The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

If you love Austen the writing of this is so reminiscent of her work, all the random tangents and jokes sometimes only the reader is in on, with an extra splash of whimsy. I love an MMC who falls first and harder.

“ ‘So this is merely a romance?’ She frowned disapprovingly. ‘I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least.’ “ pg 321 kind of exactly how I feel rn

Fucking amazing

This was very fun to read! I loved the very different setting and the feminst touch of it all! I would have liked one or two more intimate scenes

Funny easy reading romance with cheeky old ladies pirates, entertaining!

A great premise lacking substance, character depth, and worldbuilding


The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels had all the elements to catch my attention: feisty lady thieves, pirates, and a Victorian English setting. Anything with femme fatale thieves gets a yes from me, so I was excited to read this.

“I needed a book in case of emergencies."
"You mean like being attacked by foul-mouthed highwaymen?"
"No, I mean those moments when nothing important is happening, such as during travel. After supper. Before sleeping. Or whilst one's opponent reloads their gun.”

Unfortunately, the story ended up being too hollow and silly for my tastes. The opening left me feeling that I'd missed something. This is listed as the first in the series, but I had to double check that it actually was the first book and not a spinoff series or something. I initially felt completely clueless about the worldbuilding. At a glance, you have the typical Regency England setting. But then the characters started to mention magical elements. There was stuff about people living in magical houses that fly around. They basically treat the houses like ships and refer to the owners of said houses as captains. There were vague implications that the captains are some sort of pirates up to a variety of criminal enterprises. But none of it was explained well.

The book does have a lot of resourceful female characters who do indeed engage is swashbuckling and sometimes nefarious feats. This had the promise of strong feminist themes.

“You are a scoundrel," she whispered furiously.
"Yes," he agreed. "I'm thinking of starting a Society of Gentlemen Scoundrels."
"You're millennia too late. It already exists and is called the patriarchy.”

Unfortunately, the potentially tongue-in-cheek roasting of the patriarchy was overshadowed by massive instalust for the first badboy to knock on the heroine’s door. On top of that the villains were completely cartoonish. The whole thing felt almost spoofy. I just couldn’t take any of the characters seriously, and there wasn’t any character development to change that opinion.

So I will end with one final quote:

“I'm afraid I've done nothing at all to advance the plot."
"You chose to come away with me," Ned reminded her.
"So this is merely romance," she frowned disapprovingly. "I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least."

And that, dear readers, was the most apropos quote of the book.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 2 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

pirates of the caribbean meats and emily henry book. it was cute but i knew the plot by chapter 2. im biased because i don’t like to read books like this but if you’re looking for a book to get you out of a slump like i did, then this is great.

Very strange, uniquely written book. I’ve never read a book like it.

Amazingly lighthearted and enjoyable! I love the character developments of Cecilia (my personal favourite) and Ned. I now want to live in the alter reality Victorian England; with lake-loads of tea and cottages flying as high as clouds! Thank you India Holton for this ride I am very grateful for!

Sweet and a little bit weird.

Entertaining.

B99 meets The great/Dickinson but with Lady pirates, scoundrel and societies, flying houses, women smashing the patriarchy and stealing from it in a ladylike way with a moral code and romance.

Thoughts to come

Spicier than I anticipated.

what a silly, goofy time. the romance was so cheeky and cute and i genuinely laughed out loud multiple times. would highly recommend for happiness and fun !!

finished this book like a week ago but I loved it SO much! this book genuinely made me giggle and laugh out loud, it's really witty and the writing is so clever. what I really really loved, and I wasn't expecting to find, was the absolutely wonderful description of the fmc's "first time". it was so real, the tension between her fear for her inexperience meshed with her desire was really well written. also the last hundred pages were the most ROMANTIC shit I've ever read and I genuinely found myself crying because they're so precious😭 Ned was phenomenal from the beginning, I love a pining man and his infatuation was lovely to read. the e2l vibes were strong in this one and I loved the banter. this was a great book, the romance was outstanding and everyone needs to read this <3

It's a mix of "Keeping Up Appearances" and late-night murder mystery. Loved Cecilia

A spiritual successor to The Princess Bride, the characters and witty banter had me chuckling out loud. I could picture every scene vividly in my mind. Charming and hilarious, this book was a wild fun ride that never disappointed me.

No. The only thing a romance has to do is create characters who develop over the course of the novel and have good reason to be together. This book does not do anything towards that. There’s literally no reason for the characters to fall in love, mostly because they’re paper-thin. Don’t get me started on the fact that the guy had an obsession for the heroine’s MOTHER. ANYWAY. Even calling Cecilia an heroine feels wrong because, as remarked in the book itself, she does nothing to advance the plot. She does nothing to advance her own character either. So you might ask, were the adventures fun at last??? Nope. Nothing made sense. It’s just not the book for me.

I admit, I've been charmed by rakish rogues and scintillating, law-breaking pirate ladies. Jolly good fun to read.

A slow start and often hard to follow but once the story began, it was entertaining. I liked the characters but I felt like there was not a lot of depth to any of them.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say this is my new favourite book. I found this book by accident and it is the best purchase I have ever made!!! The style in which it is written is absolutely gloriously hilarious and I have never smiled so much while reading a book

Absolutely loved this book! I rarely laugh out loud but I found myself having to put this book down and tell someone about funny scenes/dialog in this book. If you love the movie Princess Bride, I recommend this book.