Lady Petra Forsyth, an independent minded young woman who lost her fiance to an untimely death three years ago, has declared to society that she does not intend to marry. Her father, the Earl of Holbrook, supports her, but her uncle Lord Allington intends to force the issue and has invited a prospect to her home of Buckfields. Lady Petra uses an invitation from her godmother, the Duchess of Hillmorton, to escape, but upon learning of the death of her friend Lady Milford -- and some suspicious details surrounding it -- she decides to investigate.

This Regency-era mystery should have been right up my alley, but somehow it failed to satisfy. The language leans closer to the Austen style of writing, more formal with no contractions and with period slang, so it may take the modern reader a little time to adjust to reading it. The plot felt fairly transparent -- I knew from the moment conflicting facts surrounding Lady Milford's death appeared what the eventual truth would be as it's a theme I've encountered before in historical fiction. (Not saying that's bad, just that it decreased the tension in the plot for me.) The characters felt flat: the bad guys were almost comically bad, and Petra herself is almost too perfectly drawn -- so independent and feminist and open-minded that it verges on unbelievable, and with no real growth over the course of the book. And the romance had no real development with an ending that felt truly over the top.

I get what the author is doing, and I do appreciate a female protagonist who can challenge societal norms. I also appreciated the positive attitudes taken toward same-sex couples and attraction as well as a minor bit of POC representation. However, it all felt tokenized and superficial, almost like the author checked off boxes as to what would make the character "feminist" without going much deeper. It just kept missing the mark for me.

A disappointing 2.5 stars (rounded up).

Thank you, Minotaur Books and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Rounding up from, like, a 3.5 or a 3.75.

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord brought me in on title, blurb, and general interest thanks to an affinity for Downton Abbey, Evie Dunmore's Rogue series, and Victorian England itself. Lady Petra Forsyth is a charming woman born in the wrong time - I would love to get into a drunk conversation with her about falling the patriarchy at a bar these days - and dealing with society that doesn't like her saying "I'm going to be alone forever, deal with it!" after the untimely death of her fiancé. Petra's got the support of her dad, her friends, and her staff and, really, that's all that should matter. Just kidding, it's the 1800s.

The book starts off slow: I told people that it started getting interesting around chapter 15 and 16, but once it did, boy howdy, I almost didn't want to put it down. I appreciate the amount of times I got the chance to yell, "MAKE IT GAY" in my annotations. And the ending, I kid you not, had me flipping back and forth, physically looking for more because that couldn't be the end of the story.

Overall, I would recommend this to friends who like Victorian England and certain mysteries, but not friends who devour romance stories. This story doesn't get all the stars because there was soooo much exposition for so long (I can understand some world building, but 15 chapters of it?) and I wish there was more depth to Duncan and Petra's relationship. Their reunion is kinda...bleh, and I didn't get the warm bubbly feelings I think a reader should get when they're together. It feels like Connally tried really hard to do mystery and romance all at once and ended up with MYSTERY, oh yeah, and there's a little romance too if you look for it.

Thankful to NetGalley for getting this in my hands and thanks to Celeste Connally for ruining my day with her ending. I'll be thinking about it for the next 24 hours.

A new cozy mystery by an author whose previous series I enjoyed. This was a good cozy mystery, a fast read. I had just finished several books on rather deep subjects and this book was a nice balance.

I liked the originality of the storyline but couldn't really get into it. It was a little confusing for me despite a promising main character.

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord by Celeste Connally is an entertaining historical cozy mystery that is the start of a new series.

This was a fun take on a cozy/historical mystery that takes place in Regency London. Here is the first installment, we are introduced to the era, location, main character (s), their immediate backstories, and begin to set the pace with the included murder/mystery.

Lady Petra Forsyth is a great MC and through her unique position, we can get glimpses into the worlds in which women navigated at that time. I liked Petra and think she can easily hold her own with her own series.

I liked the dialogue, pacing, and look forward to the next book.

4/5 stars

Thank you NG and Kensington Books for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 11/14/23.

Fun book to curl up with on a. rainy day. Does not take itself too seriously. Fun escapism.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Boring and predictable . It’s supposed to be set in the regency era , but the characters do not act like it

This was my first ARC/Net Galley read and I must say I loved it. I’m a sucker for a period piece and this one was well done.

You immediately love and respect the protagonist, Lady Petra Forsyth, and the other strong women she surrounds herself with. Petra and her friends are forced to navigate the world as “ladys” while trying to ensure their own rights and freedoms. The premise of the story is not only creative and thrilling, but also a strong commentary on past and present views of female health, as well as mental health in general.

My only real complaint is that I sometimes had trouble keeping all of the characters straight, since many of their names were similar. Additionally, I would have appreciated less fluff about secondary characters, and more one-one time between Petra and Duncan earlier on in the book.

Overall, it was a great read! That cliffhanger at the end made me even more excited for the next one!

The clever title and charming cover attracted me to Think Like a Lady, Act Like a Lord. Unfortunately, the story itself didn’t live up to these initial positive impressions.

After her fiancée dies shortly before their wedding, Lady Petra Forsyth decides that she will never marry. She has the means to maintain her independence, thanks to an inheritance from her mother.
Petra learns that a friend of hers has died under strange circumstances, and eventually she discovers a dangerous private asylum where men pay to have their wives and daughters disappear.

Pacing was slow and seemed to plod along, weighed down by an overabundance of exposition about even minor points. The effort to weave in messages about topics such as women’s rights, mental health and diversity was heavy-handed and became repetitive.

The most significant issue was the inconsistency of the main characters. Petra is supposed to be an intelligent, strong, independent woman. Yet she frequently behaves incredibly naively, and her headstrong behavior gets her into risky situations that she could have avoided. For example, she returns to her home after her father has left, even though she has been warned that her uncle is there, and has ordered the house immediately closed, despite the fact that her father had told her she had two weeks to close the London townhouse before returning to their country estate. Even though she fears that her uncle is trying to have her committed to the same asylum from which a friend of hers has narrowly managed to escape, she remains in a room alone with him, and continues to drink a glass of wine after noticing that it tastes odd. Unsurprisingly, she ends up drugged, abducted and restrained at the asylum.

It is also hard to believe that her widowed father, with whom she is supposed to have a close and loving relationship, would take the word of a stranger regarding Petra’s “troubling” behavior, without talking first to his daughter for her side of the story. The earl’s quickness to believe the worst of his beloved daughter without seeking any confirmation from her or others he could trust conflicted with his earlier behavior.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the ARC.

This was the perfect book for a snowy day. I love the historical references and a little mystery is never a bad thing.

I enjoyed the characters a lot.

Oh my goodness this book was absolutely what I needed. I had been in a reading slump and this got me out of it!