But all the issues I had with Lex Croucher’s previous historical continue here, and are even more glaring. Infamous seemed like it had all the makings of something I’d love: friends-to-lovers sapphic romcom set in the Regency. I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. Will Eddie be forced to choose between her friendship with Rose and her literary dreams––or will she be able to write her own happily ever after? But the pure hedonism and debauchery that ensues isn’t exactly what she had in mind, and Eddie soon finds herself torn between her complicated feelings for Rose and her equally complicated dynamic with Nash, whose increasingly bad behavior doesn’t match up to her vision for her literary hero.

When Eddie receives an invitation to Nash’s crumbling Gothic estate in the countryside, promising inspiration (and time to finish her novel, a long-held dream), she eagerly agrees. Then Eddie meets charming, renowned poet Nash Nicholson––a rival of Lord Byron, if he does say so himself––and he welcomes her into his world of eccentric artists and boundary-breaking visionaries. Why can’t they continue as they always have? But Rose has started talking about marriage, and Eddie is horrified. Twenty-two-year-old aspiring writer Edith (“Eddie”) Miller and her best friend Rose have always done everything together-from climbing trees and sneaking bottles of wine, to extensive kissing practice. “Croucher infuses this energetic Regency era friends-to-lovers sapphic romance with zany wit, joie de vivre, and a distinctive literary bent… Bookish readers who wish that Alcott’s Little Women were a bit more explicitly queer will lap this up.” –– Publishers Weekly Named A Most Anticipated Romance of 2023 by Goodreads and Bookpage

Infamous by lex croucher