What can I say? Tracy Sumner does an excellent job in creating stories of fiery ladies in the regency era. I love how her characters are no wilting flowers among the ton. They are fearless and they try to help other ladies find their voice as well. So Tracy's stories are always a treat! five out of five stars from me and I will must certainly read more of Tracy's stories.

I would like to thank netgalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyable. I like the combination of satisfy artist fmc and shy mmc.

It's so so so so good, if you like historical romance books, please read this one, it's passionate, hot and cute all in equally part. LOVE IT.

Such a cozy romance! Mercy is the daughter of an Earl, so she had to play the rules of Society to do what she loved the most... sketching and painting. Both things her Father despised. She has been playing for so long that when she had the chance to grab the only thing she always wanted, Damien DeWitt, a Duke's thrid son with no fortune... will she fight for it or keep the path her Father has trace for her? Read this book to find out!

Novellas are hard and when they're part of a series of related novellas or an anthology, they can be even now challenging to write bc authors are more restricted in word count and plot points. That said, I'm giving this book a little bit of grace. It's still a LOVELY book with a great spicy scene and has the angst and yearning Tracy is known for and excellent at writing. Mercy has crushed on Damien since she was a girl and he a boy a few years older. Unbeknownst to her, he has also been drawn to her. One fated day, Damien realizes Mercy is nearby and seeks her out. Their reunion is sweet and confessions are made. However Damien needs a moment to process what's happening to himself and between the two of them. Mercy is also days away from being engaged to another man per her father's insistence. However alls well that ends well and with the help of the his brothers, the other members of the troublesome trio, they work to get Damien and Mercy their HEA. 

I wish this novella was just a little bit longer and fleshed out like 10% more but I still highly enjoyed every moment of what I did get. 

This is the second book about the brothers and we get to see Cort again as well as setting up Knox's downfall, I mean, story. It's going to be a ride.

A beautifully written book about the two sides of Regency-era society. You won't want to put down this steamy read.

Damien is part of the infamous Dewitt brothers trio. Mercy was the gitl who grew up next door and has a secret crush on him as a young teenager.
Fast forward to adulthood and Damien spots a poster that appears to have been drawn by his longtime admirer.
Attraction is undeniable but can they survive life's issues that threaten to keep them apart. I loved this one because it's super romantic.

I love a transformative moment, and The Devil of Drury Lane is predicated on one of those. It happens to Damien when he’s a teenager and (unbeknownst to him) the local annoying neighbor sketches him one day. His brother finds the discarded sketch, and the way his neighbor Mercy portrays him in that sketch changes Damien’s view of himself and what he might be.

Mercy transforms as well—she becomes a painter creating commercial art. When Damien sees one of her theater posters, he finds her to thank her for what she meant to him. What neither he nor she realizes is that they will come to mean something to one another in their future as well as in their pasts.

I adored both Damien and Mercy. Mercy is an iconoclast—she has her artist’s studio and lives a bohemian style as much as she can as an earl’s daughter who still has duties to her family and society. Damien bears the burden of his family’s poor reputation despite becoming an Oxford don. And how refreshing that both are relatively poor, which creates challenges for them in this book.

There are a lot of refreshing elements in The Devil of Drury Lane, actually. I loved that Damien wore glasses, that Mercy was already an “experienced” woman, and that neither played games with one another. Damien’s brothers also do something so logical and yet so rarely seen in romance that I sighed when Sumner introduced this element of the story.

The Devil of Drury Lane packs a big punch for a novella. Go read it and revel in this unique, enchanting tale!

Short and sweet, it draws you in to this story of childhood neighbors now grown up. Mercy has always had a crush on Damien but she was a bit of a hellion back then and he part of the troublesome trio of DeWitt brothers. Now she's an accomplished artist and he a university professor. He seeks her out at the theater and sparks fly from there.

Overall for a novella, this was surprisingly well fleshed out to where the characters had depth and you got enough of a story to feel satisfied about it. Of course, you want more, but it is good enough. It is a rather simple story line which helps in a short story plus there is an epilogue. Things do move fast, in fact while I know Mercy had always wanted Damien, I thought she was a little too bold and fast at first. But she knew what she wanted and Damien was helpless against her.

A quick story with a little spice to it- not gratuitous, past friends to lovers, can be a stand alone although I feel it helps to have read Kiss the Rake Hello so you get a feel for all the characters, especially the brothers.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a fun novella with a unique hero, mutual pining and some sweet steam. Mercy Ainsworth is the daughter of an earl who acts the part of the perfectly behaved lady of the ton while hiding a double life of a clandestine but successful artist. As a young girl, she harboured an infatuation for her neighbour, Damien Dewitt, the bookish and reserved youngest son of a duke. Damien and Mercy meet up as adults after several years of not seeing each other; Damien is now a Professor at Oxford and Mercy is about to be engaged to a man she could not care less about to settle her family's debts. They begin to fall for each other but are prevented from becoming properly betrothed as Mercy is determined to go through with the engagement her father has planned for her to help her family.

What I enjoyed:
- The hero was unconventional but my preferred type: intelligent, bookish, shy and sweet. He wears glasses and avoids crowds.
- A virgin hero and non-virgin heroine, at least technically. The hero was pretty experienced at everything except actual penetration, while the heroine had one sexual encounter years earlier that didn't even result in her having an orgasm. So not in the spirit of a virgin hero, but it's one of my favourite tropes and so difficult to find in HR so I'll take what I can get.
- Despite growing up with an abusive father (thankfully dead after the prologue), the hero has a great, supportive family through his two older brothers. I was moved when they without hesitation banded together at the end of the novella to help out Damien in a significant way. They would have done almost anything to help him secure his happiness.
- The opening chapter (after the prologue) had some great comedy between the three brothers as two of them are wandering around absolutely plastered. It really endeared me to the whole family.
- Instead of [ buying Mercy like cattle at the end of the novel with the money they present her father, Damien buys her the ability to choose her husband. Obviously, she chooses him, but it was nice that she had this moment of agency.

What could have been better:
I felt there was a struggle in Damien's characterization between him being an "alpha male" type and a more reserved, shy type of person. It took me out of the moment whenever he went a little too dominant or assertive, as this contrasted with what we were told of his personality earlier in the novella.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with an ARC of this novella in exchange for my honest review.

Decent novella, light afternoon read., both came from fractured home life growing up on neighboring estates. Childhood crush turns to love at first sight as adults. A few money problems stood in their way to a HEA but all worked out in the end.

I enjoyed this novella about one of the "Troublesome Trio", Damien DeWitt. Since she was a child, Mercy was in love with Damien and he didn't really see her. She drew a picture of him which he found and kept for about 10 years.

When they reconnected, Mercy was as much of a professional artist as she could be within her class, and Damien was a professor at Oxford. She convinces him to come to her studio and they spend 2 days together (!) Mercy is promised to someone else to repay her father's debt so Damien and his brothers work to get her free of encumbrances.

The plot was limited and quickly discussed and solved, but I highly enjoyed the characters and their interactions.

I received a promotional copy and am giving an honest review.

This was my first time reading a book by Tracy Sumner but it will certainly not be my last.
Beautifully written, this novella turns the trope of the titled gentleman who must marry out of duty on its head as Mercy is all but engaged to a dullard with a title with whom she shares no true feelings. Enter Damien, an academic and third son of a titled lineage who happened to have been the object of a much younger Mercy's ardent crush and frequent sketch subject.
Damien recognizes Mercy's illustrative style on a poster of a theatrical production and sets out to find her out of curiosity and a need to express his gratitude for a sketch the then very young Mercy accidentally dropped in her haste to try to avoid being caught spying on Damien to sketch him.
Damien learns that Mercy has been leading a double life: exemplary lady in society and at home, anonymous artist with a secret art studio complete with an assistant.
Upon their reacquaintance Mercy & Damien find they have chemistry that is undeniable and must decide whether they can risk public ruin by choosing each other over familial and societal expectations.
I devoured this novella in a single sitting and would highly recommend it to fans of Grace Burrowes, Vanessa Riley, and Robyn deHarte.
I received an advance reader copy from netgalley and the author, and I'm pleased to share my honest review.

I always love a Tracey Sumner book. The characters are flawed yet perfect and she writes the best insta lust/love stories. Mercy and Damien grew up on neighboring estates and both had a secret fascination with the other. Meeting up as adults reaffirms that fascination that quickly becomes something more. My only complaint was that the book was too short, I didn’t expect the issues to be so quickly resolved.

The Devil of Truly Lane is a short story based on two people who were attracted to each other from a young age but never acted on their infatuation. Honestly is just an excuse to write hot scenes between the principal characters. There is not courtship, not really story but the final culmination of a young platonic love into an adult relationship. If you are traveling and need a short distraction on a journey that lasts a couple of hours and later, you’ll see your partner then is a nice way to set your mood when you get together.
Just a very short, very light and very easy reading with not transcendental message.

I like this author and mostly enjoyed this book as well, but think the title was misleading cause he wasn't even close to a devil!

He grumbled but, happily, surprisingly, let his shirt slide off his shoulders and to the floor—and her breath stopped. Dear heaven, he was a sight.

When his gaze met hers, he paused, dusting his hand down his body. “Is something wrong?” She chewed on the end of her charcoal pencil. “I don’t think most professors look like this. In fact, I’m sure they don’t.”


Ya’ll…I’m like 100% sure they don’t look like Dame (or how I imagine him to look)...cause baebay…as one of the three Dewitt brothers, there is no way on this earth that Damien Dewitt is not fine!!! Not only is he fine...he’s smart too. Like S.M.A.R.T smart and there’s something to be said about a man with a big brain. Not that you pervs….big brains mean intelligence…and intelligent men are sexy as hayle. Throw in a pair of well placed spectacles…and skadoosh (iykyk).

Tracy Sumner has yet again created a man just for me (go find your own). Damien Dewitt, the youngest of the Troublesome Trio is anything but troublesome. Unlike his twin older brothers, Dame is the sensible one…quiet…reserved and totally content with his place in academia, that is until he crosses paths with his childhood neighbor, Lady Mercy Ainsworth. Bold as a child, even bolder as an adult, Mercy has always known what she’s wanted…her art and Damien Dewitt. She’s always seen him…even when others thought him odd. And now fate has granted them a chance …at what…that’s left to be seen. But, as the two finally come together they discover a passion that's not only unexpected but scorching in its intensity.

The Devil of Drury Lane is devilishly charming, delightfully steamy, and absolutely satisfying! Just one more brother to tumble, and it's bound to be a wild ride! Oan…this is very important people…Tracy has a series she wrote some time ago…featuring three brothers in the gilded age of North Cackalacky (that’s Carolina for you non Southern folks) and in my opinion, one of her best series. So if you like the Dewitt brothers…you will really love the Garrett brothers series…especially Noah. Love me a sexy man who can't see…😂I would strongly advise you to read that series too!


#devilofdrurylane #ireadbooksnschit #tracysumner #historicalromancereader #ARC

This was a fast read. I thought the plot was so sweet; neighbours to lovers, but it felt so rushed. I would have wanted to read more about the bubbling romance between Mercy and Damien. As readers, I felt we deserved to know more and not be ushered to a quick resolution. There was more to unpack!

I liked the story a lot. Like always with Tracy Sumner books, the characters were great, the plot interesting!

I just hate that it was so ducking short. And because of that it all felt rushed, and it wasn’t really very “emotional”. <sad face>

Decent read.
There wasn't enough devil or Drury Lane, and I felt there was too much telling instead of showing when it came to their relationship. We don't really get to know Damien, we're just told that he's bookish and socially anxious so when he does a 180 in private and keeps callin her "minx" was jarring.