“Quirky”! “Hilarious!” People are raving about this book. But for me? Eh. I felt it was very slow. Also I just could not buy into this world. It was too weird. The writing kept taking me out of the story. But everyone else likes it, so it just may not be for me.

One of my favorite books of the year. What a weird, wild, and wonderful journey. I had moments of actually cackling to myself reading this book because of the witty, sarcastic humor sprinkled throughout. I can honestly say I have never read a book like this and I am so beyond happy I picked this up. The heroine is loyal, smart, and sassy (my kind of lady) which leads to a perfectly thriller ride. Cannot recommend enough.

What an exciting start to this series! Whip smart, extremely entertaining, and laugh out loud funny! I can't wait to read more. I also must note that the cover is one of my favorites, truly stunning!

This is the first in the Dangerous Damsels series. But these are no damsels in distress. Cecilia Bassingwaite is not your typical shrinking violet. She's a thief and a good one, as are the other members of the Wisteria society, a sorority of criminals. Like most sororities, they're doing fine until the men show up. Ned Lighthouse is an assasin sent to put an end to Cecilia, but he falls in love with her instead. Captain Morvath is not in love, he intends to do away with the Wisteria Society and all annoying women. Cecilia is forced to work with Ned Lighthouse to free the Society from Morvath's criminal intentions and prove that she, and the Wisteria Society can be scoundrels with the best of them! What a fun read! I really enjoyed it as will anyone who likes a great, fun mystery. Readers who enjoy books like Victoria Thompson's Gaslight mysteries and Counterfeit Lady novels will love the Wisteria Society. I look forward to the next in the series. Thanks to Net Galley for the chance to read the ARC.

This is a kissing book. It is also probably one of my favorite books of the year.

I thought about this book constantly since I finished it, and I still don’t know how to string words together. I have too many emotions, and some of them don’t really make sense. It’s more like inaudible noises that only book readers know just by the sound of it. I’m frothing at the mouth, like a dog. Suddenly I’ve lost all sense of my humanity, and it’s all India Holton’s fault.

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels is a romance with the likeness (and the vibes) of The Princess Bride and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. It’s got that fast dialogue and British humor familiar in Goldman and Pratchett’s writing but amplifies everything in brilliant writing and feminism.

The Wisteria Society has got a problem on its hands. Their flying houses are being stolen, not only that, but Captain Morvath, or rather Dread Captain Morvath, is dead set on destroying this whimsical group of lady pirates. So rather than discuss knitting patterns and explosives, they are obligated to take down this gothic-obsessed villain.

They have exactly three laws. No killing civilians, pour the tea before the milk, and no stealing each other’s houses.

If you’ve ever wanted a true enemies-to-lovers romance, this is the book you want. It’s like this. Imagine the scene where Inigo Montoya and Westley are trying to kill each other. It’s that ‘I’m interested in you as a person, but unfortunately I’m obligated to kill you’ *whips out sword*

Enemies-to-lovers is all about the tension between two people on opposite sides of the goal/team/family/etc. It’s the yearning, the tension, the ‘I cannot believe I am thinking about kissing the life out of my sworn enemy! Perish the thought!’ Holton is deliciously talented at a lot of things but especially this.

Absolutely every scene kills. It’s starting to look like a favorite to me, probably because I’ve already listed it as a favorite on my Goodreads shelf.

A pirate princess opens the door to a grinning pirate and slams it in his face. Reader, meet Cecilia and Ned. They are fluff, sweetness, spice, and guns drawn at dawn.

Every single character walks off the scene as if they live their own life. Generic and forgetful characters are not in Holton’s vocabulary. I can absolutely imagine the most minuscule side characters in their fullest, most epic lives. One character, in particular, is my favorite. And word has it he’s in the companion novel.

Give me loud swashbuckling pirates, and I’m a happy girl. Holton managed to give me plot, romance, prose, humor, and originality in a single rom-com. The balance that it takes to write something this good? I’m in awe.

Even Captain Morvath, a revenge-obsessed idiot, feels so raw that he almost reminded me of Michael from the Office. He believes himself to be serious at every moment, but to everyone else, including the reader, he’s an embarrassment. He’s only got himself to blame. I found him hilarious and real in the same way I found Michael’s rage that everyone but him kept laughing. His belief in his power continuously gets cut down by his own actions and by the Wisteria Society, making him into the fool of the story. I loved every bit of it, but most especially because he felt like a real person in the same way that an idiot in power is real.

I loved every word, from Cecilia’s pearl-handed revolver to the Irish pirate to the ‘let’s kill each other slowly’ vibes. It’s the type of book I want to see more of in publishing but especially romantic fantasy. India Holton has stolen my heart, and I’d like to see her do it again.

While this is definitely an interesting concept, I just felt the story was all over the place and felt a disconnect with the characters throughout. I'm sure there are readers out there that might appreciate this brand of quirky storytelling, it just wasn't me.

I didn't publish this review, but I did feature the book on my Sunday Post.

This is outside my typical genre and I LOVED IT! I enjoyed all the different genre at play. I will have to keep this author on my radar because this was a great read. It has great humor and it was for sure a unique story. Highly suggest you pick it up.

I don't know what I expected going into this novel, but it certainly wasn't this, and I have never been so pleased to be taken by complete surprise by a book.

This is a whimsical story of proper lady pirates who fly houses rather than sail ships (yes, you read that correctly, they fly houses--the houses fly. By magic. And are usually equipped by cannons, because...these are pirates we're talking about). And while assassination attempts may be a regular occurrence within the Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, that does not excuse poor manners.

Our heroine, Cecilia, is the perfect lady as well as a formidable thief and fighter, but what she really wants (other than revenge on her father and to be fully accepted into the Wisteria Society) is to curl up with a good book and be left alone. And what could be more relatable than that? When Captain Ned Lightbourne appears on her doorstep having been sent to assassinate her, however, things get...complicated.

This book is laugh out loud funny. And I mean genuinely, I was laughing every few pages. The writing is straightforward about the most whimsical aspects of the story, and provides hilarious commentary throughout. I've seen it compared to The Princess Bride, which I find fitting, but it struck me as almost Wes Anderson-esque as well. It's dry and witty and somehow colorful, the characters all leapt off the page, and Cecilia and Ned's chemistry is palpable.

From the table of characters at the very beginning, I was completely enamored by this book. It jumped straight to being one of my all-time favorites, and I can't wait to see what the second book in the series has in store!

Witty, fun and just the right amount of mystery.
The relationship felt slightly strained in some spots, but Holton managed to bring it all back together very well. Looking forward to more from India Holton!

BOOK REVIEW: The Wisteria Society Of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

Funny historical romance with strong female characters who can equally present an afternoon tea and a solid “punch” too!… ✨😎✨

--------------------

All my reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Books, Lifestyle & Home Ideas for Simple Living | Denise Wilbanks at www.thisismyeverybody.com

You can see my complete book feature on The Wisteria Society Of Lady Scoundrels at https://www.thisismyeverybody.com/books/funny-historical-romance-novels-the-wisteria-society-of-lady-scoundrels-india-holton

♡ A big thank you to India Holton, Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in my reviews and content are my own… ✨😎✨

Cecilia has done all the things required of a proper lady: she can recite poetry and embroider cushions, she always wears her gloves and a carries a parasol, her manners are impeccable and she can pour the perfect cup of tea, and she’s stolen numerous jewels and can shoot a canon with ease. Not to mention that someone is now trying to assassinate her! So why is she still sitting at the kids table of the Wisteria Society’s latest meeting with Jane Fairweather, who has not so much as robbed a bank?! When the whole Society is kidnapped however, Cecelia sees her chance to finally move up to the rank of full lady pirate, and together with the rakish Ned, erstwhile spy/pirate/would be assassin who keeps threatening to kiss her, they set off on a wild adventure across England.

It is so hard to describe this whimsical, adventurous, streamy, and silly in the best possible way novel. Truly @india.holton has crafted one of the most original—and delightful!—alternate worlds I’ve ever come across. From flying castles and abbeys to a send up of bad poetry and ridiculous society manners, I fell in love with Cecelia, Ned, Miss. Darlington, Oply, and all the rest from the first pitch perfect chapter title to the last page. If you are looking for a novel that is just pure, unadulterated FUN (with one of the most 🔥🔥🔥 bedroom scenes I can remember) I cannot recommend this more.

Romance readers often discuss historical romances as a kind of shared fantasy setting full of improbable dukes bristling with abs and feminism; India Holton’s nimble debut novel, THE WISTERIA SOCIETY OF LADY SCOUNDRELS (Berkley, 336 pp., paper, $16), takes aim at that idea and blasts it out of the sky with a barrage of bloodthirsty charm. It’s the kind of book for which the word “rollicking” was invented.

Do not be taken in by the sweetness of the cover: This story is so outrageously bonkers that it ends up creating its own surreal logic. Of course a letter opener has a hidden rapier blade. Of course a respectable lady’s house in Mayfair is equipped with a flying spell and can sail to Bath to elude enemies. Assassination contracts are as good as a letter of introduction, and stealing your target’s bracelet is merely an attempt at flirtation (especially if she simultaneously steals your fountain pen).

And then everyone is in the air firing artillery at everyone else, and lies and treachery abound, and several people get repeatedly and casually shot, stabbed, concussed, exploded and brained with an emerald crown.

This book has considered realism and punted it out the highest available window. Holton is having as much fun as the English language will permit — the prose shifts constantly from silly to sublime and back, sometimes in the course of a single sentence. And somehow in all the melodrama and jokes and hilariously mangled literary references, there are moments of emotion that cut to the quick — the way a profound traumatic experience can overcome you years later. The instant you know you’ve fallen in love with exactly the person you shouldn’t. The moment you realize the way you’ve always solved problems has become its own problem, and now you have to find a way to unlearn it for your very survival. That last one, admittedly, does involve cannons, but it was very incisive all the same.

This is a crazy, fantastical, romp of a historical fiction ride. With lady pirates/privateers and flying houses. Equally hilarious and tender, this is a purely fun read - sure to entertain. Recommended for fans of The Bridgertons who enjoys a touch of the ridiculous! Thanks to NetGalley for my advance review copy.

The second I started this book I knew it was going to be enjoyable...it was such a different type of historical romance that I just couldn't put it down and I loved every second of it.

Cecilia Bassingwaite isn't your typical Victorian lady. She is a member of the Wisteria Society crime sorority and alongside her aunt and other members, she steals and blackmails to obtain treasure...and a place within the Society. Ned Lightbourne is an assassin who is contracted to kill Cecilia but he has other plans...he also has some secrets that come to light throughout the book but I'm not going to tell you any of that because that makes the story even more interesting.

I loved the way Cecilia and Ned were with each other. There was plenty of banter and some swoony bits that made this about more than a group of women who fly around in houses and try to avoid the man/men who are out to kill them.

If you're looking for a story that will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next and what new, odd thing might occur, definitely consider picking this book up. It was highly entertaining and I'll definitely be looking forward to more from India Holton!

What I thought might be a fun, quirky read turned out to be just a bit too much. The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels had way too much going on. Pirates, assassins, and flying houses, it was definitely overkill. The plot was definitely lacking, and I couldn’t connect to the characters. It all just seemed a bit silly after while and became rather boring. Unfortunately, the aspects that I thought would be refreshing turned out to be a miss for me.

Holly hell, this is way too much entertaining, hilarious, witty to be accompanied by tea and biscuits ( of course I added at least four drops of bourbon into my tea : that’s why I giggle too loud and luckily you cannot hear the ear bleeding villanelle laugh I’m performing!)

It’s a great combination of espionage, fairy tal-ish fantasy, smart action, regency romance with very smart and sarcastic sense of humor!

Review excerpted from my blog post over at Titillated Termagant Romance Reviews (https://titillatedtermagant.wordpress.com/2021/07/02/the-wisteria-society-of-lady-scoundrels-by-india-holton/)

My Rating: 4.0 stars

Library recommendation: Recommended for public library historical romance collections.

Warning: Hereafter, you chance spoilers. I will try never to reveal major plot points, but to review any book, you must reveal some parts of the story.


_______________

Number of titles I have read by this author: 1

Love story speed: Slow-ish burn

Relationship dynamics: The Pirate Assassin (H) / The Lady Pirate (h)

Physical descriptions: Cecilia: blue eyes and red-gold hair; Ned: blues eyes and blonde hair. Stature is not really a focus in the book.

Sexual content: A smidge; on-page and explicit

Triggers: Underage female fooling around with an of-age guy (off-page, not h/H); lawlessness and violence.

Grammar/Editing: My ARC had a couple of typos.

Review: This book is best described as a romp, bordering on a farce. This is Victorian England turned on its head. Indeed, the world has magic. The women are also greater than men. However, they have some of the same strange social etiquette and insistence on women being ignorant or everything to do with sex. This is a feminist text, for certain, but I found that it swings the pendulum a little to far; men are shown as rather stupid, irrational creatures, and while I understand that that is part of the concept of role reversal, I didn’t find it very satisfying. I would rather see equality than one-sided dominance. In addition, if you enjoy law-abiding characters, this is not the book for you. All characters are entirely adverse to law-abiding behaviour and show no remorse, regardless of how their behaviour may affect others.

Cecilia and Ned are the main characters in this book. Cecilia can be catty with her peers. She is not sentimental unless it relates to piracy. That being said, she is not a damsel in distress. If anyone is going to save her from a bad situation, it will be herself. Ned is a charmer and a bit bumbling, at least in comparison to Cecilia, but he finds everything about her to be wonderful. Cecilia’s career coming first drives the tension in their relationship, at least insofar as the question of barriers to their being together in the end. That he might assassinate her barely registers in terms of strikes against his character. I would go so far as to describe their relationship as cute and a bit of a lark. There are a fair few supporting characters in this book, and they are all pirates and/or scoundrels. They are mostly friends with one another, but also all out to get one another. I think I could have done with a bit more stability in the supporting characters to contrast with the main characters. It was all just a lot of the same thing over and over in the book. I also found the villain to be pretty much ineffectual, although I suspect that that may have been the point.

Full disclosure: I received a free advance review copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton was not at all what I was expecting... I am not sure what exactly I was expecting but this was not quite it. Nonetheless! I found this book to be highly entertaining, comical and an easy, enjoyable read. You don't think of scoundrels, mischief, thieves and murders when yo think of high society, tea times, white gloves and etiquette - but this book twists it all together for a really fun read! Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Pub for a copy of this book for review!

This historical fiction romance is an absolute GEM! It is so unique from anything I have ever read before. I mean come on, flying houses and espionage with some piracy sprinkled in there?! Literally never been done before!

All of the women in this book are badasses! Like major, hold my tea while I pull a damn pistol and knife from my stocking badasses. This book grabs you by the neck and does not let you go. I laughed way too many times, all of the characters were just so witty! There was non-stop hilarious dialogue and world-building that kept you on the edge of your seat.

I don’t even want to go into massive detail about the plot because it is so outlandish - you have to experience it for yourself! You have to experience it firsthand to really get why I was absolutely loving every second I spent reading it.

Consider me an official India Holton fangirl! 🥰