Review: A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins

Title: A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem

Author: Manda Collins

Series: A Lady’s Guide, #1

Published: November 2020, Forever

Format: ARC E-copy, 368 pages

Source: Netgalley via Publisher

Summary: 

An intrepid female
reporter matches wits with a serious, sexy detective in award-winning
author Manda Collins’ fun and flirty historical rom-com!

England, 1865
: As one of England’s most notorious newspaper columnists, Lady
Katherine Bascomb believes knowledge is power. And she’s determined to
inform and educate the ladies of London on the nefarious-and
deadly-criminals who are praying on the fairer sex. When her reporting
leads to the arrest of a notorious killer, however, Katherine flees to a
country house party to escape her newfound notoriety-only to witness a
murder on her very first night. And when the lead detective accuses
Katherine of inflaming-rather than informing-the public with her column,
she vows to prove him wrong.

Detective Inspector Andrew
Eversham’s refusal to compromise his investigations nearly cost him his
own career, and he blames Katherine. To avoid bad publicity, his
superiors are pressuring him to solve cases quickly rather than
correctly. When he discovers she’s the key witness in a new crime, he’s
determined to prevent the beautiful widow from once again wreaking havoc
on his case. Yet as Katherine proves surprisingly insightful and Andrew
impresses Katherine with his lethal competency, both are forced to
admit the fire between them is more flirtatious than furious. But to
explore the passion between them, they’ll need to catch a killer.

My thoughts: This is the first book I’ve read by Manda Collins and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It grabbed me right from the start and never let up.

I loved that this book combined a few things that I love: historical fiction and mystery being at the forefront, and has a touch of romance on the side. This was done so well and kept me engaged all the way through. The characters in this book are so well drawn and I loved that Lady Katherine Bascoe is such a strong, smart, independent woman. She is unwilling to let anyone deter her from doing what she wants, in this case, getting to the bottom of these murders. I also loved that Detective Inspector Andrew Eversham didn’t want to change her. He might get completely frustrated with her, but he ultimately loved her for who she is and even though he wants to protect her, he wants her to have her independence as well.

While I did ultimately guess who was behind the murders early on, I was only partially right and it just happened to be a fluke guess. And it in no way detracted from my enjoyment of this book. I had no idea the why and to me knowing the motivation behind the crimes is what drives the book. And I never would have been able to put all that together. 

The pace of this book moves along just right and I felt myself transported to 1865 Victorian England. Manda Collins does such a great job setting the time and place of the book. I felt myself totally pulled in and I cannot wait to read the sequel, which will be out in the fall of 2022. This book totally took my by surprise in all the best ways and I definitely recommend it!