This checked off everything I look for in a book. Was not disappointed. Really enjoyed this book. I will read more from this author.

A beautiful story of romance, redemption and rebellion. Can leopards change their spots? This book thoroughly examines that. A wonderful read from Minerva Spencer who continuously knocks it out the park when it comes to tackling issues in regency romances.

Ten years ago Celia, the most popular and beautiful of her social set, did something horrific. Now she has fallen on hard times and is forced to be a companion for an elderly lady. While attending a house party prior to a wedding she is put straight back with the clique she used to run.

Richard was one of the targets of Celias cruelty, now he is a gorgeous, wealthy man who knows what he wants, and he wants Celia.

The third in The Rebels of the Ton series. This series just keeps getting better.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Wow... this book was... wow.

The Rebels of the Ton series has been quite an adventure for me. I have had my ups and downs with it, but one thing that is always true is the very compelling characters that the author writes. She doesn't shy away from giving a character some unfavorable traits, and sometimes makes them almost unlikeable. But of course, characters... and people too are more than what we see at the beginning. And growing with them, watching them learn a lesson or two and come out stronger is the beauty of being a reader.

This book is about Celia Trent a.k.a. Mrs. Pehlam. Who went from Society diamond and mean girl to being a lady's companion. When she was young and reckless and cruel she made some mistakes and she meddled in some peoples lives in unavoidable ways and then she had a fall from grace, that was inevitable for her but hidden to the Ton until it happened.

10 years later, she goes to a house party with her patroness and is thrust back into the lives of those she wronged. It is a humbling experience, but also a spark to make change happen all around her.

Richard was a man that Celia had mocked and tried to ruin. When what she really did was ruin his twin, by accident. But Richard is a scientist and has an academic mind that doesn't hold grudges for the past and in fact, he is fascinated by Celia and wants to know her better than he ever did before.

This story also spends a good amount of time focusing on Phyillida and Lucian, the couple that Celia forced into marriage by a prank gone wrong. They have spend years at arms length and their marriage is about to get a revamp in a way they never expected. Will the coldness melt away into passion or will they stay doomed to impersonal bed chamber visits once a month?

I just ached for everyone in this book, more than I usually like to, in fact, but as I said.... it was so compelling. I couldn't wait to see how it all worked out. I liked seeing a former mean girl get her redemption, and to find out what made her that way in the first place. Not as an excuse but as a look into why hurt people hurt people... this book really goes there and I was riveted.

This book won't be for everyone, I know that right now but I will be passionate in it's defense and I look forward to seeing people give it a chance.

Lady Infamous has some secrets to share and you will want to be there when she does.

4.5/5 stars

I was given an ARC of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
3.75 stars.

Infamous is the story of Celia and the Redvers. It starts ten years before the main event. You read about Celia’s insecurities, her hope to marry a handsome and wealthy lord and her fear for her reputation.
Then there are the twins, Lucien and Richard. Lucien, or Luce as his brother calls him, is the older twin, so he’s set to inherit the family title and wealth. Richard is the geeky, nerdy twin, with the glasses and the insect obsession. Of course Celia wishes to marry Luce. But on that evening, a prank goes wrong.

Flash forward 10 years. Celia is working as a companion for an old, cranky lady and her pets. Luce is married to the wallflower of the ton and Richard is an accomplice scientist, even being awarded knighthood. Up comes the wedding of the twins sister to the biggest bully of the ton.

The story started a bit too slow for me. Halfway through I was tempted to skip a few chapters ahead. I didn’t in the end, but I was severely tempted. It was a fun story, ofcourse with a HEA.

If you like historical romances in the style of Bridgerton, I really recommend this book!

I loved this book...We have the mean girl Celia who was misunderstood! Know one really knew her background or what she was going thru, not that that was reason for her to treat people the way that she did, but she did pay for it. And she readjusted her life and she became a better person for it and ended up being my favorite person in the book. The we have Richard, Richard was the ugly duckling brother, the one who was teased but boy did he make a come back. Now Richard had always had a crush on Celia even though years ago Celia was supposed to in thought marry his brother, but due to circumstances that never happened. You have to read the story and read all of the situations on how these two get reacquainted and get a second chance at love...We get secondary characters from previous books..

I enjoyed the book very much. The characters all had unusual depth and the plot had an unusual twist compared to typical regencies. The heroine, Celia, is a former mean girl and bully who gets caught in her own machinations, leading to a fall from grace that has her going from debutante to upper servant. Years later, she is forced to go to a house party that is given by the family of the people she most injured. The hero, Richard, is a former despised nerd who has blossomed into a handsome and respected scientist. He is still more of an observer of others than one who is socially adept but is both brilliant and sexually confident. He also has always been attracted to Celia. Richard's brother Lucien and his wife Phil were the victims of Celia's plotting years before and they are still suffering from the effects. There is a vicious villain, the Duke of Dowden, who had a bigger role in the past disaster than anyone but Celia knows. and is now engaged to Richard and Lucien's sister. The underlying tensions at this party kept me riveted while I waited for everything to boil over. The only issues I had were small inaccuracies that should have been caught. Examples:, the expression "give me the truth with no bark on it" was used in reverse to it's actual meaning, a snow globe was mentioned when snow globes weren't invented until the 20th century and other things like that. Maybe the book can be edited for future printing? Otherwise, I recommend it.

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

Infamous for as another delight from Minerva Spencer! I loved Outrageous, and Infamous was another hit in my books.

The characters had a strong chemistry after their initial meetup, and I loved reading further along. At the halfway point it really took off and had me hooked, it was a fantastic book.

Richard Redvers is a naturalistic scientist and very intelligent except with women. Where his twin, Lucien is a golden god and has no trouble with women. Lucien had decided to ask Miss Celia Trent to marry him the next day. But she was a very mean person in those days. The Duke of Dowden, Sebastion hates Richard. He has thought of a prank but he does not want to dirty his hands so he makes Celia help him. It backfires and Celia is caught. Her name is smeared all over town, newspapers, gossip, you name it. She has to leave London. She goes home and her father has left. She has no idea where he went but she doubts he will ever come back.
This is a most enjoyable book. So much meanness and cruelty from Celia's group of friends. It is well written and entertaining. The characters endear themselves to you. The story becomes even more interesting. The author has taken all the little strings and woven them into an amazing novel. It is for people over eighteen. But still a marvelous read.
I received this ARC from Net Galley and voluntarily reviewed it.

A book worthy of five stars!

TW: rape and abuse, exploitation

I really enjoyed this book. It had a great albeit a-bit-confusing-at-start storyline. Nevertheless, I absolutely loved it and the characters too!

There's a great character development of all our main characters-one thing that I would like to point out at this moment is that it has different PoVs, actually 4 PoVs, it amounted to us getting another love story(with a great trope) in the same book.

The best thing about this book is that it has various tropes. My fav among them is the mean girl reformed trope. I loved Celia Trent(although I kept forgetting her last name throughout the book because for me there is only ever one Celia-Celia Bowen). The most adorable/sexy character award goes to our own Richard!!!!

The book has angst and a will they-won't they factor with a couple 0f really hot scenes thrown in the mix!!

EDIT: One of the other things I like about this book is that the author has included some well known names in the history and this book and I can truly say that I seems that this fit perfectly according to the timeline!

This series just keeps getting better. "Infamous" is the third installment in Minerva Spencer's "Rebels of the Ton" historical British romance series and it's not what I was expecting.

I thought the third book would focus on Eva's sister Mel, after so much mention of her and hints at possible beaus in the previous book, but instead we veer off into the Redvers family and twins Lucien and Richard take center stage. The synopsis only mentions Richard & Celia, but you get two love stories for the price of one in this one, folks! A redemption romance for Richard and Celia and a second chance romance for Lucien and Phyllida.

These smart, sexy romantic leads will ruin you for real men. Every time Spencer mentioned RIchard's glasses or he talked about entomology I swooned. Sexy times come about 70% of the way through the book and are moderately steamy. The flirty dialog is stellar and had me giggling and reading out loud (always a sign of great dialog when you want to act it out).

This book has a clear villain and a decent plot (to uncover the villain's true nature and absolve Celia enough to make you okay with Richard loving her - which I'm not okay with btw, he's MINE.) The writing is well done and it holds your attention and is hard to put down.

Annnnd, I've just figured out that I need to read Spencer's "The Outcasts" series to get the stories behind these heart warming families. "The Rebels of the Ton" are the kids of "The Outcasts" couples. So now my TBR pile just grew by three more books. Happy Reading indeed!

𝙸𝚗𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚋𝚢 𝙼𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚊 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 @𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚊_𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛
𝙺𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 @𝚔𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜
#𝚁𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚜𝚘𝚏𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚃𝚘𝚗
𝙿𝚞𝚋 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝟸𝟾 𝚂𝚎𝚙 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷

𝙰 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕 𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚍...
.
𝙰 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚘 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚍...

𝙸𝚗𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚋𝚢 𝙼𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚊 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚍 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚃𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜.
𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚗 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔. 𝙲𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚊 𝚃𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚞𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚜 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕. 𝚂𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚙𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜, 𝚂𝚎𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝙳𝚘𝚠𝚍𝚎𝚗. 𝚆𝚑𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚍𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚃𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚜, 𝚁𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍. 𝚂𝚎𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚞𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝙲𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚊, 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚒𝚝 𝚊 𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚙𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚍, 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏.

𝙻𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝙲𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚊 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚛 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝟷𝟶 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚛. 𝚂𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚊 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚝𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚊 𝚕𝚊𝚍𝚢'𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗.

𝙻𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙻𝚞𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚗 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎 𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚜. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚐𝚘 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚠𝚗. 𝙻𝚞𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎. 𝚆𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚘𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚠𝚔𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍.

𝙵𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚁𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍, 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚍, 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝙲𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚊 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚑𝚒𝚖𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝚊 𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗. 𝙸𝚗 𝚊 𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚊 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚁𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝.

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚋𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚝 𝚘𝚗.
𝚁𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚢 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎, 𝚒𝚗 𝙼𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚊 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚃𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜. 𝚃𝚘 𝚖𝚎 𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚢. 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚞𝚙 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍. 𝙰 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚊 𝚍𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚜𝚠𝚘𝚘𝚗 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚢 𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎.


#Romance #HistoricalRomance #Historical #HistoricalFiction #Regency #MinervaSpencer @gwendalyn_books_ #KensingtonBooks #Booksta #Bookstagram #Bookstagrammer
#Romance #HistoricalRomance #Historical #HistoricalFiction #Regency

This was my first read from this author and it was an highly enjoyable! Well written, well plotted, and well executed. I connected with Richard from the very first scene.

I can't wait to read more from this author.

With the Rebel of the Ton books, Minerva Spencer is officially on the auto-buy list for me. I adored this entire series so much. No one writes razor-sharp dialogue and laugh-out-loud scenes quite the way Minerva Spencer does.

Celia was such a complex, interesting heroine to follow. I'm not sure I've ever read enemies to lovers take quite like this one. Celia is more of the villain at the beginning of the book, yet it's impossible not to sympathize with what's happened to her. As a fellow awkward introvert, I empathized with Richard right from the opening scene.

One of the things that really impressed me about this book was how invested I was in every single character. Luce, Phil, the younger siblings – even very minor characters like the servants – are vivid, realistic, and empathetic. Spencer maneuvers between all the POVs so deftly. I really loved everything about this book. Highly recommend for fans of historical and enemies to lovers. This is a fabulous romance.

The synopsis is below:
Infamous follows town darling Celia in her debut season and her intertwined fate with twins Richard and Lucian, Both think Celia is the most beautiful woman they've ever seen, and Luce has already asked permission to propose to her the day after the ball.

But the night of the ball goes horribly awry, and Luce ends up locked in a room with one of the season's wallflowers, Phil. Only – Celia wanted to trap Richard – the awkward, gangly twin – not the handsome one she was supposed to marry. When it's discovered that Celia is responsible for the scandal, she's ruined.

Ten years later, Luce and Phil are one of the power couples of London, successfully married with two children. Richard is living his dream of traveling the world. Celia is now a widowed maid who has lost everything as an outcast of society. She's learned her lesson and works hard to be a better, more humble person.

Richard, the studious twin that Celia used to ridicule has become the handsome one. Is he as infatuated with her as he once was? Will he still want Celia when he learns what she's been through and what really happened all those years ago?

This is one of author's finest works.this book has many interesting secondary characters.


.loved this story completely.
Celia was the most unique character.
I loved catching the glimpse of Hugh and Daphne and Eva and Godric.
I am so intrigued about Antonia ,I hope the author has a story for her.
One thing common about this series is that the females protagonists don't fit the mould of conventional Virgin/widows of regency.
After Dangerous,Infamous is your best work along with Melissa and the vicar.
Richard and Celia love story outshines Lucian and Phil's story.
One thing I thought was left unresolved that the evil Duke doesn't gets his comeuppance.
I strongly recommend this book

Ok, so just to start, this book is well written, well plotted and well executed. That being said, this was not my cup of tea. I thought at first that was because I hadn’t read the first two books so I went back and read the first one on Kindle Unlimited. Once I had that one under my belt, I dove back into this one. Still not my cup of tea but I think this is truly a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” I’m not sure why exactly because I love this genre but alas…give this one a try. I can see how the right readers would adore this series.

Minerva Spencer does it again! Wow…Infamous is the best in her Rebel of the Ton series. Deeply emotional, sexy and utterly captivating Infamous shows characters 10 years ago and in the present (Regency era present). Like a great reveal at your 10 year college reunion….the nerd, the mean girls, the BMOC….everyone and everything changes.

This is quite a long and convoluted story about a mean and spiteful woman, Celia. She has a trick she plays on someone backfire into scandal and disgrace for her. Years later she is a servant who visits the country house of the family she tried to ruin. Richard, the object of her ridicule, forgives her and still finds himself attracted to her. Though Celia has been manipulated by others, I still find her transformation suspect. I received an ARC from NetGalley and Kensington Books for my honest review.

I requested this book because I loved Dangerous. I wanted to read more of Minerva Spencer and get a better idea of the author and her style.

Now, this book is the third one in the Revels of the Ton series, and is about Celia and Richard. Celia, who was a bully toward Richard when they were younger, had now changed as a person after a prank goes wrong. She is now a paid companion and meets Richard at his sister's wedding.

So, since reading this, I've also read The Music of Love and Notorious. The angst level is high in this one, just as in her other books (at least compared to the ones that I've read).

The thing that I genuinely loved is that Celia's growth reads so well. I really find it believable and find that her redemption was written well. I loved Richard from the first. The characters were well done and well written. The beginning of the book was not paced well. I found it sort of unnecessary. The second half is much better. Richard and Celia's relationship gets moving during the second half and although it's a little late, I started to enjoy myself much more.

I actually liked the side story between Phil and Luce and, unpopular opinion, kind of wanted the story to be about them. I found myself craving for more moments between these two and more relationship development here. I'm not a huge side-story fan bc this always happens to me. I end up loving the other relationship more and wanted a full book about it.

I will ay that, after having read four books from her, I don't know if Minerva Spencer is the author for me personally. The angst level, even in The Music of Love, wasn't for me and the lack of communication between the LIs is such a persistent problem in many of Spencer's books. I don't know if I'll read or request another Spencer book, but I'm happy to have read this in the end.

This was my first read from this author and it was an enjoyable read! Great cast of characters. I can't wait to read more from this author.