Lady Charity owes much of her social standing to her connection with Queen Charlotte, a position she very much wants to retain. She’s attending a party with the queen’s granddaughter. Also attending the party is Lord Peregrine Fitzroy, the one man Charity despises more than anyone else. When the princess’ almost-fiancé is poisoned, Charity immediately suspects Peregrine; Peregrine suspects Charity. The two are forced to work together to solve the mystery while walking the thin line to remain in the good graces of the royal family.

I enjoyed the story and the characters. Both main characters have their secrets and backgrounds they are working to overcome. Trusting others also doesn’t come easy for either of them, especially when it comes to trusting each other. If you are looking for a couple who starts out mildly annoyed with each other but are soon overlooking every fault and falling into each other’s arms – this is NOT that story. Instead, settle in for an enemy-to-lovers with slow burn and tension, and political intrigue on the side.

I haven’t read many books with this much connection to the regency-era royal family. It was interesting to see Charity carefully weighing every word and expression she had when with Queen Charlotte. Likewise, Peregrine had to deal with the Prince Regent “Prinny” and his clueless and over-indulgent ways. They dealt with everything much better than I would have!

Note: I went into this book almost completely blind. I saw it was a regency mystery (one of my favorite sub-genres) and gave it a read. I didn’t realize it was connected to an earlier series by the authors and felt a bit lost at times. So, I would highly recommend reading The Missing Diamond first, as the authors suggest.

Thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing for making this advanced copy available.

Brilliance and Betrayal is the first book in A Diamond of the Ton Regency Mystery series.

The story takes place in the same universe of The Crown Jewels Mysteries, which I loved, and we get to meet most of the same characters that graced the previous series.

Here it is Charity that takes center stage, grappling with her animosity towards Fitzroy, they have to work together to unwrap a poisonous plot against the royal family.

Unlike The Crown Jewels Mysteries, the plot itself is not unraveled in this book and I cannot wait for the second installment to come out!

Great characters, a well written story and enemies lurking in the shadow will leave you wanting for more!

I have received an advance copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily, thanks to the author for it.

This book has an intriguing royal mystery plot. It is well-written and well-researched. Even though two aspects of the story didn't add up for me, I overall thought the mystery was very well done. However, I did not like the way that Peregrine repeatedly violated Charity's boundaries (e.g., touching her face or arm when she told him not to, and breaking into her bedroom!). So it was difficult for me to root for their relationship. By the end, he had redeemed himself a little in my eyes, though not entirely. I still definitely want to read the next book in this series; this is a slow-burn and I need to know what happens! I give this book 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you to Victory Editing Co-op and NetGalley for the free eARC. I post this review with my honest opinions. This review is cross-posted on Goodreads and will be posted on Amazon within a week of publication.

Content notes: Descriptive fighting/violence and injuries. Profanity. The description claims that it is "clean but definitely not sweet," yet I would not call it "clean" either, as there is some kissing and some non-descriptive sexual comments.