An interesting read, although part was a little confusing, especially in the beginning. Overall, I liked it.

This was an entertaining, quick read that kept me turning pages late into the night. The characters were well-fleshed and made the plot more interesting. I really enjoyed how "Miss Mimic" slowly went from someone feared to someone that had a role to play in the lead character's life. Very good book, thank you for the opportunity to review this wonderful novel!

3.75 stars for this interesting historical fiction with a twist. Not at all what I expected....in a good way.

Mad Miss Mimic is the story of Leonora (Leo for short), a young woman living in 1870s London. Leo is somewhat of an oddity in society. She has a terrible stutter, and the only times she can speak clearly are when she mimics other people's voices, earning her the nickname of Mad Miss Mimic. Leo's sister, Christabel, is eager to marry her off, and has chosen her husband's business partner, Mr. Thornfax, for her to marry. Along with this plot, there are also several subplots worth noting: the desire for an opium ban in London (just as doctors are racing to find an injectable formula), Leo's desire to find who she really is as a person, and the Black Glove, a terrorist organization that keeps blowing up notable London sites.

With all of that in the plot, I expected to like this story more than I did. However, I didn't dislike it. The mystery aspect was an interesting addition to the story, though I will admit I'd pretty much figured it out way before Leo did, which leads me to my main point of consternation with the story. Leo is a likable character, but she doesn't come across as exceptionally intelligent. If I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt, I believe she's just very sheltered, which was hard for me as a reader to contend with. I was putting pieces of things together left and right, while she was still puzzling over many of them. However, she's not entirely annoying. She has typical thoughts of any young society girl of the time looking to wed, and the author does a good job of showing her anxieties. She's also independent and strong, as seen by her willingness to try and figure out what's happening to the poor of London, and her willingness to go out exploring on her own without a chaperone (GASP!). There were just a few parts where I wanted her to be a little quicker on the uptake.

I loved the aesthetic of this story. It has that Victorian gothic feel, and there are many interesting characters who aren't quite the norm. Leo and Christabel's aunt was one of my absolute favorite parts of the story. She's a widow who does what she wants when she wants and everyone else be damned and I loved that about her. I wish she would've been around more. There's also their journalist cousin, Archibald, who is covering the explosions caused by the Black Glove, and isn't altogether the norm for society either. I also loved the love story here. It was sappy and cute and I still loved it.

The story also kept me engaged. I did figure out the mystery fairly early on, but I had to keep reading to make sure I was right. There were also a few things I couldn't quite puzzle out, like why certain characters wanted certain things (trying not to spoil). Overall, this was a fun read. It wasn't quite what I was expecting from the description, but I still enjoyed it, read it quickly, and wish I could read more about the characters. I recommend it if you're a fan of recent Victorian style novels, like Jane Steele (though this isn't quite as violent). Also, if you like historical fiction, this is a good one, especially considering that I don't usually read historical fiction and genuinely enjoyed it.

Note: I received this book from Netgalley & the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book was simply not for me.. I DNF at 50% because I just couldn't continue which is a shame.
I love the Victorian era, and I never tire of books with this setting so I was excited to read this book! The beginning was intriguing as we learn more about Leo, our main character, and her stammer/the way she mimics others around her. That was the only interesting thing about her though? She felt incredibly flat to me which made it hard to connect with her. The other characters didn't help because I couldn't relate to any of them or root for their stories. Being set in this era, which at times felt well researched, but at times it didn't feel as realistic as I know it could've been.
Nothing really happens in the first half of this book. I don't even feel like I get to know these characters as well as I should have. The plot (just within the first half) is very predictable. I got confused a lot through the writing. Nothing seemed to capture my attention so I decided to not continue reading.. Which disappoints me, but I have to immediately connect with at least the world and that wasn't the case for this book.
Just wasn't for me.

First, I have to say that I absolutely love the cover.
The story is well told. The pacing was good and the writing style enjoyable, with a level of detail that is just right. It is a bit of mystery, which when mixed with Victorian era courting is quite intriguing.
I liked Leonora and her aunt Emmaline.
This will definitely keep readers interested until the very end.

3.5 stars
Mad Miss Mimic is definitely a unique story, following a girl who stutters but also has the ability of mimicking voices. I definitely had not read anything like it, and for that alone, I'd recommend it.
However, I felt like the story fell short, and where it started interesting and engaging, it didn't excel at the end. The dialogue became awkward once the author needed to tie things up, give people motives, etc. There were times where the dialogue was spot on, though, and made me laugh or happy sigh. Overall, this book was entertaining, but not grand.
This book is pitched as Jane Austen meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I think it's more Doyle than Austen, and I felt misled. While there is romance, it's not a focus and felt kind of added into the story.
If historical stories are your thing, I'd recommend for you to give it a try. If you're looking for a love story, I'd pass this one up.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced mystery. I thought this was a very fun and quick read. I really liked Leonora and I loved Aunt Emmaline! This is a great historical fiction with action and adventure and a nice love story thrown in.

I’ve always been a fan of the Victorian world; it’s one of my favorite eras in history, so naturally I was drawn to Mad Miss Mimic because of its setting and premise. Now, of course, this also means my opinion is that of someone who has a lot of familiarity with novels set in Victorian England, which means I’ve seen a lot of stuff and it takes something special/new in a book set at this time to make me feel like I’m reading something worthwhile and not just the same story with a few tweaked details.

Fortunately, Mad Miss Mimic did offer something new, and that came in the form of our heroine, Leonora.

Things like speech impediments and other issues that inhibit a character in some way are rarely seen in sectors of YA fiction that don’t pertain specifically to the issue. Though the book does give ample time to this aspect of Leo’s personality, she is still more than just her stuttering and mimicry, and participates in a slew of events from falling in love to helping expose a criminal, and I liked how the thing that’s initially her biggest flaw gets turned into a strength at the end of the tale and helps in paving way to Leo’s future. She starts off as a pretty typical Victorian heiress in that she’s naïve, her life trapped in the constructs of society, her whole being judged and commanded and stifled for her status and speech problems, and her opinions start out more like parroted things she’s been told by members of her class, rather than things she’s found out for herself. But slowly Leo becomes more independent and her eyes are opened; the world is not so black and white and people are more complex than she originally believed. The person she immediately struck down as loathsome for being a thief turned out to be the best person she knew, the person she thought perfect in every way was a monster underneath, and the family members she trusted so much were actually cowardly and malicious. It’s a nice arc of growth to watch Leo’s eyes open and see how she transforms.

Although the story’s major plot point surrounding The Black Glove and opium and whatnot was ultimately pretty simple and I had a pretty good idea of how it would unfold, since I’m no stranger to the thread of thought that went into constructing the mystery, since it revolves around wealth and power, I think for the target YA audience this would still make a pretty great little mystery novel with a Victorian atmosphere. The pacing was fast and the writing engaging. I finished the book rather quickly, though since this only tops off at about 270+ pages it’s naturally a pretty quick read. I liked the dash of romance added in, though I definitely would have liked to see more of it.

As for the historical accuracy, there were times when the author took some liberties to make her story work or used some classic plot devices to ensure things happened a certain way, but from what I read in the story and from the author’s note, I appreciated that research and effort went into making the tale realistic in as many aspects as it could afford. Although a lot of novels mention opium and morphine and drug addiction in passing, acknowledging their existence but not many pay it any more mind than that, so it was interesting to see a book that took us straight into the heart of a major problem of the Victorian world. I would have liked to have seen more detail added, but this story isn’t concerned with giving its readers a crash course on all things Victorian, just giving it a believable air of accuracy for a work of fiction.

Though the short tale was, overall, a little too YA for my personal tastes, but was nonetheless an enticing little read that any young lover of Victorian history will get a kick out of. There’s nothing written explicitly in the book nor is there any extreme content, so it’d be appropriate for any teen to read. There’s no swearing outside of “damn” and nothing physically intimate outside of kissing. I give it a solid 4 for its intended audience, though my personal rating would be a little lower just because from where I stand the idea could have been expanded upon with more emotion, detail, and complexity. But keeping in mind the target audience and the fact that this is the author’s first book, 4 stars is in order.

*I received a copy of this title for free from Net Galley, but in no way does that affect my opinions!*

I had a hard time with this one... There were parts I loved & others where it seemed like nothing happened forever. Rosbury was horrible, the character development of him was great. You could tell there was bad there, but didn't quite know how. I LOVED the ending... A new beginning. ❤

This book kind of reminded me of a Jane Austen novel. The problem with that is I am not a fan of Jane Austen. The book was slow and something about the writing style just made the main plot points seem . . . not so tragic or suspenseful. I won't give anything away, but there were a couple of times where I actually had to reread a couple of paragraphs because I didn't even realize something major had happened. That was probably my fault though. There were some sections that were just too slow and boring and I would lose focus because of it and then I would miss an explosion or a death.

I did like the main character though and that's probably why gave it three stars. I really felt for Leo and her stutter. I thought it was interesting that she could mimic anyone's voice (hence the nickname, "Mad Miss Mimic" and I kind of liked the attitude that the imitation of other people was basically a whole separate person inside of Leo. The problem was that Leo never really new what her own voice sounded like. Her sister was trying to basically find her a husband and Leo was desperate for someone who would accept her for who she was. I didn't really care for the love triangle, but I kind of liked the plot. Some of it didn't make sense, but essentially there was a Black Glove group that was terrorizing the city and the government thought banning opium would be the answer. Some things in the plot were predictable. In the love triangle, I could tell who Leo would end up with and I kind of predicted who the bad guy was. But I didn't know why they were doing what they were doing so that was a nice twist. The resolution of the romance was satisfying, but it felt like it took SO LONG to get there. And I still don't understand why the Black Glove group did some of the things they did.

I can see why other people loved this one a lot, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. The plot and the characters were well done. I just thought the writing style was a bit blah.

Loved it!
The setting was refreshing, the stuttering main character original and the story unfolds uniquely. I think readers, tired of the same old same old will enjoy this unique story, and maybe learn a little bit at the same time. I will be suggesting this online and to the students in my school. Thank you!