I was so looking forward to A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem when I saw the cover...that's right, it was love at first sight!
Format: Paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction
Page Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Forever (November 10, 2020)
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mr. Darcy‘s Rating: “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
A Chasing Mr. Darcy Review
Here’s a plot synopsis from GoodReads: England, 1865: As one of England's most notorious newspaper columnists, Lady Katherine Bascomb believes knowledge is power. And she's determined to inform and educate the ladies of London on the nefarious-and deadly-criminals who are preying on the fairer sex. When her reporting leads to the arrest of a notorious killer, however, Katherine flees to a country house party to escape her newfound notoriety-only to witness a murder on her very first night. And when the lead detective accuses Katherine of inflaming-rather than informing-the public with her column, she vows to prove him wrong. Detective Inspector Andrew Eversham's refusal to compromise his investigations nearly cost him his own career, and he blames Katherine. To avoid bad publicity, his superiors are pressuring him to solve cases quickly rather than correctly. When he discovers she's the key witness in a new crime, he's determined to prevent the beautiful widow from once again wreaking havoc on his case. Yet as Katherine proves surprisingly insightful and Andrew impresses Katherine with his lethal competency, both are forced to admit the fire between them is more flirtatious than furious. But to explore the passion between them, they'll need to catch a killer.
A Lady's Guide o Mischief and Mayhem starts off a series about a group of bold women in London who originally just want to promote female safety in the city. Kate leads this charge and wants to investigate a recent string of murders. Along with her friend Caro, they uncover what they believe is a large clue for the murders...but it leads to a false arrest as well as a demotion of sorts for lead investigator Eversham. Fast forward to another murder, and Eversham and Kate are thrown together in the countryside and sparks fly!
Fair warning...this book starts off SLOOOOOW. The chapters are long, and it took me until about Chapter 8 to get really invested in the story. There's a lot of world building going on for compared to your typical historical fiction novel, but in hindsight, the world building was necessary. It gives the backstory for Kate's current situation as well as Eversham's, and it gives context to Kate's tenacity and personality. A survivor of what I would consider an abusive marriage, Kate has a need for her independence...and that shines through as the story progresses.
I really enjoyed the chemistry between Kate and Eversham. It's a bit of an enemies to lovers trope combined with a forbidden romance (loosely) because of their class differences. Kate is a lady, and while Eversham may have a noble background, he himself is not part of the nobility. I thought they had witty banter and were well-suited for each other. I do think, though, that the murder investigation and the buildup to Kate/Eversham's relationship play equal parts in this story, which I liked. The murders were interesting and the motive behind them seemed clear...but it really wasn't. The book took a lot of twists and turns to get us to the ending, and I thought it was nicely done without being too murder-mysteryish to turn me off (we all know I'm a romance girl at heart, after all).
I thought the setting for the murder investigation (the countryside) was kind of a like a "who done it" mystery game setup. You had guests from all walks of life, some snobs, some annoying people...the whole gambit. Eversham and Kate did much of the investigating together, and I thought they also had good academic chemistry when it came to sorting out problems. I will say, I did guess part of the "ending" if you will, but I completely missed another part. I liked that Manda Collins snuck that in, and did it so subtly that it just worked! The ending wasn't too crazy or overdone, and at the end of the day, the culprit had truly human motives for the murders.
Overall, this book was a great historical fiction blend of romance and mystery, and I enjoyed it immensely. If you read it and it seems kind of slow at first, just stick with it...the storyline picks up and everything starts to make sense, I promise! This book also kicks off a series, and the second book is even better than this one!
Appreciate the slow beginning warning!