Review by Booklist Review
Unlike many young women, Penelope "Nell" Trewlove is not in London looking for a husband. Instead, Nell, the assistant headmistress at Miss Corvus' Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies, is searching for a missing student. Miles Quincey, editor in chief of the London Courant, believes there may be a connection between the Academy and Lawrence Cowgill, the newspaper's missing gossip columnist. However, while engaging in an interview with Nell in his office, Miles becomes caught up in a completely innocent yet totally compromising situation with the annoyingly taciturn Nell. Now the only way Nell can keep her personal reputation above reproach and Miles can keep his professional reputation intact is for the two of them to get married. With the second addition to her Victorian-set Crinoline Academy series, following Rules for Ruin (2025), Matthews artfully crafts an intriguing plot spiked with danger and enhanced with a generous dose of dry wit while simultaneously matching up a formidably feminist, quietly forceful heroine with a fiercely observant, feline-loving hero. The end result is delightful.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Matthews's exciting second Crinoline Academy Victorian romance (after Rules for Ruin) brings together a prim schoolteacher and a newspaper editor desperate for a big story. Penelope "Nell" Trewlove of Miss Corvus's Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies heads to London to meet with Miles Quincey, editor of the London Courant, who has been asking persistent questions about the school, which prefers to keep secret its ultra-progressive curriculum for young women. When an innocent mishap caused by Miles's scene-stealing rescue cat leads him and Nell to be caught in an apparently compromising position, Miles gallantly proposes marriage to save both their reputations. Meanwhile, a prospective Miss Corvus student has disappeared on her way to the school, as has one of Miles's employees, the paper's gossip columnist. When the two incidents turn out to be connected, the reluctant newlyweds join forces to investigate, taking them to the seediest parts of London and a high-stakes party at a country estate. Love blossoms along the way, as Miles learns to respect his wife's fierce independent spirit and refusal to back down from a challenge. The result is an appealing Victorian romance that will please Matthews's fans, cat lovers, and anyone who appreciates intelligent, resourceful heroines. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Matthews returns to the intrigue-filled Victorian England world of her "Crinoline Academy" series in this sequel to Rules for Ruin. Nell Trewlove has spent her life within the walls of the Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies, first as a student, and now as a teacher. After the events of Rules for Ruin, newspaperman Miles Quincy is showing too much interest in the school and its subversive student body, trained to use their skills to advance the causes of women. To protect the illusion that the school's extraordinary students are merely orphans, Nell is forced to leave the familiarity of the school, where she is respected for her brilliance and not pitied for her limp, and travel to London to satisfy Miles's curiosity. Unfortunately, the collision of her weak leg, her crinoline, and a jumpy cat send Nell and Miles straight into the appearance of impropriety--and then into a marriage of convenience. To save the school, as well as Miles's newspaper, Nell and Miles must join forces to find a missing orphan and solve the murder of a gossip columnist, all the while navigating their new marriage. VERDICT A sequel that's just as much adventurous, swoony fun as its predecessor.--Meagan Day
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A double mystery involving London's seamy underbelly turns a marriage of inconvenience into a love match in this multilayered historical romance. In the London jungle, Penelope "Nell" Trewlove and Miles Quincey are natural adversaries until shared threats turn them into allies. A senior teacher at 23, Nell has considered the Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies her home and salvation since she was 4 years old. Relentless newspaper editor Miles hopes that uncovering the secrets of the isolated charity school and "home for dangerous revolutionaries" could revive his plummeting readership after his last investigative series took down a popular politician and aristocrat. When he demands that the school send a representative to London or he will come to them, the headmistress dispatches Nell to keep him outside their gates. With humor and attention to historical detail, Matthews skillfully explores every dimension of their awkward meet-cute and evolution, down to how Nell's sartorial choices reflect the constraints and dangers of being a woman in 1864. The youthful "goddess" with the face and figure of a "sultry angel" who shows up at theLondon Courant shrouded in an all-black widow's uniform with a veil and an enormous crinoline was not what Miles expected. Nell knew her costume conferred "a degree of respect not offered to unaccompanied young ladies." She and her colleagues donned crinolines, those "controversial cage-like" undergarments, "like armor." A woman so encased "demanded space…in every sphere through which she traveled." And yet, in a deft bit of irony, a crinoline also precipitates Nell's loss of power. When Miles' cat gets entangled in the elaborate netting, Miles tries to free the mischievous animal and gets caught by one of the most judgmental clergymen in the city looming over Nell while she lay on the floor with her skirts above her knees. To save their reputations and livelihoods, Nell and Miles enter a hasty marriage arrangement that morphs into true partnership as they investigate the suspicious disappearances of her new pupil and his reporter in London's seamier environs. This Victorian romance is a winner, weaving social history, intrigue, and humor with falling in love. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
