✨ARC Review✨
📖: The Lady He Lost
🖋️: Faye Delacour
🗓️: 4/02/24
⭐️: 5 of 5
💬: “I see you’re determined to make me kiss everyone then.”

Tropes, Topics & Themes:
✨Second chances
✨Historical Romance
✨Arranged engagement
✨Dual POV
✨Hilarious moments

I’m not a historical romance fan but Faye easily turned me into one! I devoured this book in a couple of hours and loved it so much!🔥🔥 Can’t wait to check out more books by her!


Not just any day of the week, but on a Sunday, Lieutenant Eleazar Williams, was resurrected.

With the family having church plans for the day, they didn’t attend after their son knocked on the door.

“Terribly sorry to have frightened you.”

The family is shocked that their lost son is back. The family must work together to alert everyone that it’s true and that he is who he says he is.

Eli’s return throws Jane completely off and her feelings come flooding back. From the heartbreak of him being engaged to her cousin, with her never telling him about her feelings, and now he wants things to go back to how they used to be.

Jane’s uncle is obsessed with trying to marry her off but Jane isn’t a simple woman that wants to follow the same steps as the rest of the women. She wants to grow her independence with her gambling club.

“I think I’m going to kiss you.”

Can Jane allow Eli back into her heart? Will Eli convince the whole town of his innocence and the reason why he was gone?

Let me share a couple more things.

Cecily got on my nerves! With a husband and still trying to flirt with Eli and her husband just allowing it to happen. What in the world is her husband thinking sitting back and watching all of that happen? No one made a big deal of her wanting to get a kiss from Eli.

The ultimate betrayal by Jane’s brother made me scream at the book! I can’t believe everything Jane has done for him. He could do that to her.

I was also happy about her uncle’s relationship at the end. I was hoping and waiting for something to happen because it was so obvious. Maybe he will get his own separate story. I would for sure read it!

I will be on the lookout for more books by this author and thank you for showing me that I can fall in love with historical romance.


“You are good enough, Jane. You’re the very best. There’s no one else I want.”

Thank you, Faye Delacour, Sourcebooks Casablanca, and Netgalley for this EARC! As always, my review is my opinion and thoughts. This review will be shared on my Instagram @Alexandriavwilliams_ shortly.

I always love a good regency romance but this had so much more. A short but very sweet tale of two opposites souls finally finding their true love in each other. Everything tied up nice and neat with a cherry on top. Predictable happy ending.

The Lady He Lost is a highly enjoyable second chance Regency Romance. The miscommunication and angst between Jane and Eli kept me turning the pages. I loved that the author gave us dual POV, it really added to the narrative. I am looking forward to reading more books by Faye Delacour.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for giving me access to the ARC.

I devoured this the minute I got it. I'd seen chatter on Twitter about it, and it was every bit as good as I thought it would be.

The Lady He Lost is an engaging second chance romance sprinkled with humor, banter, and emotional moments. There is pining, tension and steam. I quite enjoyed it.

Jane is a strong and determined character who aspires to be a gaming hell owner. She operates a smallish gaming club with her friend, Della. She is also nursing a broken heart thanks to Lieutenant Eleazar (Eli) Williams. Five years ago, Eli made a terrible mistake. He chose the wrong woman! Now, he’s back from the dead and rumor has it he was abducted by pirates? Anyway, he gets an opportunity to win back his woman and readers. I’m glad Jane made him suffer adequately.

I enjoyed Jane and Eli’s romance. There is a Jane Bennet/Charles Bingley feel to it. I also like that both Jane and Eli are inexperienced. While a part of me loves rakes in historical romance novels, I do appreciate inexperienced heroes. There aren’t enough. So, thank you for that. There is miscommunication but not enough to derail my enjoyment. However, I wish she had a better relationship with her only sibling. Cecily annoyed me, too.

This was a charming book, and I am eager to read more books by Faye Delacour.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing the e-ARC. This is my honest review.

This was my first venture into regency romance, and I really enjoyed it. The characters were easy to relate to despite it being set in the 19th century. I was worried the writing style might have slowed down the pace of the novel, but it was an easy read with enough at stake that kept me turning the page.
I really appreciated Jane's story arc. She was fiercely independent and at times I worried it would prevent her from getting her happy ending, but the ending was perfect.
Did I mention Eli was a dreamboat? I'll definitely be checking out more from this author. She may have spoiled me on regency romance though, and I'm not sure if others will live up to it.

The Lady He Lost by Faye Delacour is a delightful and entertaining historical romance that has it all.

I loved this book that has so much more to it than romance: mystery, suspense, humor, wit, banter, and a bit of spice to round it all out.

This takes place in England during the early Victorian era and I just loved Jane and Eli as main characters. Their chemistry was spot on. I am so glad I read this one.

4/5 stars

Thank you NG and Sourcebooks Casablanca 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 4/2/24.

It reads fine and it feels like it will go over well with lovers of historical romance. Solid three stars, four to five for the right readers. I stopped after chapter 1 (5%).

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC.

A compelling hist-rom story about Jane, a woman with a genius for cards, and Eli, the man she loved -- once thought killed in a shipwreck -- now returned miraculously to Victorian London. Romance readers will devour this!

I devoured this book in a day, and I cannot wait to see more from this author! Everything about this book was a delight - a sweet hero, a prickly heroine, and a charming, well rounded cast. Jane and Eli's chemistry was electric, and I absolutely adored Bertie. A perfect historical romance!

Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for granting access to this book! It was an enjoyable read, absolutely beautiful cover, the MCs had good chemistry but it took awhile for me to warm up to the heroine, I feel like she spent too much time feeling resentful over certain things, not without reason, but it just went on too long for me.

The Lady He Lost by Faye Delacour is a spicy feminist historical romance about Jane, an orphaned young woman with a remarkable talent for calculating probabilities in card games, and Eli, the man she loved who has mysteriously returned to her life after being presumed dead in a shipwreck.

When Eli returns to London, Jane's internal world is thrown into chaos. She just wants to focus on establishing her business so that she can build a future for herself independent from her uncle's charity or a husband's control, but she loved Eli. She mourned him when he chose to propose to her cousin and again when she thought he had died, and she feels that to allow him into her life again will be disastrous.

Eli returns to London relieved that he no longer to marry Jane's cousin and desperate to rekindle his intimacy with Jane. He is shocked when he arrives and finds himself on the receiving end of her ire, but he's determined to do whatever it takes to earn her forgiveness before he returns to naval service.

I loved the dual POV, the slow build of romantic tension, and the amount of agency the author gives to Jane with regard to the initiation of physical intimacy between the characters and to the resolution of the story's conflict. This book is truly a spicy feminist romance that incorporates consent in a sexy and straightforward way, and it makes the romantic scenes that much more enjoyable.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC copy for review.

This digital ARC was obtainable via NetGalley for an honest review!

Imagine that the love of your life, who was formally engaged to your cousin, returns from the dead. That is particularly Jane Bishop’s problem with Eli Williams. Eli Williams has to explain to the navy why he was gone for two years while also making up to Jane for proposing to her cousin! This situation proves to be a very difficult scenario for them both but it was interesting to see them resolve these complicated issues. I loved Jane & Eli’s chemistry. I can’t wait to read more books from this author. ✨

I really loved this novel! Such an amazing story between Jane and Eli. I love the second chance romance aspect of it, the angst, the unrequited love, even the miscommunication was done well. The amount of mutual pining was so delicious too and the amount of spice was perfect.