Our wait for the next installment of Theresa Romain's Royal Rewards series is over. Book 4, Lady Notorious, hit bookshelves, real and on-line, today, 2-26-19. I found Lady Notorious to be a pleasing combination of mystery and romance. It's a hard line to walk and Ms Romain has done it beautifully.

Cassandra Benton is a female Bow Street Runner, unofficially. We all know women are too delicate to do more than embroider pillowcases. *snort*. Cass has a twin brother, Charles, who's a pleasant man-child. He's full of I'll think of something and I'll figure it out later. Cass has been his investigative partner, without extra pay, for years now, pulling most of the weight. If left up to Charles they would most likely be out on their ears. While working a case Charles manages to break his leg, sidelining him for most of the book. He's super interesting and you'll get a kick out his character.

George Godwin, Lord Northbrook, is the Marquess heir of the Duke of Ardmore. The Duke is one of the founding members of a very profitable tontine, a combination of wager and financial arrangement. The deal is winner take all, with all being the last man standing. There were a few deaths through the years but lately there has been an uptick in expirations. George hires the Benton's to protect his godfather while he looks after his father. After Charles' accident a plan is worked up for Cass to pretend to be the notorious cousin recently returned from the continent, a trap is set, attacks are made, mysteries are unraveled and love blossoms.

One sticking point is upon their first meeting George had a brain fart and said Cass was plain. He didn't mean it that way and apologized but Cass is still a little hurt. While they're attracted to each other, Cass is prickly and George is a bumbling, tongue-tied professor type. These two have got to learn to speak up. I truly enjoyed this romping tale and hope you do too. Happy reading.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#RoyalRewards #LadyNotorious @Netgalley @TheresaRomain @KesingtonPublishing ( )

Murder and mischief!

An historical romance with a difference. Cassandra Benton is an unlikely and rather marvelous lead. Feisty, caring and a realist, she works for Bow Street with her brother.
Someone is trying to kill Lord Northbrook's father, the Duke of Ardmore. Lord George employs Cass and her twin brother Charles to find the culprit. That chase is well and truly a twisted warren that whelms up from his father's past and a tontine that has been growing steadily over the years. The novel explains to some degree what this particular tontine is,
"Part an investment scheme, part a wager, it had been organized forty years before when ten younger sons of the aristocracy had each contributed an equal amount to a certain fund. The interest and principal were left to grow together over the years, untouched, as time reaped the lives of the contributors. When only one survivor of the investment group remained, he would receive the full amount of the fortune."
It's now forty years on and some members of the group seem to have died under questionable circumstances." The background for George's concern is well and truly set, if only his father would consider things more seriously.
I have to admit our first introduction to George and Cass in the cupboard is unexpected. I was a startled as Cass was.
I really enjoyed Cass. Her intelligence, her directness and her empathy engage you.
Cass becomes George's notorious cousin when the focus needs Cass to be able to move amongst the ton.
The chase is on and the resolution is unexpected.
The secondary characters are strong. I particularly liked Cass and Charles's colorful informant Janey Trewes, "a sometime prostitute and frequent pickpocket."
I was surprised but not upset by the theme of girl from wrong side of the traps meets lord as unlikely as that might be given the times. A strong injection of fresh blood makes for an interesting dilemma but not here it seems.
A strong cast and intriguing storyline makes this Romain offering a winner!

A NetGalley ARC ( )

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. Lady Notorious by Theresa Romain is the 4th book in her exciting Royal Rewards series. I recommend reading the series as the books are excellent and the characters continue through, but it could be read as a stand-alone. Cassandra Benton is one of my favourite heroines she’s spent most of her life keeping her twin brother out of trouble, keeping a roof over their heads and food in their bellies working for the Bow Street Runners, although she as a woman cannot officially be a runner. When she is asked by George Lord Northbrook what her dreams are she really has no idea. Her careful life of putting one foot in front of the other goes topsy turvy after her twin brother breaks a leg on an assignment. George hires her to move into his family’s home to help protect his father the duke as members of a tontine the Duke was a part of are being murdered one by one. Cassandra pretends to be a wrong side of the blanket cousin to George who is fleeing a terrible marriage and together she and George search for clues through the parties and balls of the season as time is running out to solve the case. I enjoyed this book immensely. Medium Steam. Publishing Date February 26, 2019 #NetGalley #LadyNotorious #KensingtonBooks #ZebraRomance ( )

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

“The ton is more bloodthirsty than I ever knew as a youth. Fancy betting on one’s survival at the expense of others.”

Fourth in the Royal Rewards series, we have a not quite official Bow Street Runner and a marquess. Cass works with her twin brother Charles at Bow Street but basically shoulders most of the work while George is experimenting with his camera obscura and basically just passing time until he inherits the dukedom. George loves his gambling father, though, and when members of the tontine, a bet his father entered into where the last surviving member gets all the money, start dying in auspicious ways, he hires Cass and her brother to help him uncover who is behind it.

This was a murder mystery and friends-to-lovers, that moved very slowly in both regards. The investigation regarding the tontine was a bit chaotic and confusing to understand in the beginning. I did not read the previous book in this series and I have a feeling our characters were introduced there and provided a foundation for them that was lacking here. Once I got further in the story and began to know Cass and George more, the story began to click better. However, the investigation seemed to stall out here and there as actual investigating seemed to be missing from the pages. We don't get to really know all the characters involved in the tontine, or even if there is anything nefarious going on. The murder mystery began to feeling glaring obvious as a mechanism to get our hero and heroine together and with a pretty quick boom ending with an info dump about the culprit, there wasn't much about it that I found griping.

“I’m always joking a little bit but serious underneath. Once you know that, you can see to my very soul and understand me utterly. It’s a great curse.” He said this, of course, as if he were joking, but his blue eyes were deep and worried. She had smiled then, almost.

I liked George's kind of shy, vulnerable personality. His father is bent on gambling away his inheritance and his mother spends her days laying in bed drunk on laudanum, he seemed very lonely. He does have a sister that he seemed close with but we don't get any in depth scenes with them. His hobby of trying to create pictures was interesting but like the murder mystery, it just seemed there, something listed for the character, given the same weight as his blue eyes. Overall, he seemed a little hapless and I would have liked to have seen his character given more range through conversations with his sister or friends.

Cass was splendid, with her pockets and her weapons and her matter-of-fact ways.

I liked the heroine and her matter of fact ways, she was a cut and dry character. Her twin brother is a little lazy and a little bit of a scapegrace, so it is up to her to be responsible with the money. I was a little thrown when she declares she wants to sleep with the hero. There was definitely ground laid for the reader seeing and feeling George's attraction to her but I didn't completely buy into from her. Even halfway through the book they felt like friends from her side; some appreciating of looks. These two seemed like great friends but their romantic chemistry was a bit dull.

“You really matter to me,” he said, then kissed her neck, bared by her pinned-up hair.

There was a secondary romance involving the heroine's brother but that to felt dropped in out of nowhere, I wasn't connected to the characters to become involved in their romance. The depth and character background was missing for me here, being dropped into their investigation right away didn't give me time or material to really care for them. The romantic chemistry was also off, these two were more believable as friends. I appreciated the shy vulnerability from the hero and practical heroine but I just felt the story and characters were missing some magic, which made the story somewhat dry and a wade to get through. ( )

I was bored and that upsets me because I could have been reading another book that I could actually like and enjoy. I felt this was too slow paced for me, and I stopped would start again, and stopped again, I just couldn't get into it and could not finish..I didn't care for our heroine Cass and I didnt' care for George, I didn't feel any chemistry with them, so my friends I gave up..

Rcvd an ARC at no cost to author..(netgalley) voluntarily reviewed with my own thoughts and opinions. ( )