Mr. Malcolm's List

I think I liked Jeremy Malcolm and Selina Dalton as a couple more only when there was a conflict after he found out the truth. They became more interesting when they had to deal with the drama of the whole plan. I even like Henry and Julia more and I hope that the movie, which I will watch tomorrow, will convince me to like the canon couples even more.

Cassie is annoying, especially in the last act.

I found a few scenes similar to Bridgerton season 2 between kate and Anthony, and The Viscount Who Loved Me (not that I read that yet but I've heard enough spoilers about the book to spot the similarities) which might have made me more sympathetic towards the canon couples.

The book was really slow in the first half but I liked the second half more.

Mr. Malcolm's List was truly a middle-of-the-road read. Parts were very amusing, but not the characters weren't developed enough to truly engage with the story.

I didn't realize going into it that it was a novella, so it was a quick read! It was very tell-not-show, so the characters felt very flat. Motivations and actions switched without really building a groundwork why they would do that. After Julia's efforts at the masquerade party, she switches to rooting for Selina and Mr. Malcom after about 5 minutes of consideration. Her motives were always not great, but it still didn't make sense for her to change her mind so quickly.

If you're going to read Mr. Malcolm's List read it for the plethora of romance tropes and ridiculous situations it manages to squeeze into a relatively short time!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

last quarter of the book fell short, overall fell short :-(

i really thought this was gonna be some sort of feminist take and it had a lot of potential to be a jane austen novel with the commentary on steroids but unfortunately that wasn't the case. dear reader, i... wish there wasn't any marrying once again

also i would've married henry ossory on the spot js

I wanted a dumb, fluffy book that I could read quick, and I definitely got it.

I didn't quite get this though. The plot gave me whiplash with the back and forth true love over such short periods of time. So much was too modern for a Regency set story. No one was really likeable.

But it read quick which was what I needed.

This book presents itself as a take on Pride and Prejudice or a comedy of errors and fails miserably on both counts. A grating writing style only compounds the problems caused by a cast of manipulative characters in a series of events that get progressively crueler.