Genevieve Cogman has entertained me a great deal with her Invisible Library series and I suspect this series will be just as entertaining as the last. I was interested in how the author would reimagine a classic such as the Scarlet Pimpernel (especially introducing vampires to the story) but was pleasantly surprised.

I’ve been a fan of Genevieve Cogman since the first Invisible Library book, so I was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy of Scarlet, the first in her next series.

This time, we’re in the midst of the French Revolution, only there are vampires! I’m not really into history, and especially such a bloodthirsty era. However, this book is from a favourite author, so I decided to go ahead anyway, and I’m glad I did.

The world building, as I’d expect from this author, was excellent. It all felt very real and visceral. The vampires fitted in well, not seeming at all out of place.

The plot was great, I was gripped straight away, and I was rooting for Eleanor all the way through. She was a great character, feisty, intelligent, and thoughtful. She came across so completely, a clear sign of excellent writing.

Overall, this was a gripping adventure that I couldn’t put down. Not my usual cosy fare, but I can’t wait for the next in the series.

I was given a copy of this book, my opinions are my own.

DNF at 33%

Unfortunately, while this book started off great I slowly started losing interest. 100+ pages in and I was hoping for more vampires. I found the male aristocrats to be indistinguishable from one another. I just needed more.

As is sometimes the case with the first book in a series, Scarlet is setting the scene for the rest of the trilogy. It means that some things have to take a bit of a back seat. In this case, it's the character development. However, I'm not worried, as the invisible library is a fantastic series, and I know that this story arc is only going to get better.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I'm a massive fan of Genevieve Cogman, the Invisible Library series is brilliant. I couldn’t quite fully get into this one though, that’s not to say the book isn’t great, because it is, it’s just not for me, although I am kind of invested and intrigued enough to read further into the series and see if it generates the same love I have for the invisible library series.

I don't like historical fiction, and don't like books about vampires. I read this purely based on the author, and I was not disappointed!
Well written, of course - as I would have expected.
Great characters, with some that one can empathise with - tick.
Excitement - of course.
Twists - yay! I love twisty.
Hard to put down - definitely!
Oh dear, based on this I might have to expand my preferred genres.

Historical fiction liberally sprinkled with fantasy. The story was good but personally I felt the characters were under developed. The start of a new trilogy. Will it make me want to read more??? This reader is still on the fence. All in all a good read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Scarlet
I have never read anything by this author before but was attracted to this by the cover and the fact that it was a retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel which I love.
The story focuses on Eleanor who is a young maid who goes to work for Sir Percy Blakeney aka The Scarlet Pimpernel. Due to her amazing likeness to Marie Antionette, she becomes involved in a daring plan to rescue the French Queen and her children from Paris during the French revolution.

I have very mixed feelings about this story. It was an exciting tale with lots of danger for Eleanor and her companions. I liked the addition of a young servant to the Pimpernel and his band of aristocrats and the author did a good job of conveying Eleanor’s mixed feelings in Paris. She was trying to rescue royalty but she really had a lot more in common with the revolutionary idea of equality. However, I was a bit disappointed by the portrayal of the Pimpernel and his companions. They never really quite came off the page to me and felt a bit 2 dimensional.

I was also very unsure about the inclusion of vampires as a part of society. I’ve never been a huge fan of vampire stories and I didn’t feel that their inclusion in this story added anything until the climactic scene in the sewers. I imagine that in the next two books, their role may become more crucial and hopefully there will also be more character development of the Pimpernel’s band.

I did enjoy reading this story but feel that it could have been so much better.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Pam MacMillan and Netgalley for the arc of Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

What an absolute blast of a fun read! The French Revolution, the Scarlet Pimpernel and Vampires - what a mix!

This is a totally fun historical fantasy that definitely does not take itself too seriously. The setting is truly historical but, the author melds this with magic, mayhem, regency era and some fantastic characters.

The main character Eleanor is so down to earth and pragmatic, that she faces certain regency traits with humorous and fun reactions that feel totally unstated. Transported from her world as maid to an aristocratic vampire in England to the centre of revolutionary Paris, she is thrown into a series of escapades as she endeavours to aim the Scarlet Pimpernel in rescuing Marie-Antoinette and her children from the horrors of the guillotine.

Cogman takes what could be a very heavy and serious historical event and transforms it into a high stakes fantasy that totally delivers on the humour and escapades that will keep you truly entertained.

I absolutely loved this escape from reality and totally recommend it, especially if you’re looking for something lighter that will carry you through from the first page to the last

I really like Historical Fantasy. I especially like it when it adds in vampires, and I admit I’m a little bit of a sucker (no pun attended) for stuff around the French Revolution. Throw in the fact this is a retelling and I was completely sold. I’m not overly familiar with The Scarlet Pimpernel, though I do vaguely know the story. It’s possible I would have enjoyed this more with more knowledge of the original tale, but for the most part although I enjoyed some parts of the book, I did struggle with bits.

Some of this book just kind of drags out. Eleanor is a maid in a world facing turbulent times, with the revolution in full swing in France. Vampires are very real and present in this world, mainly as aristocrats, who drink blood from their servants. When it’s discovered Eleanor looks very much like the French queen, a shadowy group (known as The Scarlet Pimpernel) recruit Eleanor to their ranks, hoping she can help them get the queen and her family out of the country. However, shortly after reaching France things go wrong, and Eleanor finds herself separated from the others, lost in the French countryside and desperate for a way to find them again.

Firstly, Eleanor. A character who shares my name and namesake (Eleanor of Aquitaine), referred to by others as Nell initially, and I thought it was a really nice touch that the other characters use this, and only when someone else directly asks her what she prefers does this change. But Eleanor is kind of a flat character. She felt bland. She kind of had some goals, but it never felt like she was particularly doing anything to achieve them until it was offered to her. She’s a servant, who gets annoyed at the way she’s treated by the others and…just puts up with it, until she ‘proves’ how useful she can be. It felt like her character was a bit of a wasted opportunity in terms of the whole revolution thing. The only character she really challenges is a woman as trapped as she is. The other character tries to explain to Eleanor what the revolution means and the changes in place, which Eleanor – an English maid – completely and utterly dismisses rather than engaging with in meaningful way.

This is the other element where it fell down for me. This book feels like it goes a little too hard on the “rah rah England” aspect, where England is held up as an example of Things Done Right, a ‘civilised’ country compared to the ‘scarier’ France. In the book, England isn’t perfect, but whenever Eleanor almost hits any kind of realisation – when she has doubts about the aristocrats she’s with, or the vampire she served – something happens to underscore why They Are Great, Actually, or ‘better than the alternative’, at least. Vampires can’t hold office or have official power, but they’re still in the role of nobility and it’s hard to exactly see why the league are so determined to rescue them from France. It just feels like the revolution and the ideas behind it are never really engaged with, and the villains on the revolution side are portrayed as nastier and more dangerous than any antagonists on the royalist side.

A lot of it just feels a little messy. It feels like it wants to be a fun adventure book, but it’s set against a backdrop of revolution because people are fed up, starving, and angry at the way people are used by the vampires and cast aside. It doesn’t help that the book is releasing at a time when people are fed up, starving, unable to heat their homes, and angry at the way they’ve been treated by employers, politicians, and targeted by the media.

I don’t think this book works. I can see what it’s trying to do, and it’s not a bad book, but it feels like it’s very much both-sidesing issues that aren’t just in the past, and although Cogman is a talented writer, there’s a failure to meaningfully engage with the actual historical events being dealt with here. Which is infuriating, because again, not a bad book, but it just could have been so much better.

Thank you to Tor for providing me a copy of this book via NetGalley. Views remain my own.

This is a really fun book.

I mean when you comp vampires with the French Revolution, what do you expect?

It’s certainly following the trend for more lighthearted fantasy, as well as mixing regency era sensibilities with fantastical characters and settings.

If that’s your cup of tea, Scarlet really delivers. It’s fun, pacy, and has a very relatable main character in Eleanor.

To give some context, in this reimagining of the 18th century, vampires are acknowledged by all of society. Most are very respectable and live amongst the aristocratic classes. I really liked this. And indeed, Eleanor is a servant for a nice lady vampire, who happens to notice that Eleanor bears a very strong resemblance to Queen Marie Antoinette, who has been arrested and faces the guillotine.

A story of espionage commences as Eleanor is persuaded to help a covert rescue attempt. She must leave the safety of England and travel to France. On this mission, she faces snobbery, self doubt and some vampires who aren’t as kind as her mistress – as well as learning why the revolution has started.

This maybe sounds all very serious, but actually it’s lots of fun. Vampires aren’t the only magical aspect of the novel – and there is even a bit of slow-burn romance in the mix.

If you’ve read too many dark epics, or are a little over vampire fantasy erotica, this makes for a nice change. I highly recommend!

I'm normally a huge fan of Cogman and her Invisible Library series is fantastic. However, this did not gel as much with me. I can't quite put my finger on why. She's an excellent storyteller who crafts her prose well, but I just didn't enjoy it is much as I was hoping too. That said, I'm intrigued enough to continue with the series.

Intrigued by the gorgeous cover and the promise of an adventure set amongst the backdrop of the French Revolution - Scarlet was an intense and ambitious crossover of history and fantasy.

When young Eleanor is likened to a member of French aristocracy, she is employed into service as part of a scheme to release an infamous member of the royal family from imprisonment.

This is a heavily plot driven story which very little weight behind the characters BUT as it promises to be the first in a trilogy, this may be something that develops as the saga continues.

Did I enjoy it? I did. at once I had some Les Mis flashbacks as the Parisian sewer system made an appearance but other than that - the story had some really great twists and turns throughout. I could only spot one plot hole but again, I feel this is going to be developed as the series goes on so I'm not too concerned about it.

If you like your historical fiction to dabble in a bit of fantasy, then this is a great choice for you!

'Scarlet', the first in a trilogy, is a reimagining of the Scarlet Pimpernel stories from an alternate viewpoint and with the addition of vampires. The central character is Eleanor, an English housemaid whose resemblance to Marie Antoinette brings her to the attention of the Pimpernel. Soon she has embarked on a mission to France to rescue the former Queen and her children before they face the guillotine. Naturally the escapade is full of dangers, both in the form of over zealous revolutionaries, and the vampires they are trying to help.

Cogman is a very good writer, as she demonstrated in her excellent 'Invisible Library' series. She's one of those people who could write even the most bland of source material in a way that flows well and is entertaining. You never have to think about the writing, it just works. Eleanor is a likeable and believable protagonist who carries the story well and it's easy to sympathise with her and want her to succeed. The plot is well paced and eventful throughout with plenty of dramatic set pieces as you'd expect.

The supporting characters don't get much chance to shine, and I think it suffers from 'first in a series syndrome' to some extent. You get the feeling that the novel is very much laying the foundation for what will come next, and whilst it does have a full story arc in its own right, there's a sense of things left unfinished. The romance storyline felt a bit rushed - the reader wasn't really taken along with Eleanor so her sudden attachment to a particular character didn't ring true enough to me. But Cogman is very good at writing relationships so I have hope this will improve in the next instalment.

Telling the Pimpernel stories from the perspective of an ordinary person is perhaps the strongest aspect of the book - Eleanor is busy saving aristocrats and working against a revolution whose principles would vastly improve her own lot in life. Her thought processes around this give the book more depth than it might otherwise have had. One element that worked less well for me is the vampires - and I have to admit I'm never a great fan of vampire stories so may be biased. But I couldn't really see the point of them here - this may be because their role will become more apparent in later stories. Cogman could probably have written the story equally well without needing vampires and magic. The current positioning of the novel between genres risks reducing the readership - there's probably not enough magic to please fantasy buffs, but the presence of supernatural elements may put off alternate history readers who don't like fantasy. Some of the escapes feel too much like deus ex machina, and that reduced the excitement as I never had a real doubt in mind that they'd prevail. I also found it slightly hard to credit that Eleanor's French would have been good enough to fool native speakers whilst living with them over days and weeks - even people who live in a country for decades have slight accents or turns of phrase that will give them away if scrutinised over time.

Ultimately this is a well written book that I enjoyed reading. It has some faults, but nothing that should put off a reader who enjoys fantasy adventure stories. I also think there's a good chance the sequels will be really excellent, and this novel is necessary to put in the spade-work to underpin those. 'Scarlet' is worth reading for fans of the genre and I'm looking forwards to seeing how Cogman develops the story over the next two books.

Content Warnings: Self harm in the context of bloodletting (Strong, constant focus on the scars relating to this), Blood, Emotional Manipulation, Murder, Decapitation, Violence and Gore, Sexism, Classism, Attempted Kidnapping, Assault

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I gotta be honest, I know very little of the original Scarlet Pimpernel story 😬 I don’t quite know how I’ve somehow avoided it for this long, but it meant I went into this story pretty blind! On the bonus side, this book is very approachable for those that aren’t aware of much in the original story as well! Even in terms of the French Revolution in general - there’s a fair bit of unexplained terminology but a quick google would help with that - things get explained in a concise way which doesn’t feel too over or under explained.

Scarlet is a reimagining of the Scarlet Pimpernel story, but with feminism and equality as a strong leading theme. There is of course added magic and vampires to the story, and honestly it works far too well in it haha! Eleanor is the main character, a human maid for a vampire who is suddenly tossed into a world of espionage and danger as she’s turned into a key player for saving the French royal family from being sent to the guillotine. Honestly, her character was fantastic! She played off of the others well, she was strong as hell in spite of her trauma and history.

All the twists and turns were delightful, the character development I felt was well done. The pacing was slightly weird but mostly because there’s a lot of uneven time jumps around the place for different reasons, so trying to grasp a sense of time is very difficult I felt - however this didn’t really impact the overall book too much in my opinion at least.

For those that don’t enjoy series’ or waiting for further installments of a series, despite this being a book 1 it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger and it wraps up the storyline pretty nicely! There’s enough threads left that book 2 has enough to launch off of, but if you wanted to read it as a standalone book I would say it works pretty damn well!

A fabulous fun adventure through France during a rebellious era to die for. What a fun and joyous read!

I fell in love with Genevieve Cogman's writing when I devoured the Invisible Library series in two days the other week.

Scarlet wasn't entirely what I expected. In my head, the vamps were divine and sexy, and the good guys, but here having them set do deeply in the aristocracy made sense.

It was good vibes.

I'm going to have to reread it before I write a better review, but for now, 4 stars all the way.

Sink me!
(If you haven't seen The Scarlet Pimpernel, with Anthony Andrews, I recommend checking it out for all its hilarity).

But fear not, this version, Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman is not anything like the 1982 movie. We're not in high society here. We're down in the kitchen with the scullery maids and cooks. With the girl who dreams of just making it up the stairs, to work in the house. Maybe to embroider for her mistress, who is a cold women in more ways than one.

Eleanor, with her small dreams, becomes entangled in a large plot with the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Her face is her way in, but will her strength of character see her through? And once she's entirely in, will she be able to get out??

This is adventure in revolutionary France. It's regals and royals facing the guillotine, where not even the children are spared. It's resistances on both sides, and hunger on the streets. It's one young woman struggling to keep up, and finding out she's braver than she knows. And there's something far older and darker at play here too. (I'll give you a hint, they've got very pointy teeth, an ancient thirst for blood, and really don't like getting their heads cut off by a big head-cutting-off machine.)

I had a wild time in this one, and I especially enjoyed the attention to historical fashion details, through the eyes of the embroiderer-at-heart main character.
Thank you to @macmillanaus
for letting me read a digital ARC of Scarlet. I cannot wait for books two and three!! This series is going to be so good.

My love of The Invisible Library series meant that it was a certainty that I was going to read Scarlet but when I saw it was based on The Scarlet Pimpernel then that completely sealed the deal, so to speak.

I love The Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s one of my favourite classics, up there with The Three Musketeers but, on the other hand, retellings of classic novels, even in a fantasy setting, aren’t guaranteed to be enjoyable for me. Too often, authors focus more on inserting modern politics into an old story (and I say this as a complete woke lefty) than making the story interesting and unique.

Thankfully, Scarlet doesn’t fall into this trap. The Scarlet Pimpernel isn’t the main focus of this novel. He appears, as do other characters from the famous novel, but the story is set firmly around Eleanor, a young servant girl who is drawn into the Pimpernel’s plot to rescue the Dauphin of France because of her resemblance to Marie Antoinette.

There’s also vampires.

At the beginning it doesn’t look like the vampires are really important, they’re just there, but as the story progresses, and Cogman introduces the larger plot of the series, it looks as though they will be very important to the story and the world. While this books does put much of the focus on the rescue, much like the original story, it introduces an intriguing feature involving the vampires and a character known only as Anima at this point. We don’t learn a great deal in this book but there are tantalising titbits that will keep you interested for the rest of the series.

I really enjoyed Eleanor as a character. She’s strong and intelligent and is perfect for this story. I also liked Anima and their interactions with each other. The other characters don’t get a great deal of fleshing out and come and go when they’re needed but they still add an extra layer to the storytelling. I just wish there had been more of them in the novel. I did enjoy that Eleanor often questions the motives of the rich people she’s working for. As much as I love The Scarlet Pimpernel, he is a rich man saving the lives of rich people so it would have been a bit strange for a working class woman like Eleanor to follow him without questioning whether what he is doing is completely right.

It was pretty much a given that I was going to enjoy this novel. I like Cogman as an author, she’s very good at creating both world and character and I adore the Scarlet Pimpernel so I had a great time reading this novel. It develops the protagonist well and sets up the rest of the series perfectly. I can’t wait to read the next book.

I was always fascinated by The Scarlet pimpernel as a child - and here Genevieve Cogman reinvents the tale, throwing in magic and vampires! It's absolutely as good as it sounds - and the dangers of revolutionary France are brought to life in dazzling, supernatural fashion