4.0 stars

This review is based on an e-ARC from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I am extremely picky about my romances, especially when they’re historical. A Bluestocking’s Guide to Decadence met my standards with flying colors and a wonderful main couple.

One of the things that often turns me off from queer historical romances is when they flatten out the very real complexities (both painful and beautiful) of the period they’re set in. In my opinion, A Bluestocking’s Guide to Decadence did a good job of balancing the tone between lighthearted while acknowledging the dangers and anxieties that surrounded being ‘unconventional.’

Additionally, both Jo and Emily felt like real people with real lives, concerns, and relationships that exist outside the context of their romantic entanglement rather than fading into the background and being forgotten. Jo has her marriage and her bookshop, while Emily has her career and her family.

I do wish we had gotten a little more from Jo’s side before and during her decision to move out from her apartment. Her relationship with her husband felt a little underdeveloped when compared to Emily’s relationship with her father. I also wish that we had seen them both spend more time with Vanessa, rather than just being told that they had become friends or grew fond of her.

I don’t know if I’ll read the other books in this immediately (as this is the third installment), but I am interested in returning eventually. I really enjoyed Everlee’s handling of the setting and her character writing.

This was good! I love a complicated circumstance and when opposites attract, and this was both of those rolled into one. Fucking delightful.

rep: Sapphic love story, lesbian MC & LI, gay men side characters, unwed mother

spice: none

4.5

This is my favorite of this saga. I love so much Jo and Emily (Jo is my favorite, but I have a huge crush on Emily, she’s so strong and clever! She really is my book girlfriend!).
The plot is simple but poignant. I’m really satisfied. Jess Everlee is an autobuy author for me and I hope she will write more wlw historical novel in the future!

The banter, sass, and innuendos alone had me sinking deeper into my chair, ready to enjoy a good romp of a queer historical read. And while certainly not disappointed by any of the decadent indulgences Jo and Emily partake of, I was left wanting in seeing their relationship develop on the page and not off page in a montage/summary. Still, it's a deliciously queer read and a fun read.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin - Romance; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Absolutely fantastic! Loved this romance as well as the nuanced look at queer lives in Victorian England, and how the various philosophical and political views both helped and hindered them. I really enjoyed all of the characters, and only just realized that this is the third part of a series! I'm thrilled to be able to read more!

For sensitive readers, there are references to death of loved ones, neglect, pregnancy, homophobia, and police violence.

Let me start by saying that I have a sincere appreciation for Everlee's commitment to creating queer historical novels, and that I have every intention of reading more of her books from this series. However, I struggled a bit with A Bluestocking's Guide to Decadence. Parts of this book I really enjoyed! The banter between the characters, when you have more than two of them in the room anyway, was excellent. But it was the connection between our two leads that I couldn't feel. Chemistry between leads should leap off the page, and I just didn't get that impression with Emily and Jo. I love them on their own merits, particularly Jo, but I'm not sure I bought them as a couple. That being said! I love the unapologetic queerness of Everlee's Victorian London, and just because this wasn't 100% the book for me does not mean that it's not a fantastic book that many readers will love! More queer historical romances is always a good thing.

OMG. This is Jane Austen for the gays. I absolutely loved this novel from the very beginning. The main characters had tension, but the author didn't dwell on the miscommunication trope, so the plot moved steadily along. The shift from enemies to lovers was done very well, with their connection being incredibly convincing. I loved the family aspect thrown in towards the end, and how everyone naturally mends their own proverbial bridges. The historical aspects were accurate and the language immediately threw me into the time period. I loved that there's all this history about LGBT persons, even at that time, and how they functioned without trying to interrupt typical society. It is a beautiful story with such meaningful truths hidden beneath. Well done, Jess Everlee.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Intimate Scene Length: 🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes): 🔥 (there’s a scene or two but they aren’t overly long or detailed)
Humor: Yes, a bit
Perspective: Third person with both heroines (split by chapter)
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? slow to medium
When mains are first on page together: It takes a bit of time setting up each heroine first, pg 39 of 237 (about 16%)
Cliffhanger: no, this ends with a happily ever after for the couple
Epilogue: not really, but the last chapter is a bit of a wrap up about a week later

Should I read in order?
I picked this one up alone and thought it was fine out of order – but the characters are overlapping so you might get more depth if you read the whole series.

Basic plot:
Jo is working to find a doctor that will help her husbands paramour and is recommended the starchy Emily...

Give this a try if you want:
- Victorian (1885)
- mix between London and country settings (more London?)
- sapphic romance
- Emily whittles chess pieces in her free time
- Doctor heroine / Bookseller heroine
- animosity to lovers
- opposites attract
- epistolary
- lower steam – there is open door action but it’s very light, vague, and short

Ages:
- Emily is 30, I didn’t catch Jo

My thoughts:
This novel was really sweet! I really enjoyed Everlee’s writing style and want to try more from her.

I did find this one a bit of a slow start. I was intrigued by Jo’s lavender marriage and was into how different Jo and Emily’s personalities were – Jo is the one to bring Emily out of her shell a bit and Emily calms Jo – they are both really lovely characters that I appreciated. The latter half picked up a bit more for me.

I did find myself wanting them together more than they were, especially in the first half. This had a lot of great banter I appreciated and some really sweet scenes as they start to melt for each other.

The steam is a bit lower, with a few open door scenes but nothing too explicit.

Jo Smith is in a lavender marriage with her friend, and it’s worked so well for many years, but now her husband’s mistress is pregnant, and Jo is worried that they’ll be no place for her in their home when the baby comes. When she agrees to help her, though, she encounters Dr. Emily Clarke, who only wants to work at the hospital and is worried about the potential scandal of attending to a pregnant mistress, but she can’t resist helping people, or Jo. They are from two completely different worlds, but can’t seem to stay away from one another.

It was a cute, historical romcom about a doctor and the irresistible and unusual woman who dresses like a man and is helping her husband’s mistress through her pregnancy. It was a nice distraction and escape from the real world for a moment.

The third book in the Lucky Lovers of London series was just the escapism I needed!

Jo and Emily are two very different people who live in two very different worlds. They are thrown together by chance, however, and are forced to find a way to work together. The story follows their journey from aloofness to reluctant friends to partners. I will say the story did follow some predictable troupes, but that made it a light read that ended up making this a good summer read.

[I received a digital arc for an honest review]

A Bluestocking’s Guide to Decadence by Jess Everlee is the newest book in the Lucky Lovers of London series. Dr Emily Clarke has a well established life in the countryside. She enjoys her work even if it’s not appreciated like the men in her field. She is approached by her brother’s friend who has someone in an unusual predicament. Miss Jo Smith gets to live under the guise of a married woman while still enjoying her preferred romantic pursuits and her husband does the same. It isn’t until her husband’s lover comes to her looking for help that she’s thrown into the path of Emily Clarke. The two start out struggling to relate but find there is something between them that is hard to ignore. But for one very sturdy and dedicated doctor, a decadent bookseller is hardly her expected match.

Overall this was an enjoyable slow burning historical romance. My issue is that it took a long time to get to the point that you felt any connection between the MCs. If you’ve read the prior books Miss Jo has been meddling and involved in all the prior relationships but hers felt silted at times with Emily. Emily was not the most relatable either leaving me feeling like half of the perspectives were a little dry.

3 stars - Miss Jo and Dr. Emily discover that opposites really can attract.

I found this book to be as enjoyable as the other Jess Everlee books. I liked how the characters were sassy and intelligent. Lots of twists and turns in this one and it was a really enjoyable read.

Rating overall - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level - 🌶️🌶️

A bluestockings guide to decadence by Jess everlee is a charming, sweet sapphic historical romance that everyone who enjoys the genre will love!

I read this as a stand-alone with no issues but it is a third book in this series!

I really enjoy how realistic this romance is, it doesn’t fictionalize the struggles people would’ve had in a same-sex marriage or relationship in this time period.

Jo and Emily have amazing chemistry that practically jumps off the page and you really begin to fall in love with the characters as they do!


The storyline is a bit complicated , but all is worth it trust me!

Genre: historical romance
London, 1885

Jo Smith has been married for nearly twenty years, but she and her husband, while one-time lovers, are now business partners and roommates. Divorce isn’t really a possibility for either of them. Her husband’s lover is pregnant, which, while cause for some joy is also cause for worry as Vanessa is advanced in age and suffering from complications. A friend of Jo’s has a sister in the country who is a doctor, and Emily Clarke may be the solution to all of their worries. Except Dr Clarke wants respect from her colleagues at the hospital, and not refuses to be pigeonholed into private practice obstetrics. And yet, there’s more than just a spark between Jo and Emily, and as Emily grows more attached to Jo, it’s apparent that treating Vanessa is important as well.

I was initially pretty skeptical going into this - the setup made me nervous - but I shouldn't have been. Emily and Jo’s story ended up being tender with what is likely a very realistic HEA. There's a lot of navigation of societal responsibilities in an insightful and careful way that really works. While I can’t say I spent the book swooning, I truly loved the chemistry between Jo and Emily. They go from short-tongues adversaries to sensing a spark to pen pals to lovers in a way that feels so entirely natural and comfortable for characters all around forty-ish. Gentle and relatable; even if a reader hasn’t found themselves in a lavender marriage with a sapphic lover specifically, the emotional complexity is familiar.

I did read the first book, A Gentleman’s Book of Vices, but haven’t read book two, A Rulebook for Restless Rogues, so I can confirm this can be read out of order, even though the book two characters are prominent (and in fact, provide the introduction between Jo and Emily).

Oh! This was a very very very lovely romance that left me feeling warm and cuddly inside. I have not read the previous books in the series, but I guess that Jo is friends with the men in books 1 and 2, and Emily is the sister of one of the men in book 2.

Jo is a butch lesbian bookseller who realizes she needs to find a doctor when her husband's girlfriend Vanessa gets pregnant. Unfortunately, their 1880s irregular family is going to make it hard to find a doctor. Enter Emily, the very prim and proper country doctor whose wild brother runs a gay gentlemen's club in London. Emily is underpaid and working at the hospital with her father, and she is terrified that if she delivers one baby, the medical establishment will force her to only ever deliver babies. But Vanessa needs Emily, so Dr. Emily agrees to care for her patient while developing a flirtatious epistolary relationship with Jo. Slowly, Jo and Emily each learn to let down their guard, and these opposites fall in love.

I am always iffy about historical fiction and historical romance because much of history was actually pretty terrible for anyone who wasn't a cisgender, heterosexual, white Christian man. This is a book that acknowledges the social inequalities and homophobia in Victorian England, yet finds a way to give us an HEA and found family. I was very pleasantly surprised that this included found family.

The only thing that annoyed me was that we were told that Jo was too busty for her clothes when clothes at that time would have been made for a person. Her buttons on her waistcoat should not have been straining, though it does make for some very flirty scenes.

Tropes: hurt/comfort, found family, grumpy/sunshine, opposites attract

CW: death of a mother during childbirth before the beginning of the story

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for this ARC.

A charming romcom somewhere between grumpy/sunshine and enemies-to-lovers. This one may not beat the either-lesbians-or-electricity allegations, but Emily and Jo and their community will win over readers who love light historical fiction and found families. The perfect light and fluffy queer chaser to the latest season of Bridgerton.

I love this series!
This one includes some new characters and Noah’s sister who is a physician like their father.
Love the very interesting marriage of convenience that Jo has. Love reading different types of relationships. Her husband and her are married but lead happy intertwined yet unromantic lives. She prefers females but the marriage makes it so she can do what she want. But then his girlfriend gets pregnant. Jo attempting to be useful finds Dr Emily to treat her.
Emily is very proper and attempting to be a proper doctor but society isn't ready. Jo is a very tempting person and Emily can't seem to stay away from her.
This is a charming sapphic romance.

After reading the previous two books in this series, I was so excited to get one about Jo! This is the fun historical sapphic romance I have been looking for.

As soon as Jo was introduced in the first book, I knew I would love her. Her fears about being replaced in her family felt so real, and made her such a relatable character. I also felt like Emily was really well done and I loved seeing her go from Noah’s sister to a fully fleshed out character of her own.

If this series continues, I really hope we get to see more about Warren or Miss Withers.

This sapphic historical romance tells the story of Emily, a buttoned up bluestocking doctor who makes her own chess pieces, and Jo, a city bookseller who runs with a fun crowd (including Emily’s brother) in a lavender marriage.

Initially brought together to help with Jo’s husband’s lover’s pregnancy*, the two don’t start off on the best foot. Eventually attraction and interest get the better of them both and they find themselves writing letters back and forth over weeks. At an eagerly anticipated visit Emily and Jo add physical intimacy to their relationship and it’s hot.

There are some tense moments over the months that make up this story but mostly it is a cozy, joyful, sexy, love story between two women figuring out their careers and families and how best to live well.

Also they make apologies and give second chances.

*Yes, this is complicated but it works so well in this story and makes for a great found family.

Jo and Emily were such intriguing side characters in the first books that I couldn't wait to check out the first sapphic book in this series. While Jess Everlee does great with extremely socially conscious period premises, addressing specific ways queer folx and women had to make their tentative place in society, I remain unimpressed with her actual writing pacing. The insta-attraction between the leads felt like such a contrived false step. The characters themselves are interesting enough, as is their found family dynamics. But the heavy topics addressed here of grief and trauma and marginalization needed a more masterful hand. As it stands, the book made me like Emily and Jo even less than I did going into it. Emily's extremely un-doctor-like focus on the optics of her clientele, and Jo's unnecessary mental gymnastics about her martial situation just made them kind of insufferable with a side of horny. That said, still grateful for the drop in the desert of regency sapphic romance.