Starred review from September 5, 2022
Spencer (Notorious) launches her Wicked Women of Whitechapel Regency series with an outstanding romance based in part on a real historical figure. Before the start of the novel, Marianne Simpson had a disastrous dalliance with dastardly Baron Dominic Strickland, who staged a fake wedding to Marianne solely to get beneath her skirts. Unable to work as a governess after this scandal, the delightfully confident and forthright Marianne now stars in Farnham’s Fantastical Female Fayre as the Boxing Baroness. Dominic is also causing problems for the powerful and upstanding St. John “Sin” Powell, Duke of Staunton, who receives a letter offering information about his missing, presumed dead brother if Sin can convince Marianne to meet with Dominic. The traveling circus is headed on an ill-advised tour of war-torn Europe—so Sin and two friends do the only thing they can think of and join the Fayre as carnies. Marianne initially disdains Sin for his privileged background, but as he proves himself a hard-working circus employee, he earns her respect and admiration, heightening the magnetic attraction already between them. Spencer ramps up the mystery and the romance in equal measure as the threat of Dominic and the knowledge that society would be unaccepting of their relationship hover over the captivating couple. This is sure to wow.