In Sarah MacLean's Regency England not all cops are bad: review of mixed bag Hell's Belles series

 

 

Sarah MacLean wrote one of my all-time favorite Regency romance series, The Bareknuckle Bastards, which I reviewed here, here, and here.  Her new series, Hell's Belles, doesn't quite make it to that level, but is still very, very good. 

Hell's Belles refers to a group of women who are mostly members of the nobility and also of a resistance movement fighting the patriarchy.  They help doctors who provide abortions, they have safe houses for runaway battered women, and they help prostitutes get better working conditions.  Their leader is a woman who goes by Duchess, because she is, apparently, a duchess (with a mysteriously absent husband). 

The first and weakest entry in the series is Bombshell.  This book is apparently also the latest in another series by MacLean following a group of sisters.  As far as I can tell, each sister had an interesting, adventurous personality and then settled down to dull domesticity.  Bombshell follows the last unmarried sister, Sesily, nicknamed Sexily.  This book was rather plodding, with long periods of nothing happening but some nookie between Sesily and hero Caleb before we return to the slight yet overly complicated plot.  Still a good read but far from the best of MacLean's books. 

The second entry in this series is Heartbreaker, which was the best of the three.  Heroine Adelaide is the daughter of a notorious bad guy gangleader (unlike the good guy gangleaders in the Bareknuckle Bastard series).  Duchess takes Adelaide under her wing.  Her role is to be so unnoticeable that she is able to spy on everyone.  We are told over and over again that she is very good at this, but the action of the book belies that.  For one thing, she has flaming red hair.  For another, everyone knows her and loves her.

Hero Henry is a duke with a heart of gold.  My favorite part of the book is when he tells Duchess and the other Hell's Belles that they have not treated Adelaide as well as they should have.  Swoon.  

The plot involves a race, enforced confinement together, a miraculously speedy recovery from a coma induced by loss of blood, an elopement -- lots of good stuff. 

The third book is Knockout. Heroine Imogen's contribution to Hell's Belles is that she is very good with explosions, both making things blow up and figuring out who is behind other explosions. 

Hero Tommy is a rising detective in Scotland Yard.  He wants poor people to be protected by the police as much as rich people are.  He is exceedingly good-mannered, doing things like patiently waiting outside a bar for Imogen to come out so he won't scare off the patrons.  Unfortunately, Scotland Yard is full of corruption, and the bad cops are putting Imogen in danger.  

The action in the book is interesting, and the characterizations are strong, and Tommy is very, very hot.  I recommend this book. 

It looks like MacLean's next book will be about Duchess, who maybe is not a duchess after all?  I'm looking forward to it.