A brilliant and quite epic historical mystery! I loved this story from start to finish, however, don’t be deceived by this cute illustrated cover as the story’s content is more serious and dark. Marsh expertly delivers a historical mystery full of danger, high stakes, rooftop chases, animal sidekicks, a fantastic diverse cast, a swoony MMC with a heart of solid gold and a penchant for scaling walls, hopping rooftops, and befriending animal companions, and a fiercely independent, witty, enterprising FMC who regularly dons widow’s weeds to conceal her identity.

Wanting to escape her impending betrothal to Viscount Hawley, who most suspect to have murdered his first two wives, Lady Charlotte embarks on an investigation to bring these sinister acts to light and land the murdered behind bars. Unbeknownst to Lady Charlotte, her childhood friend Dr. Matthew Talbot, Hawley’s brother, is trying to do the very same, while simultaneously hiding secrets of his own. When Charlotte and Matthew are reunited after not seeing each other for a few years, they begin to discover that they have much in common, including their admiration for the natural world, quirky animals, and salacious sea shanties, and a desire for justice. There was such tenderness and respect between Matthew and Charlotte and their eventual declarations of love left my heart full and my eyes misty.

Marsh crafted a story that not only draws readers in with its mystery and slow burn romance, but also created a space to discuss the slave trade, colonization, indentured servitude, class, and gender. While the overall tone of the book is serious, the animal companions provided moments of lightheartedness that were absolutely wonderful and made me wonder why don’t more historical romances have menageries??

This was such a fantastic read and with the open ending, I truly hope this means more is to come from the Black Sheep!

What a delight this book was! I wasn’t sure what to expect but it mixed so many elements of my favorite things in romance up and it blended perfectly to be the best of all worlds! It was historical romance with a suspense subplot, and quite a few excellent tropes like friends to lovers, brothers best friend, doctor…. So much fun! I was definitely not expecting it to be as fantastic as it was - 4.5 stars!

I really enjoyed the suspense or mystery element, where Charlotte was trying to get out of a betrothal her parents were forcing upon her, to a terrible man her parents couldn’t see anything wrong with… his last two wives died mysteriously and Charlotte was setting out to prove he did it so she could get out of this farce. His brother has just returned to London after years at sea - Matthew happens to be her twin brother’s best friend and on the same mission to prove his brother a terrible person, and who also has always had an unrequited crush on Charlotte. The witty banter between everyone (especially Charlotte and Matthew) really made this story even better than it was!

A beautiful story, written so well, and one I definitely recommend!

I received an advance copy from NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing), and this is my honest feedback.

Avoiding a marriage!

Parrots, monkeys, a wicked duke soon to be a fiancé, and the solid, reliable younger scholarly brother of said duke who is more than he seems. No wonder my mind was all a whirl whilst reading this.
Lady Charlotte Lovett’s more a restricted doll living in a guilded cage. Everything (and I mean everything) had to be just so. Charlotte’s parents have decided to marry her to the Duke of Hawley despite his previous two wives both having died in “tragic” accidents. He’s a bully and more. Her parents see it as a step in their march to influence and power.
Lady Charlotte is made of sterner stuff. She’s working on a plot towards freedom.
Charlotte’s mother runs a literary salon. Charlotte takes that idea and inveigles her cousins to let her invest in their coffeehouse, The Black Sheep. Here she’ll run a variation on her mother’s salon for those of all genders wishing to converse and argue the point about politics, literature, the sciences, whatever, in rooms adjoining the coffeehouse.
All she has to do is have Hawley confess to wrong doing in front of witnesses. Make no mistake, Hawley is depraved and sinister.
The “how” is the big question...and that becomes the stuff worthy of the best dramatic theater.
A fun read with more serious matters underlying the whole.

A Forever (Grand Central Pub.) ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Mystery, secrets and a bride to be....

Charlotte does not want to marry the shady viscount.
Her only hope is to work with his super sweet, shy brother, Matthew. He's adorbs.
Matthew does have his secrets (so many secrets) but he's charming and sweet.
A cray-cray cast of characters. Think Enola Holmes in regency times.
Recommend.

This book was quite fun and sets up an obvious sequel, which I’m definitely going to read. I really liked both Charlotte and Matthew as individuals, though I thought there could have been stronger chemistry between them as a couple. Still, I was rooting for them the whole time. They’re charming together and a wonderful example of opposites attract because their strengths complement each other so well.

They both have complicated family relationships - that will probably make you thankful for your own family in comparison - that give the book some emotional heft and heighten the stakes. There’s also the fact that they’re both trying to prove Matthew’s brother is a murderer - the stakes in this book felt so much higher than in a lot of other romances.

The pros far outweigh the cons but I did think it was a bit dragged out that the reader didn’t know what Matthew’s big secret was. This could have worked if we only had Charlotte’s POV, but since we had his as well, it was kind of annoying to read him constantly thinking about how he had a secretly but conveniently never having any specific detailed thoughts about it.

This is one of those books that if you are a stickler for the rules of the time period it will it will bug you. I like strong females and accept occasional breeches in following the societal rules within reason. Lady Charlotte Lovett is betrothed by her parents to Viscount Hawley. She doesn’t want to marry him especially as it is rumored he killed his first two wives. The only way out of the engagement is prove his guilt. She turns to Dr. Matthew Talbot her intended’s younger brother for assistance. He is bookish, a professor and surgeon. He wants to help her but also wants her to not find out all the family secrets.

There is some zaniness in all the happenings. I didn’t love the parrots or pet monkey but others will probably find them humorous. I did like learning that there were coffee houses in the 1700s but not sure I can believe she could become part owner so easily. Matthew is smitten early but needs to be convinced he is worthy of love. I found I was distracted by some of the anachronisms used taking me out of what should be a historical romance. Overall this was fun and some serious topics are brought into discussion. The cover very cute. I would have liked more passion on the romance side. (3.5 Stars)

Genre: historical romance, mystery
Georgian era

Lady Charlotte Lovett finds herself nearly engaged to William Talbot, Viscount Hawley, the son and heir to a powerful duke. As a duke’s daughter herself, this is not unexpected, except the man in question has already had two wives die under mysterious circumstances. When Dr Matthew Talbot returns from his recent travels to discover his best friend’s twin sister who he has been pining after is promised to his older brother, he’s worried because he’s convinced that Hawley murdered those wives and can’t stand the thought of Charlotte being the next victim. Not one to let fate decide for her, Charlotte flees, working with Matthew to try to uncover the mystery, all while Matthew tries to hide other secrets.

What a fun historical mystery/romance. Lady Charlotte has some fun adventures and wild plots. On the surface, Charlotte has been training to be the perfect salon hostess, to inspire intriguing conversation with poise and grace. She’s perfected the art of pleasing her mother, while still maintaining personal boundaries, investing in a coffeehouse and finding a way to manage her own funds to give herself a future outside of a potentially loveless marriage.

I approached this book as a historical romance reader, and I think it leans a little more to the romance plot than the mystery plot. The romance is low-steam and very sweet, and honestly my favorite part is how in favor of the relationship Alexander Lovett, Charlotte’s twin and Matthew’s best friend, is. Obviously he doesn’t want his sister to marry someone who might murder her, but he also couldn’t be more thrilled that his very principled best friend is a perfect match for his fiery sister.

There are a lot of plot lines in Lady Charlotte Always Gets Her Man, and while they were easy enough to follow, just know that there’s a lot going on in the story. Violet Marsh gives us really strong historical context though, and I always enjoy finding something in the Georgian era with its highwaymen, adventuring naturalist doctors, and early medical techniques. Matthew Talbot is modeled on the example of 18th century physician Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin’s grandfather. The historical components add a rich layer to the bananas plots, keeping the overall story anchored.

Thank you to Forever for the advanced reader copy and to Hachette Audio for the advanced listener copy. These opinions are my own.

This was a fun new historical romance with a mystery included. Charlotte's parents tell her of their plan to betroth her to Viscount Hawley. She is horrified at the idea because both of his last two wives ended up dead in mysterious circumstances just months after their marriage. So Charlotte sets off to establish her own independence and to prove Hawley's guilt. Along the way, she starts working with her brother's best friend and Hawley's younger brother, Matthew.

I adored this book more the further I read. It has such amazing characters and animals. The mystery kept me intrigued throughout. And it brought in a lot of other great elements. I was especially pleased by the attention to social class and the acknowledgement and fight against slavery. And there was an underlying current of feminism through Charlotte's behavior. I have always been fascinated by the coffeehouses of old as places where people from a variety of classes could interact, and this book made me want to visit the coffeehouse so badly.

And then there's Charlotte and Matthew. Their romance is so sweet as they get to know each other better. And both of them are such strong characters, rebelling against their places in society.

I appreciated that the audiobook included the acknowledgements and the historical note. That's something I always look for in historical fiction.

Lady Charlotte Always Gets Her Man by Violet Marsh promises a delightful historical mystery, but unfortunately, it falls a bit short of expectations. The story revolves around Lady Charlotte Lovett, a headstrong young woman determined to escape an arranged marriage with Viscount Hawley, a man she believes is a murderer.

The plot, however, fails to deliver a compelling mystery. Viscount Hawley is portrayed in a cartoonish, over-the-top manner. It doesn't really build up any suspense as all of his cruel and criminal acts from childhood on are recounted or blantantly hinted from the start.

The characters, particularly Lady Charlotte and Dr. Matthew Talbot, seem promising at first, but don't really develop much. Charlotte's rebellious nature feels like an attempt to inject modernity into the story, feeling out of place for the historical setting. Matthew, with his array of skills and secrets, as well as his undying devotion, comes off as an exaggerated and unbelievable character.

And I still don't understand the plot hole in the beginning when Charlotte bolts from a dress fitting in a ball gown, goes to a seedy part of town to buy a stake in a coffee house, takes off the dress to negotiate, and then when next we see her she is at home with her mother as though none of that had happened? In a time when a woman's reputation was ruined by pretty much everything, how were there no consequences? How did she even get home?

Anyway, thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

"Lady Charlotte Always Gets Her Man" is good but not great, and I liked but did not love it. The book tells the story of Lady Charlotte Lovett, who's allegedly tyrannical parents have betrothed to the heir of an dukedom who is also widely suspected a being a double murderer. Understandably freaking out about this, Violet ends up becoming an investor in her unconventional cousin's coffee house, intending to both build up her nest egg and to suss out the truth about her would-be fiancee's nefarious deeds. Of course the coffee shop, its owners, and its assorted patrons (including Charlotte's twin brother) are connected with Dr. Matthew Talbot, younger brother to the evil fiancee, who has been in love with Charlotte from afar for years. Through a series of improbable events, the group becomes a Scooby Gang of sorts, determined to somehow expose the fiancee for the dastardly duke-to-be that he is. Concurrently with this, Charlotte and Matthew are realizing their feelings for each other.

The premise had a lot of promise, and I loved the coffee shop setting. But many things here did not work for me, including:
**Charlotte's parents are supposed to be terrible. Yet she ran from the modiste, and presumably ruined a very expensive dress, with apparently no consequences. She is able to flit around London without issue. She somehow comes home with a serious arm issue and it seems like no one in the parents' household bats an eye.
**Charlotte's easy access to her inheritance, allowing for an almost overnight reinvention of her cousin's coffee shop. Much as I wish this wasn't the case, Charlotte is a young, unmarried woman. It seems doubtful that she would have such easy access to money, her own or not.
**Matthew's superhero vibe. He is doing good work, but I don't think he needed to be a rooftop leaping superhero to be doing such work.
**This being marketed as a mystery. It is a romance novel with a minor mystery element.

There were things I did like. I loved the rest of the Scooby Gang, and while I don't love clean romance, would probably pick up Alexander's upcoming story just for more of him. I loved the coffee shop setting, especially with the history captured in the author's note. The characters were diverse, and I loved the set-down given by Charlotte's cousin when Charlotte claims to be trapped in her place within the ton.

3 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a complimentary ARC of this book. These opinions are my own.

4.5/5 stars
1/5 spice

Tropes:
Friends to lovers
She's engaged to his brother
Doctor MMC
Secret Businesswoman FMC
Mutual pining
Mystery solving
Secret lifestyle
Dual POV

This was my first book with this author, and I had a lot of fun reading this one. The cover looks cute, but it has some serious topics intertwined with the romance. If you're looking for a bit of mystery in your historical romance but also some action, then you'll enjoy this one. The romance was very sweet and was full of tension. Other than some hot and heavy kissing, this romance was more focused on the growth of their relationship. Overall, this book was well paced and had some fun characters. I highly recommend this for all historical romance fans.

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever/Grand Central Publishing for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and offered voluntarily.

Trigger/Content warnings:
Violence, mentions bullying and cruelty towards a disabled person, emotional abuse, injury details

Lady Charlotte Always Gets Her Man is a fun, old-fashioned, quick-witted romantic mystery with medium stakes and a sense of humor; it’s a good mix of genuinely suspenseful romance and lighthearted romp. It lacks nuance and has some anachronistic behavior, which means I had to drop the grade a bit, but overall it’s a good time that starts off what appears to be a series of romantic historical mysteries about a lady and the doctor she entrances.

Lady Charlotte Lovett is not thinking of love, though her mother definitely is. She quickly learns she’s been betrothed to Viscount Hawley, who has a long and awful string of marital relationships behind him. She’s heard that he killed his two previous wives along with multiple other innocents, and she’s determined to prove it. To that end, she enlists the man’s brother, Dr. Matthew Talbot, who has recently returned to England, to prove that his brother is a psychotic murderer before her mother can announce her engagement to him.

Bookish Matthew can well believe that his brother is capable of such felonious behavior. The best friend of her twin brother Alexander, Matthew has known Charlotte for a long time and loved her from afar for just as long - though it’s been years since he’s seen her. Determined to protect the Talbot family secrets (and his own) while preventing Charlotte’s marriage to the Viscount, Matthew agrees to help, but might there be something more interesting waiting for them once the mystery’s solved?

There’s a lot of Enola Holmes in Lady Charlotte Always Gets Her Man, occasionally to its detriment. Sometimes anachronistic, the book delivers some thoughtful, heavy morals while also boasting a love affair between a capuchin monkey and a parrot. Yes, really. The uneven tone here can be a bit sticky.

Charlotte and Matthew hang out at an underground coffee shop run by biracial cousins of Charlotte’s who have been disowned by her awful, social-climbing parents. The fight for racial and sexual equality provides a major backbone to this story, and a lot of different issues come up in the romance when Charlotte isn’t performing acts of derring-do, with Matthew eventually her helpful accomplice. But everyone here is pretty sweet, and the romance between Matthew and Charlotte is truly enjoyable.

But then there are the villains, from Charlotte’s parents to the Viscount, and they have absolutely no moral complexity or depth. If you want a mystery that’s a little more mysterious – and one with complex villains and a reasonable degree of historical accuracy you’ll probably want to look elsewhere. Yet I liked the vivid writing style and the romance is top-notch. Lady Charlotte Always Gets Her Man is fun and sweet, but not quite DIK material.

Lady Charlotte is the daughter of a duke being set up to marry the heir to a duke, but he’s got a reputation for being violent and may have actually murdered his previous wives. She’s looking to find proof of his guilt so that she can avoid marrying him. Meanwhile, that man’s younger brother and her own brother’s best friend Matthew is back in town and he’s hiding his own secrets. Charlotte isn’t sure whether or not to trust him, but we know that Matthew is trying his best to find proof of his brother’s crimes too. These two are definitely in each other’s way and skirting all sorts of danger, but they’ll shortly realize that they need to team up in order to accomplish their goals. This was an action-packed mystery type of story with two people who have had pre-existing crushes on each other and kisses only. We get a fun group of crime-fighting friends and cousins and a chatty parrot, if you’re into that sort of humor.

I mean, this book was okay. It was silly, very silly in some parts. I like women who are strong, it just come toa point where it felt repetitive and I was bored. I was waiting for it to finish. It's not that I don't recommend, it was just okay.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A fun quick romp, a little cheesy and didn’t love all of the humor in this, found it quite predictable and the romance lacked the steam I wanted.

When Lady Charlotte Lovett’s mother announces that Charlotte has been betrothed to Viscount Hawley, the heir to the Duke of Lansberry, and they will be announcing it in two months. Charlotte is horrified, especially when it is clear that her parents don’t seem to care that he has buried two wives in three years, both dying from tragic accidents. So Charlotte does what any overwrought woman in early-Georgian England would do – she bolts, in the gown she is being fitted for, to a sketchy part of town and then realizes that she is near the coffeeshop owned by her estranged cousin. Charlotte uses the opportunity to introduce herself and propose a business venture, but first, she needs to get out of this betrothal, and with only two months to prove that Hawley is a murderer she is going to need some help. That’s where her cousin, brother, and brother’s best friend (who happens to be Hawley’s younger brother and the man she has long held a secret tendre) Dr. Lord Matthew Talbot, comes in.

Matthew Talbot is quite the Renaissance Man, he is a doctor, naturalist, author, illustrator, abolitionist, scholar, spy, and all-around good guy – who also happens to harbor a secret tendre for Charlotte and will do anything to save her from marrying his brother, but must be careful not to reveal his own secrets.

I so wanted to love this book, but it was just not for me. The writing wasn’t bad per se and the plot had potential, but it was too wordy with too much going on and twists and turns that dragged the book down rather than further the story. There was too much modern verbiage and too many “talking points” with contemporary ideals, not to mention the author did not seem to have working knowledge of formal address or honorifics. The book does have positives; there are some humorous moments, the “good” characters are very likable and the villains are easy to hate, there are informative author’s notes and there is a happy ending complete with an epilogue. I do wish there had been some steam or at least some chemistry, but this is pretty much a PG13 kissing book with a bit of mystery. I haven’t decided if would read another book by this author, but I am not keen on recommending this title.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*

This is a childhood friend’s romance and mystery all put together in this wonderful read. The animals in the story added so much to plot. So much going on you have to stay glued just to see what happens next.

Im not usually one to like thrillers/action books. I thought the writing was great and the book interesting. I liked that romance was played into the plot of the story as well. I give it a solid 3 for writing and plot, but it wasn’t really my kind of book.

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

The category of “Regency novel” has expanded to include many new authors and storylines. As is true in this title, there now seems to be more room for original storytelling, humor and a bit of mystery along with the romances that readers crave.

This is a fun read featuring the titular Lady Charlotte. When she does NOT want to be married to a man who may have killed his two previous wives, she wants to take action. Of course, this is not a recipe for a great marriage if true. Charlotte knows that she needs to find out more.

Charlotte is then led to the brother of this possible villain. He is very different. What will happen when Matthew, a doctor, and Charlotte meet? What will be discovered about the viscount? And, what does Matthew want to hide? With whom will Charlotte find romance? This is all enough to keep the pages turning.

Readers who enjoy this genre should definitely put this book on their spring reading list.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Forever Grand Central Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.

You know... it says a lot when I was more invested in the romance between Banshee (a capuchin) and Pan (a parrot) than I was in the romance between Matthew and Charlotte.

Now that I have your attention, let me explain. There was just something missing between our (human) couple that I can't quite put my finger on. And to be honest, I'm not sure if it was a lack of chemistry between the two, or the fact that the characters were both just.... odd to me.

Let's start with Charlotte. She was one of those characters who was ahead of her time (in ways not entirely compatible with the time period in which this story took place), and also extremely reckless. Oddly enough, I enjoyed her, probably because she went against everything society wanted her to be.

Matthew however was just a touch too.... well everything. When we first meet him we are told that he is quiet (to the point he doesn't engage with society because he tends to prattle on about things that interest him and no one else). But he's also quite scholarly as in addition to the books he has published (and illustrated) he is also a doctor after all, or was that a surgeon? He is called both at different times throughout the story after all so it's hard to know for sure. Oh, and let's not forget the part where he is able to effortlessly scale walls, jump from roof to roof and do all sorts of other secret hero stuff because of course he has a double life. And I'm not saying what he does isn't admirable, I'm just saying that aside from allowing himself to be bullied by his older brothers, and his inability to successfully navigate within the confines of the ton, he seemed very what is the term? Gary Sue? Is that what we call guy characters who are just too perfect at everything?

And that brings us to the entire plot of this story. Charlotte has been betrothed (without her knowledge and against her will) to Matthew's older brother who is in line to inherit a Dukedom. Only, Charlotte would be said brothers THIRD wife after the prior two died in very mysterious circumstances (to be fair the manner of death for both was different, but they both died of broken necks with the same vertebra broken and NO ONE thought it was odd?). Of course, Hawley is the epitome of over the top, almost cartoonish villain, consorting with the stereotypical "goon/henchman" characters and just being overall insufferable, but without actually showing the reader that he has anything but bad luck on his side. Of course, we want to believe Charlotte and Matthew since both of them are convinced he was responsible for the deaths of his former wives.

But then, the story takes a turn. And okay, yeah. Hawley is up to something. But it has nothing to do with the original storyline and while it WAS satisfying to see him get what was coming to him, I wish the truth would have been revealed about what really did happen to his ex-wives and have him face justice for that.

Now I'm going to touch on something that no one else has. Charlotte RAN AWAY from the modiste while wearing the dress she was supposed to be married in, yet as far as we saw, she faced no repercussions from her mother (who otherwise comes across as some kind of tyrant ruling over her daughter with an iron fist), nor was there any gossip about the incident from either other clients who knew Charlotte had been at the modiste, or people seeing someone make a mad escape from said stop (through a back set of doors nonetheless). If you're going to have a tyrannical mother than in my opinion, they need to have more of a presence than Charlotte's did. Instead, it seemed the only time she showed up was when it was convenient for the author to move something along without her ever really seeming to be an actual threat to Charlotte's happiness.

I will say, that this story ended on a perfect non-related cliff-hanger should this author decide to make a series out of it, and I enjoyed Alexander (Charlotte's twin brother) just enough that I may be tempted to give his story a read.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.