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A review by rjordan19
In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation by Alexandra Vasti
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Yes! It’s delightful!
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and heroine
Should I read in order?
This is the first of Vasti’s Halifax Hellions series (and free when you sign up for her newsletter!
Basic plot:
Margo is on a mission to stop her twin from ruining her life, and convinces Henry to help her find them on the way to Gretna Green.
Give this a try if you want:
- Late Regency time period (around 1821)
- Mostly countryside setting on the way to Gretna Green
- Solicitor hero
- Unrequited love
- Brother’s best friend
- Delicious angst
- Opposites attract
- Hero loves first
- Novella length (goodreads has it about 90 pages)
- Virgin hero
- Road trip romance
- Left handed heroine!
- Bisexual heroine
- Medium steam – 2 full scenes within a short page count
Ages:
- Hero is 28 and heroine is 25
My thoughts:
Oh this novella was SUCH A DELIGHT! I really just fell right into it immediately and gobbled the whole thing up. Even being so short, I found it suffering from none of my complaints I sometimes have about shorter stories. It had humor! It had pining! It had angsty emotional pull that tugged my heart! All under 100 pages. It was amazing.
I am always a sucker for hero loves first and have really been loving unrequited love from the hero and it’s here in spades. Henry has loved Margo from afar for so long and seeing them come together really warmed my heart. Henry is a solicitor, a family friend, more stoic in personality, quiet. And Margo is the hurricane of chaos that has upended his life. I adored how opposite they were and how they came together so completely. The magnetic pull these two had had my heart singing and happy. And I still felt like we had a decent background on these characters even with it being so short. I just love them both so much.
Alexandra Vasti has solidified her place on my permanent TBR with this debut novel. So excited for Matilda’s novel coming out later this month!
Quotes/thoughts:
Our introduction to Matilda (Margo’s twin) and I knew I was in love already with the writing
Henry spotted Matilda first. It was difficult to miss her. She was sitting atop the pianoforte, swinging her legs in time to a lively Scottish reel being banged out by one of Spencer’s idiot Harrow friends. She had an unlit cigar clenched between two fingers, and she waved it at them as they entered.
---
Margo’s cloak lay in a wet heap on the floor, accusing him with its presence.
“No,” he said to the cloak, “don’t try to make me feel guilty. I didn’t make her run out into the rain without even your pitiful protection.”
Jesus. He was talking to a cloak.
---
He knew her, knew her blind loyalty as well as he knew the freckles that bracketed the curve of her mouth and her terrible left-handed penmanship.
---
That was Henry’s rigid abdomen she’d just encountered? For all she’d been weeping into his shirtfront not so very long ago, she hadn’t realized his torso was quite so...taut.
“God only knows how many men you’ve attempted to persuade to accompany you on this mad journey,” he said, “but yes, it’s me.”
---
He possessed a particular amount of restraint, and when he was around Margo, he used it liberally. He did not stand too close to her. He didn’t profess his undying love. He didn’t fantasize about peeling her out of her frock and discovering where exactly on her body her freckles stopped.
---
She pointed at cows out the window, and invented names for them. Repeatedly.
Henry loved it, of course, because he was deranged.
---
He could see the freckles that dotted her neck and the brief expanse of skin above her bodice.
He wanted to kiss each one.
---
“I-” he said. “I-”
She grinned. She thought he might be blushing. He was mildly scandalized – what a delight he was – if only she could persuade him to come back! She nudged the sheet down her hip a little further, baring at least ten more freckles. He seemed to like them.
Content warnings:
- Carriage accident on page
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
45% - kisses, breast play, fingering for her, oral for her, missionary
68% - kisses, fingering for her, doggy style sex (outdoor!)
97% - alluded to sex
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Yes! It’s delightful!
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and heroine
Should I read in order?
This is the first of Vasti’s Halifax Hellions series (and free when you sign up for her newsletter!
Basic plot:
Margo is on a mission to stop her twin from ruining her life, and convinces Henry to help her find them on the way to Gretna Green.
Give this a try if you want:
- Late Regency time period (around 1821)
- Mostly countryside setting on the way to Gretna Green
- Solicitor hero
- Unrequited love
- Brother’s best friend
- Delicious angst
- Opposites attract
- Hero loves first
- Novella length (goodreads has it about 90 pages)
- Virgin hero
- Road trip romance
- Left handed heroine!
- Bisexual heroine
- Medium steam – 2 full scenes within a short page count
Ages:
- Hero is 28 and heroine is 25
My thoughts:
Oh this novella was SUCH A DELIGHT! I really just fell right into it immediately and gobbled the whole thing up. Even being so short, I found it suffering from none of my complaints I sometimes have about shorter stories. It had humor! It had pining! It had angsty emotional pull that tugged my heart! All under 100 pages. It was amazing.
I am always a sucker for hero loves first and have really been loving unrequited love from the hero and it’s here in spades. Henry has loved Margo from afar for so long and seeing them come together really warmed my heart. Henry is a solicitor, a family friend, more stoic in personality, quiet. And Margo is the hurricane of chaos that has upended his life. I adored how opposite they were and how they came together so completely. The magnetic pull these two had had my heart singing and happy. And I still felt like we had a decent background on these characters even with it being so short. I just love them both so much.
Alexandra Vasti has solidified her place on my permanent TBR with this debut novel. So excited for Matilda’s novel coming out later this month!
Quotes/thoughts:
Our introduction to Matilda (Margo’s twin) and I knew I was in love already with the writing
Henry spotted Matilda first. It was difficult to miss her. She was sitting atop the pianoforte, swinging her legs in time to a lively Scottish reel being banged out by one of Spencer’s idiot Harrow friends. She had an unlit cigar clenched between two fingers, and she waved it at them as they entered.
---
Margo’s cloak lay in a wet heap on the floor, accusing him with its presence.
“No,” he said to the cloak, “don’t try to make me feel guilty. I didn’t make her run out into the rain without even your pitiful protection.”
Jesus. He was talking to a cloak.
---
He knew her, knew her blind loyalty as well as he knew the freckles that bracketed the curve of her mouth and her terrible left-handed penmanship.
---
That was Henry’s rigid abdomen she’d just encountered? For all she’d been weeping into his shirtfront not so very long ago, she hadn’t realized his torso was quite so...taut.
“God only knows how many men you’ve attempted to persuade to accompany you on this mad journey,” he said, “but yes, it’s me.”
---
He possessed a particular amount of restraint, and when he was around Margo, he used it liberally. He did not stand too close to her. He didn’t profess his undying love. He didn’t fantasize about peeling her out of her frock and discovering where exactly on her body her freckles stopped.
---
She pointed at cows out the window, and invented names for them. Repeatedly.
Henry loved it, of course, because he was deranged.
---
He could see the freckles that dotted her neck and the brief expanse of skin above her bodice.
He wanted to kiss each one.
---
“I-” he said. “I-”
She grinned. She thought he might be blushing. He was mildly scandalized – what a delight he was – if only she could persuade him to come back! She nudged the sheet down her hip a little further, baring at least ten more freckles. He seemed to like them.
Content warnings:
- Carriage accident on page
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
45% - kisses, breast play, fingering for her, oral for her, missionary
68% - kisses, fingering for her, doggy style sex (outdoor!)
97% - alluded to sex