The Lady and Her Secret Lover

Loved this so much!! Quick read with a lovely central relationship. It was so great to see a lesbian historical romance

I'm conflicted. This is the first lesbian historical fiction I have ever read and I'm so happy a book this type is being published, so I was really excited about it, but it felt sort of flat to me. I was having trouble connecting with the characters. I actually couldn't even finish it because I felt it a bit boring. I read the first half and ended up skimming the last half of the book. I'm excited to see more books about woman in love in historical fiction, especially with covers like this book has! Love the cover and the idea, but this one specifically, not that much.

When Ellie and Lou fall in love, it's with great abandon. And they have grand ideas. A small cottage, a garden, a goat to manage the weeds, sheep for wool to knit. But the truth of the matter lies in the reality. Louisa must marry, to the satisfaction of her father, and so must Ellie—whose family hopes for a title to add legitimacy to their status, opening doors in the ton.

But when Louisa’s father discovers them together nothing can ever be the same. A friend rescues Louisa from a horrible fate, sending her into hiding for her own protection. For three long years, Louisa remains in exile out of fear of what her father could do.

Necessity returns Louisa to London, and as soon as she does, the memories of her beautiful Ellie haunt her. But Louisa has no idea if Ellie is even here, or unmarried, or still in want of her as Louisa is and has been since that first moment she saw her across the shimmering ballroom.

Louisa fears discovering the truth of it all, that she was but a passing fancy born of the excitement of the heat of a first season. Will she find Ellie? Will the woman still want her? And even if so, what can they do now that they couldn’t do before?

Nothing has changed, but everything is different.

This isn't my usual historical read. That being said although the story is f2f in content it is well written and the overall story is a good one.
I probably would not consider other books in the series though as the erotic content is a bit more than expected.
I gave this book 3.25 of 5.0 stars for plot, storyline and characterization.
Although it contains erotica it is tastefully done but still not my cup of tea.
I received a complimentary ARC of this book to read. This in no way affected my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

Okay, so I got this because that cover art is amazing, and I love historical fiction with LGBT characters in it.The blurb felt like it was one of those "bodice rippers" romances, but with lesbians, and I had to see what it was all about. I noticed in my advanced copy that the book has illustrations in it, but due to file sizes we aren't able to view them. Not a big deal, but I bet they're much better than the story they are based on. Man, the story is such a disappointment.

It starts out fine, with Louisa and Ellie, two women who aren't particularly fond of London's ball season. Louisa, because this is her third year and she feels the pressure to find a suitable husband before she officially becomes a spinster at the young age of around twenty. Ellie is a debutante and she just doesn't like the people and the parties. But man, when their eyes meet, its instant chemistry and they feel all the things. Its amazing how much pining they do even though they are right in front of each other.

From there, it could have been a simple lusty story about the two secret lovers, but there's so much drama added in, with Ellie's impending marriage to a Duke, and Louisa's plotting to get her hitch to Louisa's long time dear friend Hugh even though Hugh is in love with Amelia, another young noble stuck in the plot for reasons. Its an angst ridden mess that has way too many problematic plot points for comfort.

It is a cheesy romance, which is fine, and if you're a fan of the series, I can't see why you wouldn't want to pick this one up. It just wasn't for me, which is so disappointing, because that cover deserves a better book.

This was lovely and sweet but that it really. I didn’t connect much with either heroine but I truly believe books like these are necessary. We need more wlw books in the world especially historical romance. I just hope that other books will do a better job of actually including some kind of historical detail.

"When Ellie and Lou fall in love, it is with great abandon. And they have grand ideas. A small cottage, a garden, a goat to manage the weeds, sheep for wool to knit.

But the truth of the matter lies in the reality. Louisa must marry, to the satisfaction of her father, and so must Ellie - whose family hopes for a title to add legitimacy to their status, opening doors in the ton. And when Louisa’s father discovers them together nothing can ever be the same.

A friend rescues Louisa from a horrible fate, sending her into hiding for her own protection. For three long years, Louisa remains in exile out of fear of what her father could do.

Necessity returns Louisa to London, and as soon as she does, the memories of her beautiful Ellie haunt her. But Louisa has no idea if Ellie is even here, or unmarried, or still in want of her as Louisa is and has been since that first moment she saw her across the shimmering ballroom. Louisa fears discovering the truth of it all, that she was but a passing fancy born of the excitement of the heat of a first season.

Will she find Ellie? Will the woman still want her? And even if so, what can they do now that they couldn’t do before?

Nothing has changed, but everything is different."

I'm liking this trend of mainstream romance embracing LGBTQ relationships in other eras.

I thought that this book was adorable. I've not seen much f/f historical romance, and I really enjoyed reading about how all five main characters found a solution in a semi-polyamorous relationship - it definitely made me interested to read the companion novel, The Duke and the Baron. It's kind of sappy and unrealistic, but the ending feels so warm and lovely and safe that it made me beam.

There is a graphic rape scene, which could have been wholly excised without affecting the plot, so it loses a star there for me, but overall, this was a very enjoyable read! (The review copy was provided without illustrations so I can't comment on how these complement the story - I didn't feel anything was lacking without them, certainly).

I'm not typically drawn to historical fiction, but when I saw this book, three things called to me; the title, the blurb, and the cover.

The leads are wonderful characters, I was rooting for them from the get-go. Hugh, how can you not love him? Amelia, I could've done without.

There's some darker content but, thankfully, nothing too graphic. Just enough so you know what's going on.

My one complaint is the pacing. At times the story came to a virtual standstill. I starting flipping pages in the hopes it would pick up again.

I normally cry foul about any kind of straight sex in lesfic, but what transpired was so beautiful and selfless, and fitting, it simply had to be there!

Copy received via NetGalley

This was the first lesbian romance I had read in awhile. The setting of the time period added a whole new level of interest to the story. Everything was tastefully done. I am excited to read the rest of the series!

This is my first NetGalley read and the first romance novel I've read as an adult. And what a delight! LeBlanc wove a mesmerizing tale of a lovers kept apart by societal norms and dramatic moments. Great to see so many othering traits celebrated in a historical romance - queerness and polyamory and neuro diversity (oh my!).

There were an unfortunate number of distracting typos and an occasional 'extra' moment. But the fast paced story line and the truly lovely characters more than made up for it. Quite an enjoyable beginning to my NetGalley reads!

While sensual, lovely, and needed in this heteronormative and over-saturated genre, The Lady and Her Secret Lover comes off a bit too sentimental, colourless, and nauseatingly sappy. It's appreciated for its novelty and perhaps other readers will be more tolerant of its depthless infatuation. At the very least I hope it encourages other similar wlw books to enter the genre.

I hesitate to leave a review for this, for a few reasons.

1) I don't want to dissuade authors from writing lesbian romances. We need more!!
2) I didn't realize this was part of a series when I requested it on NetGalley, and so I felt like I was missing something - especially during the back half of the book
3) The cover is so, so, so beautiful

From the above, you can probably tell I had some quibbles with this novel. My main issue is that it's set in ... well, I have no idea. There's hardly anything in the descriptions that will tell you about the time period. The dialogue is full of anachronisms, which threw me straight out of the action. Honestly, hearing a Duke talk about someone "cheating" on another person is just... no? Nope. Don't want it. I want to feel immersed in the time. I want to feel as if I'm shadowing the characters, smelling what they smell and hearing what they hear. Instead, I was caught in a Beverly Hills 9020* and Outlander* mash-up. It was jarring.

Further, I had a difficult time discerning which heroine was which. There's hardly anything about Ellie or Louisa as individuals that stood out. I can't remember which one had a mother who died. Which one was Amelia's maid? Etc, etc. Not to mention their raging case of insta-love, which was all birds and flowers and oh, your dress is so pretty! Is that really how women fall in love? Ask me, I've done it, and it's not.

Lastly, the use of rape as a plot device was ick (again, reminded me of Outlander - what shall we do to create tension here? I KNOW, RAPE!!) and I also wasn't the hugest fan of [Ellie being deflowered by a dude (hide spoiler)].

I'm sure from my review you're wondering why I didn't just throw the towel in. Well, for the simple fact that a lesbian historical romance is such a novelty. Unless you're reading Sarah Waters (and bless her, she puts out a book every 4 years - I wish I could clone her, not even kidding), there is a dearth of good lesbian fiction out there. Especially lesbian historical fiction. I was so excited when I saw the cover that I think I hyperventilated briefly.

Finally, I will say that I found the characters' plight in the back-half of the novel to be moving, and I really did want to see how they ended up untangling the web they found themselves in. I don't want to dissuade any other authors from tackling lesbian historical fiction - I WILL READ IT. Just please, ditch the modern phrasing. Do some research! Get me into your time period! Let me feel any of this could possibly happen! (I did not feel any of this could possibly happen).

3 stars for writing this in the first place.
And 5 ginormous stars to the cover artist. ;-)

*I love both of these shows. Well, Outlander in the first season. Now, it's garbage. (Yes, I know they were books first)