I basically binge watched the Bridgerton series again and have major hangover vibes, so this book was the perfect antidote for that!

What a fun book to get lost in, and that cover!! Love it! The banter was awesome with witty writing and the best characters to go along with the ride. Perfect for historical drama fans!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the earc in return for an honest review.

I went in with really high hopes for this, marketed as mean girls meets Bridgerton and I would say it delivered but not in the way I hoped. The girls were mean but I didn't really find they redeemed themselves at all. I know the point of the book was for young ladies to be pushing the bounds of propriety, however the extent that they did and got away with seemed wholly unrealistic for the regency era. I was expecting there to me some more saphhic love as well but that romance was very much in the background and we hardly saw it. My favorite aspect were the moments between Georgiana and Thomas though I did not feel she deserved him.

Literally everyone in this book is kind of an asshole, which is, eh. I enjoyed the romance subplot a lot. I don’t watch Bridgerton or engage with a lot of Regency stuff, so I have no opinion on any of that; I thought the audiobook narrator was very good. I read about half of this via audiobook and then finished it via ebook, both of which I got from NetGalley, and I think they’re both good ways to experience the book! The narrator isn’t so incredible that you MUST read it via audiobook (UNLESS maybe you are a really intense Bridgerton fan).

Three stars because I would toss all of the characters into a lake. And not in an interesting or fun way.

Reputation is basically if Mean Girls took place in the Regency-era. I’ve been on a Bridgerton kick recently so I really wanted this to build on my current obsession. I did run into a problem though. I find it hard to get into books where the characters aren’t likeable. The main character in this book is coming from a very sheltered, proper upbringing and is then thrust into a world of drinking, drugs, and “inproper” behavior. Obviously, our heroine partakes and chaos ensues. The romance aspect of the book felt forced at times, there just didn’t seem to be a good reason why her love interest was even entertaining her with the way she was behaving for most of their interactions. At one point they start writing to each other, which finally got me behind their budding relationship. I’m definitely team Thomas all the way, he is a sweet cinnamon roll and I love him. For me, this was a 3/5.

If you too are getting over your Bridgerton slump or are a huge fan of Mean Girls, you should try this one out.

I received a digital copy of this book free from St. Martin's Press and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A witty historical romp through female friendships and coming of age would have been great fun, but, unfortunately, almost all of the characters were hard to like. I can sympathize with Georgiana's boredom and feeling of being trapped, and her parents certainly were awful, but she mostly came across as petulant and ungrateful. While she does experience some growth, it wasn't enough to redeem her into someone I was rooting for. I'm sorry to say this was a miss for me.

Content warning: sexual assault

Lex Croucher is an undeniably talented writer who creates a fallible, but still lovable main character in George Ellers. George finds herself alone and bored in a new town and falls upon a group of hard partying, bored rich kids full of ennui, drama, and petty cruelty. It felt a bit like reading desperate housewives set in the regency era.

Rare for romance novels, Croucher doesn't really get the romance going until halfway through the book and to the grave disappointment of my inner slut, the couple never has on-page sex. In truth, the book suffered a bit of an identity crisis--a coming of age tale? A romance? A redemption? It felt like our hero was woefully underdeveloped by comparison to George. Croucher shied away from trying to have George evolve out of her past life and into her new one, as if she'd been in a fever dream and then fallen out of it. I'd hoped we might have an interesting telling of how George blended her extroverted present with her introverted past, instead of a reversion, but oh well.

Croucher develops an interesting cast of characters, though it's hard to keep them all straight. The supporting cast occasionally stole the narrative--was this George's book or Francis' tale of woe? In not shying away from women's cruelty, Croucher creates textured characters who feel more authentic than the saintly heroines of older romances. I appreciate her willingness to let our heroine be scandalous and mean and innocent and conflicted. The trope of the appallingly-innocent-book-nerd-meets-society has been beaten to death, resurrected, then shot again for good measure. It's rare to find a take on it that doesn't make me roll my eyes in frustration.

I appreciated Croucher giving George power in the narrative by using her empathy and listening as a salve to the hero's woes.

Our villain, Jeremiah, was a bit too much of a caricature without a back story of his own. While he was a loathsome turd, I found his final acts a bit too melodramatic; I wanted more from an author of Croucher's talent.

Overall, I'd recommend the this, with hesitation. It's a great character study, but leaves quite a bit lacking as a romance novel.

I wanted to like this book so much. I found Frances to be annoying and hated her relationship with Georgiana. It was more Riverdale than Regency romp. I’m sure there will be so many people who love this book, but it wasn’t the right book for me.

In the last year or so I’ve been trying to shake up my reading habits – more diversity in the authors I read, reading lighter and more upbeat things to balance out the heavier themes I lean towards. I thought that Lex Croucher’s Reputation would fall into the ‘lighter’ category and there were many moments when it was a light read… but it wasn’t as light as the description led me to believe. The premise also leaned harder into tropes I find frustrating but at least it didn’t all go quite as dark as it could have and it ended in a more hopeful, optimistic place. There’s certainly plenty to appreciate in the ways it turns the expectations fostered by its description and setting on their heads, so even if I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped, it didn’t feel like a waste of time. If nothing else, it was interesting to see Croucher’s take on what an un-whitewashed Regency England looks like.

Georgiana has been shipped off to stay with her aunt and uncle in the country while her parents remove to the coast in hopes of the change improving her mother’s health. Though she finds her aunt’s attentions tedious and the company she keeps boring, Georgiana unexpectedly makes a friend during a dull gathering. Frances is the younger daughter of the wealthy Lord and Lady Campbell and she has a penchant for ignoring the rules of polite society if they impede her fun. Sweeping Georgiana into her close group of friends, what Frances says, goes even if it means Georgiana lying to her aunt about unchaperoned parties, getting blackout drunk and experimenting with unknown mind-altering substances. It is while under the influence that Georgiana meets Mr. Thomas Hawksley who immediately catches her fancy and who seems to like her too, though he seems less than impressed by her behavior and the company she keeps. When the behavior Frances inspires clashes with what Georgiana understands and feels to be right, she needs to decide which is worth more to her – her sense of personal integrity or her new friends.

If in the late 1990s/early 2000s there was a trend of reimagining classic literature like Austen and Shakespeare by placing it in a modern, high school setting, Reputation feels like the inverse – a modern high school drama full of cliques but interpreted through a Regency setting. All the reasons I find the characters and events in those novels frustrating are present and accounted for in Reputation but that’s also more a matter of personal taste than anything to do with the quality of the novel itself. If I had known that would take up so much of the story in Reputation, I might have skipped it altogether.

What ultimately saved the novel for me was that – as dark as the novel got – it was dialed back in hopeful and realistic ways. Too often novels that delve into the highs and lows of debauchery just get darker and darker, almost glorying in the downfall and suffering of the characters involved. I’ve never found stories with so much focus on drunken escapades and experimenting with drugs and the subsequent reckless behavior to be entertaining (perhaps because I never found drinking to excess or drugs alluring or exciting personally…) so I don’t feel much more than bored and annoyed when stories focus so much on the downward spiral and either end with the character resolving to put their life back together or whatever or they add a time jump epilogue to when they’ve made a decent start or have gotten themselves out of the hole. I find the climb out much more compelling than the fall and Reputation did a better job than most at showing someone who was at least trying not to fall (rather than gleefully giving in) and made solid strides toward improvement through the final act of the novel.

Reputation will be available in the US on April 5, 2022.

2.5 stars rounded up! Check TW’s before jumping in! Sexual abuse, drug use, and heavy drinking! This is not your typical historical fiction novel. I struggled a lot getting into this one and staying interested.

It’s well written and funny, as well as deep and emotional at points. My blood was boiling on several occasions (empathy for the characters). Georgina learns some valuable life lessons over the course of the summer, and I would have loved to see a little more of her growth after everything that takes place. I really loved Thomas, and I loved that push and pull chemistry between him and Georgina.

I think maybe that this one just wasn’t for me, and that’s okay.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC

𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 is a diverse, amusing tale that takes you into the life of Georgina Ellers who, after moving in with her Aunt and Uncle, suffers from extreme boredom and loneliness until she befriends the vivacious Frances Campbell and does whatever it takes to try to fit in with this privileged, popular group that tends toward rebellion, debauchery and scandal.⁣
⁣⁣
Overall, I enjoyed this scandalous, entertaining, unique tale by Croucher that was a little different than I was expecting but is nevertheless a witty, creative, fresh take on the usual Regency romp.⁣

𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴:⁣⁣
⁣⁣
✔︎ Historical romance with a contemporary twist⁣
✔︎ Characters you can’t help but love to hate⁣
✔︎ Self-discovery⁣
✔︎ Female friendships⁣
✔︎ Lots of drama (at times heavy)

The blurb for this book paints it as a Regency-era Mean Girls rom-com. While there is some humor in this story, I don't believe it can be accurately described as a rom-com. But the Mean Girls comparison is on point. We have our lead character, Georgiana, the new girl in town after her parents have left her in the care of her aunt and uncle. She is dreadfully bored with only Mr. and Mrs. Burton for company, and wishes to have an opportunity to find new friends and have new adventures. And then she meets Frances, a party girl who comes from a wealthy family and has her own entourage. Frances welcomes Georgiana into her little group, and then the drama begins.

I should warn you that if you are looking for a light and fluffy Regency romp, this is definitely not it. The first part of the book is fun and flighty, but then shit starts getting really dark. There are all sorts of content warnings that should be considered prior to reading: excessive alcohol and drug consumption and abuse, on-page sexual assault and off-page rape, toxic relationships, domestic violence, racism, death of family members (off-page), and grief.

While I enjoyed this book overall, I did have some issues. First and foremost, this book has an abundance of completely unlikeable characters, including Georgiana. I just wanted to smack her self-absorbed face on so many occasions. The story is also rife with anachronisms, but I can deal with that because I enjoyed the modern flair. I was also pleased to see some LGBTQ+ representation, as well as acknowledgement that people in the Regency era were not exclusively white. I guess mostly my issue was that I was led to believe the book was one thing by the cover and the blurb, and it ended up being something significantly different. Had I gone into the book with a better understanding of how dark the tone would become, I probably would have enjoyed it more. So consider this your warning, prepare your mind, and dive into this book. Because many parts of it were delightful.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Georgiana Ellers was sad that she had been left at her aunt's house. Her parents seem to never care about her. She is melancholy, she had no friends, and her aunt was nice to take her in. It took them a month before they wrote to her to let her know how they were. They deserted her. It broke her heart. She meets Frances Campbell and her group.

Thomas Hawksley is a nice man who used to hang around Frances and Jeremiah's group until he lost his mom and brother. Then he started to realize this was not for him. He took care of most of the estate and the other responsibilities that pertain to his life. He also helped his father who worked with cloth.

This was an interesting story, about young people, rich people who live aimless lives. They do all kinds of things that are not necessarily evil but can be cruel on occasion. There are a few things going on with Georgiana and she is trying to find herself. I thought the characters were great, as was the tale. It certainly kept me entertained.

I received this ARC from Net Galley, and I voluntarily reviewed this novel.

This was a historical retelling of the movie Mean Girls. It was enjoyable but not one of my top ten. I had to push through to get to the end.

Reputation by Lex Croucher was a lot darker than I expected it to be. The blurb really doesn’t do the best job of explaining what this book is about. There have been a lot of comparisons to Mean Girls and that definitely hits the mark. This is almost like a regency version of the movie. So if you enjoyed the movie you will definitely enjoy that this book but if Mean Girls made you cringe (and for some people it was very cringe) then this book will make you cringe.

I think the first misconception of this book is that it’s marketed as romance but I felt that the romance storyline was secondary and not as well developed.
The other main issue is of race and homophobia. Which while mentioned in the book are not explored in-depth. So understanding the time period and the characters in this contact is somewhat difficult.

Now onto the good, this book was fun, witty, and entertaining. It almost was like a TV show version of regency romance. In some ways I think it would be better as a TV show than a book (a regency gossip girl).

Thank you #Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Lex Croucher definitely entertains her reader with Reputation, a Jane Austen inspired novel. Croucher takes the Regency period and presents it as a time of debauchery and deception. When Georgiana Ellers's parents abandon her to the care of her kind, but dull, aunt and uncle she longs for some excitement. Georgiana is thrilled to be befriended by Frances, the leader of the "fast" crowd. Unlike Georgiana, Frances is from an ultra wealthy family and has no concern for her reputation. When Georgiana meets the handsome and kind Thomas Hawksley, she falls in love instantly (of course!). Thomas shuns the antics of Frances and her friends. Georgiana begins to question her friends' ethics, especially after one young man is not at all gentle with her. Crocher's characters are excellent, especially the talkative, but loyal, young Betty Walters. The romance between Georgiana and Thomas is heartwarming and would definitely make Jane Austen smile. Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Frances Campbell turns Georgiana's world upside down- and not in entirely good way- in this updated (for want of a better word) Regency. Georgiana has lived a sheltered life; Frances not so much. Yes it does have echoes of Mean Girls in how Frances molds Georgiana to do her bidding, as she has molded her other acolytes. And fans of the Regency Romance should know that its very modern in its approach to pretty much everything. While most of it is light, there are also tough topics involving abuse of various kinds, but there is good diversity. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Very entertaining.

This book was okay. I really enjoyed the regency era and felt the author did a good job of making it into a rom-com regency instead of just your typical regency romance.

However there were part of the book where I was bored and I felt things were over discussed. I also did not enjoy the amount of sexual assault that either happened on the pages or was eluded. Overall an entertaining book and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this ebook. This is my honest voluntary review.

I almost gave this 2 stars. For more than half the book I found it hard to get through. All the characters were frivolous and awful, I couldn't sympathize with George, and things seemed VERY inaccurate for a Regency era story. The characters behaved in waya that would have been scandalous for their society, talked very vulgarly in almost modern terms, and it just all seemed unrealistic.
The main character wasn't even redeemable until sadly she was almost raped. She then realized how low she'd fallen with her choice of friends and use of alcohol and drugs. Thats when the story turned around. Things got more interesting, Thomas was the gem of the entire novel. I dont know what he saw in George, but he made things MUCH more fun to read haha
His father and Mrs. Burton were also supporting sweethearts after the situation, and George's character improved dramatically. Towards the end she grew on me and I loved how it ended. So 3 stars from me!

Georgiana has been dumped by her parents, while they take an ocean holiday, off with her aunt and uncle. A rather dull couple who could spend their days watching paint dry. At her very first dinner party she meets Frances and this starts a whirlwind of a friendship.. or so she thinks. She’s not sure she fits in with this group of wealthy and gossiping and drunken debauchery socialites. She meets Thomas and at every opportunity makes a fool of herself in front of him. Her feeling for him grow, but he could care little for her.

This story is an ode to Jane Austin and her stories of fitting in and relationships. It’s funny and takes Austen’s voice and implodes it into a edgy new voice. Georgiana’s character is quirky and funny and she’s the klutz so many of us hide ourselves from, yet she embraces it. She’s a bookworm who is use to escaping the world until it’s thrust at her. She starts to question if she can truly fit or if she should even try. Does conforming yourself truly make you happy?

At first it took me awhile to get into the story, but it was humorous and hard to put down. I mean our main character starts out trying to fascinate her aunt by talking about Viking funerals and following a lover to death. You know great dinner conversation lol. The character of Frances made me want to jump into the pages and play a regency mean girl. I do think the story as a whole could have been a little better executed but all in all I definitely recommend if you want a good laugh of the era.

I don't think Jane Austen would have “cheered for” this book's heroine, Georgiana. I think Jane would have been horrified by this book. This is definitely a book that gives a very contemporary spin on Regency-era society. Yes, there was drunken debauchery, opium abuse, as well as other mind-altering drugs but not as it is presented here with young women. Young unmarried women were chaperoned and held to strict standards. Family scandal was to be avoided at all costs. This book plays fast and loose with Regency-era facts, just as does the Netflix Bridgerton series. If you want your contemporary romance all dressed up in Regency fashions along with a dose of TV show Mean Girls, then this is the book for you. But not for me.