I do like strong heroines, women who can look after themselves, you can think for themselves, who are not dependent to someone else to take care of them or to provide for them. Therefore when I read the description of Anabelle Bryant new book on NetGalley I knew this would be a book I would enjoy. And it didn’t disappoint.

Scarlett Wynn is a woman that had a really tough childhood. She was not the daughter of a nobleman, not even the daughter of a merchant, or a daughter of a wealthy man. She only knew her mother, who has fought to her last breath for their survival. So she knows that life can be really cruel to women that are born poor and with little or no power. So when her seamstress suddenly disappears she is determined to find out why. Thanks to her training she is not afraid to venture in the night with the company of her knives, following the few clues she can find to an upscale brothel. There she meets Ambrose Cross, the Duke of Aylesford, who is trying to solve a mystery as well.

Ambrose has his own place in society. He is one of the Prince’s advisors, someone to be respected and with power in the House of Lords. He has his and his family’s name and reputation to protect. No scandals should break out at no cost. But when he finds himself in a wild goose chase he comes to understand that there is a whole different world apart from his own. One that real people with families live in, people with no privilege. And that these people deserve as much as he does when it comes to safety and freedom. This new knowledge has come from the woman he cooperates in order to do a noble act and solve a mystery that was revealed to him. As their cooperation and investigation proceeds, the two of them realize that their interests are connected rather tightly to a string of missing women, which they are both very much determined to uncover. But the waters they are sailing are rather deep and they may find themselves in danger.

One of the tropes that are found in historical romances is the noble commoner trope and this is what we have here as well. They come from different worlds and from different pasts. Ambrose has only lived the life of a Duke, or the life of someone destined to become a Duke, so he only knows that life. He is not taught about the poor neighborhoods of London and the people that try to survive in those muddy streets. He may hold a position in the House of Lords, but he barely knows the people he speaks for or the ones his decisions affect. On the other hand Scarlett grew up in those muddy streets but she found a way to come out as clean as possible. She knows how to defend herself because that was the only way she could stay alive without anyone looking after her. She has seen too many women being treated worse than animals and she has vowed to defend them. She knows how different her world is from the ton and she knows those people don’t see life clearly. They see it through the prism of their own life.

The mystery was there from the beginning. There were fighting scenes that one would not expect from a woman of Scarlett’s era, but they were a refreshing touch, if I may say. Parts of the mystery were pretty obvious very early, but it didn’t bother me as I was not reading this book for the mystery plot. I knew it was a historical romance, and this is were the plot was going to focus. Which was a good thing though as the romance part was really good. We had the different worlds, the different pasts and the second thoughts they both had.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable story to read. This is the first book in The Maidens of Mayhem series and I can’t wait for the next!

Thank you to NetGalley & Kensington Books for an advance copy of this book. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.

I received an #ARC of #duchessifyoudare from #netgalley for an honest review.

This is the first in a new series called Maidens of Mayhem that follows a group of crime fighting women in London. I like the premise of the book, although it is dark, and not really believable. Our heroine fights men twice her size with just a knife and somehow comes out unscathed? It is also unclear what the exact purpose of the group is - whether they are hired as investigators or simply act the superhero part by hiding in the shadows of London’s seedy neighborhoods waiting to save someone.

Girls are missing from a popular brothel and our heroine Scarlett takes it upon herself to find out why. In her search, she consistently runs into Ambrose, a Duke, who is also investigating on his own .

I’m not a big fan of romantic suspense unless it is done really well or the suspense is secondary to the love story. Unfortunately this book misses the mark in both accounts.

The story starts off slow and there isn’t a clear hook - it took nearly halfway for me to get to a place where I was interested and invested enough to continue. The character study is very superficial -I would have loved to learn more about their histories and what made them who they are. We are often told Ambrose wants to do better - repeatedly- as a Duke - but never learn why. Also, these two fall in love quite quickly and out of the blue without adequate buildup to get us there.

What I did like - the author writes intimacy very well and that scene was probably the strongest in the book. However, I didn’t understand why Ambrose thought Scarlett an inexperienced woman and that wasn’t explained. She is no lady, she’s independent, and a crime fighter at that- and suddenly the author makes her into a virgin?

I was definitely interested in the characters, just wished there was more substance to them. The second half of the book did go much more quickly and I enjoyed it much more. But all in all there is enough lacking here that I only hope the series improves with each installment.

Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for this e-arc. All opinions are my own.

Adventure! Having a name like Maidens of Mayhem promises a lot and delivers most.
In this book, we follow Scarlet as she tries to uncover the mystery of her missing seamstress. Her search takes her to brothels and shady corners of London where she stumbles upon Ambrose, Duke of Aylesford! They don't realise they are following the same mystery, but what connects them, might also kill them!

I mean, I enjoyed it! It is refreshing to read a historical romance and not get the stereotypical man of the time, or also the woman in this case... So, yes to more respectable and supportive men in literature, I'm here for it!

The only reason my rating doesn't show a 5 star there is the fact I feel left out from the whole Maidens of Mayhem thread. I wanted more out of it, needed more. not just for the future books, but also Scarlet who would be even more of a compelling character than she already is by adding more of Maidens into her story.

Just to sum up: Adventure - check, Kick-ass heroine - check, Dashing Duke - Check, mystery - check, steamy romance - check! I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of those elements, you will not regret picking it up! For myself personally, where do I sign up for the rest of this series?!

I thought it was going to be something else. The romance aspect was very slow and unbelievable. I thought we were going to see more of the maidens of mayhem, but no. I don't know. It was slow and kind of boring for me.

I received a copy of this as an ARC from NetGalley. This fun and adventurous historical romance is the first in a new series. There is love, lust and intrigue and the main characters have an abundance of chemistry. Can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

DNF at 25%

The premise of this sounded great but unfortunately it's not really working for me. Duchess If You Dare is supposed to be a fun historical romance about dangerous ladies fighting for social justice. But so far a lot of it is just the main characters moralizing about the supposed horrors of prostitution in a pretty condescending way that lacks nuance.

There's talk of "it's not their fault that they have to do this to survive" which might seem fine at first glance, but there is no distinction between women who are forced into it by necessity and women who might choose this profession for other reasons. And there's the main character who "would NEVER!" *gasp* sell her body, and the hero who wonders why she's in this brothel because she has modest clothes with nice fabric. I just found it all immensely irritating. If you're going to lead into a plot about sex trafficking (which is absolutely horrific) and the potential dangers to women engaged in sex work, then approach it in a way that offers nuance. Don't make all the women involved either victims or villains. Some might be victims, some might be villains, but making it so black and white for every character is disempowering and promotes a problematic savior complex. I find this kind of plot really frustrating because it CAN be done well, and I've seen romance authors tackle this difficult subject with grace and respect. This just isn't it.

Additionally, the hero and heroine so far are a bit bland and lack chemistry. So yeah. Not the book for me. We need to do better in how we portray sex workers. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

A good read with adventure, mystery, thrill and heat Regency style.

Scarlett is very willful and brave. No gentleman can stop her from her task. Ambrose is a man that goes by the rules - until Scarlett gets in his way and now he needs to fix things and protect her...

This book was pretty mediocre. I honestly don't have much to say about it. I started it interested, and got just enough into the plot before realizing I was bored. I skim read the second half of the book. I think the resolution of the book was satisfying enough, but I was not particularly drawn to the characters.

SERIES: The Maidens of Mayhem #1
GENRE: historical romance
TROPES: duke/commoner, mystery-solving
CLIFFHANGER: no
RATING: 4⭐

There is something to be said and loved about a woman who makes the best out of the hand she is dealt with. She is also fierce, loyal, and realistic. Scarlett is a heroine I adore to read about. Her impact is even higher as she is a heroine of a historical fiction novel.

The storyline revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Scarlett's acquaintance. She is trying to look for clues that will help her to find her. And all clues lead to a brothel. There is meets duke of Aylesford, who is once again cleaning his brother's mess. It turns out they are looking for the same person. So they join forces. The new partnership leads to new enemies but also to a romance.
There are a couple of twists and turns, heartfelt conversations, and some steamy moments.

I'm interested in reading more books in this series!

If you enjoy the real-life issues addressed, mystery plotline, strong heroine in your historical novel then this is a book for you.

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC of Duchess if you Dare by Anabelle Bryant. I have mixed feelings about this book as it was a good premise, but overall it didn’t really engage me. I found most of the plot predictable, but not in an enjoyable forgiving way - the plot fell flat for me and didn’t match what the story was sold as. I thought it would be a female Robin Hood type of story but I couldn’t really find any connections. I think that more romance, character development, chaos, mayhem and conflict could have made a world of a difference to the story.

I have a lot to say about this book and it’s late so my thoughts might be everywhere. First, everyone likes different books- I did not love it.
First positive- I loved has strong Scarlett is. I love that she is protective and won’t accept her fate. She fights for what is right no matter the cost.
Negative- Ambrose (love the name) is so wishy-washy! Sometimes he is willing to fight for her and sometimes not. I could not fall in love with him and he just felt bland to me. It was at the very end when I felt like he went into good protective mode. Sometimes he says he will let Scarlett have free will and other times he tells her what she can and can’t do.
Another thing is that the climax never really rose. There was no dramatic scene- did Scarlett even find out Linie helped kidnap the girls?
I do love the historical fiction.

This really is a 2.5. I enjoyed parts of it and I found myself laughing out loud (especially at Martin, I hope he gets his own book), but nothing about this really stood out to me.

Duchess If You Dare is about Scarlett investigating her missing seamstress, while Ambrose investigates his brothers’ worries about the well being of the women who work at a brothel he frequents. They cross paths and eventually begin working together. Ambrose is a Duke and Scarlett is a commoner (I’m not sure what non-members of the ton are actually called?), and the difference in their stations is a main source of conflict.

I love historical romance and I especially love when they involve mysteries so I thought this would be perfect for me, but it ended up falling short. It could have focused more on the romance or more on the mystery and it would have been great, but it tried to cover them equally and that’s where it lost me. Scarlett and Ambrose don’t start spending significant amounts of time together until chapter 10, and that’s longer than I want to wait in a romance. Once they did start spending time together, they went from being acquaintances to being in love very quickly, which I found a bit jarring. I also didn’t feel very much chemistry between them, and I blame Ambrose entirely. Normally I love a Duke, but he just didn’t interest me. He went around being like ‘I’m a Duke, I can do what I want’ but he almost never did? He was aware of his privilege but unwilling to question it, and I found myself skimming his parts because I couldn’t bring myself to care about how hard it is to be a Duke.

Scarlett was a lot of fun, and I really liked her. I didn’t quite understand her finances and I would have liked to spend more time with her vigilante friends, but I really enjoyed her independence. I also don’t blame her for being so concerned about Linie going missing - with the number of skirts that Scarlett abandons in favour of pants while running around London at night, it doesn’t surprise me at all that she needs a good tailor.

I think the mystery had a lot of potential, but it almost came together too neatly. I don’t find myself saying this very often, but I wouldn’t have minded a few red herrings thrown in there, just to keep me on my toes a bit more.

Altogether, this wasn’t bad - definitely 2.5/5, which is a solid read for me.

Duchess If You Dare while not exceptional was an enjoyable tale. Scarlett is a member of the Maidens of Mayhem (which quite frankly was a very inconsequential part of the book. I get that they are trying to change society, but exactly how is left very unclear. As far as I could tell, they sat around a lot and drank tea....) and her seamstress has gone missing. After finding out that her seamstress has been moonlighting as a prostitute at a high-end brothel she is determined to seek her whereabouts to make sure that she is safe.

Ambrose is a Duke and by all accounts pretty dull, but dutiful. His brother Martin is a hot mess- gaming, drinking, and whoring- the typical rakish pursuits of the time. When Martin gets himself into a bit of a pickle and his favorite lady of the night goes missing, Ambrose steps in to help locate the girl and settle Martin's debts. This is where his path crosses with Scarlett and the slow burn starts.

While this book leans itself to being a mystery, I had most of it figured out pretty quickly. The story, however, flowed very well and the climax of the story was very well executed. I think there could have been more overt sparks between Scarlett and Ambrose, but it was decent. The typical conflict between stations was a bit predictable, but it is a mainstay of that genre. Overall, I would say that while I did not find this book to be something I would read over and over again, I would give it to a friend who had a spare few hours they needed to fill. It was a nice quick easy read.

As soon as I saw this cover, I knew I wanted this book. It was gorgeous, and the title made this look like it would be a fun read. Sadly, it's one of the books that you read and then immediately forget, there's nothing special about it.

Considering one of our main characters is a Maiden of Mayhem, I expected there to be mayhem. I wanted to see her disturbing things, to cause problems. Instead, she was pretty stationary. The few scenes we got with the Maidens of Mayhem were rushed, and very little happened. This was super disappointing, because I was totally down for a book about women owning it and solving mysteries.

I also just found our main character bland. I kept waiting for her background to be revealed, as most of the novel I'd spent referencing how traumatic and terrible it was. I wanted to know what happened to her mother, and what pushed her to be so passionate about defending women. She didn't have much else, so I wanted to at least know something about her.

Even though the mystery was pretty disappointing, I was hoping that we'd get a romance I could root for. That wasn't the case here. We got terrible insta-love, an instant connection, and lukewarm chemistry. We're constantly told how attracted to each other these characters are, but I couldn't feel it. I just didn't care about either of them.

Although I didn't enjoy this book, I think there's definite potential in this series! The setting was fun, but the execution could've been better...

Thanks to Anabelle Bryant and Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review

The only reason I finished reading this book is because the story was interesting (at least for the first half). By the middle of the book, things became really predictable, and also annoying. It was clear who the villains were, but the story dragged on.
For a large part of the book, I was very miffed with the protagonists. Let's say it was the latter half that didn't live up to expectations:

Honestly, they're both idiots and I dislike their general stupidity. If they both think the other is so smart, why not mention all the suspicious people each has come across and actually compare notes, instead of sharing the bare minimum. I liked that she saved him a few times, but then he saved her too. So it felt less interesting.

Scarlett also really lacked perspective, and I was disappointed with the bonding of the Maidens of Mayhem.

I loved this book! It was very Eniola Holmes-ish set in regency era London. Scarlett and the Maidens of Mayhem fight for justice for the women and children who don’t have voices / aren’t heard in this time period. Scarlett’s good dress maker friend often provides her with everything she needs for fighting crime comfortably: female trousers, comfortable front fastening corsets and adaptations to clothes for carrying hidden weapons. Until, one day, she goes missing and Scarlett wonders if her disappearance has anything to do with the women disappearing from their evening jobs in brothels.

Scarlett is incredibly likeable as a character. I would love to read about the other Maidens of Mayhem and will definitely read more books by Anabelle Bryant! This was just the type of book that I needed after binging on Bridgerton. Scarlett isn’t one of the Ton, but she certainly plays the part well when she needs to uncover information about the disappearances.

The book also discusses part of England’s past that isn’t often discussed - that often, prostitution in that era was an economic necessity for some families. Scarlett may persuade her new love interest, Lord Aylesford, to bring about some changes in the House of Lords / Parliament to protect the rights of these women and bring about the much needed changes to some of the darker boroughs of London. But first, they must work together to find her friend...

The description and cover of this book totally reeled me in, but I found it a bit slow. I did find the groundwork interesting and important to the story however. It just felt like we were getting a lot of B roll in the beginning. Scarlett and Ambrose were great characters, and I am very interested to learn more about the Maidens of Mayhem, which I felt like could have been focused on a bit more in this book.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for ARC.I usually do not read books on this genre but i was intrigued to read and it was superb.This is one of the best historical romance fiction

The blurb was intriguing (as is the cover), but this didn't live up to the promise of the premise for me. "Maidens of Mayhem"/Robin Hood type vibes sounds great, but there's no mayhem and we don't even see much of a Robin Hood premise either. I guess they're subversive, but we don't get a lot of time with the maidens to understand how they were formed, what they do, and what their overall mission is. And sure, Scarlett can fight and use knives, but what else does she do with her day? Her hero isn't terribly exciting--he's a duke who talks all the time about his power to do things because he's a duke, but he also thinks that he can't marry Scarlett because she's a commoner and it's not done (but it's totally fine to sleep with her and ask her to be his mistress). Neither of them felt fully formed, and as a result, their chemistry is lacking.

The story itself is a blend of mystery and romance, but they aren't intertwined properly so it feels disjoined. Also, the mystery feels incomplete--there are certainly more people involved, but once the main baddies are dealt with, that was good enough for Scarlett and Ambrose. And Scarlett seems to forget all about Linie, who started the whole thing? I just couldn't get on board with this one.

This was a cute, but forgettable historical romance. The Maidens of Mayhem are a wonderful idea, but the main characters constant need to place herself in dangerous situations felt like a willful DID staging every time.