I love a good historical romance, and this one didn't disappoint! The dialogue was witty and the characters were well written and had great character development.

The Poetics of Passion was truly a delight from start to finish. Fresh and joyful. I look forward to the author's next book!

This historical romance was well written for being a debut novel. I love a regency woman who is doing things not allowed for women of her time. Steamy poetry and children's books is quite the mix for a lady of the regency times. I also love that her parents got together in a not-so-typical manner.

The cover art is not my favorite but that is easily overlooked.

If not for the unnecessary amount of miscommunication, I would've liked this book so much more. Just be goddamned adults and CO-MU-NI-CATE. an interesting premise tho, I liked having "regular" characters and not aristocracy, it's refreshing and both were very enjoyable to read about. 3 stars

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great book. I enjoyed it from the very first page!

This was a nice debut romance, it had the dual POV, slow burn, focus on character & relationship development, and feminist aspects I like in my historical romances. Some nice character work, I enjoy when characters have flaws and are not perfectly perfect all the time. There was some good trope subversion too. With all of that said, I absolutely HATE the hero’s nonsense in this one though! His behavior up till 60% mark was understandable but then he keeps it going, martyring himself through selfish cowardice, refusing to do a thing he CONSTANTLY tells himself “he knows he must do X”. Ugh. When a hero dies something to betray the love interest I expect acknowledgement and groveling, lol. This dude got off easy.

I’ll certainly read more from this author though, it was a good book.

This is the first book in the Muses of Scandal series and a lovely debut by a new author. In order to support her family after her father's disappearance Musa writes steamy poetry under the pen name of Felicity Vita. She has acquired much fanfare, including that of an anonymous gentleman pen pal, with whom she strikes up a friendship with. But in order for her to prevent any scandal to her family name and not risk her sister's prospects, she must give up her current writing and switch to something less scandalous. Seb is an artist himself but works as a printer, and he has been the one writing to Musa. When she comes to him asking him to illustrate her now respectable children's book, he is suspicious of her and suspects she is hiding something. Because he has gotten to know Felicty so well through their letters, he suspects Musa to be Felicity. Musa knows Seb as Henry, as that is how he signed his letters. Henry and Felicity have an inevitable connection, which Musa and Seb also come to realize eventually.
A light and engaging story that kept my interest from start to finish. This was a delightful debut and I look forward to continuing the series.
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

3.5!

A perfectly enjoyable HR with lovely pen pal and mistaken identity themes! I found this book slightly longer than necessary however and found it could have been wound up a little quicker.
I really enjoyed Seb’s character but on occasion struggled to connect with Musa.

Overall one I’d recomment to fans of the pen pal trope!

Thank you to Muse Publications LLC and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. A pretty standard historical romance novel to me, I did enjoy the references to muses and pre-Raphaelite art. The letter writing reminded me a bit of The Shop Around the Corner/ You've Got Mail but was clarified quicker of who were the correspondents, I am curious to see what the next in the series may hold as we do see Sunny and Angela in this novel and a bit of how the interact. 3 stars.

When you're looking for a light and fun historical romance, The Poetics of Passion by Delphine Ross will fit the bill.

To help her family, Musa Bartham is publishing steamy poetry under a pen name. As such, she has gained legions of fans. However, when her younger sister, Angela, is offered a sponsorship by their aristocratic great-aunt for an advantageous marriage, Musa realizes her alternate life must end. So, she turns her attention to writing children's books.

That's where Sebastian Atkinson comes in. The passionate artist is intrigued by the young woman who has cornered him into illustrating her books for children, because he suspects Musa is the seductive poetess he's been exchanging love letters with for the last year. And at some point, Musa suspects him of being her pen pal. Then to their horror, their love letters are stolen, and they must join forces to contain the damage before Angela's reputation is hurt by the scandal.

As others have said, if "You've Got Mail!" was set during the Victorian era, you would have The Poetics of Passion. I enjoyed the witty banter, the hijinks, and all the secrecy. The author also gives the readers a cast of enjoyable secondary characters, even when they are being annoying.

Fans of light historical romance will want to read this one.

What an amazing debut! I was excited to read this book and had high hopes but tried to temper them so if the book wasn't great, I wouldn't be disappointed. I was so wrong! This book had it all and once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend and I will definitely be reading the author's other books. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really liked that this book was just a bit different from the usual historical romance. First it was set in the 1870’s. The book involved artists; Musa is a poet and the daughter of an artist. Sebastian is an artist. Their romance was sweet and involved great dialogue and interesting situations. 4 stars.

The Poetics of Passion is a historical romance similar to the movie 'You’ve Got Mail'.
I loved the banter between Musa and Seb, and their chemistry was palpable through the writing, even if the miscommunication and repetitive mistakes were a bit of a drag. I loved the side stories with Musa's sisters- I think it really helped opening up the PoP universe. The writing was easy and relatable.

I really enjoyed this book and romance, and story, including the other characters who I hope to see in other stories if there is a series.

I had a fun time reading this book! We follow Musa, a secret scandalous poetess, who suddenly needs to shift her writing when her publisher gets bought out. She decides to write a children's book and enlists the help of Sebastian, a stressed out artist, to complete the illustrations. What neither realize at first is that they have been corresponding back and forth for over a year as Felicity, the poetess, and Henry, an adoring fan of her poetry. What I liked about this story is that even though they have been unknowingly writing each other, we still get to see the actual development of their in person relationship as their "real" selves. Their romance is slow and very sweet, but their thoughts about each other are quite passionate. What I didn't love as much is how often they just avoided figuring out or divulging their alter egos. It just took too long after one found out for the other to share their identity, and the reasoning was blah. The last like 20% of this book was a wild ride though and I was seated with my popcorn. I read the synopsis for the next book in the series, which follows miss gorgeous gorgeous girl Musa's younger sister Angela and sound like it will be a wild time. I think if you are looking for an overall fun story where the characters really care about their families and has a slower burn of a romance, this is a really great option!

mixed emotions
I still don´t know what to think about this book, I was often overwhelmed by so many things going simultanously and I had a hard time connecting with the very eccentric characters (in fact I failed more often than I succeeded). So with my head spinning most of the time I struggled following the plot and reading the book rather became a challenge than relaxing entertainment.
Still I think that´s all my personal problem and other readers will enjoy this book.
I received this book as a review copy and I´m leaving my review voluntarily.

✨NetGalley Review✨

The Poetics of Passion
By: Delphine Ross
Pub Date: 07/25/23
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The Poetics of Passion is a period piece about a woman named Musa, who because of her parents scandalous past, has been shunned by polite society. And due to her father's disappearance must do whatever it takes to provide for her family. She writes smutty poetry under a pen name and does whatever it takes to conceal her identity as the sultry author.

She strikes up a pen pal relationship with a fan who writes to her under his own secret identity. He becomes so obsessed with meeting her that he goes to the publishing house seeking to find the poetess.

He, Sebastian, is an artist who is hired by Musa to illustrate her new children's book because the new owner of the publishing house bans any new books by the scandalous author.

Will they discover each other's secret identities? Will Musa be revealed as the smutty author? Will more scandal be brought to Musa's family?

This book has romance, secrets, scandal which drew me in but it was a slow read for me. Overall, a good read and I'm intrigued to read book 2 about Musa's sister Angela.

This was a fun historical romance. Not what I usually expect but fun none the less. Great characters and plot, I look forward to more by this author.

I love anything with a bookish/artsy theme, and this poetess heroine/artist hero duo was a lot of fun!

This story takes place in Victorian London, with Musa, a romance poetess who writes anonymously under a secret pen name… until she suddenly finds herself without a publisher. Women authors had difficulty being taken seriously at that time in history, and without the security of her publisher, Musa worries she will no longer be able to support her family through her passion—writing.

Musa decides to try her hand at writing for children in the hopes that she can be published in a more respectable genre. She teams up with an illustrator for her book–only to discover that the artist is actually her secret pen pal (and biggest fan of her alter-ego’s erotic poetry books). Secrets and scandal drive the story forward, and create plenty of drama for the duo to navigate in this You’ve Got Mail-esque historical romance.

Our heroine takes on a lot of responsibility and burden in order to protect her family, and I found her to be a commendable, strong, and hard-working MC that readers can look up to. Though she basically leads a double life, I think she had some good intentions, and I still found her to be noble and well-meaning.

I enjoyed the buildup of the love story between Musa and Sebastian and thought the element of secrecy offered some depth to their journeys. They have a lot in common, more than they realize at first, and they made a really cute couple!

I really enjoyed the references to famous literature and art, though at times the dialogue felt a bit forced. Overall this book had a really charming premise, and I loved the historical tone.

This was a really solid debut and I would love to see more by this author in the future

MUST READ IF YOU LIKE:
•historical fiction
•stories about female authors
•enemy-to-lovers
•books about books
•poetry & art

Musa Bartham has been writing erotic poetry under the pen name of Felicity Vita for a number of years to support her destitute family. Her family suffered a scandal when her mother and father married, and then her father disappeared to the holy land. But now the poetry and her pen name threatened her family again, just when Musa's sister, Angela, was about to be introduced into society. Her saving grace has been her pen pal Henry Whitney who she might be falling in love with.

Sebastian Atkinson is also supporting his family, and trying to make it as an artist in London while his sisters are at the family home in Kent. His parents died from scarlet fever and his sister is still unwell. However, his saving grace has been writing to Felicity Vita as Henry Whitney and he thinks he might be in love with her. This drives him to the publishing house of Felicity's where he bumps into Musa. Here starts a working relationship that will result in a wonderful children's book.

Who will be the first to discover their hidden identities? Will society find out who Felicity Vita really is? What lengths will Musa and Seb go to to protect and provide for their families?

This was a delightful historical romance with those 'you've got mail' vibes. It was fun to read them trying to figure out who Felicity and Henry really were. It was lovely to read about two characters who were so dedicated to their families and how this impacted the rest of their families. The library scene was excellent.....

Big thanks to NetGalley, Muse Publications and Delphine Ross.