As a huge fan of Cat Sebastian's The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes, I was VERY excited about this sapphic Robin Hood-esque romp, and what a delightful time it was! Harris accomplishes quite a bit in under 300 pages and is able to deliver a well rounded story full of wit, mystery, and emotion. I really loved our leading ladies and found them to be complex, relatable characters... but I was a little thrown at first how the story alternated between first and third person. It wasn't exactly jarring, but it did take some getting used to. While I typically prefer third person, I thought getting Charlie/Charlotte's POV in first worked well for the story and think it might have helped getting Catherina's perspective in first as well so we could have empathized with her struggles and wishes better.

Overall, I think the story was well executed and I am always excited for a historical that is NOT a regency and has hot female baddies kissing.

Very different and fun but also emotional. I liked the first person from Charlie and third person from Cat. A touch chaotic at times and I would have liked more interplay between Charlie and Cat before the fully own up to each other just to set the drama a bit.

Funny to see the author is from Minnesota!

This was a fun concept for a historical romance, and thought it worked well with the time setting and how the romance that was developed. I cared about the characters and what was going on with them and thought it was a great introduction to the world and the Beau Scamp series, The overall writing style worked well in 1794. I was never bored when reading this and left me wanting to read more from CM Harris and in the Beau Scamp series, It was everything that I had hoped for and glad I got to read this.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!

This book was a delicious read. Beau Scamp really sucked you in from the jump.

I did enjoy the changes between 1st person and 3rd person, though, I didn't realize it was happening until half-way through the book, it felt really normal. The premise of the book was great, I loved the sapphic aspects of it, intermingling with a forbidden class romance. The entire time you were rooting for Beau Scamp, Charlie, Charlotte, and Catherina.

The call outs to the dear reader made it feel so fun and really brought you to the late 1700's. I like that it stayed true to the time's distain to queer love and what might have happened surrounding, but also those around the FMC were accepting of it. I thought this book was tasteful and fun, and sweet.

This was such a fun surprise! I absolutely loved the combination of historical fiction, sapphic romance, secret identities, highwaymen, and just the right amount of chaos.

Charlotte/Charlie and Catherina were such a fantastic pair. I loved watching their relationship develop, especially with all the complications surrounding Charlotte's identity and the world they've been forced to navigate. There was something incredibly satisfying about watching these two women find each other and carve out a little space for themselves in a society that certainly wasn't designed for them.

And honestly, the whole highwayman angle made this even more entertaining. There is something ridiculously fun about a masked highwayman, a dangerous adventure, a little deception, and a sapphic love story all wrapped together.

The tone was one of my favorite things about this book. It's playful, romantic, adventurous, and wonderfully over-the-top at times. It never took itself too seriously, which made it incredibly easy to get swept up in the story.

As a lesbian reader, I especially loved seeing a sapphic historical romance where the women get to be complicated, bold, funny, adventurous, and completely in love.

A charming, entertaining, delightfully chaotic historical romance with plenty of heart. I had such a good time with this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I truly loved my reading experience of Beau Scamp and CM Harris surprised me positively. I especially enjoyed the characters.

Judging simply from the title and cover (the main reasons this book initially caught my eye), I should’ve known how funny this book was going to be. It is seriously one of the funniest books that I’ve read in a long time. The plot line was interesting and it kept me engaged. I had a lot of fun.

The romance was enjoyable. They were sweet and I was always rooting for them. It also ticked a box that I’m always looking for with sapphic romance which is butch characters. We need more, thank youuuu. I found the dual point of view interesting and I liked how one was in first person, but the other was in third person. It was overall just an enjoyable dynamic.

I will recommend this to a lot of people. Probably whoever will listen.

(4.75/5)

Harris' "Beau Scamp" is a fun, romantic, historical fiction with overtones of Twelfth Night and Bridgerton. The titular character, Beau Scamp, is a stable hand by day and a highwayman by night. He is also a woman. Disguised as a young boy, Charlotte, or Charlie, has taken up her father's mantle as a secret highway robber after her father was caught and hanged. Only difference between their approaches is that Charlie also "entertains" the women she robs. Alternating between Charlie's perspective and the perspective of Catherina, the niece of the noblewoman who owns the estate where Charlie works, the heroines of "Beau Scamp" are constrained by their gender; both must try to figure out how to assert autonomy in a culture that only privileges wealthy men. Their romance is sweet and believable. The book is easily devoured.
For fans of Gentleman Jack, Emma R Alban and Alexandra Vasti.

I enjoyed this book very much! It was a nice, easy, and fun read that allows you to get lost in the late 1700s while watching the relationship of two women grow.

Charlotte and Catherina were both very fun characters. I loved seeing their relationship bloom and the lengths they were willing to go for each other. I also love the supporting characters being supportive. I can’t say I know the reactions to queerness entirely from a 1700s standpoint and but it was so nice to read about great support systems.

I’m glad I was able to read this!

Charlotte is an absolute mess in the best possible way and I loved the chaos of her being Charlie, Beau Scamp AND somehow ending up as Catherina’s maid. Like what could possibly go wrong? I loved Charlotte and Catherina together. The disguises, highwayman shenanigans and romance kept me entertained the whole time, but there was also way more heart to the story than I expected.
Funny, sapphic, romantic and a little ridiculous. I had such a good time with this one!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!!

One thing about me: I am always gonna love a story centered around theatre and cross-dressing protagonists. It’s the gender theory. Beau Scamp is RIPE with it. I devoured this.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I can't wait to pick up even more because I had such a fun time with this! I love a sapphic period piece era novel and was excited when I was able to be approved for this. Wonderful and exciting story, I loved the romance, and I will definitely be looking into more of their books.

This book is very fun. I feel like I don't normally laugh out loud that much when reading, but I did several times with this one. Mostly at quippy one-liners, but I also found Charlie's not-quite-incompetence at being a highwayman amusing. (Like, she is successful but tries a little too hard to be swashbuckling & THAT is funny.) Charlotte imagining the ghost of her father (or perhaps actually hearing him, who's to say) was the perfect mix of funny & poignant. (He has most of the best one-liners tbh.)

Beau Scamp/Charlie/Charlotte's POV is written in first person & Catherina's is in third. I don't think I've ever encountered a book that mixed POV like this before. I suppose I'm neutral on it, though I think it's an interesting authorial choice & wonder if part of the reason is that Charlotte reads as genderfluid.

I really love crushed-on-you-forever class difference historical romance & this is one of those. Very satisfying for me. I loved the resolution of the romance. I think my only complaint is that there are a couple of moments where Catherina is VERY classist towards Charlotte, her supposed love, that are kind of ignored. The biggest one being threatening to "dismiss" Charlotte for - experiencing emotions. Catherina does apologize for not being more understanding of what Charlotte was feeling, but not for the way her immediate reaction was "stop embarrassing me and act like a good servant or I'll dismiss you!!!" How am I to believe you love this person when you treat them as beneath you? It left a bit of a bad taste, but otherwise I really enjoyed their love story.

Someone who enjoys queer historical romances that balance a playful, adventurous tone with genuine emotional stakes will love this sapphic Georgian romp

Thank you so much to NetGalley and CM Harris for the ARC!

Historical sapphics, my beloved. You have no idea how much emotional damage the genre has inflicted upon me over the years, so imagine my delight at finding a book that lets its lesbians have a little fun for once. Beau Scamp is a Georgian-era sapphic romance about a highway robber who ends up disguised as a maid in the household of the woman she’s been in love with since childhood, which is already a premise I would happily eat up. Add the fourth-wall-breaking humor, the ridiculous situations Charlotte finds herself in, and a romance that actually lets me leave with my heart intact, and I had a genuinely good time with this one.

One of my favorite things about this book is how little it takes itself seriously. The writing is easygoing, the humor can be downright ridiculous, and the narrative’s willingness to acknowledge the absurdity of its own circumstances made me laugh more than once. The fourth-wall breaks were especially funny, and I loved how the story occasionally felt like it was letting me in on the joke. The book knows exactly how silly its premise can get, and I think embracing that rather than trying to make everything overly serious works in its favor.

I also appreciated the more tender parts of the story. Charlotte’s predicament becomes more complicated as she navigates the class differences between herself and Catherina, especially when the person she has loved from a distance becomes someone she must serve. I found myself thinking about how much of identity is shaped by the roles we’re expected to perform, and how a disguise can sometimes make it easier to reveal the parts of ourselves we would otherwise have to hide. Charlotte has spent so much of her life surviving by playing a part, first as Charlie and then as Beau Scamp, that falling in love with someone who belongs to a world she has every reason to distrust forces her to reconsider what she wants her life to look like. Catherina has her own expectations to contend with, particularly when it comes to marriage and the future society has already decided for her as a woman of nobility. Their romance works for me because, beneath the comedy, both women are trying to figure out what it means to want something beyond the lives they’ve been handed.

Also, I need to confess that I spent a frankly embarrassing amount of time imagining Franchaela from Bridgerton while reading this. Sue me! I might simply be too excited for their season, but I kept making the association in my head, and at some point I accepted that this was now part of my reading experience. The circumstances aren’t exactly the same (given that there is a class difference here, and the stories couldn’t been anymore different from each other), but the sapphic historical romance brainrot is real, and I cannot be held responsible for the consequences. If you’re also looking forward to Francesca and Michaela’s story, I can absolutely see this book scratching a similar itch while you wait.

And because I know some of us have been conditioned to approach historical sapphic romances with the emotional preparedness of someone entering a battlefield, let me reassure you: this has a happy ending. You may unclench. I certainly appreciated knowing that all the yearning and romantic tension were not leading me toward the usual historical fiction lesbian heartbreak. The ending is more understated than grand or extravagant, which feels fitting. There is a particular pleasure in reading a story about queer women finding their way toward happiness in a world that gives them very little room to do so, even when that happiness comes in a form that is smaller and more private than the happily-ever-afters we’re accustomed to seeing in mainstream (straight) historical romances.

Overall, Beau Scamp was a thoroughly enjoyable read for me, and four stars feels right. It’s a fun choice for anyone who loves sapphic historical romance with a playful streak, especially if you enjoy watching characters desperately improvise their way through increasingly ridiculous situations while trying not to fall even harder for each other. I came for the premise, stayed for the comedy, and left feeling grateful that these fictional lesbians got to have their happy ending. Sometimes, after everything this genre puts us through, that’s exactly what I want from a book.