What if we were childhood friends.... secretly yearning.... writing gothic literature about our intertwining lives..... meeting in a haunted manor......

Guys, this was a BANGER. A love letter to queer love throughout time, just an absolute joy.

A great read with a unique story line. An enemies to lovers story with 2 strong female leads writing to support their families.

3.5⭐

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for an e-ARC of this book.

This book is for anyone who enjoys gothic historical romances and those who love Bridgerton 💘

This was an adorable enemies-to-lovers story! Georgiana is an infamous gothic author who confronts "Lady Darling", another author whom she thinks is plagiarizing her work. She was shocked to see that it was none other than Catriona, the butler's daughter, and her childhood crush. They both find themselves stuck in a haunted mansion looking for inspiration for work, but eventually find it within each other.

YA'LL. This book was SPICY. I mean lower-your-brightness, not read in public, blushing red AF, SPICY. There were moments where I was like "DAMN. Maybe I've been doing it wrong this whole time" 😂 Their chemistry for each other was explosive, but their relationship stemmed from insta-love. It was hard for me to find a deep connection to the characters when it seemed most of their passion came from lusting each other. This was just my personal preference!

One of my favorite characters was her dog, Bacon. That boy was always up to shenanigans, but he made you giggle regardless! I just realized that this was book 3 of these series and I hope to read the rest, so hopefully I can enjoy this book more ❤️

I really enjoyed this one, I usually struggle with romances that progress so quickly but it felt appropriate with their shared history and the rivalry was fun. I enjoyed investigating the mystery at the heart of it as well! The ending did feel a bit rushed and it all wrapped up a bit too easily for me but overall a very fun romance with very well written scenes in the bedroom, and I adored Georgiana as a character. It was very cool to learn in the end about the real historical influences from queer people, it made the book feel more grounded.

I enjoyed this marginally more than the previous book but I still felt like it suffered a lot of the same issues - a plot that doesn't quite flow and a wrap up that was a bit of a letdown. I thought the whole rival authors who pine for each other staying together in a potentially haunted manor had great potential but they were done at that location so quickly. And while I like their romantic connection and appreciated the author's attention to historical detail I found myself bored more often than not. Tbh I would've given up on this series after book two but I wanted to give the sapphic yearning a chance.

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 4 out of 5 (a handful of open door scenes, but they are skippable)
⚠️ content note from the author at the bottom

🩷 rivals to lovers
🩷 haunted house
🩷 sapphic
🩷 historical romance
🩷 wordplay
🩷 yearning
🩷 adventure & mystery
🩷 found family
🩷 dual POV

Alexandra Vasti’s books are always a delightfully wild ride, and Ladies in Hating is no different - although the tone is a bit darker, which is fitting for this rival gothic novelists story. It’s a perfect spooky season read! I’d recommend reading Ne’er Duke Well and Earl Crush first, but it’s not necessary.

Vasti’s wordplay and prose was so juicy. Everything was described in beautiful vivid detail. The plot was twisty, fast paced, and unpredictable, full of adventure and an intriguing mystery to solve. And the setting? Chef’s kiss. Part of it takes place in a literally haunted crumbling Gothic mansion.

The cast of characters was delightful. Jem was the most precious and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. Cat was a sweet angel baby. And Georgiana. Oh Georgiana. My heart ached for her and I was rooting for her the whole time, to learn how to open her heart. Cat and Georgiana’s dynamic is very much black cat x golden retriever (although Cat is actually the dog)! Cat’s heart is wide open and forgiving, and Georgiana’s heart has been closed and locked up for so long, she doesn’t know if she has the capacity to open it. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Bacon the dog - what an adorable and mischievous ball of fluff. Georgiana’s devotion to him brought so much to the story. And we get cameos from the lovely Selina and Iris from previous books (I loved getting to know Iris better)!

It was a bit too spicy for my taste, and though I was able to skim those parts, I wish some of the spice was replaced with the characters having more conversations and getting to know each other on a deeper level. I wanted Cat to have a little more depth to her character.

The book also talks about the struggle of LGBTQ+ people to live and love openly, which is unfortunately still very much relevant today. However, the author’s note mentions a real historic couple, two women in love, who were able to carve out an open life together. I hope this story brings hope to anyone struggling. You are loved, and you deserve love.

I so appreciate Vasti’s research and commitment to historical accuracy. Several of the characters, settings, and literary works mentioned in the book are inspired by real, documented people, places, and things, which I find so cool.

For a fast-paced, spooky yet heartwarming good time, do yourself a favor and pick up Ladies in Hating! Out September 23!

Thanks so much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the arc!
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⚠️ content note from the author: (I love when they include these!)
This novel contains references to past domestic violence, parental death, food insecurity, and homophobia. It also includes light supernatural elements.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the ARC—all thoughts are my own.

Okay, romance fans, let’s talk. I don’t really read much romance, so I went into Ladies in Hating not knowing what to expect. And…I liked it. Ladies in Hating is one of the best lighthearted sapphic romance novels I’ve read all year. It’s quick, it’s witty, and it knows exactly what it’s doing. The prose is strong, and the characters are distinct with concrete motivations. The enemies-to-lovers trope is fun but not overdone, and the mystery of the eerie manor is resolved with a surprisingly effective detective noir-style twist.

And I was not expecting the book to get nearly as steamy as it was. I’m talking three whole sex scenes type of steamy! Were traditionally published romances always this daring? Some of these scenes left me straight up blushing. All of that to say, if I were a sapphic romance fan, Ladies in Hating is exactly what I’d want a bookseller to recommend to me. But as someone who typically reads other genres, Ladies in Hating doesn’t escape romance genre conventions quite enough for me to put it on my list of favorite reads.

Georgiana is a fallen noble, and Cat is the butcher’s daughter. As a teenager, Georgiana harbored a massive crush on Catriona. Nearly a decade later, Georgiana is a disgraced but famous Gothic author, and she is disturbed to find herself a rival in the enigmatic Lady Darling, whose spine-tingling plots appear to be pulled straight from Georgiana’s own manuscripts. When Georgiana attempts to unmask her enemy and potential plagiarist, she’s shocked to find out that Lady Darling is actually the pen name of her old infatuation.

First, let’s talk about what Ladies in Hating gets right (and it gets a lot of things right): Georgiana Cleeve and Catriona Lacey are both lovable, ineffable protagonists, and the supporting cast is just as eccentric as they are endearing. I’ve always been a big fan of the “ice queen meets the only person who can break through her frosty demeanor” trope, and Ladies in Hating leans into that hard. The purpose of regency romances is not to be historically accurate, but I really appreciated Ladies in Hating’s effort to highlight real queer works of the past, including Venus in the Cloister and Fanny Hill.

The rest of my thoughts are mostly a matter of taste, and I have a feeling these will be positives or negatives depending on your reading preferences. First, I don’t enjoy instant lust or its close cousin, lust before love. The way Georgiana and Catriona both become infatuated with each other’s bodies the instant they meet again (and every time after) was eyebrow-raising. Every time they interact, the perspective character inevitably begins thinking about how “erotic” the other character’s actions and behaviors are. After a while, it becomes exhausting how horny this book can be.

And don’t even get me started on how overused the word “erotic” is in this novel. I might be a little scarred from the experience.

I also could not believe Georgiana’s motivations, and I think I visibly rolled my eyes when it was revealed that her whole conundrum was that she believed she always hurt the people she loved. No, thank you. Alexandra Vasti’s plot expertise was thankfully enough to pull off a satisfying ending despite this absolute handicap of a cliché, but I could have done without the miscommunication that came with it. At least Georgiana is internally consistent about it, I suppose—though almost to a fault.

Again, these might just be conventions of the romance genre that I’m unfamiliar with, but they don’t really work for me. I cannot take a story too seriously when the main characters fall head over heels for each other(‘s bodies) the instant they meet and can’t go more than two seconds without lusting after one another. And I especially can’t take it seriously when one of those main characters has the most overdone motivation possible, one that is clearly and repeatedly refuted by the text itself, but that somehow continues to manifest as a problem to be solved.

Despite everything I just said, I still enjoyed reading Ladies in Hating. I know a lot of people that will love this book. The pacing is great, the sex is steamy, and the characters have amazing chemistry. At the end of the day, I’m not going to dock a book for not being the sort of thing I usually read. You win this time, romance lovers.

Vasti is such an engaging author, I love her style and characters, she's got great humor as well. This book was different (from the other two in the series) in the sense that I didn't feel as much connection between the main characters---mostly because it was very insta love/lust and that's not my preference usually. Even though they had a history and I didn't always buy it. There were somethings, specifically with Cat that were just a little too convenient. I LOVED the ending though, that really hit a sweet for me. Despite my qualms with the main characters, the writing and plot was engaging and I was invested in the story and characters which kept my rating from dropping to a 3/5. There was a precious little dog named Bacon who, as many animal characters are, was a star.

I think incorporating an LGBTQ story in a historical romance series brings a certain degree of accessibility that stands to open hearts. I read this book on the heels of Second Chance for a Scot and the Scottish Scheme for of which star M/M romances, F/F seem harder to come by. All of that say that, I am glad that she incorporated Cat and Georgiana to the Belvoir's Library series.

As an aside, I don't know what Vasti's plans are but I am very interested in the Cleeve family and hope to see more of them.

This book was received as an ARC, all opinions are my own.

This was just delightful! Rival gothic novelists. A (maybe?) haunted house. An attempted murder. And a tender sapphic love story. What’s not to love?

Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti was the perfect conclusion to the Belvoir’s Library trilogy. I really enjoyed seeing Georgiana have her moment in the spotlight after being an important side character in the first two books. She is still reckoning with guilt from the decisions she made in Ne’er Duke Well, and we get a deeper look at how that affects all of her personal relationships. I found Cat to be such a wonderful complement to her character, and it was so precious seeing her pull Georgie out of her head and making her believe that she is worth staying for.

The perfect balance of mystery, romance, banter and spice, Ladies in Hating is out in 9/23 - just in time to add to those Sapphic September TBRs 😉💖

A sapphic haunted house rivals to lovers seems like the perfect story for me. However, the tone was a bit all over the place to achieve the atmosphere needed for that dynamic. Instead of a gothic tale, it felt much more like a regency rom com. Both are stories that I like and believe the author could achieve, just in separate stories and not together. That being said, I still enjoyed this book and would read her other works. Her characters were engaging and ultimately that is what matters most to me. One of those cases where I can see why people love it and see why people may struggle but it’s worth a read!

I am so sad to see this series come to an end, but what a way to do it!

I adored Georgiana in the previous books so I was so excited to see her be herself and get her chance at love in this book. I very quickly found myself rooting for Cat too in this rivals-to-lovers, sapphic, funny, and somewhat gothic book!

Y’all are always stop talking about yearning, but this is some YEARNING - 10 years of yearning!!

I loved it so much and I wish there could be ten more in this series!!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the early access.

I have been so excited to read Ladies in Hating! In the past few months I have blown through the rest of the Belvoir's Library series (and the Halifax Hellions novellas), and I was both thrilled to get to Georgiana's story and not ready to let go of this world. However I loved it so much, I know this is a world I will return to many times.

Georgiana Cleeve has found success writing her Gothic novels, but that success has been colored by another novelist whose stories seemed to be ripped from the pages of her own books. And, of course, that novelist is none other than Cat Lacey, the butler's daughter and Georgiana's childhood crush. And when they find themselves stuck in the same haunted manor where they plan to set their next books, they are forced to confront their past (and current) feelings for one another. I loved the childhood crush turned rivals turned lovers journey of this book and the little paranormal elements that mirrored Cat and Georgiana's books. Their relationship felt so real to me, with their insecurities coming to the forefront and their communication improving each time they went through a rough patch. I also thoroughly enjoyed all of the little side stories and subplots and the characters that came alongside Georgiana and Cat.

Alexandra Vasti has once again knocked it out of the park with this sparkling sapphic romance. Not usually one for enemies-to-lovers stories, I was able to put my qualms aside to enjoy the repartee between Cat and Georgiana as they reconnect and then work together to uncover a mystery that takes them on separate but converging trips and end with them in a maybe-haunted house.

Their desire for one another, even in their rivalry stages, is unapologetic and it gives this regency romp a modern flair that readers will appreciate. Historicals can be problematic but Vasti does a good job of bringing to light a side of this period that has too long been hidden behind a veil of "morality." The acceptance of their family and friends adds a warmth to the story that might've been unexpected had I not read the first two books in this series, where friendship and family play a big role in shaping our main characters.

My wish for this book is that it came together in an ending that was a bit more satisfying and touch less haphazard. The potential, the build-up, the promise of the first half to two-thirds of it were lost in, IMHO, too many subplots that didn't quite get the closure they deserved. Was it still a good ending? Sure, it worked. But it didn't blow me away, and I feel like I want to pepper the author with questions just to complete the whole picture.

Having said that, Cat and Georgie are a spectacular pairing and their love story, if I judge on it and it alone, is fully worthy of five stars and more. Give them the night sky full of stars, I say. They're just that delightful together. Now, surely Iris is next?

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of Ladies in Hating!

This book was not what I was expecting at all (in a good way)! I’m not huge on historical romance, but this one was *chefs kiss*. If I had to describe the book in one sentence, it would be the hand flex scene from the 2005 blockbuster film, Pride and Prejudice but sapphic. Between the yearning, the character development, and the banter between Cat and Georgie, I was just as invested as Yorke was in their relationship.

At first, this book started off slow for me, but quickly picked up the pace around the 20% mark. I will say, the reason this wasn’t a full 5 star read was the ending. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but I found that they glossed over certain aspects of the mystery a little quickly for my taste (being vague to avoid potential spoilers).

This is the first book I’ve read from this author and I’m definitely interested in reading their backlog! Overall, a cute, fun read and definitely will be looking out for other books by this author!

This was a fun read. I loved the romance and the characters so much. I really enjoyed the Queer historical romance vibes.

A fun romp of a book with a cute premise that slightly lost me towards the end. I really enjoyed the novel’s exploration of the leads’ relationship, I think I just wasn’t entirely invested in the characters that the ending choose to focus on but all in all, the book was great fun.

have i read alexandra vasti's other books? no, no i haven't. did i request this one just because it was sapphic? yes, yes i did.

the YEARNING. the PINING. the GAYNESS. the SPICE.

there's not a lot of real words here, but this book is the sapphic, yearning mess you need. give me 100 of these right now. the perfect book for pride.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

I'm a simple woman really. You put a blurb in front of me about rival Gothic novelists who have secretly pined over each other for a decade, and my interest is going to be piqued. Make it Sapphic and I'm going to be tripping over myself to start turning the pages.

This was a sweet book, with the romance between Cat and Georgiana acting as its high point. Their banter was fun, the steamy bits were nice and toasty, and it was heartwarming to watch the characters personal journeys, to accepting themselves and their pasts. As a history buff at heart, the author's note at the end detailing her historic inspiration was particularly interesting, and added an unexpected layer of depth to the book.

My issue with the book was that there were a LOT of big side plots, and due to this it felt like none was properly explored. A crumbling mansion, the potential ghost of its mistress, an attempted murder, secret family, estranged family, a solicitor who is either duplicitous or a matchmaker extraordinaire... a pretty significant amount of stuff was going on alongside Cat and Georgiana's story at times. Although everything was more or less resolved at the end, I found the neat tying of these umpteen story knots unsatisfying. I wish the author had perhaps chosen her B plots more selectively, and taken the time to really explore those in a way that was more satisfying for the reader.

That being said, I did enjoy my time in the Belvoir's Library universe, and I will be going back and reading the first two books in this Regency romance trilogy. If you're looking for a sweet and spicy romance, touched by the supernatural and full of heart, I would recommend Ladies in Hating to you.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

4.5⭐️ rounded ⬆️!

So many cheeks turning pink and all the blushing going on in this sapphic Bridgerton-esque novel featuring two gothic writers who keep managing to release eerily similar books, to the point that Georgiana finds herself determined to find the writer using the pen name Lady Darling so she can finally confront her for copying her work.

They soon find themselves staying in an old estate that recently opened to the public to research their newest novels. In a wonderful forced proximity moment, the pair wind up finding a secret rose garden that soon leads to a murder mystery?!!

We get tension, the tantalizing brush of their hands and a delicious rivals to lovers plot. I found Ladies in Hating to be a vulnerable, tender, utterly beautiful love story! The relationship between Georgiana and her mother Edith was so special, I loved the subtle ways her mom was showing up her for 🥹 the same with how fiercely loyal and loving Cat and her whole family were with each other.

And of course, being that our FMC’s are lovers of romance and writers themselves, we get to see them discussing books & the importance of finding queer stories that represented their own desires and how affirming it was for them. I loved how Alexandra Vasti wove the importance of diversity & inclusion into the narrative of Ladies in Hating. It’s a potent reminder that these stories should NEVER be banned and they are always needed. I found this regency era novel to be well researched, full of quick-witted humor, lovable characters and an excellent read!

**Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press & Alexandra Vasti for the eARC of this beautiful novel in exchange for my honest review!**

“The trouble was, not thinking about a person had a way of devolving into an obsession.”

Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti is a deliciously moody gothic romance with a sharp edge of wit. It follows two fiercely intelligent and stubborn characters who find themselves trapped together in an old, crumbling estate—forced to confront secrets, grudges, and a desire they can no longer deny. What begins as barbed insults and icy glares transforms, little by little, into something achingly tender and impossible to resist.

I absolutely adored this book. While it was a slow start for me, a quarter of the way through I was enamored by the characters Vasti created. It’s a fun, atmospheric, slow burn romance brimming with all the gothic tropes I love: stormy nights, hidden truths, and a hauntingly beautiful setting. The rivals-to-lovers dynamic had me swooning from page one to the last, and Alexandra Vasti’s writing makes every biting exchange and stolen glance feel electric.

I’d recommend Ladies in Hating to anyone who loves their romance with a side of delicious tension and gothic vibes. If you’re a fan of slow burns, witty banter, and the satisfying payoff of enemies becoming hopelessly devoted lovers.