2016, 596p, YA Historical Fiction
My Rating=4.5 Stars
Source: Received a copy from the author for an honest review
Freedom – that is what Lilly Linton wants most in life. Not marriage, not a brood of squalling brats, and certainly not love, thank you very much!
But freedom is a rare commodity in 19th-century London, where girls are expected to spend their lives sitting at home, fully occupied with looking pretty. Lilly is at her wits’ end – until a chance encounter with a dark, dangerous and powerful stranger changes her life forever...
Enter the world of Mr Rikkard Ambrose, where the only rule is: Knowledge is power is time is money!
[Note: When the author first contacted me to read and review his book, I was a little concerned about the page count and my busy schedule. When I went to Goodreads to look at it closer, I noticed that there were already 1,500 reviews and most of them were 5 stars! That's pretty rare and was intriguing enough that I decided to see for myself why it was so highly rated. It's now at 1,800+ reviews with an average 4.80 rating.]
London, early 1900's: 19-year-old Lilly Linton is devoted to fighting for women's voting rights and will go to extremes to make it happen. Rikkard Ambrose is a wealthy, powerful man not looking to help women get ahead. A chance meeting drastically changes both of their lives, as long as she's willing to dress like a man.
Lilly was a fun character to get to know. She's young and has ideas of what her life will be like: Fighting for women's rights and staying out of her aunt's reach so she doesn't end up getting married. Her parents have died and she, along with five other sisters, live with their aunt who is intent on finding them wealthy, respectable husbands. She's required to attend balls, dance and flirt, which she only does if she's being threatened with something worse.
There's a lot of humor. Her relationship with Mr. Ambrose as they write notes back and forth and she ends up on his adventures where she's not wanted but finds ways to help, anyway. She stumbles across one of her sisters carrying on a secret courtship in the backyard. Her descriptions of those scenes had me laughing out loud several times. Along with her observation of a ladder that might be helpful to them.
I loved this book, and because it was long, found myself reading it whenever I had a chance! There are a few minor swear words and sexual tension (which is also funny, since she's experiencing feelings she was not prepared to ever feel) and is a book that I consider clean! It's told in Lilly's POV but there is a bonus at the back which gives more insight into Mr. Ambrose and we get his POV on how they met and the events leading up to it. There's a lot more to learn about his character!
There were some parts that I felt could have been sped up a little bit, which would have made the book a bit shorter and some of the humor was a bit repetitive which made it not quite as funny after a while. It will be interesting to seeing where the story goes next. It ends in a cliffhanger and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the next book!
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