This was a cute story that reminded me of Sense and Sensibility. It was a fun, light-hearted read that made me laugh out loud multiple times. It was a feel-good story which was just what I needed on a gloomy Fall day.

This story highlights the difficulties that female authors had publishing their books in the Regency era. Margaret (Maggie) Arden's father ignited her imagination, when he read to her at a young age. She started writing her own stories as soon as she could write and has dreamed of being a published author. Unfortunately, when her father died unexpectantly, he failed to have provided for his wife and 3 daughters. They were taken in by one of her mother's wealthy sisters, who frowns on Maggie's writing and just wants to marry her off to a wealthy man. Meanwhile, Bridger Darrow, former captain in Her Majesty's Army, is the younger son of a wealthy, but cruel man. His brother, Paul, (aka Primm) the heir, is squandering all the assets, while Bridger is building his own publishing company. Bridger is also best friends with Maggie's cousin Lane, who is getting married to a beautiful Indian woman, Ann. His mother is not so keen on the match. Most of the story takes place during the Wedding Week at the family estate. Previously, Bridger managed to insult Maggie's story, before reading past the first chapter. Primm, is mad at Lane, because he refused to bail him out again from his financial woes. Primm convinces Ann's jealous younger cousin, Ruby, to play a vicious prank, to destroy Ann and Lane's marriage barely after it has begun, and Maggie's mean aunt, slyly allows Maggie's manuscript to be blown out the window. This book could just as easily been called All's Well That Ends Well. Humorous, good character development and amusing dialogue. I did find the part about the prank a bit confusing as it was discovered quite quickly by Maggie and Bridger, but they didn't use the information to clear Ann right away.

I was gifted with an Advanced Reader's Copy from the publisher by NetGalley.com. This is my honest, unbiased and voluntary review.

Margaret is a passionate heroine who feels deeply passionate about writing. Alas, her impoverished family needs her to make a smart match to save them from destitution. Her financially secure and socially connected aunts are sponsoring her season and Margaret feels the need to hide who she really is. After a disasterous attempt to publish her novel, she attends a house party where she is forced to keep company with the unfeeling Bridger Darrow, who mocked her book. Bridger has challenges of his own but he and Margaret might just manage to overcome their bad beginning and find happiness.

Much Ado About Margaret was an enjoyable book for readers who enjoy regency romances with sassy and modern thinking characters. The writing and pacing were good but I had a difficult time believing in the characters chemisty. And some of the situations were silly and unbelievable and that made it difficult for me to stay present in the story. A light-hearted read but I finished it and wished I loved it more than I had.
3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Random House Publishing for the gifted e-book ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.

Read this if you like: Slow burn, steamy, enemies to lovers

This was an okay read. It was very slow going for me. I liked the drama. I liked the couple together. I didn't like the MC and his attitude towards women.

A wonderful historical fiction romance with all the cornerstone pieces to make you swoon. It's sweet, spicy, fun that makes you want to reread it all over again when you're done.

Much Ado About Margaret follows a young woman, Margaret as she tries her best to overcome obstacles such as harsh and uncalled for criticism, an aunt who believes in the ‘right’ way of living one's life, and her own feminine nature, to become the next great author. Now that last one is obviously a hang up within the strict rules of an unforgiving society, but it is nonetheless an obstacle, preventing Margaret from fulfilling her dreams.

This is the part where I would love to wax poetic about Margaret and her strength in carrying out her dreams despite her obstacles, but unfortunately I cannot. It’s not that she didn't find a way to achieve her goals, it’s that she was whiny the entire time she was trying. Her constant internal monologue about how difficult her life was started to grind very early on and just kept going full speed to the end.

Margaret’s character was supposed to be balanced by her counterpart and (if using the term very loosely), enemy, Mr Dryden. Dryden is portrayed as a sexist man, only concerned about his own world and his own problems. Somewhere throughout the book, it is supposed to become believable that he simply changed his mind and embraced the work of the opposite sex. Now, that being said, the banter between the two was wonderfully written. It provided the tension needed to believe that the couple could possibly find peace in one another.

Overall, it is a well written story that really puts time and effort into trying to create a three dimensional character with whom the audience could find themselves rooting for. More than anything, this story would have benefitted from even more. More time for the story to breathe instead of feeling rushed instead of feeling effortless, and more backstory on the side characters that played such a large part in forming the main character interactions.

2/5 stars for a book that was fun to read, but left me wanting more

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read an ARC of Much Ado About Margaret. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Margaret wants to be a published author. Her father encouraged her love of writing. But when he passes away, it's important that she finds a publisher for her book. She doesn't want is to marry to financially support her mother and sisters. Bridger wants to be publisher and is searching for right novel to publish. She approaches him at a gathering hoping he would publish her book. He was cruel when he turned her away.. Then he happens upon some pages from Margaret's novel at his good friend's wedding and decides he needs to publish the book. He was shocked when he discovered who the author of the book was. He was going to have to work at getting her to forgive his earlier rejection. They got to know each other as they joined together to solve a mystery and romance follows.

Much Ado About Margaret by Madeleine Roux was very sweet and satisfying, by which I mean there's a happy ending (of course! it's a Romance!) and even the villains of the piece become sympathetic in the end, at least to some extent. Margaret Arden, Maggie, is a writer, and her latest work is based heavily on the naval stories of her beloved and recently-deceased father. Bridger Darrow, a second son to an abusive father, left a military career with PTSD to instead do work he loves, as a publisher and editor. For me, the romantic fantasy was the part about being able to make a modest living by writing novels!

Maggie is desperate to sell her novel so she, her grieving mother, and her two sisters can move out of the home of her controlling aunt. Her aunt is pressuring Maggie to marry well instead, probably because Maggie's mother married for love; also, Aunt Eliza appears to feel writing is somehow inappropriate. Bridger's father has dementia and his drunken, wastrel elder brother is not caring for the estate. Bridger had escaped into the army, and then to London when his friend and publishing mentor left him the business; he's now realizing they will lose everything if he doesn't step in and try to deal with his brother. Maggie tries to sell Bridger her novel; he pronounces it "overwrought," getting them of on the wrong foot. As you might expect in a romance novel, however, their opinions change.

It was clear to me that this was not the first in the series, as Maggie and Bridger are in attendance at the wedding of Lane, Maggie's cousin and Bridger's closest friend from the army. Various other characters had just enough intriguing twists to them that I assume they were in line for their own book at some point. I enjoyed the layers of Roux's characters, and the way actions that hurt others were not forgotten; apologies and reparative justice feature in the resolution of the plot. In particular, I loved the abundance of fleshed-out female characters, and the believable flaws in even secondary characters with small roles to play.

I will happily read more by Roux!

Thank you to Dell Romance and Netgalley for the arc.

While I love a good historical romance this one missed the mark for me. The story felt a bit dull at points and it didn't give enough of the Shakespearean charm that I was hoping for.

A lighthearted quick romance read. Set in the Regency era, with an interesting plot and adorable characters.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really wanted to love this book but at times it felt slow moving and I couldn’t get as into it. I may have to try to re read it for content.

This was not what I expected. Thought it would be light romance but just seem to plod along. I did not finish it. Will not post to social media.

A cute regency romance. Outspoken woman writer and the publisher who was an ass. This story and its twists kept my attention and the tension between the two MCs was captivating.

I was expecting the cartoon cover to reflect the contents of the book, but there is very little in the way of humor. In the book is angst, prejudice, family control, child abuse, false assumptions and sexual discrimination. Last but not least, is a romance. A young lady who longs to get her book published, but the man who owns the publishing company refuses to publish her book, because she is a woman. They clash but it isn't long before he is humbled to admit he was wrong. Mild descriptive sex.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book from NetGalley.

It has been awhile since I read a good regency romance and I guess I’m still waiting…
This book starts off string but quickly the wheels (plot) fall off. I finished this book and couldn’t sun up the plot because it is all over the place. It doesn’t help that the characters’ motivations were poorly drawn out and there is too much going on for any really character development.

Bridger does not have any redeeming qualities and even when he realizes that Maggie was taken to her aunt’s house, he just writes letters… does nothing but writes letters and hopes that she can break free.

The Ann and Lane drama was weird and the Ruby and Pimm drama was frustrating. Neither of these were advertised and took away time from the actual plot/storyline. Most characters annoyed me and I finished the book feeling bad for Maggie.

2.25 stars

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was fun, but I didn't love the characters and felt that the pacing was, at times, at odds with the story.

Thank you netgalley for the arc. This was okay. I wished it had been more Much Ado than it was. It's my favorite Shakespeare play and while this had elements there was so much else thrown in I'm surprised the page count is only 272 because it felt so much longer. I don't think this needed to be spicy either, it felt like those scenes were just thrown in for the sake of selling as a spicy read but the narrative didn't really call for it. It didn't hold my attention as much as it should of as I usually love historical romance retellings but I can't even really pinpoint what went wrong for me other than vibes. Maybe Roux is not the author for me, I've read one of her young adult books as well and just wasn't into that either, so it might just be a case of mismatched reader and author.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/ Dell for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a cute historical romance with an enemies to lovers trope. I enjoyed the bookish references, FMC is a writer, MMC a publisher.

Recommended if you enjoy:
- HIstorical Romance
- Enemies to friends to lovers
- Shakespeare retelling

DNF

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. Writing felt stiff and repetitive. I didn't have confidence that the premise will be handled well and I wasn't finding myself interested in the story.

This book moved very slowly. It finally picked up around the 45-50% mark; I’m not sure if I would have finished it otherwise. It was hard for me to care about the characters. I mostly kept reading to confirm what I thought had happened with the central mystery.