adventure

Novel

Title: The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin

Publisher: Harper Collins Australia

I devoured the Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, the follow-up to the deliciously titled The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies. While having read the first will assist, it probably isn’t necessary to be moving on here, thanks to the careful placement of sufficient back story. The first featured three distinct adventures linked by an overarching plot involving a fallen nobleman with whom our point-of-view heroine, Gus, becomes entangled. This plot becomes the driving force of the Ladies Road Guide, with a secret cabal, a dollop of spies, and hindrances from societal and familial expectations adding healthy measures of intrigue and complication. Gus and her sister, Julia, make a formidable, but not infallible, duo, ably supported by a likeable supporting cast. The command of character and the Regency setting makes it a joy as the action thumps along like a rushing phaeton – mind those potholes, ladies! Just as pleasing is the clear suggestion that there is more to come. C’est magnifique!

NOVEL

Title: The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies

Author: Alison Goodman

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2023

This Regency romp marks a departure of sorts for Goodman, in that there is not a whiff of the fantastical to be had as the Colebrook twins set about righting some wrongs while maintaining the appropriate social graces. Broken into a series of cases, the narrative is held together by ongoing storylines – a caddish brother, the health of stoic Julia and the burgeoning attraction of the bold Augusta to fallen nobleman Evan Belford, himself not without a mystery fit for the unravelling. What starts out as a favour gathers momentum as the unmarried duo take on increasingly challenging rescues of women in peril. Underpinning the adventure is Goodman’s (PhD-stamped) eye for historical detail, ear for a fetching turn of phrase, and consummate skill with characterisation, plot and pace. While Goodman’s YA series appeal equally to older readers, this is her first novel for adult readers since 2007’s Killing the Rabbit, and it doesn’t disappoint. We await book 2 with anticipation.