What a fun book. I really liked the first book and this continued in the same vein. There's some mystery, feminism, and plenty of romance to go around. I'm not always a fan of second chance romances, but Caro and Val's chemistry got me! I think what helped is that there'd clearly been character grown off page since their last attempt at love. Collins does a good job weaving the different elements of the plot together and generally succeeds in keeping everything balanced. There could have been a bit more sizzle, but I'm a sucker for delightful banter.

This is second in the "A Lady's Guide' series and I enjoyed it more than the first book. I now know I'm getting, mysteries with a side of romance. If romance is your priority than this book isn't going to for you. I also enjoyed Miss Caroline Hardcastle (Caro) in the first book and was happy to read her story. It's 1867 in England and Caro's friend, an actress, is kidnapped. Caro decides to investigate. This leads her into meeting with Lord Valentine (Val) Thorne. Caro was secretly betrothed to him four years earlier when he was the spare heir to a Dukedom. After his brothers death he is now a Viscount with parental pressure to marry. Caro has family connections on her mothers side but her father is a commoner who is wealthy but not acceptable to the ton.

The mystery itself is good. Val and Caro together question suspects and track down clues. The romance is still the weaker link in the plot but in this book it works better because the two were already connected. There is no courting or getting to know each other. We do get their break up in a flashback. In fact the romance is resolved fairly early in the story while the mystery continues. The author makes lots of side comments through her characters about the state of English law making women little more than chattel etc. I'd recommend this for readers that like historical mysteries/romances. Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is book two in the series and our heroine is Caroline Hardcastle, who had a small supporting role in the first book. Caro’s friend Effie disappears, and she wonders if Effie’s betrothed is behind it. Caro quickly gets thrown into working with the man who she broke off a previous engagement to, Valentine, Viscount Wrackham. Val is now the heir to a dukedom and his father is pressuring him into marriage. Can Caro and Val put aside their differences and their last to work together? What follows next is a story of rekindling a romance, a mystery to solve to save Effie, and some witty dialogue to keep the reader entertained.

As with the first book, I think this does better as a historical romance than a historical mystery but it’s a sometimes funny entertaining book altogether. I did enjoy it more than the first book, maybe now that these characters have found their footing. The fake engagement and enemies to lovers plots have been used so many times in historical romances, Manda Collins makes it work without sounding redundant. The mystery was pretty light but a good addition to the book. We meet our protagonists for the next book, and I’m looking forward to reading their story.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lately I have been in a huge historical romance kick and honestly this book really isn't that. It was such a perfect book to break up the same books after book that I was so hooked! It was fun, witty, and the mystery is fantastic! I love Manda Collins and I want to read more from her!

Historical mystery with romantic themes!

Manda Collin’s A Lady’s Guide series has humor, romance, and a splash of mystery. Miss Caroline Hardcastle and Lord Valentine Thorn have tried romance. While their connection steamed and grew, Caro found out that Val wouldn’t pick her over his family’s prejudices. So she dumped him and never looked back, well not often anyway.

When Carl’s dear friend Miss Effie, a opera performer, goes missing She and Val are thrown into each other’s orbit once again. Only this time, someone is missing and Val’s cousin is a suspect. Can Caro and Val move on from their past or will they relive it again?

While the chemistry between Caro and Val was present, it lacking the fire to make it believable. The romance took second to the mystery. I wish we would have had see Kate and Eversham more. The story was fast, but dragged over the relationship development. All in all, it was a fun read, but not my favorite.

A mysterious, shocking kidnapping draws out our intrepid investigators for this second installment in the A Lady's Guide series. Kate and Caro seek to rescue a missing friend before it's too late, and Caro must contend with a loathsome ex along the way. Except maybe he's not quite so despicable in retrospect. When their investigation into the actress' disappearance takes them to the theater, Caro and former flame Val come out of an altercation a bit worse for wear. Theater-goers jump to incorrect conclusions for Caro's frazzled state, and an engagement is announced out of necessity.

The pacing of the mystery worked well for me. I was invested in the who and why of the kidnapping, and I didn't find it too obvious as to be boring. The romance was less thrilling for me. It had the usual problems that detract from my enjoyment of a second chance romance: namely, that readers miss some of the magic because we don't experience what took place in the past and that things progress quickly since the characters already loved one another before.

I appreciated the book's critiques of the patriarchy. I especially liked the practical rather than shaming conversations about mistresses, noting that systemic constraints put women in a position to accept that role despite fewer legal or social protections. It also spotlights the proprietary and stalkerish behavior of men towards women performers like actresses and opera singers. Caro and Val's romance draws on tensions regarding social class between old money aristocracy and new money businessmen. Class differences in the response of the legal system are also openly discussed. However, the conversation stops short of addressing the power of money removed from social standing. One particular comment about how Caro's father is "ruthless" in business but "kind and gentle" to his family bothered me. The implication is that his manner with his family is his real, more important self. As if that excuses sweeping economic decisions that affect other nameless, faceless families. Boo capitalism.

I think this series is doing a lot to push the genre in a more thoughtful and critical direction even though it doesn't hit every mark. I love the mystery element of the books, and I think readers who like the second chance romance trope will have more fun with the love story. Thanks to Forever for my copy to read and review!

The second book in this series features Val (now a Viscount) and Caro, both who played prominent roles in the first book. Never fear: Eversham and Katherine make frequent appearances too. A friend of Caro's, an actress, disappears, and Val's cousin, who had been seeing the actress, turns up with a head injury after he failed to stop the kidnapping. Caro and Val must work together to solve the mystery!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: historical romance, historical mystery, cozy mystery
Location: London
Reminds me of: Bridgerton meets Nancy Drew

This carries a lot of the same pros of the first book for me. Again, it's light, irreverent, and cozy. Yet again the plot wasn't super inventive but it was a fun read for sure!

It definitely relies on some character building from the first book. If you haven't read the first one, I'm not sure you'd have the investment in either of the main characters to get hooked.

I liked the relationship between Val and Caro and how they see each other as equals, again similar to Katherine and Andrew in the first book. This book wasn't quite as silly as the first - I didn't do much giggling, but I still really enjoyed it!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ historical mystery meets romance
⭕️ irreverent regency women who do not listen
⭕️ regency books that don't drone on about propriety
⭕️ not overthinking mysteries and just following along for the ride

Thanks to @readforever and #netgalley for the eARC of this book!

Perfect for historical romance lovers!

This is the second book in the Lady's Guide series and I haven't read the first one but this one was great! I love a good mystery in my romance books and that fact that it's also historical romance just added a whole other dimensions to it!

Love this cover by the way!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever pub for the earc in return for an honest review.

Happy Friday y'all! And to all of my American followers, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! My family definitely did- lots of cooking, eating, and watching TV! I was also able to sneak some reading into there, which is how I'm able to write this review for y'all today. An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire is the second book in the A Lady's Guide series, so be aware of that when you're picking it up (I'll be writing my review for book one, A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem, soon), but thankfully, they don't really have to be read in order- you just get introduced to the characters in the previous book. As always, thank you so much to Forever and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of this book!
An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire 4/5 Stars
Summary from Goodreads:
Former lovers become reluctant allies in this delightfully witty historical rom-com from the bestselling author of A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem—for fans of Evie Dunmore, Enola Holmes, and Netflix's Bridgerton!
England, 1867 : As half of the writing duo behind England's most infamous crime column, Miss Caroline Hardcastle has quite the scandalous reputation. It may have cost her a fiancé, but she would much rather bring attention to crimes against those ignored by society than worry about what the ton thinks of her.
After Caro's dear friend is kidnapped, however, she has no choice but to work with Lord Valentine Thorn, the same man who broke her heart. Worse, when her actions put her father's business at risk, a marriage of convenience may be her only solution . . . but can she trust Val to stand by her? Or will their past repeat itself?
Val--the new Viscount Wrackham--is in an untenable position: His father is demanding he find a respectable bride to secure the succession. Yet the only woman he's ever loved, Miss Caroline Hardcastle, is notorious for behaving improperly. And she's never forgiven him for his youthful transgressions, missteps made in the name of familial duty, but ones he still regrets to this day.
As they grow closer to unmasking the culprit, Val sees an opportunity to show Caro he's a changed man. But can he convince her to give their love a second chance--before death does them part?
In the past, if you had asked me if I was into historical rom coms, I would have said not really, but the more of them I read, the more into them I get! I thoroughly enjoyed An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire. I loved Caro and Val in book one, so I was the most excited to read a book centered around them, and Manda Collins really delivered in their story. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Caro's friend and Val's cousin was so well done and I didn't know who had done it until it was solved. I also enjoyed getting to see Kate and Eversham (from book one) again. Their relationship is super cute. Speaking of super cute! I really liked getting to see into Caro and Val's relationship- why they hated each other, what made them tick, how great they were together, and what a relationship between them looked like. Even though they never really had any off parts in the book when they weren't together, because of the underlying mystery and them having to save people and fix the mistakes of their past relationship, I felt like that forever togetherness worked. I loved how we were introduced to our next pairing- and man y'all, book three looks like it's going to be great! I can't wait for fall 2022 now! In the meantime, if you haven't read An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire (or A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem), you should definitely go grab it ASAP!

Light and fun historical mystery with a side of romance. In this second book I the series, Caro and Kate continue in their ahead of their time strong women pursuits. They are very concerned with women’s rights, but also each manage to fall in love with exceptional men. The mystery ensues when a friend is kidnapped and the search begins to find her.

This book was fun! I got confused at the beginning because there were a lot of characters, most are from the first book, I assume, so I had a hard time differentiating between who was whom. However, once I got it sorted I really enjoyed the story. I ordered the first book in the series to catch up and look forward to more in the series after this one.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Some of my all time favourite tropes surround Val and Caro's story in this warm and winsome follow up to. A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem. Wonderfully researched and with a jolt of mystery, this is one of my favourite romances of the year. I was happy to host Manda for a fb live chat

An Heiress’s Guide to Deception and Desire was such a fun, cute mystery with a dash of romance. When famous stage actress Effie Warrington goes missing on the day of her opening show, Caroline Hardcastle and Valentine Thorn must put their differences aside to team up and track her down. The case turns even more complicated when Effie’s fiancé (and Valentine’s cousin) disappears shortly thereafter - was he kidnapped as well? Or is he fleeing his own role in Effie’s disappearance?

I really enjoyed this book! I would say this is more of a mystery than a romance, but I loved seeing Caro and Val find their way back to one another in this enemies to lovers/second chance romance. I’m relatively new to historical romance and would recommend this to anyone who is curious about giving it a shot, but may not know where to start. All of the characters in this book were well written and developed. Caro and her friend Lady Katherine make an excellent team, and both women are very smart and resourceful in their quest to locate Effie. The mystery itself was interesting and kept me guessing the whole way through. Towards the end I loved the mirrored scenes between them and their husbands - it showed just how well matched they all are.

I can’t wait to read Flora and the Duke of Langham’s story when it comes out next year!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the advanced copy of this book.

Although this is the second book in Manda Collins’s Ladies Most Scandalous series of Victorian romance and mystery, it stands on its own. I haven’t read the first book, A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem, but I never felt lost.

It took me a while to warm up to our heroine, Caroline Hardcastle. She’s quite strident in her feminism for a lady of this era, and she can be a bit hasty in her assumptions and judgments. I thought she was too harsh with our hero, Valentine Thorn, Viscount Wrackham. Val made a poor choice four years earlier that hurt her, but he’s clearly learned from his mistake and is taking great efforts to improve. I wish it hadn’t taken Caro so long to forgive him.

I appreciated how the characters were all distinct and memorable. Their banter is often witty, though I didn’t laugh quite as much as I had hoped. I thought the mystery was interesting, although I might have preferred a book that focused on either romance or mystery instead of trying to include both. Somehow, the result felt a little underwhelming to me, especially after I had read so many glowing reviews. My favorite part of the book was the resourcefulness that Caro and her friend Lady Katherine Eversham showed in finding their missing friend—that really made the story for me.

I didn’t love this book as much as I had hoped, but I did fine it an entertaining and enjoyable read. Note that the book contains violence as well as explicit sex scenes between a married couple, although nothing was too graphic.

Thanks to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley, which I volunteered to review.

Thank you so much to Read Forever Pub and Manda Collins for an advanced copy of An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire. I loved this book so much!

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Pub Date: November 16, 2021
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

This book was somewhere between a 4 and a 5 star read for me. I don't give half-stars anymore in my ratings, but I honestly think this was a 4.5 stars for me (if I did). I love Caro and Val. They are couple goals in my regency romance mindset. 😀

I liked this book because the story took off running from the very beginning. There was angst and longing between Caro and Val that carried over from the first book in the series, and that angsty longing hit us right off the bat. I also liked that the main plot of the missing actress also started immediately. I felt like the first book took a minute to get going, so I really like that the second book jumped right in.

I really like Caro as a main character. She's a little rash sometimes with her opinions (okay, a lot rash), but she's also quick to say sorry/correct her mistakes when necessary. Val is the same way, and I love how their chemistry bounced off each other perfectly. They were somewhere between an enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, and forbidden lovers romance trope because their union had elements of all three in various ways.

I like that Caro was an independent main character, and that her goals were more than just getting married and having a family. I also like that Val was determined to be his own man and learn from his mistakes. The plot had quite a few twists and turns, and I thought everything was really well executed. I can't wait for more from this series!

Manda Collins does it again! I loved her first in the series and had high hopes for this book. An Heiress's Guide did not disappoint. We met Val and Caro in A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem. The two were once engaged but that ended when Caro came to realize that Val and her family saw her as below them. Years later, Val is now the heir to a Dukedom and still just as in love with Caro as ever. While his family may not see Caro as a suitable match, he has never cared all that much about station and has more of a voice and backbone to stand up for her. His chance comes when the two end up working together to find a famous actress that has been abducted.

Second chance romances are so much fun. It was great to see these two come back together. This book has mystery, compromising circumstances, forced marriage, and a mischievous cat. Caro and her friend, Kate, are as independent-thinking as ever and we get the return of Kate's husband, Eversham. This book had a completely different setting and feel from the first one but was just as enjoyable. I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a book that blends historical romance with mystery.

I just finished reading two books - An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire by Manda Collins and The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu !❣️✨ It was quite fun and kind of relieving because I've been having a shitty time in the past few days 😐. I just feel like escaping from everything at this point. Sigh.⁣⁣

I'd enjoyed the author's Studies in Scandal series before and book one in this series was also good, so I was quite excited to read this one! ⁣

We've got Caro who is a crime journalist and Val, who has recently become the duke's heir and they're brought back together when Caro attempts to solve the mystery behind her missing friend - Effie who was engaged to Val's cousin. In addition, Caro and Val were secretly engaged a few years ago before she broke it off when he'd failed to speak out and defend her against his family's snobbish comments. ⁣

So it's a second chance romance + a mystery which was everything I wanted. I really love second chance romance when it's done right and I've got to say this one was really good! Like the tension and push-pull between Caro and Val was amazing, but I also loved how they took their time to re-discover things about each other while focusing on solving the mystery as well. The banter between them was so good! 😂 Also I really appreciate the feminism that I've been noticing in the recent HR releases. They're done quite well without seeming like a plot device to make the heroine 'different' from others. The mystery was also balanced well with the romance and I loved finding the clues along with the protagonists. It wasn't too suspenseful but was still enjoyable and fun to read! Can't wait to read the next book!⁣

*I was provided with an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Absolutely delightful concept. . However this just wasn’t working for me. The writing style didn’t work for me because it felt flat. It is unfortunate but I just didn’t enjoy this as much as I wanted too.

Years after breaking off their secret betrothal, Miss Caroline Hardcastle and Lord Valentine Thorn, now Viscount Wrackham, had no expectations of seeing each other again, but when Miss Effie Warrington is abducted, they must work together to find her. And soon realize that their feelings haven’t changed – but maybe they have.

This was a well-written, nicely paced, fantastic read! When I read the previous book, I felt that the romance was overshadowed by the mystery and while it was an enjoyable read, it wasn’t exactly a romance, well that is not the case with this book. Ms. Collins hit the perfect balance between romance and mystery, making this second-chance romantic mystery a five-star read for me. This book has wonderful characters, steamy love scenes, a heartwarming second chance at love, great secondary characters, a very well-done mystery, and finally a lovely HEA. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book and highly recommend it, it is the second book in the series, but it can easily be read as a standalone title.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*

The second book in Manda Collins “A Lady’s Guide” series is an enjoyable story full of “who-dun-it” twists, new beginnings, and crazy aristocratic rules. I do think you should read the first book, [book:A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem|52041374] before reading this story as a lot of the characters and plot lines overlap.

This story focuses on Miss Caroline “Caro” Hardcastle, heiress to the Hardcastle fortune and Lord Valentine Thorn, Viscount Wrackham and heir to a dukedom. These two are not new to each other and several years prior they were betrothed until Caroline called it off. Valentine’s father is demanding he find a respectable bride to secure the succession. Yet the only woman he's ever loved, Miss Caroline Hardcastle, is notorious for behaving improperly. And she's never forgiven him for his youthful transgressions, missteps made in the name of familial duty, but ones he still regrets to this day. Meanwhile After Caro's dear friend is kidnapped, she has no choice but to work with Lord Valentine Thorn, the same man who broke her heart. Worse, when her actions put her father's business at risk, a marriage of convenience may be her only solution . . . but can she trust Val to stand by her? Or will their past repeat itself?

In what turns out to be a proposed marriage to avoid Caro’s ruination— Val doesn’t care how he finally got Caroline to the alter, he only cares that she said “I do” and she is his now — whether his father accepts her or not. The story is set up to be a cross between “enemies-to-lovers, second chances, romantic mystery” and the author makes this combination quite enjoyable.

What I enjoyed:
✔️ Enemies to lovers trope;
✔️ Caroline’s fight against the treatment of women in 1867 England;
✔️ Val’s devotion to Caroline and his fierce defense of her;
✔️ The inclusion of characters from book one;
✔️ Ludwig *meow*
✔️ The alternative POV

What I disliked:
✔️ The mystery felt rather dry compared to book one;
✔️ The lack of actual romance between Val & Caro;
✔️ The lack of heat and sexy times included, very skimpy;
✔️ The lack of an epilogue that was actually in the future, not the next day;

Like I said, I enjoyed this book but I think it suffers from a bit of “second book syndrome” — I expected more. Now we have to wait another year for book 3 — by the time it gets here I won’t remember or be as invested in the characters.

3.5 Stars ⭐️ | 3 Flames 🔥