One reviewer said that this book is “Mean Girls meets Bridgerton,” and I have never seen a more accurate description/comparison for a book. Reputation by Lex Croucher is a Regency-era inspired book that reads more like a contemporary YA. I don’t typically read contemporary YA, though sometimes the drama is compelling enough to keep me engrossed as it was in this one. I found myself thoroughly invested in Georgiana, her relationship with Frances and her friends, and the repercussions of said relationship.

Georgiana is an adult, by Regency standards, when her parents send her to live with her aunt and uncle in the country. It’s the start of the summer season and so those who would normally be in London for the social season are at home in the country relaxing and partying in a way that will made this self-proclaimed prude blush 😆 Lonely and tired of being a wallflower, Georgiana is surprised and elated when Lady Frances Campbell takes an interest in her. Suddenly, Georgiana finds herself in a world she never imagined she’d be welcome in – partying with aristocrats, drinking until all hours, experimenting with drugs are just a few of things she is introduced to.

Frances and her crew are not kind by nature. They are not empathetic to those that are poor, and truly do not understand some of Georgiana’s references. I found myself entranced with their lifestyle, just as Georgiana was. I’ll also admit that a few scenes were appalling to me considering the age of the girls (like binge drinking at unchaperoned parties). This is probably due to my own age, which is now closer to forty than my early twenties and being a mother who wants to take these girls and hug them and shelter them from the cruelty they will inevitably face. But I digress….

There are so many things I could expand on from the plot, but all I will say is that this is a fast-moving, character driven plot with lots of drama, intrigue, and romantic entanglements around every turn of the page. Truly, it was hard to tear myself away for even sleep as I wanted to know what would happen next. I wound up listening to this one, and the narrator is fantastic. She captures the essence of each character with little inflections and changes in the tone of her voice. It was easy to follow what was happening because of her.

Overall, I really enjoyed Reputation. Georgiana’s summer is a whirlwind adventure, full of heartache, new friends, and budding romance. I honestly couldn’t read it fast enough. While this is billed for YA, I’d strongly recommend it be 16+ as there are some themes that may be inappropriate for younger readers such as drug/alcohol abuse and rape/attempted rape. If you enjoy YA contemporary, even though this is set in the Regency-era, I highly recommend it.

This book had me at Gossip Girl. It was a fun and quick read - great for in between more intense reads.

This book did not feel like a romance at all and the characters and the way they acted made me feel like I was reading a YA book and that’s not something I would usually read.

I love Historicals but unfortunately this story was not for me

This book was overhyped, and I wanted to love it, but I just did not. It was fine. I really had to force myself to finish it, and it wasn't really my cup of tea.

This book was a regency tale from someone who is probably a Jane Austen fan but wanted a little less propriety. It was funny in spots and sad in spots.

Reputation is Bridgerton meets Mean Girls + Gossip Girl in the Regency era. Georgiana is abandoned by her parents and is forced to move to a new town with her aunt and uncle. Soon she meets Frances Campbell, a member of the wealthy "in" crowd, where she gets sucked into the evil underbelly of the Regency rich elite.

I love Mean Girls, so I was very hopeful for the premise of this book, however, the book fell flat for me in print form. I found myself gravitating toward the audiobook, where the narration was excellent. I found the escapades and debauchery monotonous, where I was hoping for more character development, instead of constant parties and cattiness. I didn't gravitate toward any character in particular and I found most of the girls unlikeable. Overall, this book just wasn't for me.

IThank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I REALLY wanted to love this book. A book described as Bridgerton meets Mean Girls meets Jane Austen? My first thought was "sign me up!" but I wish it wouldn't have been.

Georgiana Ellers, the main characters, was abandoned by her parents and sent to live with her aunt and uncle in the English countryside. At the beginning of the book, she met a firecracker of a woman named Frances Campbell, the wealthy leader of a crowd that Georgiana desperately wanted to fit in with. She quickly falls in with them and their excessive drinking and drug use.

I hated every single character. I ESPECIALLY hated the main character. She was a follower who had no original thought of her own. Halfway through the book when it seemed she might grow a backbone and stand on her own two feet, she didn't. I was hoping she would do a 180 when a member 0f the friend group almost died from over imbibing, but NOPE. She just kept going down the rabbit hole because she was SO desperate to have friends and to be in the "in-crowd".

That's all I really have to say about this book because, to be honest, nothing else about this book stuck in my head and I only enjoyed the last 15 minutes of it. This was one of the worst books I read this year and I'm really sad to say that because I greatly anticipated it. I'm also disappointed because SO many people described it as "funny" but I didn't even chuckle once in the 7 hours and 2 minutes I spent on it.

Set in Regency era England, Georgianna goes to live with her aunt and uncle after her parents move to the coast. There she falls into the wrong crowd and makes friends with Frances. Frances, and friends, lead her to do things that she would not normally do. Georgianna ends up making a mockery of her own reputation and must salvage it.
Opinion
I am not normally one for historical fiction but this book called to me. I will admit to finding parts of the book a bit slow but overall the book was quite intriguing. George, though a bit of a brat to her aunt and uncle, goes through so much and certainly grows as a character. My personal favorite character was Thomas who was steadfast in his actions and tried to pull the better out of George. The things that George faced in this story are similar to what teens face today. Her friends had problems with substances and she tried to impress the "in crowd." Through this, the book is relevant to adolescents who can learn a thing about holding their own character.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

So I started reading this one on my Kindle and I just couldn't get into it. I think what saved it for me was the audio. It's basically a Regency Mean Girls, and after I got past the first few parts it was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I was really excited to jump into the story after reading a description that this story was "Bridgerton meets Gossip Girl with a dash of Jane Austen" but found the pacing at the beginning of the story a bit slow for my taste. Once I was in the thick of the story, I found myself enjoying Georgiana's adventures in finding her place in society slowly, even if I found her a bit tiresome at times. The characters in this story are much more morally-grey than I'm typically used to in a Regency-era story but it was refreshing to read such a different sort of historical fiction book. I am a big fan of how diverse (in so many ways) this story is. The representation was *chef's kiss*!

I'm a sucker for anything Regency and I'm glad I stuck it out even with the slow-paced beginning! Excited to see what Lex Croucher comes out with next!

This book was a ton of fun to read! It definitely felt like I was reading Gossip Girl but set in the Regency period. I’m a huge fan. I also loved the representation included in the book and the fact that Georgiana had flaws, which weren’t glossed over. I also appreciated how sensitive topics were addressed head on. This is a fantastic book!

Think mean girls in the regency era. If you are loving #Bridgerton especially the drama this book is for you.
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Georgiana is new to town staying with her aunt and uncle when she meets Francine. Francine is the head of her social circle and her rules are nothing like Georgiana has experienced before.
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This would make a fun tv show with the gossip, drama and time period.
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Thank you @smpromance for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I unfortunately didn't love this title. I honestly struggled to get through it and almost DNF'd multiple times. The biggest problem for me is the marketing of this story as a romance. I did enjoy the banter and chemistry between Thomas and Georgiana, but it took a back burner to the main "Mean Girls"-esque story line. About halfway through reading this book, I found a post on Croucher's Instagram stating that this doesn't completely fit into the romance category, and frankly, I wish I had seen it sooner. I appreciate Croucher adding different types of representation into Regency Britain, but I just didn't connect with or like most of the characters and found the plot falling flat.

I think I’ve settled on a 3.5 star rating.

This really wasn’t a book I actively disliked, but it also wasn’t a book I was loving and sitting on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was next. The tag line is sort of ‘Mean Girls’ meets Jane Austen, and it’s kind of that and kind of not? Georgiana is new to town and lived a sort of sheltered life. Her parents don’t really care about her and her aunt is fixated on her having a good reputation. She meets Frances Campbell, the scandalous “it girl” of the ton, at a party and her life changes from there. From heavy drinking to drug use to attending scandalous parties, the book has it all. But there is a deeper undercurrent that sort of is discussed in some ways and other times is not. Things such as racism, classism, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault, are discussed in varying degrees. The first three being brought up but never really dealt with much and the last two having a much more prominent discussion. The beginning of the book is more fun but just doesn’t have the zest of humor that it’s contemporary movie comp does. The middle to end of the book plunged into darker territory with sexual assault and harassment and how characters dealt with these events being large parts of the story.

I think, for me, the comparison of ‘Mean Girls’ meets Jane Austen created an expectation in me that this book was just not able to meet. For me, comparing it to ‘Mean Girls’ gave me the expectation that it would be really humorous, but most of what I found funny were probably not intended to be jokes. There was also a continuity error that I found really funny but I hope was fixed in the final copy. I can see where Reputation is Jane Austen-esque, but it feels more like a cautionary tale a la Vanity Fair and many gothic novels of the era. In my opinion, the comp titles impacted my expectations. It was much more serious than I had anticipated so I wasn’t quite prepared for it. It was also labeled as a rom-com but the romance is not really the focus at all. The focus is Georgiana’s coming of age story, which is totally fine but it would have made more sense to market it that way.

This is not a bad book by any means! It was well crafted, had some character growth and dimension for certain characters, and I felt the ending made sense. I would definitely say to go into it thinking it will be more serious than you think. I would recommend this book to people who are looking for more new adult coming of age stories.

**CONTENT WARNINGS: alcohol and drug use (including a scene of alcohol poisoning), bullying, racism, classism, domestic violence (an on page scene), sexual harassment, sexual assault.**

I was hooked on reading Reputation by the blurb. When I read the first paragraph and saw that it was a romantic comedy set in Regency England but compared to Mean Girls, I knew I needed to read it. First of all, I love romances, with historical romances being one of my all-time favorite genres. It was touted as a comedy and set in Regency England, and I was almost sold. The final selling point was that it was compared to Mean Girls. That is one of my favorite movies (even though I haven’t watched it in a while). So, I accepted the invitation to review from STP. I am glad I did because I loved this book!!

What I liked the most about Reputation was that it made me laugh. I had read this book on my drive home from MA the week of Easter. I distinctly remember that we were stuck in traffic leading up to the George Washington Bridge in New York. I laughed hysterically at some of the antics/situations that George found herself in. My poor husband had to listen to me explain was I was laughing without getting too into it (I kept it G-rated for the kids sitting in the backseat). Any book that makes me laugh like that and makes me share it with my husband is fantastic.

I LOVED George. She was such a breath of fresh air. She was a nerdy (being raised by scholars), socially awkward (from being kept isolated because of her scholarly parents), and amazingly open-minded for the book’s era. Oh, and let’s not forget clumsy. She was constantly tripping over something or spilling something. I think that she got in over her head when she started hanging out with Frances, and I disagreed with the steps she took to hang out with them. But then again, she was a teenager (18), and teenagers aren’t the most rational people (I have 2, so I know).

The romance angle of Reputation was wonderfully written. I liked that it seemed one-sided for most of the book. I also liked that George made a fool out of herself almost every time she saw Hawksley. Or that she was almost always drunk or high too. It wasn’t until the middle of the book, after she sent him the 1816 equivalent of a drunken text (a drunken note), that I saw that he liked and cared about her.

I loved that the author had LGBTQ characters and kept them in line with what the atmosphere would have been like in 1816. There was an openly gay man, a lesbian, and I believe two bisexual people portrayed in the book. I will give you some background on being gay in 1816. People had to hide, have secret societies, and if they got caught, they could have been sent to jail or worse. The author did bring that up when George mentioned to Jonathan how romantic sneaking around was, and his response was very spot on.

Race was also another thing touched upon in Reputation. Frances and Hawksely were biracial. Frances had a white father and a black mother, and Hawksley had an Indian mother and a white father. The author did have a couple of scenes where Frances’s mother was treated poorly because she was black. But, more importantly, the author didn’t portray the aristocrats of England as just purely white. Because they weren’t. The note at the end of the book explained that perfectly.

The author touched on several minor things, the most major being domestic abuse, sexual assault, and child abandonment. Frances’s mother was beaten by her father at one point in the book. George and Frances overheard, and Frances locked George in her bedroom for what I assumed was her safety. The villain sexually assaulted Frances in the middle of the book, George had an attempted sexual assault by a different character, AND she was physically attacked in a public place by the villain. As with most domestic violence and sexual/physical assault in that time (and honestly, in this time too), people swept it under the rug. But the author did a great job of showing the after-effects of it. Frances’s and her mother’s demeanor the morning after their respective assaults were dead on, as was Frances talking Jonathan from going after her attacker. I wasn’t a big fan of how the author handled the rest of it, but it was true to form again.

I am also going to mention the child abandonment angle of the book. I felt for George, and I was so mad at her parents. They left without telling her, and she was shipped out to her aunt and uncle’s that day. After that, the only contact they had with George was a letter written to her by her father, asking for his book back. I didn’t blame George one bit for what she did after. I would have had the same reaction. It took George getting into trouble for them to come to the house, and even then, their knee-jerk reaction was to put George into a convent. I cheered (yes, literally cheered) when George’s aunt and uncle finally said, “That’s enough.” During Mrs. Burton’s speech, I cried where she reamed them out and claimed George as her own.

The end of Reputation was exciting. The author was able to wrap up all of the storylines in a way that made me very happy. George got her HEA on all ends. Several people got their HEAs too. It was the perfect ending for this book.

I would recommend Reputation for anyone over 16. Drug and alcohol use, sexual situations, mild language, rape (not graphic), and mild violence.

Bridgerton is 100% to blame for my regency era reads and my high expectations for this book.

TW-SA, Drug use

we follow Georgiana as she basically tries to navigate a friendship with your typical 'mean girl' Frances. Frances is a high society party girl, surrounded by her "inner circle". When Georgiana meets Francis, she is thrown headfirst into a different world of parties.

The most interesting thing about this book, were the side characters that we barely got to explore. even the romance with the brooding Thomas, wasn't as explored as I hoped it would be. throughout the first half of the book, we basically focused on Frances and Georgiana who possibly had a romantic thing going on...? but then it was just left alone and never talked about again.

overall, this had so many plot lines, and very little resolution or explanation for them..... it just wasn't for me.

This book was genuinely a laugh out loud read. The characters were fun and the reader has no choice but to root for them the entire time.

I would describe this book as Jane Austen meets Mean Girls meets Bridgerton. You have the regency era and setting, but with diverse characters with naughty back stories. The fun of this book is that it lets you peek behind the stiff, formality of Jane Austen's world to the hedonistic pleasures that are secretly indulged in by every member of society. Definitely not your mother's Jane Austen. A fun, light read.

Creative, fun, whimsical premise with a very modern lens on a vintage era. I did have a tough time making my way through, though, and I'm not 100% sure I can articulate why. I do think a lot of editing could still be done on the version I read. I found the reading experience as more of a chore, and that may have been helped by cutting out repetitive scenes/themes and editing down some of the "extras".

Overall, it was a fun escape with a lot of potential. It's just too bad that it felt like it needed some more love.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Reputation in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Lex Croucher's Reputation takes Mean Girls and places it in the Regency Era, complete with balls, gowns and lots of gossip. It's a charming read, but far darker than I expected based on the cover, description and reviews. Readers expecting a fun, light book should be ready for some angst.