Review: The Confessions of a Lady by Darcy McGuire*

*I received a copy of this book in eBook format in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity. This review is being posted as part of the The Confessions Of A Lady blog tour hosted by Rachel's Random Resources.

Title: The Confessions Of A Lady
Author: Darcy McGuire
Genre: Historical Romance

Trigger warnings:  References To Physical Abuse By A Parent, References To Alcoholism, Violence, Assault, Drugging, Kidnap, Guns, References To Sex Trafficking

Rating: ★★★★★

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (Explicit Open Door)  

Dare she risk her secrets?

In the world of upstairs/downstairs, Housemaid Penny Smith anticipates her employer’s needs and blends into the background making her the perfect spy for the prime minister against a suspected member of the Devil’s Sons. There’s only one problem. When she meets the guilty marquess, his actions don’t match the evidence against him. Lord William Renquist defies her every expectation and sets her traitorous heart racing.

Lord William Renquist, Marquess of Stoneway and secret spy to Queen Victoria, must infiltrate the Devil’s Sons, tearing the brotherhood apart from the inside. His mission – to bring evil men to justice while atoning for the sins of his family, proving honour is stronger than tainted blood. There’s only one problem. A canny maid who is always in the right place at the wrong time and who deliciously challenges his every order.

Liam and Penny are unknowingly playing a dangerous game from opposite sides of justice. And at a masked ball, forbidden attraction burns into something far more complex as their secrets spin into daring confessions. This battle against their enemy will only be won if Penny and Liam can work together. But can a maid from downstairs ever trust an upstairs marquess?

The Confessions Of A Lady is the latest historical romance from author Darcy McGuire and the third instalment of her series The Queen's Deadly Damsels. This is another brilliant spicy Victorian romance with a fantastic crime element to it too.

Darcy McGuire has quickly become one of my favourite historical fiction authors as she has an incredible storytelling ability and always crafts a perfectly paced narrative which beautifully blends romantic moments with the high tension crime elements that are also central to the plot.

At the heart of this series is really strong female characters and Penny was no exception. She was a total badass and I really liked the choice to make her illiterate because she was really smart and this really showed that there’s so much more to intelligence than literacy. The scene where Penny demands that Liam treat her as his equal – far from the norm in Victorian society – was particularly impactful and showed beautifully how much she grew in the novel into an even stronger woman who really understood her own value.

I’ve said it before but the absolute feminist icon that is Lady Philippa Winterbourne, the mentor to all of the Queen’s deadly damsels, is one of my favourite strong female characters to have ever graced the pages of a historical fiction novel. I didn’t think it was possible but I fell in love with her even more in this novel. Although this book works well as a standalone story, I’d recommend also reading the rest of the The Queen's Deadly Damsels series as the protagonists from both earlier books feature heavily within this one and I personally really enjoyed being familiar with them prior to reading this book.

Liam was also a brilliant MMC, who I challenge any reader not to fall completely in love with particularly if you’re a fellow sucker for the ‘touch her and you die’ trope.

Penny and Liam had brilliant chemistry and there was a great dynamic between the two of them. I’ve not read anything focusing on this upstairs/downstairs trope before but found it really interesting and it worked really well in the context of this book.

We have several brilliant spicy scenes and they navigated the contrast of experience between Penny as a virgin FMC and Liam as a more experienced and older MMC very well. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on consent, which was great to see within a historical romance and very important given the power imbalance that naturally existed with Liam being Penny’s employer.

Overall, this is yet another incredible historical romance novel from Darcy McGuire and a must read for fans of the historical romance and historical crime genres alike, particularly if you’re after something with an overall really feminist feel.

Review: The Maiden by Kate Foster*

  *I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: The Maiden
Author: Kate Foster
Genre: Historical Fiction

Trigger warnings:  Capital Punishment, Sexual Violence, Prostitution, References To Abortion

Rating: ★★★★★

"In the end, it did not matter what I said at my trial. No one believed me."

Edinburgh, October 1679. Lady Christian is arrested and charged with the murder of her lover, James Forrester. News of her imprisonment and subsequent trial is splashed across the broadsides, with headlines that leave little room for doubt: Adulteress. Whore. Murderess.

Only a year before, Lady Christian was newly married, leading a life of privilege and respectability. So, what led her to risk everything for an affair? And does that make her guilty of murder? She wasn't the only woman in Forrester's life, and certainly not the only one who might have had cause to wish him dead . . .

The Maiden is a fictional account of the real-life case of a woman named Lady Christian Nimmo who was convicted of the murder of her lover and executed in 17^th century Scotland. The story is told through the multiple perspectives of the different women who played varying roles in the life of James Forrester (Lady Christian’s lover and apparent murder victim), including Lady Christian herself. Although they are initially separate perspectives, they gradually begin to intertwine as the story progresses.

Despite being a passionate historical fiction reader, I tend to stick within the realms of the 20^th century so reading something set in the 17^th century was a step into unknown territory for me. But, it’s ultimately a step I’m glad I’ve taken as The Maiden has been one of my standout books of 2023 so far.

Kate Foster’s flawless storytelling made all of the characters truly come alive on the page and for this to be her debut work is really impressive. Each character has such depth and complexity to them and I was particularly captivated by both Lady Christian and Violet. The vivid descriptions of 17^th century Edinburgh were also incredible and clearly impeccably researched.

Lady Christian’s story is a compelling and complex read which takes so many twists and turns that it truly had me on the edge of my seat and made it easy for me to absolutely devour the book in a single sitting. The story jumps between time periods, sharing Lady Christian’s story before the death of James Forrester, during her trial and also in the aftermath of the trial. This is supported by frequent extracts from newspaper articles documenting the trial and the subsequent events.

The story was quite hard-hitting at times as it’s ultimately a tale about the experiences of multiple young women being groomed and exploited by a man in a position of power over them. It does really make you stop and think about how little the female experience has changed in 350 years and this is still terrifyingly common in the 21^st century.

Kate Foster provides a powerful exploration of the idea that historically women haven’t had a voice no matter how loudly they’ve shouted and this is perfectly captured in the quote at the forefront of the blurb: "In the end, it did not matter what I said at my trial. No one believed me." I’m a big fan of fiction which provides a feminist commentary and this was done brilliantly in The Maiden through the exploration of the female experience in 17^th century Scotland where society was engulfed by patriarchal and misogynistic ideologies and largely governed by the church. I love that Kate Foster has chosen to use literature to share the story of a real woman silenced and ultimately forgotten by history and it will be really interesting to see if she continues this with her future works.

Overall, The Maiden is an incredible historical fiction work which has the potential to be one of the best we see in 2023. It is truly one of the standout debut novels we’ve seen and it has really secured Kate Foster’s place in a list of authors you need to watch.

Review: The Sharp Edge of Silence by Cameron Kelly Rosenblum*

 *I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: The Sharp Edge of Silence
Author: Cameron Kelly Rosenblum
Genre: Young Adult

Trigger warnings:  Rape, Rape Culture, Sexual Assault, Sexual Violence, Misogyny, Guns

Rating: ★★★★★ 

As a straight-A student and girlfriend of the school's star rower, Charlotte believes in what the school has to offer. Meanwhile, scholarship student Max is struggling. Until he's asked to join the rowing team offering him popularity - but at what cost? Then there's Quinn, a sixth-generation legacy student, who should be able to lay claim to the school in a way others can't. Who instead must watch the boy who assaulted her continue to play at the top of the school's food chain. Only in the dead of night does Q realize the solution to her suffering: Colin Pearce must die.

But Lycroft Phelps has more than one dark secret at its heart, and as the three students uncover just how far the school will go to keep those ugly truths hidden, there's a lot more than reputation at stake...

The Sharp Edge of Silence is a YA contemporary standalone novel which explores toxic masculinity and rape culture at a prestigious American private school in a raw and heart wrenching way. Although it is a YA novel, the mature writing style and the way it tackles important hard-hitting and mature topics means that adult readers can also take so much from the story.

Something that makes the novel really stand out from others is the way it tackles lesser-explored aspects of rape culture. This includes the generational passing down of the toxic ideologies that contribute to it, the idea of individuals being complicit by ignoring and not reporting sexual violence they witness and the repeated examples of systems protecting those guilty of rape and sexual violence because of their athletic ability.

The story is told in three alternating perspectives: Quinn, Charlotte and Max. Although the chapters sharing the POVs of Charlotte and Max did feel initially out of place alongside Quinn’s raw and explicit accounts of rape and the mental impact it had on her, they became increasingly important as the story progressed and the perspectives begin to overlap. Through Max’s perspective we get an exploration of silent complicity and through Charlotte’s perspective we explore the group of girls who supported Quinn and fought for revenge and justice, determined that the boys would be held accountable. It was wonderful to see this representation of strong female friendships, particularly as they immediately believed and supported Quinn without belittling or questioning her experiences.

The characters are beautifully complex and I want to particularly commend Cameron Kelly Rosenblum for how she’s written the character of Quinn. We have strong mental health representation through the raw and authentic portrayal of Quinn’s PTSD and the book captures how her anger towards her rapist turns her self-destructive prior to intervention by others. We get to follow her journey towards a path of healing from her trauma and it felt particularly credible that her recovery wasn’t linear. I also particularly enjoyed the references to Quinn’s use of music to help her process the difficult emotions she’s experiencing (and not just because she has an impeccable taste in music).

Overall, The Sharp Edge of Silence is a powerful, heart wrenching and truly ground-breaking story. Although this isn’t an easy read given the difficult subject matter, I think it’s a story which should be read by everyone.