I had read Roux's Asylum series back when it came out and this is a significant departure. This had an interesting premise as well as a couple of twists I didn't see coming. Though I did predict much of it. I do have to say that I loved the footnotes through out Clemency's scenes. They gave me a chuckle...this kind of second narrator. The author is a little long on her descriptions for me. For example, there is a scene where characters are talking, Clemency might go into a long description of the setting or the other character's clothing and by the time we return to the conversation I have completely forgotten what they were discussing. Overall the story was good and I liked the characters (though I was not a fan of many of the character's names).

The Proposition by Madeleine Roux was a very good reading experience for me. At first, I could not get into the novel and thought that the heroine was a whiney love-struck ninny.

Her engagement to Lord Boyle, a louse of the first degree, needed to end, but she for some reason, didn’t see just what kind of man he was even though people tried to warn her. She finally sees him for what he is, but he blackmails her into going ahead with the wedding. He is only interested in her money. She doesn’t know what to do. Then she meets Audric Ferrand who has come to town to do one thing…avenge his sister and her past liaison with Lord Boyle. They join forces and will do everything they can to show the Lord up for just what a conniving monster he is.

I enjoyed reading about a ne’er-do-well getting his comeuppance and a young woman saved from a fate worse than even death. I thought that the author’s characters were very well portrayed and enjoyed the book.

Well-written, interesting story about love, betrayal and revenge. The heroine, Clemency Fry, has grown up opposed to the idea of marriage due to the inequity accorded married women under the law during the 1800s when a married women was considered her husband’s property. Despite this serious and long held concern about entering into matrimony, Clemency has fallen in love and agreed to marry a baron, Lord Boyal. When Clemency Fry learns that her fiancée is not who she thinks he is, she joins forces with Audric Ferrard, who is plotting revenge after Boyal seduced his younger sister.

Fascinated at how this story would play out, I was left feeling underwhelmed. The plot was well developed. The characters were nicely framed as interesting people. But the execution was not successful. After reading half way into the book, I began to feel as if the story was not progressing as it should.. While this story did not play out in a satisfying manner for me, I would still recommend reading this book if a story that is big on revenge and low on romance appeals to you

thank you to netgalley and publisher for an arc for me to read and leave my honest thoughts. All opinions are my own.

I think the premise of the book sounded wonderful. I have three major issues with this book though.

First, the hero and heroine somehow fall in love despite every single conversation they have (except for maybe one that I counted) involving her scumbag of a fiancé and their plan for vengeance. Look, I'm all for Lord Boyle getting his comeuppance because he's rotten to the core. However, I had a hard time believing that the two leads could fall in love when all they did was talk about how awful Lord Boyle was and how they planed to ruin his life. There was no room for wooing or emotional connection between the two of them, because they didn't talk about anything of substance that would make them compatible longterm. If they were just two individuals teaming up to take down a common foe, I might have believed that story. The romance aspect? It felt thrust upon the reader with no real foundation.

*Light spoilers coming so beware*

Second, the main conflict of the book (bringing Lord Boyle to justice) was resolved by someone else other than the hero or heroine. So, we spent all this time with the two main characters as they sought revenge and plotted their schemes, and then they didn't even get the chance to obtain their goal in any sort of way. A side character (who the reader isn't really connected to at all) came in and had the villain thrown in jail. All of this action happens off the page too, so we read about it after the fact. It was just too convenient for me. It felt like an easy out to make at the end of the novel, like maybe the author wasn't sure how to conclude it. The author also spent an entire book trying to have the main characters complete this master plan and bring about the demise of this guy... only to have them in no way be the "heroes". You have to let your main characters have a hand at least in solving the main conflict. The heroine does make a noble sacrifice at the end to spare her sister, but she could have still made her noble sacrifice AND helped resolve the conflict. Or at the very least have the hero help resolve the conflict. They did all the legwork throughout the novel to take this bad guy down, but the heroine fainted when the going got tough/refused to ask for help and the hero ran away to his country house to mope.

My last complaint is that at about the 96% mark of the book is when we get these two actually doing any self-realization. So, they declare their love, quickly get married, and then do the deed all the span of one or two chapters at the very end. Their love (that I'm not sure how they established since all the did was plot, scheme, miscommunicate, and fight/argue with each other) was neatly tided up in a few pages. I would have loved to see more depth in their relationship along the way. Maybe have them connect on something that wasn't about Lord Boyle or have a common interest besides retribution.

I wanted to love this book when I went into it, but it unraveled too much and left me too unsatisfied at the end. I was given an ebook ARC from Netgalley/the publisher. All thoughts an opinions are my own.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC of The Proposition by Madeleine Roux in exchange for an honest review. While not the most sensible of books, it was entertaining, and had a decent romantic plot. I give this novel three out of five stars.

Clemency Fry has always forsworn marriage, following the advice of a feminist author she read in childhood. However, no matter what her logical head told her, her heart said something different, and she finds herself engaged to Lord Turner Boyle after a romantic courtship. After their engagement and wedding plans are put into place, Turner becomes suddenly cold toward Clemency, and she can’t figure out what she’s done to offend him.
Enter Audric Ferrand, a “hunter of men,” as he calls himself, who’s out to destroy Turner for personal reasons. He appeals to Clemency to aid him in his quest to unmask Boyle for the fraud that he really is. Hesitant at first, Clemency decides to make an alliance with Ferrand to bring down the man that stomped on her heart and used her for personal gain. Along the way, an attraction forms between the two of them, and the only question remains: What will happen when their mission is over?

I found the premise of this book quite delightful: man and woman fall in love while seeking to bring down a dishonorable person. In this case, he was truly dishonorable… if he’d shown some redeeming qualities I might have felt differently. I didn’t find the actual book as fulfilling as I found the idea for the plot; the writing was decent but the plot had some holes, mostly through the characters’ actions.
Audric and Clemency (as a side note, Clemency?! What a name for the poor girl. She was bound to be a feminist thinker with such a virtuous name) fell for each other in really awkward stages, and their romance didn’t flow as smoothly as it could have. One day Clemency is annoyed by him, and the next she’s thinking about kissing him. Audric thinks Clemency’s contrary, forward manner is inappropriate one minute, and charming the next. I just didn’t see the leap where either of them recognized the attraction as clearly as I would have liked.
I also found the general plot to be a little bit unclear: Audric and Clemency were going to unmask Turner at “the assembly,” but even now, I’m not totally sure what the assembly was for. There was a surprising twist to the end of the story that I liked, but I’m still not sure why or how it happened and how this particular character engineered it. The logic of the ending just wasn’t totally there for me and you might find that as well.
Now, those are mostly all the negatives of this book, and they really might not bother most readers. I could argue that someone should have seen something about Turner Boyle that was off, but people married their own cousins in those days, so I’m actually not seeing anyone’s ignorance as implausible.
Some positives of The Proposition were the idea in itself; I loved the premise of the book and all-in-all it was a good read. It could be better, but it could be worse. I thought the writing was good; nothing obvious or annoying stood out to me, and it flowed smoothly. I liked, too, that the characters weren’t just “fluff” and that they had some substance to them. Could they have had more substance? Sure. But for a standalone book, I think the character building was perfectly adequate. I did like how Clemency’s innocence of the world was pointed out a couple of times.

All in all, I thought The Proposition by Madeleine Roux was a nice read. I did want to read until the end, and even read while I could have been doing other things. It had a little bit of dirt, right at the end, which was a nice touch. It wasn’t necessarily my favorite romance, but it was certainly far from the bottom of my list. Have you read this title? What did you think?

You can find more of Madeleine Roux’s work here: https://www.madeleine-roux.com/books

I was really excited to read this because I’m a big fan of historical romance novels and liked the scheming premise. I found the strong point of the story to be Lord Boyle’s unraveling and Clemency’s sleuthing. I thought the romance could’ve been built up better, but I liked Audric as a love interest. I also wasn’t a fan of the many footnotes. But I was psyched when there was surprise gay representation!

I throughly enjoyed this book. Madeleine Roux did a wonderful job with the description of each character.

The setting is Sussex 1819
Clemency is destined to marry Lord Turner Boyle as her family had encountered a financial hardship and this marriage will be beneficial. Clemency is a very independent thinker and is known to be hesitant for marriage until she fell in love with Boyle. Clemency had a run in with a new neighbor Audric Ferrand, Audric has a vendetta against Boyle and has asked Clemency to be his partner to expose Boyle for who he really is. This is when the adventure begins for Clemency.
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I love the story line of Clemency and Audric. I love how close Clemency is to her sister Honora, and how she would give up so much to protect her. I love how much Audric loves his sister Delphine, enough to get revenge for the pain inflicted on her.

Wonderful story.

Thank you Netgalley for this advance read in exchange for my honest review.

This book is especially disappointing because it starts off really well. I loved the old world charm of this book and the Austen feel that quickly won me over so it’s unfortunate that the book fell apart so completely in the second half. Clemency is a great character who had set her heart against marriage until she was won over by her fiancé Lord Boyle but then he’s not the man he was when he was winning her heart. Then suddenly a mysterious man, Ferrand, appears with his proposition. It’s such a great premise and the first half is very well done. There’s even comical footnotes which I always love. But then when the climax of the story should be building we are faced with the complete undoing if the story.

For reasons that just seem blatantly political the author chooses to ignore the conventions and morals of the time and location of the story just to unveil two separate same sex love affairs, and if that was not preposterous enough, the male lead not only reveals himself as not straight but suddenly chooses to risk the reputation of both his sister and the woman he is falling for. All the while he is ridiculing her for being prejudiced when she is simply a woman of her times, which would make her innocent of even the understanding of any sexual relationship let alone a same sex one. Obviously the author can write as she chooses but why market this as a regency romance when it is not? The romance between the main characters is non-existence and the preposterous middle is ridiculous. No one will end up happy with this story so I don’t understand who the intended audience for it is. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I mostly enjoyed this book. I find a lot of Regency Romance to be all fluff and no plot, but the plot of this book kept my attention. Unfortunately there were some things in there that just didn't make sense. The book opens telling us that Clemency never wants to get married.... but that she is engaged. Then (spoiler) she goes right into being engaged/married to someone at the end. What's the point of her being against marriage when we have honestly never once seen her be against it? I think it would have been more compelling if we could have seen their courtship. Then the reader could feel more of a sense of betrayal on Clemency's behalf.

Then there were all sorts of plot points that should have been expanded but weren't. Many heavy spoilers follow.

Lady Veitch's daughter getting notes from a mysterious admirer is literally mentioned once, and then turns into the deus ex machina part of the plot. Also it was pretty strange how Clemency goes from "oh my goodness, Turner is a homosexual!" to "yeah nbd I'll go to a drag club. Don't get me wrong, it's neat that the love interest is bi and that there were queer characters explicitly mentioned, but all of that would have been very illegal. I don't think a delicately bred young woman would be totally cool with it 5 minutes after learning about it. Even if she was it's a big thing to learn about and I feel like she would have needed more time to grapple with it (especially about her sister). Heck, even if she was 100% cool with this from the start she probably would have needed a minute to mentally adjust.

Also many, many, many period inaccuracies. Usually they really bother me in books like this but for some reason it wasn't so annoying in this book. What was annoying? The footnotes. I ended up skipping them after chapter 1.

I know I just tore apart this book but for the most part I enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed this one a lot! I found the storyline very compelling and I fell just as in love with the characters. I’m looking forward to adding a physical copy to my library soon!

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I found this novel entertaining and the characters well developed. The heroine is determined to ruin her deceiving fiance no matter the cost. The hero proposes to help her and their bond strengthens. Although the mystery and the chase is compelling. I found the romance lacking. Nevertheless it was a well written novel with redeeming qualities.

I was initially hooked on this story of two people who had one thing in common: the wretched Lord Boyle. Clemency, engaged to Lord Boyle merely to help her family in financial matters, is brought into Auric's scheme for revenge on a man who did wrong by his sister, and claimed to be someone he is not.

Fascinated at how this story would play out, I was left feeling underwhelmed. The plot was well developed. The characters were nicely framed as interesting people. But the execution was not successful. After reading half way into the book, I began to feel as if the story was not progressing as it should. The tension was lost and the revenge plot dragged on until the end. There wasn't any development of the romantic connection between Auric and Clemency due to the honed in focus of the revenge. A revenge that could have been resolved earlier and allowed breathing room for Auric and Clemency's developing affection to take center stage.

While this story did not play out in a satisfying manner for me, I would still recommend reading this book if a story that is big on revenge and low on romance appeals to you.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this eARC thanks to Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I loved this book! I love stories set in historical times. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this story. Thank you Netgalley for the arc!

Clemency Fry had abhorred the idea of marriage until Lord Turner Boyle swept her off her feet. Once engaged, he seemed less like the man she fell in love with and more like a regret. When a mysterious stranger, Audric Ferrand, offers her a way out due to Lord Boyle's misdeeds, Clemency takes the chance to free herself from her impending marriage.

Clemency was an interesting character, seeing the benefits of not marrying and becoming a man's property as was the case during this time, yet still ending up engaged to a baron. I enjoyed the revenge plot and that Boyle was sufficiently devious. The slow burn romance was full of well done banter. This was a very fun read.

For Jane Austen lovers by a Jane Austen lover!

I enjoy a good revenge plot, especially when there’s a real d-bag of a character who deserves it. I came for the revenge, but stayed for the adorable love story and clever banter. Is it historically accurate at all times? Nah. Did I thoroughly enjoy it? Absolutely! I don’t need perfection to be entertained and this book sucked me in to this world and the characters and their lives more than I thought it would when I read the summary. This book is witty, intelligent, and thoughtful about its characters. I highly recommend this!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the story as there was some mystery to it. The heroine has decided to marry to save her family, but then she is roped into a revenge plot. The hero is all about revenge and slowly realizes he has fallen in love. There is at least one big villain in the story. The other characters add a lot to the plot. I couldn’t figure out how the grooom could be exchanged at the last moment without a special license. Also there was one line that mentioned the sister and her fiancé taking over the wedding , but that never happened. It was a good read as you find out more about the villain and other aspects of society.

Clemency Fry is as well-read, strong-willed, and independent as early 1800s social standards will tolerate. So how could such an early feminist like Clemency fall for the likes of a charming, opportunistic con artist? What’s worse, she agrees to marry him! But the love goggles come off when he inexplicably turns a cold shoulder, and a mysterious stranger enters her life with a proposition: expose and disgrace the phony con artist for what he truly is. Madeleine Roux turns a phrase like no other. The Proposition is an absolute delight to read. I found myself re-reading certain passages out loud, just to hear the clever lyric in them. The plot and characters make unexpected dips and turns, keeping the reader guessing to the very end. Loved it.

Madeleine Roux's The Proposition is the story of Clemency and Audric. Roux's writing is zippy and pithy for the majority of the book, although I thought she lost a bit of that steam near the end. What I found to be really fresh about The Proposition was Roux's approach to the conflict. Without giving any spoilers, I will say that I have not read many authors who have successfully shied away from the traditional conflict dynamic, but I think Roux does it well.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and provide by feedback voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group and for granting me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

This book was set in a time period where woman are window dressing persued by men and not thought to have intelligence or rather not suppose to voice their knowledge or opinions.

I do love the clothing descriptions if the time period and conversations. The predictable plot and romance makes for a light read. Something you might read when you are relaxing at the beach and don't want to think. Does not require much thought.

Clemency Fry is engaged to Lord Turner Boyle, whom she thought that she loved until his attitude towards her turns patronizing and cold. Mr. Audric Ferrand, whose mysterious appearance amongst the ton intrigues Clemency, has his own reasons for disliking Boyle. Ferrand and Clemency strike a deal in which he will help her end her engagement to Boyle, while he seeks revenge for past wrongs by Boyle. In spite of the business nature of the proposed deal, the two become drawn to each other in ways they did not anticipate, until their target threatens them with secrets that could harm them and those they love.