This was fun and romantic. and scratched that itch I had for a queer norm fantasy setting.

It was a lot more magical whodunit than I anticipated and the mystery definitely kept me on my toes. I almost wish we had gotten to focus in on Nic and Dashiel a little more though because those moments of angsty yearning were definitely my favorites.

Oh, and I adored Lady Leaf. Her and Nic's relationship reminded me a lot of Gwen and Arthur in Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. Their comradery and antics were so sweet.

Thank you Saga Press and Netgalley for the ARC!

AHHH, the yearning and pain! I love that this is a mystery with a romance subplot, instead of a romance with a mystery subplot. Each character was unique and added to the story, but Leaf is my favorite. I appreciate the complexity of the world in which they were living in and the acceptance that most characters embraced Nic. The magic system as well as the steampunk ish robots were so cool, I think they added to the intrigue of the stoyr. I am glad that Nic got the ending he needed.

Definitely pick this up if you want a queer, gothic romance with a high degree of banter and fun characters!

I struggled a little with how to even describe this book. I would say if you love locked in mysteries, the regency era, queer characters and a maybe could be possible haunted gothic manor with a sprinkle of magic, I think you’ll enjoy this book.

Make no mistake though, there is a lot going on with the plot - my advice is to go into this book with no preconceived expectations and just enjoy the ride.

Leaf was definitely my favorite character - I enjoyed the snark and the witty remarks. I did like the mystery/whodunnit aspect to the story too and the magical elements were a fun surprise for me.

✨What To Expect:
💙Historical Fiction
🫖Regency Era
🌹Cozy Gothic Fantasy
🏳️‍🌈Queer Romance
✌️Second Chance
🔥Slow Burn
💍Arranged Marriage
🔍Murder Mystery

Apologies to this book for being so slow in reviewing it after I read it. It gave me a lot of time to sit and think on it and I am not sure if it held up as well over time as after initial reading.

The Gentlemen and His Vowsmith doesn't seem quite sure what it wants to be. Its a cozy steampunk fantasy romance but it fails to focus on any of these elements in a fully realized way. Cozy - it gets a little too emotional and hard hitting, steampunk - the elements aren't really explained, fantasy - same issue, the romance is a second chance were the characters are basically already 100% invested in each other and have very little bid up in the narrative.

There were however, great elements and if it wasn't tearing itself between taking itself too seriously and being just a fun little story I think it could settle into something really good. I will definitely keep an eye out for Ide's other works.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book kept me on my toes! Between all the magic, murders and automatons I didn’t know what was going to happen next!

Lord Nicholas Monterris, the last remaining heir of a crumbling ducal house, must marry to save his family from complete decline. His father chooses Lady Leaf Serral, eldest daughter of his greatest rival. The head negotiator for the marriage is to be Dashiell sa Vare, an old flame he has neither forgiven nor forgotten, a man their rigid class structure forbids him to love.

The pining between Nic and Dashiell was absolutely DELICIOUS!! The banter was so good! I was cackling or swooning most of the book. The characters and their interactions were the best parts of this book. All the characters were witty and fun to get to know. My biggest gripe would be the world building and magical system. Nothing was ever explained and I’m still confused about what Dashiell’s job of a vowsmith is. We got no explanation of how magic works in the world which left me confused at times thinking I missed something!

As long as you’re looking for more romance than fantasy this is a really good time!

I loved this book! The mystery was suspenseful and I didn't want to stop reading. I enjoyed the mix of genres throughout the story.

The characters were really interesting, I especially liked Leaf. The plots were great, I loved that Nic and Leaf worked together first to solve the mystery then to meet their goals.

The epilogue was so good, I love a good happy ending and seeing the characters thriving was great! I would love to read more about their adventures!

Overall, I loved this book but would have liked to learn more about the Brilliance and how all of that works!

I loved the plot (storyline). I guess I would like more world building but at the same time I understand the story. The characters were amazing. My new favorite name is Leaf!

I enjoyed the story, with the mix of mystery and romance, and I really liked all the characters... plan to recommend this to fans of KJ Charles and Freya Marske! Thank you for the advance reading copy!

Lord Nicholas Monterris is trapped. The only heir to a declining dukedom, Nic is forced into a marriage of convenience to Lady Leaf Serral, daughter of his father’s hated rivals. Now they must all be locked inside Monterris Court for the duration of the contract negotiations, along with head negotiator, master vowsmith Dashiell sa Vare, an old flame Nic has neither forgiven nor forgotten. Nic, Leaf, and Dashiell must work together to solve multiple murders before the times up on negotiating the marriage contract.

To start with the positives, I really liked Nic and I felt genuine sympathy for him and his situation. Also, I loved Leaf. She was a fun character to spend time with and I really loved that the author just made them immediate friends. Side note, this is the second book I've read this year with an arranged fantasy marriage where the guy is gay and the woman is asexual. It's rare to get asexual representation and I appreciate that we seem to be getting more of it, but I'm not sure it should be used as a convenient go-to to make arranged marriages more acceptable. Finally, Dashiell grew on me. It took a while, but at least they finally started communicating with each other which made me like Dashiell.

Unfortunately, this book was very long. It felt very drawn out, the magic system isn't explained in-depth and what we learn of it comes in bits and pieces and often too late. I think this could have been about 100 pages shorter and I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Almost everyone who wasn't the main three characters were insufferable and the plot was incredibly convoluted and melodramatic. By the time I understood what was going on, the book was almost over and I felt like I was reading a soap opera. I did like the ending and the murder mystery aspect is what kept me going, but since the other characters were not very likable without much of an explanation I found it difficult to get drawn into the story.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for a free eARC in return for an honest review.

The Gentleman and His Vowsmith
Genre: Queer Regency Romance
Setting: London 1788
Length: 15 hours, 5 minutes I 464 pages
Narrator: James Langton
Release Date: April 15, 2025

✨(nearly) Locked Room Mystery
✨Regency Romance
✨Secrets Surface
✨Queer normative world

Lord Nicholas Monterris is destined for a marriage of convenience. His intended bride to be is Lady Leaf Serral, the daughter of Nic’s father’s hated rival. Tradition dictates the families are confined while the marriage contract is crafted. To Nic’s surprise, the Serral’s vowsmith is his former lover, Dashiell. When the first body appears it is brushed off as an accident, but when another is found tensions rise as long buried secrets start to surface. Nic, Leaf and Dashiell must work together to uncover who is behind all of this before another citing is found.

Thoughts:
TGaHV is a regency era queer romantasy and a murder mystery. The mystery was so intriguing I couldn’t put down the book. I loved the friendship that developed between Nic and Leaf. Leaf is by far my favorite character with so much depth and I just really love her. The relationship between Nic and Dashiell is so romantic, I really loved getting to know them and the 🌶️ scenes were everything. 😮‍💨🥵 To be clear, this is a queer normative world so Leaf is made aware of Nic’s preferences but an heir needs to be produced regardless of how either feels about that. I really enjoyed this book, it had a great balance of fantasy and romance.

In short, do you like murder mysteries? Do you like romantasy? If you answered yes to both questions, then do yourself a favor and pick up THE GENTLEMAN AND HIS VOWSMITH.

This book checked all the boxes! Queer, historical, magic, murder mystery, with the best FMC to ever exist! If you are a fan of Freya Markse or KJ Charles, you will love this one!

I really enjoyed reading this book and it kept me on my toes all the way to the end! Nic and Dash were perfect together but my favorite character has to be Leaf! She was the star of the show and was so supportive to everyone throughout. Plus her being (implied) aroace was amazing representation!

Thank you to NetGalley for this Arc. I give this 4.5 stars and 2.5 for spice. I loved the mystery of this book and the tension between the main characters. I wish it had a little bit more spice but really enjoyed the Agatha Christie murder mystery vibes.

In this historical fantasy, Lord Nicholas Monterris is being forced to marry Lady Leaf Serral, in order to save his family. To make things worse, the negotiator is Dashielle sa Vare, a man that Nic can't forget. They are all locked in a house to finalize the marriage contract, but it quickly becomes clear that the house is haunted...and soon dead bodies start showing up.

This book has a ton of potential, but just missed the mark a little bit for me. It was a little bit all over the place, and I wish that the magic system were explained better. I don't really understand the vowsmiths, marriage contracts, or why they were locked in a house. All of that added up means that it was never really clear why people were being killed. I did enjoy the main characters and thought this book excelled when it came to the romantic yearning between Nic and Dashielle. There is lots of angst, a bit of spice, and some solid banter. I also appreciate that Nic and Leaf were able to become friends and that Nic was respectful of Leaf when it came to her decisions about her body in their marriage.

I listened to the audio while reading along, which was an enjoyable experience. The narrator, James Langton, did a great job bringing the characters to life and added to the Regency England vibes of the story.

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Part regency romance, part fantasy, part science fiction, part murder mystery, this book tries to be too much all at once and ends up just being a total mess. The magic system is never really fully explained and there are too many unnecessary characters making it difficult to keep all the characters and connections straight.

I think if this had been severely edited and focused in on doing one thing really well, it could have been really good, but unfortunately that’s just not what happened here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately this book wasn't right for me. It had a lot of potential. The world building was intriguing as was the premise. I think it was overall doing too much at once. The plot felt pulled in too many directions and the romance seemed too rushed for my tastes. It wasn't bad by any means and I feel like this is a novel many would enjoy, however.

Short synopsis:
What do you do when the one who got away reappears to handle your marriage and everyone is stuck in a haunted house and people start showing up dead?

Read for:
- unique magic (brilliance) system
- locked in murder mystery
- queer normative regency society
- haunted house
- messy family dynamics

My thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed this gothic regency queer romance. Nicolas is a perfectly messy snarky Earl, who really rather not be getting married, and would much rather work on his little automatons. Dashiell is the one who got away, or he’s the one who left, but now he’s back to facilitate Nic’s marriage to Lady Leaf, the rules of society has the families locked in the house grounds for the period of the negotiations… but feelings don’t just disappear and their relationship is deliciously messy and there’s all sorts of pushes and pulls and Lady Leaf is a wonderful character who I fell for immediately.

I highly recommend this story, it is amazing and the mystery kept me guessing to the end, I’m still thinking about this book on a daily basis.

I have been going through a bit of a Regency romance phase lately, so when I heard about The Gentleman and His Vowsmith, I knew I needed to grab a copy! The book is a queer historical romance, with a spash of magic and plenty of mystery to keep the story moving. I quite enjoyed reading this one, and especially liked the romantic tension between Nic and Dashiell.

The Gentleman and His Vowsmith gets off to a slower start, but the plot payoff is well worth the wait. Rebecca Ide builds tension in the first chapters, establishing the necessary atmosphere for a great locked-room murder mystery in the latter portion of the book.

My Recommendation:
If you enjoy historical romance novels with a fantastical twist, you need to give The Gentleman and His Vowsmith a read! I would especially recommend this book to fans of Freya Marske, as the sense of mystery and magic in The Gentleman and His Vowsmith reminded me of her work in The Last Binding Series.

Thank you to @sagapressbooks for sending me a review copy of The Gentleman and His Vowsmith!

as the last remaining heir of his house, lord nicholas monterris must marry to save his family. his father chooses lady leaf serral, eldest daughter of his greatest rival, and nic soon learns the head negotiator for their arrangement is to be none other than dashiell sa vare, nic’s old flame he’s never forgotten. nic and leaf set aside their differences to work together when dead bodies begin to pop up around monterris court. throughout their clandestine investigation, though, nic can’t stop thinking of dashiell.

i’ve seen this book compared to the last binding series, the first book of which i enjoyed (still need to finish the series, oops), so i was very interested in this! i tend to enjoy historical fantasies, and even better, this one also included pretty solid romance and mystery aspects. i liked the tension between nic and dash and how that played out. i also thought the mystery was interesting and enjoyed watching them solve it!

i would recommend this to anyone looking for a historical fantasy with romance and a murder mystery.

“After all, how could he protect the people he loved most without knowing what he was protecting them from?”

The Gentleman and his Vowsmith was such an agreeable read! I really loved how the book is articulated.
First, the fantasy aspect, that is just some sprinkles above the story, but adds just the magic you need, and contributes to the mystery. Then, the queer normative world with a MM romance and some ACE rep (I adored that, we need more ACE in books). I loved that it was also a forbidden romance, but that the queer aspect was not the major part (even though it was a bit). That brings us to the historical romance part, with social rules and settings that are Regency, and help us to picture the whole scenery and political schemes/stakes. The contract that forces all the parties to lock into a place brings us to our last –but not least– aspect, the murder mystery. I adored that part. It had been a very long time since I hadn’t read some locked room murder mystery, but they were my fav’ kind of books in my early teens. I loved to dive into this one, to suspect every single character and discover their motivations and secrets thanks to that. It glued me to the book, and I couldn’t put it down before I found answers. And the author brought me surprise after surprise, which was more than enjoyable.
Last, I loved the themes, about duty and paying for what previous generations did, about a society that adds layers of rigid rules and forgets its humanity.

Thank you to the author, Saga Press books and colored pages book for the eARC sent via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

4.5/5

I am officially in my historical romance era so I jumped at the chance to read The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide! A locked-room mystery with magic and romance in a historical setting that is full of humor, angst and pining? Immediately yes!!

✨ Magic
🔍 Sleuthing
💀 Mystery
💖 Romance
🏰 Historical Fiction
🫖 Cozy
🏳️‍🌈 Queer
🫶🏼 Friendship
🔒 Locked-Room

The Gentleman and His Vowsmith is a fabulous mix of cozy mystery, romance and fantasy - and I absolutely loved it! Seriously such a wonderful read and I can’t wait to see what Rebecca Ide has in store for us next!

Thank you CPBT & Saga Press for sending a copy my way!