The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels - India Holton

Written by India Holton
Read by Elizabeth Knowelden
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Series: Dangerous Damsels, Book 1
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: June 15, 2021
Duration: 10:02:09

“The kind of book for which the word “rollicking” was invented.”—New York Times Book Review

A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.

Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he’s under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.

When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her—hopefully proving, once and for all, that she’s as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.

Kirkus Review…..
”A lady scoundrel goes on a road trip with a smooth-tongued assassin in an alternate-universe Victorian Britain.

Cecilia Bassingthwaite is anxiously awaiting her induction into the highest ranks of the Wisteria Society. This is a woman-only group of scoundrels and thieves who plunder the country in their magical flying houses while nursing intra-group grievances ranging from the petty to the lethal. But when her mentor is abducted along with the rest of the society, Cecilia sets off to rescue them from a nefarious villain, who just happens to be a frustrated poet (among other things). Tagging along are Ned Lightbourne; a man who may be a pirate; an Italian commissioned to kill her; and a royal agent trying to protect her.

In this joyride of a debut, Holton draws us into a madcap world of courtly corsairs, murderous matrons, and pity-inspiring henchmen. Familiar romance tropes appear but as if in a fun-house mirror, with broad winks at their origins, while characters make sarcastic references to passionate novels in the Victorian canon. An additional comic effect comes from the ironic distance between readers’ expectations of the proprieties in historical romance (including steampunk) and the topsy-turvy rules of Cecilia and Ned’s universe. But the rules explain the characters and their actions so seamlessly that we never laugh at them but rather at the shenanigans of this kooky universe. As if The Parasol Protectorate series met The Princess Bride and a corseted Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.”