I did hesitate to buy “The Wisteria Society for Lady Scoundrels” by India Holton. It was, as a matter of fact, on my Amazon wish list for quite a while. After buying and reading it, I wondered why. The book is wonderfully written and tells a fun story with great characters and many twists. It’s also the beginning of a series (although the next book isn’t out yet) which won’t, it seems, use the same main characters over and over again. There will be many Dangerous Damsels and that means many full stories.
The story has a lot of novelty. Set in an alternate Victorian era, it has a lot of interesting female characters - the mentioned lady scoundrels.
Imagine, if you will, a Gothic romance novel in which there are high-born lady pirates flying their houses (no matter the size) on plundering expeditions and into battle (cannons included). Imagine a novel in which the ladies of the society set assassins on each other, but it is considered a reason for being expelled (forcefully and at great height) to endanger civilians, put in the milk before the tea, or steal another lady’s house. Imagine a novel in which the ‘maidenly aunt who raised the orphaned girl’ turns out to be a woman who isn’t sure who the father of her son is because she had at least three illicit affairs at that time (and says ‘if society wanted me to keep books on my lovers, they should have given me a better education’).
The novelty, however, is not the only thing the story relies on. Like in a proper Gothic romance, there are many twists and turns and a large cast to act them out. Apart from the leading lady and her love interest (pirate, spy, and much more…), there’s a lot of lady pirates and other interested parties - including the large crew of the piece’s villain. Many of the characters - all but those who are merely window dressing - have interesting backgrounds and their own agency.
The book clearly is a parody of a regular Gothic romance novel (right down to the heroine and the hero love interest sharing a walk in the countryside) and doesn’t try to hide the fact that it is comedic in tone. The usual trappings of a Victorian period piece are there - bustles, corsets, afternoon teas, ladies being snappy towards each other -, yet they are also re-interpreted. The ladies of the Wisteria Society don’t just throw shade at each other - they send each other an assassin. Running in full bustle and corset setup is part of the training of a lady-pirate-in-training. A steel-enforced corset means less risk of a bullet wound (as does carrying “Wuthering Heights” in the vicinity of the chest). None of this is keeping the ladies of the society from their work as pirates - while the men stay home and take care of the children, as they should. This, by the way, is the better fate for lady pirate’s husbands. Some of the ladies have had and ‘misplaced’ several.
The writing in general is very entertaining, combining story beats one would expect from a Gothic novel with the kind of thinking a young lady raised by a (not quite) maidenly aunt might have when suddenly confronted by a good-looking pirate or being frustrated about still being a junior member of the Wisteria Society, despite having passed all tests. Yet, the ladies in this story are not helpless damsels, neither the old nor the young ones. They can hold themselves in a fight and know how to fly a good attack on an abbey, if necessary. The writing itself feels ‘Gothic’ without being hard to read, making the reading easy, fluent, and fun.
The parody beats are easy to see in things like the many identities of the male lead (assassin, pirate, spy, government agent), the absolutely ridiculous reasons of the villain (a poet who is no longer allowed to send his poetry to most publishers), or the idea that the aforementioned abbey was much more modern and much brighter before the villain got his hands on it and had it made more ‘Gothic’ to suit his mood.
The book is the first in a series (with the next one being published next year in March), but it is also a finished story. The main characters have their happily ever after in a cosy library (the perfect present for the book-loving heroine, of course), but the setting itself with magical powers to fly houses does, of course, lend itself to more books. I’m looking forward to the next one - in which the hero’s best friend will make another appearance, but the ‘Dangerous Damsel’ will be a new one. The next damsel will, as it were, be a witch - from the opposite of the Wisteria Society. The lady scoundrels use the magic to fly houses, the witches use it to manipulate details and make things go their way.
I’m also definitely going to re-read the story at some point - it was a fun read, despite the book’s length, and I will definitely enjoy it a second time around. I can see this one on my list of books to re-read for comfort, to fill an afternoon or a day when I want to be lazy and relax.
“The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels” is not only a book for women who like their heroines active, feminine, and smart. It’s a book for everyone who enjoys Gothic romance novels or just adventure stories with good writing. It a joy to read and entertains with characters, setting, and twists. Give it a try, I’m sure you won’t regret it.
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