This book has quite the collection of naughty ladies, and none of the usual suspects either. Even though the stories in this volume are short and to the point, they are all presented with scholarship and just a dash of sass. My only complaint is I wish there was an illustration for every lady.

An introduction to some of the ladies who stirred up conventions enough to change their worlds, whether local or nation, even international, theymade their choices and stuck to them. The stories are not long, they are designed to lead you to read more and research the times that spawned the ladies, the past, present and future that they lived and changed for all of us. A really, really good entertaining and educational book.

I really liked the collection of women chosen. Every time I read like this, I'm always introduced to people I have never heard of before. I would have preferred that the stories were a little bit longer, I wanted more,

I really enjoyed this book. It contained 50 concisely written profiles of various 'law-breaking' women in history. As a former history major, this was a very fun read that featured lesser-known and more well-known women. I really appreciated that most of the entries were of women that I did not know much of their history. This is a great starting point for finding out more about any of these women. Would definitely recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in history, and women's history.

Lawbreaking Ladies is separated into separate sections covering serial killers, bootleggers, madams, gamblers, fraudsters, outlaws, and pirates. I enjoyed the short story format and how organized / researched it was, it also flowed well. Super easy read with some neat content, it was cool to read about female criminals from an author who is fascinated by it. I learned a lot and found it interesting. The only thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was sometimes there was too much information and some there wasn’t enough and it felt rushed. I definitely understand if there isn’t a lot of information out there but, going into it I thought there would be a bit more. I really enjoyed the serial killer and outlaw sections, those were definitely my favourite.



Huge thank you to Netgalley and Tiller Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What can I say I am all about true crime books! I love reading about different things in history that have to do with crime and this one is good. I like that it is about the ladies! Also, throw in some pirate ladies and I am hooked. I thought it was a fun read and would recommend it.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed this book most are incredibly interesting

A super fun light read with lots of interesting details and facts. I felt the tone was a bit immature in places and the stories were so short. I wanted a bit more meat. I was also expecting more illustration rather than the handful provided.

An easy to read and interesting book. It's always fascinating to read about wicked and nasty women, and this book was no exception. I think 13 year old me would have been obsessed with this book.

Princess Fuzzypants here: This is a quick read in small bite-sized chunks of some very interesting ladies. Some of the women were out and out scoundrels- liars, thieves, murderers or worse. Some of them simply skirted the law, not quite stepping over the line, or at least not enough to be caught. And a few of them were just women who took no guff and lived their lives as they chose, obviously much to the chagrin of society where women were expected to comply with the norms.

They are all colourful and interesting.

The book is nicely set out in general chapters although some of the ladies transcended more than one chapter. Whatever else these women shared in common, whether they fell into their lives out of necessity or choice, they were all strong and capable in whatever their chosen “profession”. .I can recommend this book as a light summer read, perfect for beach or cottage.

Five purrs and two paws up.

Lawbreaking Ladies: 50 Tales of Daring, Defiant, and Dangerous Women from History by Erika Owen is a nonfiction book that tackles a wide range of law breaking ladies. Many of us are familiar with the popular slogan “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” But that adage is taken to the next level in this book, which looks at women from the past who weren’t afraid to break the law or challenge gender norms. From pirates to madams, gamblers to bootleggers, and serial killers to outlaws, women throughout the ages haven’t always decided to be sugar, spice, and everything nice. These are the stories of 50 remarkable women whose rebellious and often criminal acts ought to solidify their place in history, including: the swashbuckling pirate Ching Shih, “Queen of the Bootleggers” Gloria de Casares, the Prohibition-era gangster Stephanie Saint-Clair, and a band of prisoners who came to be known as the Goree Girls. Some were breaking laws for good reasons, while others were downright dangerous.

Lawbreaking Ladies is an interesting and entertaining read. I like that the author makes the effort to keep everything in the context of the laws and social climate of the time the specific crimes took place. Prohibition, abuse, unjust laws, and more had a role to play in some of the crimes- but in some cases the why's will never really make sense. I also like that the women featured are from a variety of countries and times, and their stories and situations are varied. It was clear that a great deal of research and care went into this book. The book was well organized, and the writing was very accessible and easy to follow. I found each story to be very independent from the rest of the book, even in each subsection, for instance in the section about gambling ladies the city of Deadwood is mentions in mos everyone's story and the familiarity of the name is addresses but in the context of travel rather than how many ladies profiled in a row had spent time there. I enjoyed the read, and appreciated the inclusion of sources and proper citation. It is a shame how often that gets forgotten. I will be reading some of the resources used by the author to delve deeper into some of the stories and times that interested me the most.

Lawbreaking Ladies is a well researched, written, and organized resource. I think many readers will appreciate it.

Each one of the ladies in this book did something to break with societal rules. The crimes can be something against the law or just against cultural norms. The women in this book didn’t fit the cookie cutter mold that the world wanted women to fit into.

Thanks to Net Galley and Tiller Press for the ARC of this book. I'm a history fan, and 50 female criminals was certainly an intriguing premise. Ms. Owen does a good job of delivering gangsters, murderers, and unladylike humans to the reader in her engaging storytelling way.

I love this type of book. I give my students a primer (2 or 3 pages) on a historical figure and they have to research the person and delve deeper into their lives. To be fair, that is what I do as well, especially in a book such as this one where I hadn't heard of most of the women featured.

I loved how this book gave the short biographies of lawbreaking ladies. I enjoyed the diversity in ethnicity and crime times. I just wished it could've been written with more personality.

Lawbreaking Ladies tells the story of fifty daring, defiant, and dangerous women throughout history. There is a collection of stories about female pirates, gamblers, outlaws, and much more.

While some of these stories are inspiring, the rest not so much. I still enjoyed learning about a lot of these women (even if they did some sketchy stuff).

I really enjoyed reading this book and learning about some pretty awesome women and some pretty terrible ones.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tiller Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that this book was super interesting. Erika Owen writes so that you’re engaged in the story even though they’re short excerpts of women’s lives through history.

I recognized some of the women mentioned in this book, but learned a lot about new people as well which was super fun.

I loved how Erika Owen writes her personality throughout. She had witty comments about some of the women and truly made it a fun read and it didn’t have that “textbook” feel to the narrative which I enjoyed a lot.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this!

As the synopsis from the publisher suggests, this is a great book to read for anyone interested in mini-biographies of women throughout history. The spin on this, of course, is that these are women in crime.

A key thing to keep in mind is that 50 women are covered in this book - FIFTY!- so although you get exposed to many stories all over the world and in different eras, you really only get a snippet of each woman's life. So if you are reading this to get more details as you do in a traditional true crime book, this may not be for you. However, if you're looking to be introduced to many unique badass (or just plain bad) women this is perfect. This book actually is great for giving you a starting point if you want to then do a deeper dive on someone in particular.

My favorite thing was how the author categorized each section. I knew so little about female pirates and outlaws and genuinely enjoyed learning about the time period and the women who really were outside the norm and defied expectations for their gender. I do have to add one caveat that although these women are admirable in that aspect, there are some particularly terrifying women who I don't admire.

Fans of Tori Telfer will like this but may desire a more in-depth coverage of each woman than what this book gives.

This book was a quick fascinating look at 50 lawbreaking ladies. Many of them I had l had not heard of before. The stories were the perfect length to peak ones interest. Several of the stories made we want to do further research on the women. If you are looking for a quick, entertaining, fun read check out this book.

50 Ladies of the past and the crimes that they've committed. This book was divided into seven sections and with each section, there was a glossary for terms that would be used with that section. There was only one lady that I had heard of before and did include one Canadian which I did find surprising. There was no mention of any recent lawbreaking ladies, but these were the original. It gave us a brief background that could be used as a taste test to look for more information. I did like the variety of crimes and backgrounds of the women that were chosen. The writing was clean and stuck the facts with offering no opinions which are always nice in short factual biographies but it would have been nice to know why the author chose these specific women or the categories that she did. It was an overall informative book.