Review: Cat Sebastian’s THE PERFECT CRIMES OF MARIAN HAYES.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

#SundayShelfie + Review

You know that thrill you get when someone’s writing is just really, really good? I had it often when reading Cat Sebastian’s The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes.

Sebastian is someone who’s writing I just *delight* in, to an extravagant amount. There are so many lines in this ARC that I wanted to share as evidence of how good it is—like one about cake & religious icons—so many moments when I felt a smile growing & also greedily thought, I *H A V E* to get a copy of this for my shelves.

This book picks up action-wise during and after The Queer Principles of Kit Webb, taking Marian Hayes and Rob Brooks as its focus. After shooting her duke bigamist-husband, Marian “kidnaps” the charming Rob Brooks (formerly a highwayman who has been presumed dead for a year) & they travel to visit her sick father & prepare for any fallout from the shooting.

TPCoMH is a rich & sexy cornucopia of tropes:
🖤 Road Trip
🖤 Some Epistolary
🖤 Forced Proximity
🖤 Oops I blackmailed you to lovers
🖤 A tiny bit of the forbidden (though that’s not really a big dissuasion bc our leads have big IDGAF energy)
🖤Some Deception Plot

& a dynamic between MCs that honestly makes my wings soar & my whole reading persona lusty: she is severe & uptight & authoritative & he LOVES IT & thinks she is PERFECT. When I tell you I loved how this became part of their intimate moments...

There’s so much to love about this romance: the humor (honestly I cracked up all the time), the care (from both of them), Marian’s fierceness & what this book says about motherhood & parenting in general, the found family this group makes 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺, & what it means to choose yourself.

I loved it & adored it.

5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/07.

CWs: lots. The Duke’s bigamy and general lack of compassion. She was very sick while pregnant & worried about her emotional connection to daughter. Murder. Shooting. Probably more I haven’t noted.

ID: an ebook sits on a crowded white bookcase in between other Cat Sebastian books & Joanna Shupe books.