This was a fantastic friends to lovers story! I loved the angst, the silent glances, the unwavering thinking of each other and so much more. Their banter was hilarious and made their eventual love affair even better. This was fast past and had great character development. I didn't think I could like any book more that I liked her original but I do!

I absolutely adored the dual POV and hearing about hoe they both felt. This story was emotional, hot, funny, and made me giddy. I knew I was going to love this one and it did not disappoint. Highly, highly recommend!

I am somewhere between 4 and 4.5 so, per my review policy, I'm going to default to a 4.5. While I enjoyed the first book, my main issue with it was that the trope combo felt a little too YA for an adult romance. This book does not have that issue but at all... we've got best friend's little sister. We've got "bang it out of our systems." We've got "teach me how to bang." We've got reformed rake and the world weary widow. So a lot of trope candy that works really well for me. Then we've also got A+ banter, a great group of found family, and a lady artist in the Regency. So... yeah, overall this just hit the spot for me overall.
The only thing that makes me hesitate a bit is the portrayal of a sapphic side character in this book. I am not a part of the community being represented, so I can't say for sure, but there was just something about the way that character was portrayed that felt rather off to me. I'll defer to own voices reviewers for their take on that one
Hoping we get Emily & Belfry's book next!

I really enjoyed this book and finished it in 24 hours. It was fun to read a historical fiction rom-com set in the 1800s. I immediately loved the two main characters and loved the depth that they were given the further into the book I got.

Diana, a widowed woman finally experiencing freedom, makes a bet with Jeremy, a notorious player, that he'll find himself married within the year. I was immediately intrigued by their quick witted banter and their clear chemistry. After he finds himself embarrassed after a lover criticized his work in the bedroom, he makes a deal with Diana that will benefit them both. I was worried the book would focus too heavily on an aspect of their deal, but was pleasantly mistaken. There was so much depth and their developing relationship was enjoyable to follow.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a sweet romance (especially enemies/friends to lovers)

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for an advance copy of this book for review.
If you are a fan of enemies-to-lovers romances, witty banter, sassy heroines, reformed-rake heroes, and just general historical romance loveliness- you need this book in your life. Martha Waters has somehow used some of the most well-loved tropes in the romance genre and made them feel fresh. I couldn't put this book down. The selling point for me was the razor-sharp dialogue between Diana and Jeremy. The dialogue is smart, witty, and swoon-worthy. It was hard to stop reading because I just needed to know how the book ended for these two. In addition to the brilliance of Diana and Jeremy, the author fills the pages with a whole cast of characters you will love. From Violet and James from To Have and to Hoax to Penvale, Emily, and the diabolical Lady Helen you will want to spend a day playing parlor games with all of Water's characters.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3791757077
StoryGraph Review: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/5ddae39b-b08b-476d-a762-1d582cae3a70

Instagram Teaser Post (full review to be posted on Instagram closer to Pub Day):
https://www.instagram.com/p/CK_2EbkA2ZI/

Even better than her first in the series; I loved the personality and wit of the characters in this book! Diana is the widowed Lady Templeton, locked in a war of words with her brother's friend, Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham. When a mutually beneficial arrangement materializes to potentially help them both in different ways, and they both retreat to a country home with a cast of characters, nothing could possibly go wrong...

I loved Diana's character and saw a lot of myself in her. It was so fun to watch her weigh her independence and freedom as a widow with how she was growing and learning what she wanted. Jeremy's grandmother may be my favorite however :)

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book! Excited for the next installment!

I don't know how I got so lucky to receive an ARC of this adorable novel, but I'll take it! You'll remember Jeremy and Diana from To Have and To Hoax and, just as I suspected, they did not disappoint. Their chemistry burned up the pages and their banter was nothing short of perfection. The Regency Vows series is exactly what we need right now!

When I read Martha Water’s first novel, To Have and To Hoax, I enjoyed it, but I was so intrigued by the cliff hanger, I couldn’t wait for the sequel. To Love and To Loathe not only lived up to those expectations, but surpassed them. To Love and to Love focuses on Diana and Jeremy, the who single friends who can’t stop bickering. Jeremy, the ultimate bachelor however, gets in a bit of a pickle when Diana bets him that he’ll be married by the end of the year or he’ll have to give her 100 pounds (which is a lot then).

These characters (even the side characters) are so much fun and their banter is excellent to read. You spend the entire book wishing that you could spend the weekend with these characters.

A wonderful continuation of the series—we always knew Diana and Jeremy would be one of the next couples in this series. Not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as “To Have and To Hoax,” but still a fair amount of witty banter. The concept of the marriage bet didn’t seem quite as high a stake for Jeremy as it was for Diana. My ARC of “THATH” seemed to have expired on my Kindle, so I couldn’t go back to refresh my knowledge of the characters and compare the writing from then and now. Still, the series is fun, and I will continue to recommend it to my library patrons.

Thanks to NetGalley for sending me an advance copy of Martha Waters' "To Love and to Loathe".

I will admit, I was super ecstatic to read this book because I ADORE Jane Austen AND because I was coming off a Bridgerton high, and "To Love and to Loathe" felt like the perfect combination. However, despite my claim that I'm a Jane Austen fan, I have to confess that I don't usually read regional era books. So, naturally, my curiosity and excitement for Waters' book were absolutely genuine.

From the first page, we are introduced to this world that Diana and Jeremy inhabit; we are right in the thick of the ton when we first see them bicker, loathe, and feel something else (attraction, affection?) for each other. We are also immediately introduced to why, to each other, they are completely undesirable. Diana is seeking a rich husband, and while Jeremy comes from wealth and just inherited a title, he's just not that stable for her to even contemplate. And for him? Well, Jeremy is content with sleeping around to even entertain the thought of marriage.

Naturally, a few years later, the two come together when she is widowed and he is seeking feedback in a certain (ahem) department.

I found the story to be an enjoyable, quick read with just the perfect amount of humor, drama, and charm. However, there were parts that lagged that tended to take me out of Diana and Jeremy's story.

*** TRIGGER WARNING*** The heroine outs an LGBTQ side character to multiple people for absolutely no reason other than to create a “humorous” moment in the book.

I am so mad. This book was on its way to being a 5 star book for me until the heroine outed the side character. I took away a star for each person she outs the character to and honestly if I hadn’t enjoyed the rest of the book so much up to that point (the first outing scene is 80% of the way through the book) I would have DNF’d and given it an automatic 1 star. If you don’t know why outing is bad, here is the Wikipedia page on the subject. There is no excuse for this to be in books from a major publisher 2021.

I was excited to read this book. I read the the first book in the series a few weeks ago and I did not enjoy it (it was very bonkers and did a lot of telling rather than showing), but Diana and Jeremy’s quipping was one of my favorite things in the book. I was looking forward to their enemies to lovers romance. I will say most of the tension and their arguing took place in the first book, and I’ve seen reviews who hadn’t read the first book noted that they missed the build of their relationship. Rather than stick to the enemies to lovers trope I was expecting, this one turned to a combination of “just once to get it out of our system” and “educational kissing”, both of which I enjoy, but not as much as enemies to lovers.

As I noted above, in the first book I struggled with the author telling rather than showing, this book was a great improvement in the writing style. Other than the prologue, it stayed in the present and there was a lot more dialogue and things actually happening. I loved Diana and Jeremey’s interactions and the delightful conversations throughout the book. It was the little things that delighted me the most, like Jeremy not knowing that women can feign pleasure or Diana purposely only calling Jeremy by his title because it pisses him off.

Like I said, I really enjoyed almost all of this book, unfortunately the things I didn’t greatly impacted my overall enjoyment. In most books I can overlook some flaws, but there are just things that are never acceptable and outing someone in a time where it could get them killed is never going to be okay.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books / Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters is the cutest historical rom com with an enemies to lovers trope! It’s funny, light, and perfect for someone looking for an escape read that will make them laugh out loud. I’m giving this one 3.5 stars! Thank you so much Netgalley for my advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

While this was a quick read, it became very repetitive towards the end and I did not relate to any of the characters. The plot had potential, but the payoff was meh.

I have loved reading regency era novels since being introduced to Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters. I love that authors are still writing about that era today! To Love and To Loathe did not disappoint. Martha Waters wrote a beautiful story of two people very unlikely to fall in love. Diana, or Lady Templeton, is a widowed woman who has no interest in taking another husband. She has all the money she needs and is more interested in the possibility of taking a lover. Marquess Jeremy Willingham is also uninterested in getting married, but he is being pressured by his grandmother to take a wife and produce heirs. Willingham is a notorious womanizer, but has recently learned that one of his mistresses was not pleased with his performance. Willingham goes to Diana, knowing that she would not see anything more to this, to ask her to critique him. They start to have a purely educational liaison, but of course, complications arise.
I thought that this story was well written, beautifully executed, and quite salacious. If you love reading classic novels but are looking for something a little more risqué, this book is for you!!

The book begins with our two main characters, Diana and Jeremy, with the former searching for a most advantageous match in order to secure her financial future. The older the better. Jeremy, however, is known to those who know him as a gambling womanizer with little else to occupy his mind. Two interesting bets with mutual benefit arise between them. The first is a bet to see Jeremy married within a year with the loser having to forfeit one hundred pounds. The second is a steamy love affair between the two of them while they are away at Jeremy's estate for a getaway with friends.

I didn't completely buy that one woman's negative review of Jeremy's sexual ability would send him careening into Diana's arms in need of a saviour. Honestly, that sounded like a cop-out which Jeremy more or less admitted given how excited both he and Diana were to finally explore the sexual tension between them. See, that's another thing. What sexual tension? Diana and Jeremy were the definition of "frenemies", I'll give them that and they constantly traded barbs but I didn't feel (let alone read) any sexual tension. The closest we got were the moments where Jeremy made mention of Diana's chest.

I adored the author's descriptions and her writing style in general. It was really easy to get into the story. The story did lag at many sections and the descriptions could get very superfluous. I think that may have been what was missing from the story. It was just "there". Everything was dragged out and the actual story itself never really picked up enough to be interesting. I was interested in the main couple perhaps because I couldn't get a sense of chemistry between the two. It was a bit hard to finish the story. Despite this, I still think it's a decent story.

This was such a cute read. I just started Bridgerton and this gave me vibes like that. I enjoyed the authors humor/wittiness. Several times I literally laughed out loud. I was rooting for Dianna and Jeremy from the beginning.

Oh wow! This was so adorable. I absolutely loved the two main characters. Their banter made the whole book for me. Loved this!

I've always read strictly contemporary romance, but authors like Martha Waters, especially Martha Waters, are quickly changing my mind. I adored this book even more so than To Have and To Hoax, which I also enjoyed immensely. Diana and Jeremy might be one of my favorite romance couples of the last few years. Diana was such a hoot, and watching Jeremy fall in love with her was so delicious. The author created just enough of a miscommunication between the couple to make my breath hitch and my fingers flip through my Kindle at a frantic pace without going on for too long to get annoying. In a word, this book was perfection. I hope we see a book from Emily and Belfry's POV next if only to enjoy more of the friendship between Diana, Violet, and Emily - they are adorable.

I am not a fan of Regency Romance/Historical Romance, so overall this was not the book for me. Don't discount it though - especially if you like this genre - Waters' writing is clever and fun and I know people really enjoy this series!

If you're in the Bridgerton mood right now, this is the book.

I loved To Love and to Loathe so much more than I thought I would. The chemistry between Diana and Jeremy was undeniable from the start. As I flipped the pages, I could actually imagine the two of them falling in love. There was great banter, scheming, the perfect amount of steam, and dynamic characters who definitely grew as the story moved along.

I haven't read To Have and to Hoax, but I will now. This was exactly the book I needed to break me out of a winter reading slump and the perfect follow up to Bridgerton.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I didn't read To Have and to Hoax and still really enjoy To Love and to Loathe! Diana and Jeremy have great chemistry, based heavily on witty banter and giving each other a hard time. Some of their internal monologue felt heavy-handed at times, felt those sections could've been tightened up. But generally really great / fun / sweet read.