England and the differences between how the Sephardic and Ashkenazi were treated by the goyim and each other.

Isabelle Lira is her father's heir to their Surety Company, which is a partnership with another family, the Berabs. Since her father died suddenly, there has been tension between the remaining partners and they threaten her that it is time for her to marry. A they want her to chose one of the two younger brothers, or they will wrestle her father's seat from the London Commission of Delegates and the company. So she decides to make her quest for an appropriate husband public by holding three festival balls during the Omer, (must have been the second half). But while making a list of eligible bachelors, the one who she really likes is not "appropriate", Aaron Ellenberg, the miskane, schlemiel of the community. He was an orphan raised in the Jewish Orphan's Home and was unsuccessful in learning a trade or becoming a scholar, so he is the custodian of the Great Synagogue. But he is very kind and takes care of the people and even the stray animals. And it is that kindness that attracts Isabelle to him.

While I like the characters, they did not ring true to me for the time period. Aaron (it should be Aharon) does not speak or act like a schlemiel. Sometimes he seems like Cinderella and sometimes more like Aladdin. And I had to wonder where he would have ever learned to pleasure a woman. But all in all, I enjoyed the story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book via NetGAlley.com. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

While the premise sounded intriguing, the politics of the book overshadowed the romance and the down self-talk of the mmc kept me from liking him. This book was too long with little happening.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC copy of this one—I still read fairytales . . .

Marry Me by Midnight
by Felicia Grossman

Available Now! Newish release. Swipe for book blurb.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (0-5)
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 (0-5)

What I’m Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 Reverse Cinderella done so right, with costumes, secret roles, and a theme of being something different/more for a night.
🤩 Reverse Cinderella works so well with a strong female MC on a mission to make her place in a mostly man’s world.
🤩 Both MCs are so stinkin’ adorable—you can’t help but love them and long for them to have the kind of love they deserve.
🤩 When the meet cute captivates you but the “fairy godmother” predictions make you fall in love with the plot.
🤩 Unique Jewish representation with traditions and festival fun (plus a little bonus history). Thank goodness for the ebook’s ease of looking up brilliantly used new-to-me words.
🤩 The natural flirting, the barely touches, and the jealousy—it all worked on me so well.
🤩 The detailed and swoony unwanted/forbidden physical attraction.
🤩 The steamy moments are such breath-taking exploration but also the sneaky, forbidden fun like you’ve come to hope from a historical romance.
🤩 Beautiful descriptions to make you feel fully immersed.
🤩 Laugh-out-loud funny!
🤩 The added suspense, usually in an alley, of a historical romance is such lively entertainment.
🤩 Great side characters and beautiful gay/bisexual representation with a side character.

What I’m Wishing/Dizzy:
💫 I might have been confused at a bit of the business part, or I could have just been trying to skim and skip to the good part. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I love a good retelling and found Marry Me by Midnight to be a really creative and interesting set up. Take Cinderella but make the heroine Jewish, the one seeking a spouse, rich, and feminist. I loved this idea and was drawn in by the beginning of the story. Isabelle is looking for a husband to help save her family business and will host three “balls” to help her find a husband that will be worthy of representing the legacy her father left behind. It’s a tale as old as time; she meets a custodian whom she asks to help find her match, but falls for him instead.
I wanted to like this so much, but struggled to connect to Isabelle. Aaron was the more likable character, yet the position he was put in made him seem cagey and frustrated and wouldn’t allow him to be the type of hero he deserved. The romantic tension between Aaron and Isabelle worked really well, but I just couldn’t help but feel that Aaron was being a bit used. The story suffered from some pacing issues. I found myself not very interested in the other possible matches for Isabelle, but when I got to her scenes with Aaron, I wanted them to last longer. As far as retellings go, this still gets an A+ for effort because I’ve never read anything quite like it—I just think it didn’t have my favorite types of characters. I received an advanced copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
3.5 ⭐️

I think this book had a lot of potential. I adored the premise and the twist on Cinderella, but after 5 or 6 attempts, I could not get into the writing. It felt disjointed and was hard to connect to. The beginning of the book needed a bit more worldbuilding and character development to really set the scene and expectations for the book instead of throwing us directly into the plot. The main characters didn't seem to have any chemistry and it was difficult to pin down their motivations for certain choices. Even though there was a plot, I didn't feel any tension or true sense of conflict. Ultimately, this was a dnf for me at the 40% mark.

Spicy and sweet, a great take on Cinderella. Also the afterward is excellent.

I was excited to read this as it was recommended to me by another Jewish author I enjoy.

I liked many things about this book: the story, the two lead characters, their attraction in spite of societal separation, and the history of the Jewish community in England. I was not a huge fan of the constant feeling that Isabelle was playing a martyr for her family, instead of being more honest. Yes, she was in a difficult place in society and in business, but moments of her attitude about it that I didn't enjoy.

I am fine with fewer steamy scenes and more smoldering.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for an eARC to read and review.

My hopes were high for this title but it didn’t quite deliver for me. Genderswapped Cinderella is a great concept but sometimes I felt that the story had to strain oddly to hit the right parallels with the fairytale, and Isabelle herself was constantly lurching between being confident and in charge to begging a guy she had literally just met that week to help her decide who to marry. I liked the final compromise she came to but it would have worked better if Solomon had had more of a speaking role earlier in the book.

Marry Me by Midnight by Felicia Grossman was such a great unique historical romance novel that I really enjoyed. I loved the way Grossman was able to eloquently tie in a love story that showcases the hardships jewish society faced in the early 1800's.

I was completely blown away by this book. I also had the very fortunate opportunity to chat with Felicia for the podcast I host and she was so lovely.
I never knew how much I needed a gender-swapped Jewish Cinderella retelling. Isabelle and Aaron were two characters with more depth than I've read in a historical romance lately and it kept me engaged. I do wish there was a bit more development in the romance but I still wholeheartedly enjoyed this book!
I think what Felicia did here with the Jewish history, specifically in this part of England, was incredible and eye opening. I admittedly have very little knowledge in that regard and it was eye-opening and fascinating.
It was giving the same historical energy that Ms. Bev Jenkins does in her reconstruction work. I absolutely loved it. And I'm genuinely chomping at the bit for the next book.

I loved this book! Pacing is excellent and I couldn't put it down. This isn't a Disney Cinderella, which made me very happy. The twists on the tale are great. Isabelle is a strong female main character and I really appreciated that. I loved that she was trying to make good choices for herself, for her family, for what she believed to be her father's legacy, and for her community. That's powerful. And real strength comes from knowing you can do those things, maybe not in the way others would want you to, and still be true to your heart. The conflicts within the family business kept the suspense going. And Aaron is the perfect love interest. A kind man who isn't there for his money or his connections, the things that someone like Isabelle would normally be expected to marry for. Instead, it is his kindness, his caring, and yes, their chemistry that are why Isabella falls for him. There are interesting choices by side characters who try to push Isabelle to choose a husband for what they think are the right reasons. The realities for the Jewish community, the reality for a female heiress, the realities for the family business - all of those are playing factors in why people are telling Isabelle not to be around Aaron. In fact, Aaron himself is saying those things. This is a romance, so of course love wins the day. And the fairy godmother? Perfect. I loved seeing the Jewish community represented, not simply as Jewish characters, but the connections between members of the community and how the community fared in the time period. Adding more history to our historical romance, so it's not all white British aristocracy? Yes please.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a lovely read, and I really loved that this was a different setting for a historical romance.

Thank you to Forever for a free review copy. All opinions are my own.

I was really excited to be approved for this one. I am not much of a historical romance reader, but this just felt like a great choice for me, sadly I couldn't finish it. The characters are interesting, the story is charming at the same time, but it felt like I was trying to drag myself through this book and never felt inclined to really read or finish it. I got to 39% and just couldn't do it anymore sadly.

It's not a bad book, it's just not for me.

This is the first in a new series and also my first experience reading something by this author. This was an entertaining story with a Cinderella twist. Isabelle is trying to retain the rights to her father's company after his death and in order to do that she must marry. When she sees Aaron, she is completely captivated by him and asks him to be her bodyguard. Isabelle will hold three festivals and invite eligible gentleman and at the end of the festivals she will decide who to marry. As the festivities progress, however, Aaron seems to take center stage in her life as they become friends and that friendship grows into something more.
An entertaining story with interesting characters! Thanks you to Netgalley for providing a complimentary copy. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Let me preface by saying that I really liked the premise of book: a gender swapped Cinderella retelling set in the Jewish communities of Regency England. BUT the writing just did not do it for me! I personally found the prose stilted and the characters wooden. Very much an issue of the style of the writing — for me — could not overcome the objectively interesting substance of the book. Which is all to say, your mileage may vary!

Jewish Bridgerton + comfort read + reverse Cinderella + London setting

Isabelle Lira has found herself quickly having to find a husband - her father had recently passed away and their business partners, the Berab brothers, are trying to take over the business (unless she marries one of them or has a strong male to contend with). She holds three festivals to bring her marriage candidates together.

She meets Aaron Ellenberg, the custodian at her synagogue, who is the perfect person to help find some leverage on her suitors. In exchange, she will give him money to start a new life in America.

They are drawn together in more ways than one, but a future together is impossible with their social standings.

I've never read anything like this and I mean that in the best way possible. A gender bent Jewish Regency era Cinderella retelling? Shut up and take my money. I feel like I just read my very first historical romance again because this is such a fresh way to experience Regency era London.

In this reverse Cinderella tale, it is the princess (in this case, wealthy heiress) who must marry to save the family’s kingdom (business) and falls for a handsome, kind and impoverished housekeeper (synagogue custodian) who loves to tell stories and makes friends with the mice. Isabelle has yet to celebrate the first yahrzeit (anniversary of death) of her beloved father, a shrewd businessman who co-owned a sureties company with the prominent Bebar family. Because there are two Bebars, and just one Lira; as a women and Jewess, with her father gone, the balance will shift decidedly against her father, and the Bebars are pressuring her to pick a brother to marry. Savvy Isabelle knows marriage to a Bebar will spell the demise of a career she likes and is good at, so even though the calendar is during the counting of the Omer, Isabella is planning a series of three balls to entertain eligible bachelors interested in winning her hand. She employs Aaron as her henchman to get the dirt on her potential suitors, falling for his sweet character, sexy good looks, and their explosive chemistry. The tension stems from the fact that their life circumstances are very different, and also, she’s technically acting as his boss.

Grossman excels at writing detail, describing setting, couture, and cuisine alongside eighteenth-century mores. The plot moves at a great pace, and this was unputdownable. Best of all, Isabelle knows what she wants and speaks her mind, including in the love scenes, a bold, twenty-three-year-old virgin with healthy drives, healthy curiosity, an awareness that Jewish husbands are obligated to provide pleasure to their partners. The actual act is left off the page, but the foreplay is stunningly hot.

Through it all, Grossman weaves in history and culture, particularly around the way Jews are portrayed and regarded. The author’s note at the back is a well-researched and engaging essay that sets in context the fairy tales she draws on. Her clear and direct explanation of the nuances of anti-Semitism in late eighteenth century Europe that should be required reading for every high school student on the planet. I learned so much, and it dovetailed beautifully with the story Grossman she told.

I received a free advance reader’s edition of #MarryMeByMidnight from #NetGalley — I also WON a copy through a Jewish Romance Giveaway.

Very cute Jewish historical romance! I read this for my book club and it made for such an interesting discussion. I would definitely recommend this one, as I think Jewish representation in this genre is extremely rare, which made this such a unique and enjoyable reading experience.

Marry Me by Midnight by Felicia Grossman is such a fun unique historical romance novel that I really enjoyed.

What do we have here? A gender-swapping Cinderella retelling with the backdrop of the Jewish community in London in the 1830's.

This is a book that delivers on all elements. The layers and layers of complex descriptions of the Jewish community during this time period was so well written. The fact that this community was kept isolated and separate from the English community was in it of itself telling of the time period and the discrimination against the Jewish people.

Isabelle and Aaron were dynamic characters that left me guessing where the story would go.

I really enjoyed this historical romance and look forward to more books by this author.