Matthews’ best book yet! Part game of cat and mouse and part search for belonging, plus great historical details! Excellent.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that romance element that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall feel of this. The characters had that element that I was looking for and thought everything worked together. Mimi Matthews has a strong writing style and had enjoyed previous books by the same author. The concept worked well and was glad I got to read this.

I love Mimi Matthews. Her writing is so beautiful and emotive. She really elevates the historical romance genre, and I am always excited to read her latest. I really enjoyed watching Effie and Gabriel fall in love, and I'm excited to see what the other girls of the Crinoline Academy get up to in the next installments.

A reviewer below compared Gabriel to Tommy Selby, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who immediately read Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders as Gabriel.

I like to thank the author again for being that amazing gem in getting Berkley to approve my requests for her arcs.

Rules for Ruin was something new for Mimi in terms of the idea of a group of women whose aim is to take down piece of shit men in society. And, her new male lead: Gabriel Royce.

Gabriel Royce and how we meet him is absolutely one of my favorite meet-cutes of any of her men. Our female lead is snooping around in a library, in the dark, and there waiting in the darkness is him. He makes himself known with a mere sentence and a light of his match, smoking a cigar. What an entrance! I got absolute devil of the unsavory bits of London from him indeed! It throws her off balance and makes her wonder if she should fold. That's how much it rattled her! He is absolutely commanding and rough, and man, I wanted her to give me more men like this. Give me men who society either turned their back on or they turned their back on society. They were my Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne ala Batman Returns. Split, right down the middle, like calls to like, etc. etc.

Our female lead was a orphan, taken in by the headmistress of the academy in which she groomed her girls to be extensions of her thoughts and feelings about men and how to take down those who stood against them in society. Feminist, take no for an answer, getting dirty, looking pretty while being tough - in crinolines! She also has a little dog named Luc who knows how to twist a man up by its leash - on command! My heart broke at times for the two of them, relying on one another to get their freedom.

The reason I rated it down a star is that I guess I wanted more 'action' or more use of the way the girls were trained to be like Victorian spies. We saw a hint of it with lock picking, Effie hiding things under her skirt via ties, and her taking down a man in the finale of the book. I wanted more of that! I want to see the ladies use knives, their fists, their lethal ways with equipment. Mimi already showed me she could do this and I wanted it so badly. She hooked me in with this need to see her write a story with a Victorian woman who is a femme fatale.

This book opened up other avenues of the ladies, and the tease we got for the next one at the end of the book was absolutely hilariously good. I'm crossing my fingers for a Lois Lane of Victorian times.

Overall, Mimi is my girl when it comes to books. I'm so glad I found her, and I am so glad she gave me the opportunity of reading this early. I can't wait to see what this series brings.

This story is a dazzling blend of sharp wit, simmering chemistry, and bold feminist themes, all wrapped up in a richly atmospheric historical setting. Euphemia is a fierce, complex heroine, and her battle of wits with the enigmatic Gabriel is nothing short of intoxicating. The tension between duty and desire crackles on every page, with stakes that feel as high emotionally as they are politically. The writing is vibrant and clever, sweeping you from gritty backstreets to glittering ballrooms with ease. It’s thrilling, romantic, and had my heart racing and my mind spinning long after the final page. I absolutely loved reading it and would highly be recommending it.

Loved Mimi Matthews new book! Gabriel gives big Tommy Shelby vibes and Effie is a such a strong character! Love, love, love and now waiting for the second in the series!