The more I ruminate on this book, the more I am unsettled with its fleeting mention of racially charged domestic abuse and racism as a whole. There's a moment that explores these issues but they're never brought up again. Besides this, Reputation is a fun, flirty and frothy romance novel that has an excellent third section. Its exploration of rape culture and the upholding of a lady's reputation above all else is interesting and Croucher builds a sensitive dissection of these themes. The last third made up for a lot of the book and was the part I enjoyed the most. Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but I don't think I'd pick it up again.

Georgiana is sent to live with her aunt and uncle. They take her to a rather boring party where she meets the lively Frances Campbell. Frances introduces Georgiana to the 'popular' crowd and a new world of drunken debauchery. Bridgerton meets Gossip Girl and Mean Girls is one of the taglines being used for this book and is what made me want to pick it up. I think this is a pretty accurate description for the book.

I liked this book but it, unfortunately, was not as good as I was hoping it would be. The writing was good in places however I struggled to work out what age group this book was aimed at. In places, the characters felt quite juvenile but in places, the plot was quite dark and mature.

The book is marketed as being a romance however it is more about the friendship between Georgiana and Frances and I would say that the romance is a minor plot point rather than being the main focus.

Overall this was an ok read for me but unfortunately, did not live up to my expectations.

I think I need to accept that regency period dramas just aren't my cup of tea. I do think that the setting, timing-wise, was poorly juxtaposed with the plot, as a lot of the attitudes, language and behaviour felt out of place for that period. It could have been a stronger read, but I did enjoy the slightly darker than expected themes throughout. None of the characters were particularly likeable, but that's much better than being bland! Overall it was fine, and I think the comparisons drawn between Mean Girls/Heathers meets Pride and Prejudice are fairly apt. I can see others enjoying this!

I’m always nervous picking up a book from authors I’ve followed on social media for a while. What if I don’t like it! Thankfully that’s not the case with Lex Croucher’s debut Reputation.

This has been described as Mean Girls meets Jane Austen, and that’s totally accurate. We start with a typical regency era setting. Georgiana is living with her Aunt and Uncle’s in a new town and attending a party. Only this is a rather dull affair. Enter Frances Campbell. She sits at the centre of the in-crowd, but doesn’t feel the need to play by societies rules.

While I’m a big fan of the prim and proper-ness of Jane Austen’s worlds, it was a lot of fun to explore what young people might really get up to when their guardians aren’t around. This gives the novel a really modern edge and helps to challenge the views we sometimes have of the era.

This is being pitched as a novel for fans of Bridgerton, and I compeltely see that. If you love the combination of period elements with some drama and a touch of modernity, this is definitely something you should check out.

An exquisite romp through the parties, friendship, romance and debauchery in a time when reputation is everything. Georgiana spends the summer with her Aunt and Uncle, desperately longing for friends when along comes Frances Campbell to sweep her away.

Reputation was such a fun read while still having a serious side. I loved how the author brought a modern interpretation of the issues of friendship, belonging, consent, and abuse to a historical setting. A great debut, can't wait to read more from Lex Croucher!

Georgiana Ellers is dying of ennui when she meets the effervescent, and fabulously wealthy, Frances Campbell at a dreadfully, dull soiree. From their first meeting, a lively friendship develops between the teenagers which launches Georgiana into a whole new strata of society, for, it would seem, that Frances and her acquaintances care nothing about social niceties nor do they feel the need to be restricted by the bounds of what polite society expects from young ladies and gentlemen of the Regency upper classes.

Reputation is a lively read and races along at full pelt and there's never a dull moment as Georgiana gets drawn further and further into a risqué world of raucous behaviour, drugs, and copious amounts of alcohol. Those who love Regency romances, with an added bit of spice, will be immediately drawn into the story which brings the Regency world, with all of its stifling social restrictions, to life in a fun and very entertaining way.

Those who enjoyed watching Bridgerton on TV will find much to enjoy in this entertaining coming of age story. Jane Austen it certainly isn't but if you want a fun romp through a very different Regency world then I'm sure Reputation will appeal to your sense of fun.

Pitched as Mean Girls meets Bridgerton, this book sounded like it would be a real lark. However, I found myself slightly disappointed…

Reputation is far more Gossip Girl-esque drama than it is historical fiction. For me, I found the constant flouting of society’s rules to stretch my suspension of disbelief too far – I really couldn’t see anything realistic about the wild, hedonistic, unchaperoned lives these girls seemed to live. I’m not in any way suggesting Regency people didn’t get drunk, take drugs, and have house parties where all sorts of naughtiness happened, but genteel young ladies hoping for decent marriages? For a book so concerned with reputations, these girls get away with far, far too much to be believably unruined. There are light attempts to give this some historical context – mentions of King George, discussions of fashion – but the bulk of the story could have been transferred into a 21st century setting almost wholesale. It just didn’t work as a historical piece for me, at all. But then, in places, the historical setting holds it back from feeling quite real as a drama piece, by which I mostly mean that the role of sex in the book comes across a little bit weirdly – the debauched parties contain everything but kissing and sex, unless it’s to make a point about ruination, so they feel kind of unnaturally stilted. It’s an unsettling mix of wildness and prudishness, and it just didn’t quite make sense. Historical romance as a genre manages to contextualise consensual kissing and sex while remaining more or less in line with the reality of social rules, so this grated particularly on me as I’ve seen it done well!

I mentioned consensual kissing and sex above, and I want to unpick that a little bit more in terms of the historical setting, so this paragraph will get pretty spoilery. Skip down to the end if you don’t want the end of the book spoiled! Okay, if people have gone: the climax of this book involves Georgiana spilling the beans to the world about a guy that sexually assaulted her – and him being cast out of society while her reputation remains more-or-less intact. No. NO. This is ridiculous. Put this story back into modern times, please, and leave it there. Women confronting their abusers is an important narrative, yes, and there are ways and means to handle this in a historical context but this is NOT one of them. It rang utterly false and completely ignored the entire concept of “reputation”. The best that Georgiana could have hoped for would have been Thomas – the good guy – challenging her attacker to a duel, and then marrying her if he still wanted to, but for her to come out and accuse a well-liked, rich guy of sexual assault and not be ruined herself, or at the very least hastily shuffled into marriage with either her abuser or some other guy willing to ignore that she’s ‘soiled goods’? Arrant nonsense. The more I think about this, the more it makes me angry. Great, important teen/new adult plot. HORRIBLE execution.

I also don’t think I liked a single character. There’s some mileage to be gained from love-to-hate-them characters, for sure, but over the course of a 450 page novel I really found myself flagging. Georgiana is not likeable enough for her actions towards pretty much everyone she knows to be forgivable. It’s understandable how she’s drawn in to a bad crowd, but there comes a point where she seems to be not just trying to keep up but getting out of her depth but being wilfully awful. I got very fed up with her as a main character. I also got bored with the rest of the friendship group, who are pretty flat and don’t seem to grow much at all – there’s only so many scenes of people getting blackout drunk that I can find entertaining. Also, I might be getting old, but for something that comes across so YA (especially in its prudish attitude towards sex), I also didn’t think that the narration did enough to condemn the drinking and drug abuse. It felt pretty much glorified to me, which was a little uncomfortable.

Oh, tell a lie. I did like Thomas Hawksley, Georgiana’s love interest, who is presented as a really decent guy who has little patience for the kind of debauchery that Frances and her crew take part in. He’s not hugely fleshed out, but he’s a nice foil to show how far Georgiana’s been dragged from her actual personality, which would prefer a quiet night in with a book to a drunken night out. He’s actually a fairly archetypal Regency romance hero, someone who people think is aloof but is actually traumatised by something in his past, and I would have liked to see him in another story’s hands. I do want to give kudos for a cute set of flirtatious letters between him and Georgiana, and also for him being allowed to cry and express emotions on page without being seen as less manly for it. The rest of this book is so poorly nuanced that this feels like the only part that actually did belong to a historical romance novel; an emotionally literate hero.

While I’m aware I’m ranting, I do want to give credit where it’s due: Reputation is a readable book. It’s enjoyable, in places! I found it tedious towards the end, but it does a good job of showing how Georgiana gets dragged into this world. There’s a huge amount of YA that focuses on toxic friendships, and this would definitely fit in there, and I think the Mean Girls comp is pretty on point. However, this book had me re-evaluating whether I actually even still like the film Mean Girls, which is a real feat. I think I’ve just lost a lot of patience for the kind of selfish teen behaviour these pieces depict – I also didn’t rate The Furies or The Scapegracers, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think that they do a good job of depicting toxic female friendships. These books will find their readers, and they deserve to – that just doesn’t include me anymore, I realise.

Honestly, if people come across this and think it’s a good entry point to historical romance, I’m gonna be so mad. This is a modern day teen novel with a couple of bits of historical trimming that basically gets everything wrong about Regency romance. The comparison to Bridgerton – the idea that this is somehow raunchier, more debauched, or more funny than “regular” historical romance – is actually pretty insulting. I initially planned to give this three stars, but writing this review made me realise just how much I disliked about it. Please, if you’re looking for sexy, funny, rebellious Regency stuff, let me know – I can give you dozens of recs! You could do worse than the actual Bridgerton books, which are so much funnier than the show was. Anyway, Reputation is setting itself up as a new take on Regency romance, but honestly, we’ve got it covered way better already, and inside the historical lines. This is Gossip Girl trying on a bonnet as a laugh. Two out of five stars.

I unfortunately didn’t really like this book. The characters were either awful or bland and there just didn’t seem to be much of a plot.

This book has been coined as Bridgerton x Fleabag and I definitely agree with that.
I read Reputation in one sitting, in just a few hours - I was hooked.
I loved the writing style, the humour and the nuances of the characters is great too. Even though this is period historical fiction, there were aspects that I could see happening today (especially during freshers week of uni).
If you love anything regency then this is the book for you.
There are some 'darker' themes in Reputation, but I think they were handled well and weren't just there to further the plot.

Blend a smidge of Jane Austen with a heaped teaspoon of Mean Girls and a general portion of creating regency stories outside of the classical canon - and you get 'Reputation'. It follows a young woman named Georgiana who finds herself pulled into the sparkling world of higher society but quickly comes to learn that their follies far outweigh their kindness. And, of course, there's a Mr Darcy-esque figure with deep feelings and terrible communication skills whom she comes to love.

I thought this book was just...fine. It's certainly well-written and put together - the author clearly has an in-depth knowledge of the period and creates very immersive scenes within the book. The ending has its big dramatic turn. But, I feel like I've read this book before. It errs very close to the plot of the film Mean Girls, occasionally toeing the line a little, and the idea of people being cruel because they're insecure and humiliating other people is a bit played out for me. The book doesn't offer anything new that we haven't seen in pop culture before.

Also, the book is very PG. Too PG for me. I don't need to have sex scenes every other page, but I think reading adult historical romances has ruined the quaintness of books like this for me.

Certainly enjoyable, but perhaps not my favourite of this ever expanding genre.

A new, more inclusive type of Regency romance. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend to Austen fans and young adults.

What a joy this book is!! Sassy, girl powered fun with the Regency backdrop makes for a slice of fierce high jinks and so many laughs along the way.

Georgiana goes to live with her boring aunt and uncle to be 'closer to civilization' and at a dull party meets Frances who is quite the opposite. She is whisked into a world of scandalous fun and debauchery. Wanting to feel important and what you'll do for it can be dangerous. Is she willing to pay the price for a higher place in society?

A smirk-worthy narrative reminding us of a period piece but more approachable and lighter in language. Figurative speech of a whimsical wit and descriptions that gaze with abandon at the world surrounding the protagonist. Her naivete about high society and her wanting to be accepted so much brings awkwardness. She desires to experience a more entertaining and adventurous life.

Showing the ugliness beneath the glitter of the so-called elite: the pretending, the shallowness, the lies. Full of quips, banter and zingers worth its Mean Girls comparison, the arrogance of entitlement.

Her self musings are sometimes a little too long and whiny. Also it did lag a bit at parts, especially in the middle, with some events not packing the punch needed, but then picked up pace again and took such an interesting and unexpected turn.

this is about taking responsibility and being true to yourself no matter the cost. Deciding what kind of person you want to be.

Very funny, with a smile-inducing romance, but also filled with twists and betrayals, this is a regency era bundle of fun and emotions that will certainly entertain you

Tropes- Jane Austen Esque, heroine behaving badly, mean girls, POC cast, Na/Ya, regency, #metoo, Bi-sexuality.


CW AT END OF REVIEW which contains SPOILERS.


I follow lex croucher on Instagram, I'm not sure of her story(YouTube etc) outside of it but I really liked her voice. She also reviewed books on her stories that aligned with my tastes, additionally knowing she was a big historical romance watcher had me really excited when she revealed she had written a YA that was mean girls mixed with Jane Austen tropes.

I read the bulk of this in one long sitting today as the sun beamed down on me. Firstly I have to say I enjoyed it but I wouldn't classify it as strictly YA. Some of the themes felt edging into that strange new adult category (drunkness and drug-taking throughout, sexual assault and more )

Reading about our heroine's meanness and the meanness of the characters around her, made me uncomfortable. It's not easy reading knowing they are privileged, mean and judgemental but it was perfectly honestly written. We have seen this behaviour played out in various ways before, it is the film by its definition mean girls. It didn't feel false it just didn't feel nice.

I really liked the cast being POC ( two major characters being mixed race-black and Indian respectfully ) but with the majority of the cast being white and very Conscious of the whiteness within Britain with the culture and colonialism of the day. Racism particularly for the female main character was strongly hinted at and various little threads were picked up. Whilst I applaud the author for not shying away, this isn't a book about her blackness but for this character (Frances =Regina George) who was the most wealthy of the set and the meanest at her core. It felt a little maybe off...Whilst the author explores thoroughly her meanness and its roots in her own childhood and upbringing, I couldent help but feel having our Regina being black in the regency period and the only POC in her friend group hmmm. I'll ponder it more.


George our heroine throughout is both a Mixture of unlikeable and extremely realistic. I like messy complicated and at times not very pleasant heroines. Romance needs more messy heroines. Whilst her actions are slightly redeemed at the end, it was nice for her to have grown but also shy away from her more mean tenancies.

Our hero Thomas is lovely. I really applaud crotcher for making him a soft hero. Let me explain as this sounds damming but he's not an alpha. He's a man that is deeply wounded at his core by his grief and the heroine, without bordering on being his therapist allows him to be soft and allowed to express his nature. I also liked George has a tenancy to slightly border on the more doomier role. She wanted to touch, Control and act but mainly take charge of the situation.


As a reader and this is completely an I take- I tend to not love books with too much alcohol, alcoholics, excessive drinking and drug-taking. It's my issue and hardly ever the writing. If I'm reading a book with this it tends to be more in the YA/NA world and that's on me as a reader and not the genre. There is a lot of drunkness, drinking and drug-taking by the heroine and her companions. It's judged by the hero and the family around her.

It felt university ish in its exploits.

Whilst it was dealt with well I don't think I was supportive of reading it so much. I don't know if this is suitable for everyone reading at YA level.

I've included Cw below but I think it's dealt with well.


The fact I read this in pretty much one big sitting of 5+ hours shows you that plotting, Intrest and writing kept me going. I was disappointed to see the percentage completed rise as I was enjoying being in the world. A great debut. 4 strong stars.


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Cw-assault on the heroine that would have lead to rape, side character off-page dealing with implied rape, hints at racism and racial prejudice on-page.

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Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! It was incredibly well written and an excellent debut novel!

This book read like a classic but was full of acceptance for things that would be seen as a scandal in a classic.

Georgiana was brilliant character and I loved discovering the wilder side of this high society through her eyes.

Can't wait to see what else Lex will write!

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Finding herself sent to her aunt and uncles, Miss Georgiana Ellers was expecting life to be dreary and dull in her new town. But, she meets the exciting Frances Campbell, daughter of the wealthy Lord Campbell, and all round leader of the in-crowd. And, what's more, it seems like Frances likes her, and wants to be her friend. Georgiana's eyes are opened to a whole new world, but her naivete may be the root of her downfall, and will her new friends be the reason she loses the man she has fallen for?

As soon as this book was brought to my attention, I knew I wanted it. I mean, when it's been compared to Bridgerton, Jane Austen, and Mean Girls - all things I love - it's bound to become a favourite of mine, right? Well, unfortunately, that was wrong. I mean, I liked Reputation, but it was a lot darker than I was expecting, and I never found myself too invested in any of the characters. The comparison to Mean Girls felt right, and I could almost imagine Lindsey Lohan, Rachel McAdams, etc. in the parts of the book's characters, and it played out like a movie in my head. There's even an iconic quote as a chapter opener part way through, so I definitely think that Croucher was going more for that audience, than one of Bridgerton etc. It's only really the period being used that was a link to Austen or Bridgerton in my opinion. I did like the way that some hard hitting topics were broached in the book, though some could've been delved into a lot more. Georgiana and Thomas' relationship was nice, and I really enjoyed the way the ending seemed to tie everything up, but I wanted more from this book, that unfortunately wasn't there.

This book is Mean Girls meets Pride & Prejudice. If you're looking for something to fill a Bridgerton-shaped hole, then this would be right up your street 😏

I absolutely loved Georgiana, she's so relatable as the girl looking in and desperately wanting to fit in. I could see ly teenage-self in her a lot! Although, there were times I just wanted to shakd her by the shoulders. But I think that's because I've grown up and matured and remembered the mistakes I made. However, she does come a long way and her character development is just astonishing and so pleased for her in the end.

I can't write this review and not mention little Betty, who is absolutely hilarious 😆 the things that this girl would say were just brilliant and I loved her too. Frances, unfortunately you can just tell she's trouble from a mile off! But I'll let you guys discover what she's capable of for yourselves.

This was a pretty solid read and I really wanted to absolutely adore it. I did really enjoy some parts of it but overall it didn't quite grab my attention as much as I had hoped.

I initially found it quite difficult to connect with and remember the characters as there were quite a few who were being referred to by both their first names and Miss/Mr and their last name, which was obviously intentionally done and was fitting for the genre and time of the book. However for me personally it did draw me back a few times to try and remember who was who. I found the start to be rather slow and hard to get into.

By around half way through I was beginning to get more of a hold on the characters and by about 60% of the way in I started to become truly invested. I think this was when the romantic storyline became a little more prominent. I fell deeply in love with Thomas and Betty and by the end I had also grown to love Georgiana.

It had been likened to Gossip Girl which I was very interested to see, and towards the end I could definitely sense the vibe. It was there throughout with the multiple parties and plenty of scandal, but I really felt it became more pronounced toward the end. The last chunk of the book I really enjoyed as a whole, I just found the beginning a little slow to get into. The overall message of friendship, being true to oneself and growth I really enjoyed.

I've followed Lex for a long time (....alarmingly long!) on various platforms, because they've always seemed funny and smart and thoughtful - so when they announced they were releasing a novel, I was immediately excited to read it for all of these reasons. Thank you to NetGalley and Zaffre for the e-arc ahead of publication!

This is a really fun and exciting debut! It surprised me in a lot of ways, the biggest way being that whilst this is ultimately a fun read with a happy ending and a lot of silliness, it also gets.... very Real. Lex doesn't necessarily take the time to explore all of these topics in detail (they're not the focus of the book, so that makes sense!) but I really liked that they were in there. Consent is a main focus of the plot at times, and so this is explored in detail, but other things (such as racism towards the characters of colour) that are touched on don't get the same time devoted to them, but were still approached in a thoughtful way. I think this is one way in which the book is pulled in a lot of directions, which just makes me more excited for what Lex does next rather than being a criticism - I'd really love to see her get the opportunity to do more of this.

Likewise, the LGBTQ aspect of the book just left me wanting... more gay stuff, please. It felt like Lex wanted that too, so again: whatever they do next, I'm in. If I hadn't seen Lex talking about how it is specifically an m/f romance at the centre of it, *that* kiss would've thrown me even more. I liked that it was there, though. Stuff is messy. These are messy characters.

This book is perhaps not for die-hard fans of extremely accurate regency novels. It uses the setting more as a really fun backdrop - it's not essential to the plot as such but it does let the author play with things like misogynist social expectations etc in this fun and well-loved kind of setting that raises the stakes in very specific ways (ie. don't make the wrong enemies or you'll end up basically imprisoned in a nunnery forever.) The Mean Girls/Bridgerton/Gossip Girl (I... have never actually read/seen the last two, so forgive me if I'm wrong) vibe that is overlaid onto this is just really fun. You have all these archetype-ish characters from different genres sitting next to each other in a way that is really funny: Cecily is a beautiful homage to Karen Smith of Mean Girls (she has a heart of gold! I was so attached to her) but then Mr and Mrs Burton are straight from the Austen playbook. I like my genres in a weird, playful soup, so I loved this.

Overall a lovely read, and I'm excited for what Lex does next!

This is probably a case of "it's not you, it's me" unfortunately. I had such expectations from this book as I've been a fan of Lex for ages and this book sounded fantastic, but it ultimately failed to meet my expectations. This was pitched as Mean Girls/ Gossip Girls meets Jane Austen and .... the balance between those two wasn't quite what I had been anticipating (read: it was very much Gossip Girl and just the tiniest bit of Austen). I found all but a couple of the characters to be insufferable (which I realise was the point, but alas, a thrilling reading experience that did not make for) and found that the few that I was fond of had very little page time. Croucher also tried their best to introduce a lot of complex elements into the story to add depth, but the plethora of issues thrown in meant that few of them were truly allowed the space to be explored thoroughly.
A quick if not spellbinding read and I look forward to seeing what Croucher has in store in the future.