Verity and Ash are fun characters to read about and root for. It's clear from the start how much they care for each other, but their reasons for not being in a relationship at the start of the book are reasonable. I would have liked to see them talk about those reasons between each other a bit more, as opposed to mostly internal debates they have by themselves, but this was still an engrossing read that I started and finished on the same day. ( )

This was mildly frustrating in that I recently read another book with a very similar setting — printing house navigating the sedition laws under King George — it kept throwing me off. However, the characters are distinct and wonderful, their relationship is delightfully prickly, and I was deeply pleased by the outright move into murder at the end. Surprising, but satisfying in the circumstances. ( )

I loved hero Ash here, but I felt that Sebastian was trying too hard with heroine Verity. There wasn’t much backstory here for either (ironic since Ash’s backstory becomes central to the book), so I felt as though I was just being dragged along but wanted to learn more. It was still an enjoyable read, but I just didn’t feel as much as I usually do when reading Cat Sebastian. ( )

"Leave it to Ash to spend a fortnight courting the meanest cat in London." He looked at her, his eyes lit up with amusement, his mouth round with surprise. "He has a type."

The first 20%-30% of this book just clicked with me. I've seen everyone's ratings and was confused during that time thinking "But I LOVE this"...and now I see why they are mediocre.

There's so much Cat Sebastian does right, but in the second installment of the Regency Imposters, tension is missing. Everything ends up feeling a bit shallow. Despite its strong beginnings, I didn't feel a connection to the characters past the first 1/3 of the book, which was odd and a true disappointment. The characters started to feel strangely one-dimensional yet inconsistent. It was an odd reading experience. ( )

Cat Sebastian has done it again! Such a wonderful book I swallowed it up in two sittings.

It’s a friends to lovers story, with a heroine who is a radical bookseller (!!!) and an engraver hero, who’s secretly an heir to a dukedom. It has everything you need: seduction via dirty books (on her part)? CHECK! Seditious caricatures as a love confession (on his part)? CHECK! Cats? HELL YES.

Main couple works together perfectly. Verity is reluctant to let even a shred of her independence go, her fear of opening herself up to a relationship, after seeing how marriage shrunk her mother to nothing, makes it hard for her to form connections to people, and it takes her a while to work through her issues. She’s wonderfully difficult about it too, and it’s perfect.

Meanwhile, Ash is a lovely, kindhearted man with MASSIVE abandonment issues, who’s deathly afraid of losing his dear friend, in case their romance turns sour. Also the whole part about being a secret heir? Definitely won’t endear him to his seditionist friends.

I love this atypical emotional switch (emotionally unavailable woman and a vulnerable man) and how it also carries over into the bedroom: Verity is more sexually experienced than Ash and also more aggressive when they finally go to bed, which for me personally is like a cherry on top.

5/5 for making me get out of my head for a while. Wasn’t expecting anything less from this author. ( )