I stayed up too late reading this. It was beautifully written, and I adored Georgiana and Cat. I loved the different ways family happened in this book, and the gorgeous ghost story behind it all.

This book has rich, historically-informed details, poetic moments, and a compelling sapphic love story that kept me curious even though enemies to lovers isn’t my favorite trope. How the main dog of the story gets portrayed has stayed with me! I appreciated the care taken with portrayals of trauma too.

4.5 ⭐️ Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this ARC! Ladies in Hating follows rival gothic authors, Lady Georgiana and Catriona. Georgiana has noticed that her novels and the novels of the anonymous Lady Darling have too many similarities to be a coincidence and sets out to find her, only to discover that Lady Darling is Catriona, her childhood crush. As they race each other to various research sites for their next novels, their continued run-ins turn from antagonistic to affectionate, culminating in an accidental cohabitation at a crumbling haunted estate. It’s swoony, spooky, and utterly charming!

The good:
-The character development! Watching Georgiana learn to trust and Catriona learn to be patient was lovely, their dual character growth was the highlight of the book for me
-The spooky gothic setting, I love a romance with some light haunting and I loved that the MCs could bond over their shared passion
-I loved that the main conflicts didn’t come from homophobia and that the MCs had supportive family and friends
-The mystery about the sapphic former owner of the estate was a beautiful and tragic parallel to Georgiana and Catriona’s story that I really enjoyed
-I loved how well-researched it was into Regency and Victorian LGBTQ+ history

The bad:
-It was too short, I felt like the mystery especially could have been more fleshed out, it was wrapped up really quickly and was a bit hard to follow
-I also would have enjoyed if Yorke’s role and motivation were more expanded on, he felt like a big part of the story that also was wrapped up too quickly at the end
-Their internal voices as the narrator weren’t quite as distinct as I would have liked, sometimes it was hard to tell who was narrating at first

The swoony:
-The tension was so great and I was kicking my feet when they finally got together!
-Rivals to lovers where one or both of them is secretly pining is one of my favorite tropes and I thought this was perfect
-I loved how sweet and supportive they were to each other
-The happy ending in the epilogue!

This was so cozy and romantic and I loved it!

This was aa really fun book with an interesting plot, and I really enjoyed the story arcs. The ending came a bit out of left field and I didn't feel super satisfied with it, but it didn't ruin the story for me, regardless. One thing about this book was that while it was fun, it just felt incredibly average. Like I enjoyed reading it but I know I'll forget everything about it in a couple weeks, y'know?

That being said I really appreciated the authors clear research on the time and the context of the story, it was really fun to see.

This was a cute rivals to lovers gothic story with themes of acceptance and family. The book started out strong for me as I loved their bickering and rivalry, however the book started losing me after they returned home and began discovering things about a certain inheritance. It felt a little chaotic and unbalanced with a romance to dive into, family mysteries, and a haunted house, not to mention their personal issues. Despite that I still think it was a solid book and I'd recommend it to anything that's into gothic sapphic novels.

Cute, but left me a bit incredulous, more so than even the most coincidence-dependent romances.
Vasti's writing continues to be full of warmth and love, and it's impossible not to give a little piece of your heart to her characters (protect Jem at all costs)!
What kept me from REALLY losing myself in this third installment of the Belvoir's Library series was the set up. It strained even my fairytale-loving mind that both Catriona and Georgina would embark on the same career paths, at the same time, and include such similar details of their lives, especially when writing fiction. No romance novel expects you to swallow everything hook-line-and-sinker, but this one, more than others in the series, took me out of the world when it didn't need to.
The s*x was fire though.

What a delight! I loved this continuation of the series!

I was not expecting to enjoy the miscommunications and wrong assumptions nearly as much as I did! I usually find it really frustrating when characters leap to (wrong) conclusions and don't communicate with each other, but in Ladies in Hating, it not only establishes the dynamic between the two main characters, as they get to know each other again more, they clear up more and more and more of the misunderstandings as the story goes along.

I also unexpectedly enjoyed the awkwardness of the interactions between Georgiana and Cat, especially in the beginning, and the softening of their regard for each other as walls started to come down. There were some real, difficult reasons for why they each are the way they are, and the vulnerability that came over time was delightful.

Not only that! Some of the secondary and tertiary characters made me laugh out loud as motivations are revealed toward the end! (No spoilers.)

Much thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book!!

This is a series of interconnected standalones that you can, for the most part, read on their own. However, I really think that you need to read Ne’er Duke Well before Ladies in Hating or you will be well and truly confused. You definitely don’t need to read Earl Crush to follow along, but that’s my favorite in the series so why would you skip it?? You hate me, is that it?

Let’s get into the review:

★ Queer Love and Resilience | This book genuinely felt like such a pure a celebration of queer love, as well an assertion that queer love HAS existed and will ALWAYS exist in this world. It made for such an emotional read, as in I was openly sobbing my way through one particular chapter. Even the Author’s Note made me cry — Alexandra Vasti always pulls in real historical details to bring her books to life, and reading about the queer folks before me that inspired this story was such a powerful experience.

★ The Spice | First of all, you know a book is good when multiple reviews reference “the [blank] scene,” and Vasti has definitely carved out her spot in that lineup. The intimate moments of this story felt soft and decadent. There were moments I felt like we needed to get back to the plot, but the writing of the scenes themselves was excellent as always.

★ The Plot | Something I loved about the previous books in the series is the way Alexandra Vasti creates both a compelling romance and a propulsive plotline. The relationships in her books feel so real and earned, which perfectly balances how wild/zany her plots can get. This is the first book in the series that I feel lost that balance. Honestly, it felt like a lot of the plot happened off-page to side characters that we know relatively little about, and Georgiana and Catriona mostly experience the side-effects of that plot. The conclusion itself felt unearned for me, as the plot’s resolution was mostly due to the actions of others or things simply working out.

★ The Conflict | Most of the conflict between the love interests comes from Georgiana’s own fears, and it often felt like Catriona’s arc was left to the side. There is some inital butting-of-heads, but once Catriona starts to understand Georgiana, a lot of that tension dissipates. I love the idea of someone understanding you so fully that they can look past your worst habits and find the real you — but the transition to this understanding happened much too early in the book for me.

I struggled to rate this one and am tentatively rating it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. I adored the celebration of queer love and resilience, the heart-clenchingly romantic prose, and all the chapters set in the Gothic manor. Unfortunately, I struggled to connect with the romance and found myself disappointed in the plot. Had I not already been so deeply in love with Vasti’s other works, I’m not sure I would have finished this one.

I would definitely recommend you still try it, especially if you enjoyed the other books. I certainly feel like an outlier.

Between the adorable cover and the premise of a sapphic regency romance featuring two rival gothic novelists in a potentially haunted house, I was immediately sold on Ladies in Hating despite not having read Ne'er Duke Well or Earl Crush.

Although I did, generally speaking, enjoy the time I spent on this book, I'm not sure it fully lived up to my expectations. In theory, this book had so many elements that should've worked for me: regency lesbians, haunted houses, forced proximity, and rivals to lovers. In practice, the execution didn't quite showcase those elements to the extent to which I'd hoped. Although I've seen some reviewers say that the first portion of the book started off a bit slow for their tastes, the first portion was actually the part I enjoyed most. I enjoyed Georgiana's snark and frustration when discussing the suspiciously similar plot lines, character names, and titles between her own books and another author's, and I was excited to see how those feelings progressed and changed over time as she got to know Cat. However, because you quickly find out that Georgiana and Cat knew one another as teenagers and both harbored secret feelings for the other, the "rivalry" between them faded almost immediately, replaced by their rekindled romantic attraction. While isn't was technically insta-love given their history, it didn't seem like there was enough development or depth in their adult relationship for me to be fully invested in their supposed feelings for one another. They were cute, and I did want them to end up together, but I also wanted a bit more from the story to convince me they really were in love.

Because the "rivals" aspect of Georgiana and Cat's relationship was resolved so early on, much of this book focused on a variety of other things that, quite frankly, I found a little difficult to follow. I'm still not 100% positive I understand whether or not the house was haunted or why Yorke sent both Georgiana and Cat to the house in the first place. The numerous surprises and reveals toward the end sometimes felt a bit too convenient to really make sense, and it was a lot of information about a lot of different things to try to digest in a short period of time. I would have preferred for the book to have focused more on Georgiana and Cat's developing relationship and their work as authors than for it to have forked off in so many different directions, even if only for the sake of it having been a little easier to follow.

That being said, I did enjoy Vasti's writing style, which I found wry and funny and witty. Both Georgiana and Cat were enjoyable MCs despite my wishing for a bit more depth from them as a couple. I loved Bacon, Georgiana's dog, as well as the many side characters who were aware and supportive of Georgiana and Cat's relationship. Although my enjoyment of this book waned a bit as it went on, I did have a perfectly pleasant time overall. I'm always excited to see more sapphic historical romance and would read another one from this author if she were to publish additional books that fell into that category, whether they were in this series' universe or not.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

We get a fun dual POV romance with two rival gothic femme writers locked up in a haunted house trying to find their next inspirations, and unfurl their shared pasts and misunderstandings. This is also technically the third book in a trilogy, but happily, I was still able to follow. A neat, fun, spooky little romp with good lesbian romance and a fun plot.

Alexandra Vasti just keeps getting better and better! Ladies in Hating was SO fun. Both women are so well written with rich backstories (although Vasti does has a penchant for FMCs who are shockingly hot, clumsy, and socially inept) and their history together fun to discover. The overarching mysteries were well written, and the twist at the end surprised me. I'll always read a Vasti regency romance!

My new favorite installment in the Belvoir's Library series from Alexandra Vasti! Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin for an advanced reader's copy of Ladies in Hating. The set-up for this story is so delicious, our gothic novelist, Georgiana, returns from her previous appearances in the series, and now, several years later, is at a midpoint in her career and has grown increasingly suspicious of one rival novelist in particular. The opening scene is genuinely hilarious, and it perfectly sets up the Tessa-Dare-esque balance that Vasti always strikes between quick, witty dialogue and emotionally resonant inner monologue. Both Dare and Vasti will always make you laugh, but they will inevitably leave you weeping at the end, fair warning. This hits so many of my favorite HR beats - class difference, rivals-to-lovers, your childhood crush grows up and oh shit they're so annoyingly hot you hate them for it, ice queen melts in real time, ice queen gets a diminutive NICKNAME and it's ADORABLE, there's-only-one-ruined-manor, meddling Quakers, etc. etc. etc. What makes this an easy five-star read for me is the additional depth to Georgiana's internal conflict and the reflections on family and acceptance. I can get frustrated with a conflict that depends too heavily on self-flagellation, but when that conflict reveals a deeper fear of rejection and an internalized ocean of longing, then it makes a heck of a lot more sense to me. It works SO well here, and resolves beautifully for all involved. I felt the feels I felt at the end of Devil Comes Courting, by Courtney Milan, and if you know, you know.

Also this is really hot? I should mention that it's really hot.

A special thank you to NetGalley, Alexandra Vasti, and St. Martin’s Press for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you love Gothic novelist, sapphic enemy to lovers, and both found/reclaimed family, this novel is for you. The very beginnings of this novel set up a world I did not want to leave with the identity of Cat & Georgiana as Gothic novelist.

From forgotten history to reclaimed love for one another, Cat and Georgiana’s relationship was beautiful to witness, even with twist and turns of the plot/storyline. Renwick House and its journey throughout the novel was one of my favorites to see the growth both from Cat & Georgiana’s relationship and the storyline both past and present. There were many late nights ready this novel and sobbing over the dynamic between Cat and Georgiana. Never have I read such beautiful sapphic fiction in my entire life — and it now holds a special place in my heart. I will forever hold these characters near.

While I enjoyed the novel thoroughly, I am interested to see other novels in the series as this was my first exposure to Vasti’s work!

Don’t walk — RUN AND GET THIS BOOK!!!

Rating: 5/5

What a delightful read! This book does a wonderful job of bringing you back into the Belvoir's Library world, while mixing things up enough to give it its own spin. I really enjoyed getting to dive deeper into Georgiana after her initial introduction in Ne'er Duke Well. I also thought the paranormal element was a fun twist!

Alexandra Vasti can write the heck out of historical romance. This enemies to lovers sapphic gothic(esque) romcom romance is no exception (I know it’s a lots but it’s all those things). It’s fun (her books always are) it was a bit slow at the beginning but it does pick up. I received an early copy.

I absolutely loved reading this book! Sexy fun great banter. Cat & Georgiana are wonderful and have great chemistry!

Oh. My. God. This was definitely my favorite of the series by far. I love lesbians!

Review also posted on Goodreads.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this ARC! Alexandra Vasti delivers again. She writes the most fun, historical romances. I always recommend these to people who want a historical romance to feel more modern. I loved the sapphic element of rival gothic novelists in this. Her plots are always well paced, and characters fully developed. She writes strong female characters and I love that! I cannot stand in a historical romance when the MMC is far more sexually experienced and the FMC is sheltered. It’s such a fresh take on the genre.

Enemies to lovers and sapphic and gothic and novelists? This book was delightful, funny, heartfelt, and such a lovely addition to the Vasti canon.

What a great edition to this fantastic series! This book is a great historical romance with lots of tension and anger and the right amount of non-romance plot! I would've loved to see more of Lydia and Arthur but I loved the foreshadowing of Iris and Selina's brother Will... let's see where that goes next!