In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation by Alexandra Vasti Series: Halifax Hellions Book 1
Published by St. Martin's Publishing Group on February 6, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency
Pages: 120
Format: eBook
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The first novella in Alexandra Vasti's “hot, smart, funny, and charming as hell”* Halifax Hellions series.
The Halifax Hellions are the most scandalous, outrageous, ungovernable ladies in London. From the day of their debut—in which Matilda smoked a cheroot and Margo tied a cherry stem in a knot with her tongue—they’ve turned the ton upside down. But when Matilda elopes with a dangerous aristocrat, Margo must stop her twin before this new misadventure becomes a permanent marriage. For help, Margo turns to her brother’s best friend—because if anyone can get them to Scotland in time, it’s starchy solicitor Henry Mortimer.
Henry Mortimer has precisely one secret in his otherwise buttoned-up life: he’s been in love with Margo for seven wonderful, agonizing years. When she turns up at his doorstep, soaked to the skin and desperate for his help, he cannot turn her down. A week alone in a carriage with the object of his desires an arm’s length away? Surely he can survive that. He hopes.
But the road to Scotland is paved with disasters—caves and crashes and the bloody rain that keeps forcing Henry to hold a damp, shivering, dreadfully tempting Margo in his arms. Only an unstoppable force could drag the truth of Henry’s affection from his lips. Unfortunately for him, Margo Halifax has yet to be stopped.
*Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author
This was recommended as a quick read featuring friends to lovers, brother’s best friend, forced proximity, roadtrip, with a MMC who has a huge crush on the FMC and is also a virgin. He is a bit on the Beta side of the scale, and a bit button-up and nerdy, while she is the wild, rakish one.
I had never read Alexandra Vasti before, but had so much fun burning through this quick read. There are lots of fun tropes, a fair level of spice, and a lighter tone — although I wouldn’t place it on the funny scale, it does have shades of a rom com in empire waists.
Margo is a cheroot-smoking, hellion of a twin who turns to her brother’s best friend, Henry, to help her track down her sister who has seemingly eloped. Henry, who is a starched up businessman wants to resist – not only because he has a job and responsibilities, but also because he has been harboring a huge crush on Margo for years. And he knows the chase involves being trapped in a carriage with her all the way to Scotland.
So yes, a suspension of disbelief is required, as well as an appetite for on page intimacy, swearing like a sailor, and eyebrow raising antics. The antics of the Halifax Hellions are on the scale of many infamous married ladies of the ton from history, or the likes of Harriette Wilson and her sisters, but I was happy to enjoy the Regency as more of a setting than a mood.
There is a slow burn element in this novella (if that is possible) but once these two give in to their desires, it lights up the page.
A fun, quick read for Readers looking for a quick, steamy carriage-trip with a crazy cat, a carriage crash, and some one bed scenarios.
