4.5! such a cute romance where the romance isn't the main factor (there was more of a connection focused on between our protag and Grace+Aster (the captain's kids). i loved their connection when it got started though, and it was so casually queernormative that was great!

I love Lex Croucher's historical, lgbtq+ inclusive romances.

Our heroine in Trouble is a Emily, a salty, prickly woman who assumes the role of her sweet, mild-tempered sister in order to secure her new governess job while she recuperates from an illness. Over time, Emily learns that you don't have to be a people-pleaser for people to appreciate you and that trying to emulate her sister isn't fooling anyone. Emily's desire to just keep the gig as long as she can then run with stolen items seems inconsistent with her goal to keep the position available for her sister to take on as soon as she is better.

Is this an m/f romance and includes children (two of my least favourite things to read about)? Well yes, but it’s Alex Croucher so of course I had to read it!
It’s actually very queer and the children are teenagers, so it was all more bearable than I thought.
Emily’s sister Amy has fallen sick and doesn’t seem to be able to shake it off. So in order to not loose her new job and the money she earns as a governess and to maybe get more money in from the rich peoples house, Emily jumps in and pretends to be her sister. Only she never worked with children before.
Lex Crouxher has a way of writing imperfect, unlikable characters, but still making you understand their motives and where they’re coming from so you can’t help yourself but love them no matter what.
I completely understood Emily’s behaviour and her actions, she is poor and afraid for her sister, angry about her circumstances. I really love that Lex Croucher includes the difference in class and society in a lot of their books and this one’s main focus was on it. I loved to see the house staff, it reminded me of watching Downton Abbey (one of my absolute favourite shows) and how everyone in the house acts so differently to what they’re expected to.
It was fun to experience Emily slowly starting to like them all and become part of the family.
I honestly have to say I didn’t feel the romance in this a lot. They had too few interactions and conversations for me to actually even ship them or to feel them falling in love. It was much more focussed on the interaction with the children in my opinion.
The ending was a little too over the top dramatic for me and I wish Emily would have just spoken out about her doings earlier, because it really wasn’t an unsolvable problem.
All in all this was fun, but not my favourite Lex Croucher.

This book is everything you love best about the timeless classics, but with all the characters in refreshingly modern and realistic portrayals. If you find Jane Austen, Sound of Music, historical fiction, 90s rom-coms to be your happy place and comfort favorites, but want to see it play out in a more relevant and accessible and inclusive way, this story is the answer. It's a really fun read with snarky, cute, and funny characters, perfect to recommend and gift for all your loved ones that need a smile on their face.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this book a lot. As I have seen other people say, it did remind me a little of The Sound of Music, but with a twist. Bits and pieces of other regency novels also came to mind. The story had intrigue, drama, comedy, and romance. I found the queer parts of the story gave it a little something extra.
In all it was a great book that kept my interest.

I was unable to finish this book. It did not hook my attention unfortunately. I loved Gwen and Art are not in love, but sadly this didn’t give me the same vibe.

I loved this one! It was the perfect mix of snark and heart. Grace is such a spitfire of a kid, she was my favorite side character.

All hail Lex Croucher!

This is the third historical-ish rom-com from her—and the third I've read—and they somehow keep getting better and better. This is definitely my favourite so far. There's an excellent Marie and Captain Von Trapp dynamic between the main character and the love interest and I loved every minute of it. Between the characters and the plot, it is entirely too amusing and swoony and I need Croucher to write a hundred more of these.

A delicious queer histrom that was impossible to put down. As always, Lex Croucher writes with wit, heat, and heart. Aa new favorite

This is my third encounter with Lex Croucher’s work and is my favorite of them all. Trouble is a romance like few others. It is well-written and all the characters are fleshed out and nicely developed. The witty banter and dialogue isn’t just saved for the MC, something I deeply appreciate. The romance developed beautifully and organically. There were dozen of lines that I openly laughed at.

Trouble also featured excellent reputation that didn’t feel forced. The pacing was well done. Truly, I have not a single complaint about Trouble and I’d highlight recommend it to romance readers.

It’s a 5/5 for me. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a wonderfully fun story! A cute little historical romance with some fun twists built in. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this one a bit early. I devoured this one in nearly a single sitting. All the characters are interesting and given their chances to shine and feel fully real. All adding to the comfy lower stakes vibe of this book. A bit of a slow burn for Emily and the Captain, but also so much real family love and growth and dealing with grief. Some great found family aspects thrown in as well. Emily has a lot of personal growing she needs to get through in this story. And learns so much from the family she finds around her. The queer characters in this story also find so much love and support. Elevating the comforting vibe of the book for me. Recommend to any and all readers of sweet and comfy historical romances.

This was so fun! Lex Croucher knows how to put a well balanced and hilarious cast of characters together. The conversations were quick and hilarious. The relationship growth between Emily and the children, the staff, and Captain Edwards built beautifully and believably. I loved this one and can’t wait to buy a physical copy to reread after the pub date!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Trouble by Lex Croucher is book 3 of a regency era series that are connected to the same universe but each read as a standalone. In Trouble, sticky-fingered budding con artist Emily takes a position as a governess under the guise of her sister Amy who was hired for the position. Amy has fallen ill, and the house is in desperate straits, so Emily has little choice but to pass herself off as her sister, which is complicated by her inexperience as a governess, her dislike of children, and her attitudes toward the class of people who have hired her. Fortunately, her expectations are upended almost immediately by a household that is abnormal for the times, but very normal in a Lex Croucher book--that is: Everyone is a complete mess, and nobody follows any kind of protocol. Still, Emily persists in her prejudices, setting up comic situations of misunderstanding and surprising revelations.

I loved the ways in which the various characters come together with their "flaws" on display, and yet it is because of their grumpiness or distance or inability to communicate that they somehow bring out in each other exactly what they each need to grow and begin to heal. Also, the characters were given room for big emotions - anger and argument - but then also forgiveness and acceptance. There were a lot of threads, both the relationships Emily had with the kids and the captain and the side characters' storylines, that echoed this message of open-armed found family, and it's just nice to know that despite a lot of angst, these characters are going to land on their feet, and love will prevail. I didn't know how Croucher was going to pull it out in the end, and that's half the reason this whole series is so compelling.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the ARC.

This was charming.

Emily is perhaps the grumpiest character in the history of grumpy characters. She bears everyone ill will, holds grudges, assumes the worst, and goes into her position subbing in for her sister as a governess with a mentality of 'eat the rich' and a determination to steal as much as she can in her short time at the house. She also hates children.

Needless to say, she makes a marvelous governess and charms the entire unconventional and informal household (though it takes her much longer to admit that she is charmed by them in return). And the journey to get there is beautifully written and an absolute delight.

I loved each and every character. All were vibrant and three-dimensional and felt real. By the time I finished, I wished they were my friends.

I also love love LOVED the casual queerness. A character comes out as trans and everyone embraces him immediately and offers nothing but love and acceptance. Major characters casually mention being bisexual or gay. It was wonderful.

The children are each terrors in their own way, and utterly charming. I loved them both and it was wonderful seeing Emily coming around to loving them as well. When she points out what a terrible governess she is, no one believes her, because she may not be teaching etiquette lessons and foreign languages, but she isn't trying to change them either.

The audiobook performance was excellent. The narrator managed to give each character a unique voice and mannerisms, and also capture all the humor in the text. I kept snorting with laughter as I listened (an achievement, as I was in bed with a migraine at the time).

Every book I read by Lex Croucher further cements them on my must-read authors list. And with every book they get better and their characters get more personality and become more charming. And of course the casual queerness is a definite plus. 10/10 highly recommend.

*Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and Macmillan Audio for providing an early copy and early audio copy for review.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy!

Lex Croucher is the best at writing authentic LGBTQ+ characters just existing in the world as they always have. I have really enjoyed this and her other regency books! Such a fun plot with plenty of twist and turns to keep the reader interested.

A very cute read! Even though I kind of hate consuming any kind of media where a main plot point is a character lying about something, I still decided to read this based on all the “Sound of Music vibes” reviews and I’m glad that I did. Some of the characters took a bit to grow on me, but by the end I was so glad they all got good, if maybe a bit rushed, endings that they deserved. All of the side characters were sweet and made a wonderful found family. The chronic illness rep was also a nice part of this and I thought Grace was such a sweet side character who I loved reading about.

Although Ben and Emily’s relationship didn’t really start to develop until about halfway through the book, I did enjoy when it did. Their banter and arguments were fun to read, and I thought the love confessions were perfect for their characters. They worked very well for each other as a couple and I liked their dynamic a lot.

I wish I’d gotten to know Ben better, since I felt like by the end of the book I didn’t really know too much about his character and backstory. He’s obviously supposed to be a very closed off person due to his past, but I felt that even with him developing into being more open I still knew less about him than I’d wanted to. He’s a great love interest in concept and what I knew of him I liked a lot, I just wish there’d been more. I also did feel that the ending wrapped up a bit too neatly and quickly, and I would’ve liked for that part of the story to be more in line with how the rest of the book was. But also it’s a cute romcom that isn’t supposed to be the most realistic thing in the world.

If you’re looking for a fun historical romcom that you can get through pretty quickly (I literally read the last 43% of this in one day) then I’d recommend!

Lex Croucher is becoming one of my favourite authors! This book is must read! If you haven’t read it yet you need to now. All the characters are so likeable and each is unique and special in their own way. I loved the plot the twist and turns and I found a lot of what happened was unexpected keeping me enthralled. I really can’t wait to read more by them!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

I loved Lex Croucher’s previous book, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. I knew going into this book, it would be hard to follow it up. I liked Trouble, but not as much as Gwen & Art. The banter between the romantic leads was fun and mostly charming, but did sometimes feel like they actually did not enjoy each other’s company. Their relationship was reminiscent of Captain von Trapp and Maria from The Sound of Music, and Captain Edwards definitely walked the same line between stern and endearing.

I loved that there were so many different types of queer identities represented in this book! Well-written as always, Lex Croucher books are always stellar!

I've really enjoyed everything I've read by Lex Croucher. Like, immediate-request-of-any-new-titles-before-reading-the-summary level enjoyed. "Trouble" was no exception.

I love a regency-style romance, but I also love it when LGBTQ+ people get to exist. This book was charming and witty. My favorite part was definitely the relationship between Emily and the kids- Grace is very sweet but not lacking in agency and Aster gets a much more interesting story than they 'bratty teenager' you first meet.

I do wish the Capitan's character was a little bit more developed (and I wish the sex scene was more explicit, but maybe that's just me).

Overall- great! Lots of characters who got to have their own things going on without taking away from Emily's development. Will reread and am excited for the audio version.