When I first discovered that the second book in Joanna Shupe's The Fifth Avenue Rebels series will feature Alice Lusk and Christopher "Kit" Ward, I was quite surprised. Alice and Kit seems to be very opposite. Alice is shy and quite. Kit is charming and a bit of a player. I couldn't really imagine them as a couple.

Well, I am SO PLEASANTLY surprised that I find Alice and Kit to be ADORABLE AND SWEET together!! Despite the initial differences in characters, it appears that Alice and Kit totally share one thing: insecurities. Alice thinks that she is too boring, too 'ordinary', and no men will ever like her for who she is (I fully blame Alice's mom for this!). Alice thinks men are only attracted with her size of dowry. Kit is saddled with thoughts that maybe he's just a pretty face, that he is not as smart (and this is totally Kit's father's fault!)

This book sets in the same timeline with The Heiress Hunt - apparently Alice brazenly asks Kit to help her - to understand men, to teach her how to interact with men, so that Alice can find a husband for love (not for her dowry). Kit is aghast at first, but then when he learns that Alice can help secure recipes from a well-sought chef (Kit needs this for his supper club), Kit decides to make a deal with Alice. Lessons for recipes. Only, well, Kit realizes that he wants Alice for himself...

I LOVE THEIR MOMENTS!!! I love how they learn about each other's dreams and fears. I love that Alice understands Kit like no other, and that Kit helps Alice to become more confident of herself. They believe in each other. They are SOLID together. I ADORE them so much! Their romantic progress feels tender - that the two of them become stronger because of the other person. And when Kit finally tries to convince Alice how much he loves her, and that he wants to marry her, well, that scene is SUCH A DELIGHT.

Even that epilogue! It shows how much Kit is proud of Alice, of what she can achieve with her love for cooking. And that Alice will always love Kit more and better than anyone else. SIGH. TRUE LOVE! 💙

If there is one thing that I strongly dislike here is Alice's horrid mother. Shupe tends to write horrible parents, and I start to dread it. Even the next book seems to have another parents' issue (Preston Clarke, Kit and Harrison's friend will be the main male character there, and it is said in this book that his dad is not a good one). I would love, one of these days, for Shupe's character to have loving set of parents who adore their children.

Oh, and also, I wonder why Shupe needs to add that one particular plot with the men's other best friend, Forrest Ripley. FULL spoiler, Forrest meets his demise here in a gruesome way. Is that meant to be part of Kit's character development? 🤷

Aside from those two issues, I will still count this book a good one, and definitely better than The Heiress Hunt. Look forward to Preston and Katharine's book next year.



The ARC is provided by the publisher via Netgalley for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.

On the surface, Alice and Kit couldn't be more different. She's a seemingly shy sparrow with an overbearing mother. He's a handsome, charming rogue with women of all ages fluttering around him. And yet, both of them hide self-doubt in opposite ways and it's fascinating to see the slow-burn romance that begins when she asks for his help in how to seduce a man so that the man doesn't end up marrying her solely for her dowry (which is what her mother insists is the only reason a man would look at her). Alice also hides her passion for cooking (so low-class, according to her mother), but Kit sees her in an entirely new light once he sees her confidence when she cooks. I love how Alice and Kit bring out the best in each other and how they overcome the obstacles in their path to a HEA. The story opens in the same house party that was the setting for The Heiress Hunt, and revisits a number of the characters from that book. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and highly recommend it.

Oooof.

I was so excited when I got this ARC. There's nothing I love more than a rake, I loved the Uptown Girls series by Joanna Shupe, and this cover is so sensual. However, I was, on the whole, disappointed with this one. For a wallflower/rake, kissing lessons story, I didn't feel like this book delivered any of those sufficiently I found Alice to be a really timid, meek, old-school heroine, and I didn't feel really satisfied with her evolution by the end. Kit, the hero, was really soft, and particularly unrake-like, and the kissing lessons just fell kind of flat.

I think that the larger arc of the series (all four books take place at the same time, with overlapping timelines and characters) is overshadowing each individual story. I'm really excited about the series, and I am biting my nails to know the next two love stories, but I think that individually, these books do feel like parts of a puzzle instead of standing alone first.

This project is ambitious, and I am still eager to see how it continues.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC.

CW: restrictive eating, controlling parent, accidental death, alcohol abuse

A solid historical romance. It comes packed with everything you need to enjoy a romance: timid wallflower doing it for herself. A rakish richie rich trying to make a name for himself. Love lessons that lead to...well, love. I actually enjoyed seeing the characters from the previous book in it. That was well woven inside the story without skipping a beat or making you question who was who.

I enjoyed reading, The Lady Gets Lucky. The story dragged a bit every once in a while. I guess I can only take being told how shy a girl is. I get it already I said at one point. The second half of the book was the best. I'm glad I gave it a shot.

Heiress Alice Lusk wants to become a siren to escape her fate of being married solely for fortune. She's also secretly becoming an excellent chef thanks to the tutelage of her family's hotel chef. Her connection to this master of cuisine (and her own secret prowess) land her into a sexy pact with rake and party boy Christopher “Kit” Ward, who is looking to start his own supper club. He'll exchange siren lessons for recipes, discovering along the way he's entered a bargain that will cost him his heart.

While I did not connect with The Heiress Hunt, I ate up The Lady Gets Lucky like one of Alice's babkas. Serious chemistry, painfully delicious pining, and oh so much steamy goodness, I loved it. Shupe also deftly interwove a difficult plotline involving Kit's friend's alcoholism.

CW: emotional abuse from a parent, parental manipulation, alcoholism, death of a secondary character

Thank you to Avon for the advance copy.

Plot: I loved this book! Reading about Alice and Kit falling in love, while also dealing with their own insecurities, was so nice, and I absolutely love them as a couple! I also loved that Alice loves to cook! That was really unique for a historical romance. Plus, I loved the ending!

Characters: All of the characters were fantastic, really well developed, with great personalities!

The Cover: It's good!

Overall: I loved this book so much! It was a fantastic historical romance, that I highly recommend reading!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Lady Gets Lucky is the first book that I've read by Joanna Shupe and surprisingly, I enjoyed it way more than I have expected. I've always been a fan of the type of plot that this book delivers. Two people having a lesson of seduction but ended up falling in love? Yes, this trope is an absolute *chef kiss*. In this story, Kit & Alice gave me exactly what I want. They gave me the greatest buzz that I can't help but adore the entire story including these two characters. They have completely stolen my heart. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I think Joanna has done a good job in delivering the story of The Lady Gets Lucky. I highly recommend to those who are a fan of historical romance to try out this book!

I utterly adored this book! The Lady Gets Lucky more than delivers on its gorgeous cover with a sexy, seduction lessons story and a delicious foodie subplot! I loved that both Alice and Kit had ambitions above and beyond what their stations in life dictated.

The book starts at Maddie Webster's house party in Newport (which also features in book one in the series), but
keeps a tighter timeline focusing on our shy heiress Alice Lusk and Kit Ward, the charmer she enlists for help. For me, book one was just ok, and now I know why. The juiciest story from that house party was Alice and Kit! I l also loved that The Lady Gets Lucky also continued to fill out Nellie's story, setting her up for her own book.

Like the Rogues of Fifth Avenue series before it, Joanna Shupe continues to create female main characters committed to breaking the mold, pairing them with partners who wholeheartedly support them following their passions.

Love it, love it, love it.

CW: emotionally abusive mother, alcoholism, death as a result of a train accident

📖 Review 📖
The Lady Gets Lucky by Joanna Shupe

This book contained so many of my favorite things: kissing lessons; a wallflower with an unconventional ambition and a terrible mother; a rake with daddy issues who thinks he’s dumb but isn’t; sick/sad comfort (so much comfort); finger-licking; drunken confessions. I will try not to let that make me biased. This book was just so enjoyable. It was surprisingly low-angst for one that deals with some heavy subject matter, albeit briefly, with the help of some very sweet, young love romance vibes. These characters were memorable and fun to spend time with, and despite the presence of many side characters, the story most often stayed focused on the central characters, which I appreciated. If you are looking for a fun, feel-good historical romance, this is a great one!

A Historical Romance set in Gilded Age Newport, New York, and Boston, this book follows the relationship of wallflower Alice Lusk and rakish scoundrel Christopher "Kit" Ward. Alice is an interminable wallflower, painfully shy and downtrodden from the cruel words of an overbearing mother. At a house party in Newport, she decides to take her life into her own hands by asking Kit, a man purported to turn even the shiest of women into a vixen, to give her lessons on men so that she can find a husband and escape her current circumstances. In exchange, she'll provide him with recipes from a world-renown chef for his new supper club in New York. But as the lessons progress and they get to know one another, an unexpected relationship begins to develop, and they are forced to examine themselves, their pasts, and each other to figure out how to navigate their futures.

The highlight of this book is the characterization. The plot is character-driven within a slice-of-gilded-age-life. There is not a secondary plot running parallel to the development of Alice and Kit's relationship; instead, the various events used to move the plot along (such as the house party and the supper club debut dinner) are purposefully and effectively presented as a backdrop and ensure that the focal point of the story is Alice and Kit's relationship and their character arcs, which were well-developed with deep personal history. All the characters are lovable, not just Alice and Kit! The supporting cast (the unlucky Duke Lockwood, and the naughty, but strong Nellie Young) also draw in the reader's interest, piquing curiosity into their stories which will hopefully be developed in the broader context of the series.

The relationship is slow-burn, taking the entirety of the book to develop, which makes the ending that much more satisfying and authentic. And to sweeten that ending, the HEA is not limited to the ultimate resolution of Alice and Kit's relationship, but also the resolution of their individual character arcs. Both Alice and Kit must deal with the emotional scars from abusive parents in order to chart a path forward in their lives, and they do. The ending leaves the reader fully satisfied that the future for Alice and Kit is bright, both in their love for one another and their new found love for themselves.

The Lady Gets Lucky is only the second book by Joanna Shupe that I've read. I was so enamored with My Dirty Duke, I wanted to get a sense of her writing in a full-length novel, and I was not disappointed. The things I enjoyed most about her writing in the novella translated to and were expanded upon in this book, namely her prose, character development, and the steamy tension between the FMC and MMC.

After reading this story I noticed that Kit spends to much time at the sideboard drinking and he shoves his hands in his trousers a lot. I also notice that Alice whines to much like a teenager. Her character doesn’t appear to be a spinster. I know she suppose to be shy, but her character reads as a young giggling teenager. For instance she calls her parents mommy and daddy.
Her character was written as a spinster. As for the whole of the book I thought that it reads well. There are a number of interesting and entertaining scenes that brought forth the realism of the story. I loved that the book read with a quick pace. The details and descriptions of scenes were written with excellent clarity. I found the dialogue and conversations very clear and understanding.
I enjoyed the fact the book wasn’t boring at all. I also will sing high praises to the writer for the romance and love scenes between Kit and Alice. These scenes took up some chapters and was glorious. Keep this up with all your books. I look forward to more writing from this author.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book. The characters were easy to relate to and the plot kept me engaged.

I'm such a huge fan of Joanna Shupe! The Lady Gets Lucky has so much to love and it is being added to my historical favorites of 2021. Fans of Tessa Dare's A Week to be Wicked (me!) will love this spin on the wallflower and the rake!

Alice Lusk needs a husband. She is shy, overlooked and clever. Alice's embarrassing and verbally abusive mother brings her to a house party to catch a husband...where she hears a comment that Christopher “Kit” Ward could turn any woman into a siren. Thus a plan is launched where she will ask him to give her "lessons." I really love Alice and how she comes to really care for herself throughout the story. Also.... she loves cooking and wants to be a chef! I was sold right there.

Kit Ward is a rake with many friends, lots of moves and a hidden barrel if insecurities. Kit is a great friend to those closest to him and he is in the process of opening a new supper club in New York City. Of course...Alice Lusk ends up having a connection to the chef he wants.

I fell madly in love with these characters and their journey. I loved this so much more than the first in series and cannot wait for the next!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #JoannaShupe #TheLadyGetsLucky #NetGalley #Avon #HarperVoyagerus

This was both my first book by Joanna Shupe, and my first historical romance set in the Gilded Age. I must admit I was a little Leary going into it, as I typically read and love historical romances set in earlier times. Not only has this book (and author) completely changed my mind, I’m going to need to find more books set in this era, stat!

I fell in love with these characters, theirs faults and their challenges. The side characters were excellent and I’m definitely hoping they will receive their own HEA in coming books.

This book touched on some very hard and deep topics, and was also very emotional. Alice and Kit are not the typical historical romance hero and heroine, and that makes them stand out, makes them relatable. This author just made a brand new fan with this book.

4.5 stars

I loved this one! Alice Lusk has heard that Christopher “Kit” Ward can turn even the shyest woman into a vixen with simply one smile. Since she is very much in need of a husband so she can get away from her overbearing and emotionally abusive mother, she wants to learn how to attract a man, and Kit is just the man she needs to teach her. While they’re at a house party in Newport, Alice asks Kit for help, and though he wants to refuse, once he finds out that she knows the chef (and the chef’s prized recipes) he wants to hire to start up his new supper club, they have a deal.

This takes place partially at the same time as the first book, so there is a bit of overlap with the timeline. Some of the events and references to things that are happening will make more sense if you read that one first. While I liked the first book, I loved this sequel far more!

I love a good love tutor book and this one did not disappoint! I loved the build up of their relationship and the chemistry between them was fantastic. I also loved how Alice grew throughout the story and gained more confidence. I love how passionate she was about food and cooking and how she shared that with Kit. I love how she and Kit both recognized and admired the other’s best qualities. I do wish Kit had had the awareness to realize he loved and wanted to marry Alice without someone telling him, but I absolutely loved how he proposed!

There are a couple more serious elements to this book. There was a death of a side character towards the end that changed the tone in a way that was jarring and it seemed out of place. I wish that storyline had been woven in a bit more seamlessly, or that it had been left out altogether, though I wouldn’t be surprised if some aspects of it will be present in the next book as well, since the series seems to be following this group of friends. It was also difficult to witness how awful Alice’s mother treated her, and I’m so glad she got told off in the end. Thankfully, neither of those things hindered my enjoyment of this book!

This is set in the Gilded Age, and I am not very familiar with this time period, so I wish there had been a bit more setting description to help ground me in the time period. I’ve felt this way about the other books by Shupe that I’ve read, too. It makes me want to brush up on my late-1800s history so I understand what’s going on better and know how society at this time functions, but I wish I’d been able to get a better sense from this book.

Overall, though, this was a fantastic read! One of the surefire ways I gauge my immersion and enjoyment of a book is whether it makes my heart hurt, and this one definitely did! I really loved and felt for these characters and was invested in their relationship from page one. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves books with kissing lessons!

This is my third Joanna Shupe read, and it will definitely not be my last. I look forward to seeing where this series goes next!

Such a great read. Something about the connection between Alice and Kit and their dynamics were really engaging for me to read. I also love that the books in this series so far have women seeking less traditional careers for themselves.

A major downer of this book was definitely Alice’s mom. She’s a terrible person and verbally abusive. She doesn’t get any sort of punishment either.

Also, there needs to be a content warning for alcoholism of a secondary character and death of a secondary character.

Random final note-I’ve been expecting Lockwood to get his own book but no luck yet! Seemed like there was a tiny hint of something going on between him and Nellie, but alas. Nothing yet.

Thank you HarperCollins/Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!

Alice Lusk is an incredibly shy woman who is searching for someone to help her learn how to flirt and be more outgoing. Kit Ward is trying to open a supper club in New York City that will cater to the wealthy. He needs to hire an amazing chef whose recipes will attract the right people to the supper club. Upon learning that Alice knows this infamous chef, he makes a deal with her to teach her how to flirt and kiss in exchange for recipes. I enjoyed this book more than the first one in the series (The Heiress Hunt). I loved the chemistry between Kit and Alice. Alice's passion for cooking was really relatable, and I enjoyed reading a historical romance set in the Gilded Age.

“Know your Worth. If we think so little of ourselves it becomes all too easy for others to do the same.”

I love the shy wallflower + infamous scoundrel combination. The way that Kit and Alice both learned to believe in themselves all while falling for each other was just *chefs kiss*

Thank you Netgalley, and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC!!

This novel is the classic wallflowers asks rake for seduction lessons trope. But it was done really well. Loved Kit and Alice’s interactions and the chemistry was scorching hot. I also loved that the characters were whole with not just one defining characteristic. Their interest, passion, ambitions, insecurities were all explored. The angst level was also perfect!!!! Have to say , Alice’s chosen profession/interest was really unique to see in a historical romance.
All in all a very enjoyable if a bit predictable historical romance