Yzabel / July 5, 2026

Review: How to Fake It in Society

How to Fake It in SocietyHow to Fake It in Society by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

It is 1821 and Nicolas-Marc, Comte de Valois de La Motte is making a splash in London Society. The son of Jeanne de Valois de La Motte, infamous for stealing a priceless diamond necklace meant for Marie Antoinette, Nico hopes to restore his wronged mother’s reputation, if only he can raise the funds. But he must operate with great secrecy, because the Bourbon dynasty murdered his mother, and he fears for his life.

At least, that’s what he tells Titus Pilcrow. Titus was a simple shopkeeper, making and selling artists’ paints, when he found himself suddenly married to an immensely wealthy woman who wanted to disinherit her nephew on her deathbed. As word spreads of his fortune, Titus finds himself a target of every scammer and beggar in London…including one Nicolas-Marc, Comte de Valois de La Motte.

Nico is on his last legs, out of money, and on the run from some terrifying gangsters. When Titus offers Nico a space in his household, it’s the perfect chance for him to exploit London’s newest golden purse–until he falls in love with the man he needs to cheat. Still, Nico is sure they can have a happy ending together. If he can just find his way out of his own web of lies…

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

An entertaining and engaging read, where romance felt well-integrated with the plot, both working together with what I’d consider proper balance. The story follows Titus, a paint maker whose shop is threatened after he’s had a falling out with his landlord (who was also his lover), and who finds himself able to get out of his conundrum by accepting a sudden and much unexpected marriage offer… An offer that attracts unwanted attention, from more or less savoury characters. Among the more savoury ones, we find Nicolas de la Motte, officially an exiled French nobleman… and officiously a scammer.

Titus, now finding himself a target, doesn’t realise Nico is playing him, and begins to trust him, and more. Nico plays his part well, including roping in his cousin Evie (who happily cross-dresses as Titus’s new valet, and has her own sights on some of the house’s personnel)—but, as you can guess, keeping a proper emotional distance from his mark turns out easier said than done.

As mentioned above, I found this a pretty entertaining story. It sometimes borders on the romp, but while not taking itself so seriously that this would jar, and the plot, in the end, holds together well. Titus and Nico have a strong and fun dynamics, each of them ending up baring themselves (in more ways than one…) more than they’d ever have expected to, at the same time they complement each other well. Titus is grappling with his own past, his family, and how this all shaped him into someone who can’t say no, can’t speak up for himself; not to mention he has no idea how to behave in society, having been propelled from a man struggling financially to one who can now buy what he wants—something Nico is all too happy to advise him about, with a helping for himself along the way. While Nico… Nico realises that with Titus, he could be something else than rogue (though he is, for all intents and purposes, a loveable one), only he has to figure out first what to do about, well, all the lies.

To be fair, I did guess some of the twists fairly quickly, as they were quite predictable. I’d say your mileage may vary on this: there are times when predictable is what we want, is exciting, and overall, this was one of those times for me.

Conclusion: A solid 4* for me. And yes, I did enjoy the (quite wholesome) romance.

Yzabel / July 4, 2026

Review: Mistress of Bones

Mistress of BonesMistress of Bones by Maria Z. Medina
My rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis:

It’s been thousands of years since the gods lifted the continents into the air so humanity could thrive, chaining the lands down with their bones and turning them into Anchor.

Azul del Arroyo doesn’t care about gods or Anchor; she cares about being responsible for her sister’s death and getting her bones from the capital so she can bring her back to life. Again. But in her way stands the Emissary of the Lord Death, who will do anything in his power to stop her, because a necromancer like her shouldn’t exist—no matter how alluring.

As Azul and the Emissary’s cat-and-mouse game leads them to the dangerous Court of Cienpuentes, their fate becomes entwined with a count who begrudgingly works for a child king, a faceless witch who transforms Anchor into dreams she can peddle, and a long-lost half-brother with a secret of his own. It’s a time of enlightenment, of rapiers and scientific prowess, in a country where Anchor ceased to be something worth revering a long time ago, and people have forgotten the gods’ sacrifice.

But the gods haven’t. Because the gods want their bones back, and they’re not opposed to becoming players in their own game.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

Another NetGalley review that is long overdue, but better later than never!

The world depicted in this novel is quite interesting: a rotting civilisation on the verge of falling into the void after depleting said world of a precious resource that is actually its very bones—and some of the gods, namely the god of Death, aren’t very happy with that, and their emissaries will try to ensure people stop breaking the world. The concepts linked to this (bones used as magic), as well as the Spanish Renaissance atmosphere, full of intrigue, masks and swashbuckling, bathing the story, definitely grabbed my attention, and once I got how it all worked, I was excited.

A note about necromancy in general: I tremendously enjoys necromancy. It can be very gruesome, sure, and in itself, riding on death, it comes across as a very negative kind of magic… but this is precisely why I enjoy it all the more: because it opens the door to so many opportunities to try and see whether it can be something else than “just death and animating skeletons”! And in this book, I could see this. Azul didn’t start on that way for power, because she worshipped death, because: she started out of love, her love for a much-admired elder sister, little girl far from home that she was at the time. And I will respect that.

There is also a bit of romance, but… maybe I should call it attraction, or perhaps romance-bait more than anything else? There’s something strange and fascinating to this dance between an emissary of Death who, against all expectations, does not dabble in necromancy and even finds it anathema, while the necromancer is actually full of life and willpower, simply wanting to get back the person she loves most in the world. I’m not really sure if I enjoyed it or found it bizarre? It’s not your typical romance, which can be a good change, or not such a good thing, depending on preferences. No spoilers about how it goes.

Where I enjoyed the novel less was in its execution. I have no problems in general with multiple POVs and switching between two timelines, but this still needs to be executed well in order to work, and here, it was just a tad bit… messy? Not impossible to follow, but demanding more effort from me than similar narratives normally do. I had trouble to focus at times, which in itself detracted from the world building.

Conclusion: 3.5*. While this was not a 4* or 5*, overall I still enjoyed it, and would be interested in picking the next instalment as well (I think it’s meant to be a duology)?