It’s almost the weekend, it’s starting to get into crisp cosy weather (even here in Savannah!), and what better to celebrate both of those things than a new read!

You might remember that earlier in the year, I shared a review for Mimi Matthews‘ book The Siren of Sussex, which is the first in a new series called The Belles of London. Well, Berkeley Romance and Austenprose have been kind enough to gift me a copy of the newly-released second book in the series, The Belle of Belgrave Square in exchange for review.

I’m really excited to share that with you here, and participate in the Blog Tour for the book – I really enjoyed Siren, and Belle was just as excellent!

It is June 1862, and Julia Wychwood is alone in London, her three friends way. Her two solaces are reading novels and riding her horse, and whilst she is riding her horse down Rotten Row, she runs into Captain Jasper Blunt. Scarred from the Crimean War with a terrifying reputation, he both scares and secretly thrills Julia. But she is under no illusion that he is looking for a wife for anything other than a huge dowry, and with her anxiety, she struggles to articulate herself in his presence anyway.

Captain Blunt, it turns out, is looking for a wife, and he does have secrets. He needs a rich wife to restore the fortunes of his family home in Yorkshire: Goldfinch Hall has fallen to rack and ruin, with few other occupants than his three illegitimate children that he truly wants to do right by. But when in London, assessing the dowries on offer, he is stopped in his tracks by Julia.

Yes, Julia’s dowry is perhaps the biggest in town, but she is absolutely fascinating: a lover of books, kind and beautiful.

I won’t ruin any of the twists and turns of this novel, but Mimi Matthews manages to turn the plot of a marriage of convenience into one that is surprising and romantic at every corner. To begin with, I was puzzled as to why Captain Blunt could even be considered a romantic hero, but something enticing about the way Matthews writes kept me reading, and I’m glad I did. There’s an excellent mystery at the heart of the novel, and it certainly makes it a page turner.

Julia as a heroine is brilliant too. On the face of it, she seems an unlikely heroine. Unlike her friend Evelyn who took centre stage in Siren, she isn’t prone to being bold. Under the control of two cruel hypochondriac parents, Julia has never even left London before, is quite timid, and has her head constantly buried in a book. Yet, these qualities become transformed to be a key part of why she succeeds and how she allows her passions and needs to come to the forefront.

One of the aspects of the novel that I enjoyed most was the exploration of reading: Matthews makes lots of references to contemporary authors (including a great dig at Charles Dickens for the way he treated his wife Catherine Hogarth), but also to attitudes about reading novels. Often conceived of as dangerous, particularly to women (of course…), there is a particularly striking scene in which Julia, after being forced to endure a bloodletting, is told by the doctor and enforced by her parents that she should no longer read novels for fear of it making her ill. Instead, of course, this makes her more defiant, but I really liked the way Matthews incorporated this, alongside huge allusions to how popular and affordable a lot of the novels that Julia’s parents so disapproved of.

I also really liked how Matthews explored Julia having anxiety and both how it presented itself and how she dealt with it: primarily by going riding as a soothing activity to help her have alone time to deal with her emotions. It’s not a subject you often see brought up in historical novels, so that was refreshing and well-written.

Going between London and the wilds of Yorkshire (which is possibly my favourite English county – sorry to Staffordshire, where I’m actually from…), Matthews offers a tale that is clearly inspired by a love of reading, a cornucopia of great Victorian authors and also elements of fairy tales: I loved the Bluebeard and Beauty and the Beast-like style, and the very important happy ending.

Also, great for anyone like me who loves to go and research things from novels they read either as they are reading or as soon as they finish, Matthews has included a brilliant Author’s Note at the end detailing her own research into the real histories behind things mentioned in the novel. In this case, it includes the Crimea, novel reading, and bloodletting, to mention just a few – I always really appreciate this insight!

You can also find an interview with Matthews about her writing here.

I don’t know why, but this autumn I’ve been drawn to historical fiction more than ever – I love it normally, but I tend to read it sparingly, but this year I’ve been devouring one historical novel after another (including a reread of all eight Bridgerton novels…).

So this novel came along at the perfect time, and I’m very grateful to be able to participate in the tour for it: I would definitely recommend as the perfect read to welcome in those cooler evenings, curled up in an armchair with either a cup of tea or a glass of wine! Plus, it’s made me even more excited for future Belles of London books!

Thank you to Berkeley Romance and Austenprose for gifting me a copy of the novel.