This book is the perfect escape for anyone craving a Regency romp with more modern mindsets while keeping the focus on the true meaning of friendship and love. Highly recommend for fans of sharp dialogue and wonderfully over-the-top adventures!

Sir Horley is a gay man who feels that he must marry to satisfy his family, even if it is a miserable match, but on the eve of his wedding Arabella Tarleton, his aromantic friend, convinces him to elope with her instead. I loved the platonic relationship between Sir Horley and Belle. It was unlike any other romance novel I've read, and I would have happily read so much more about them building a life together that suits them both. This ended up being my favorite book in the series.

Thank you NetGalley and Montlake publishing for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very well written but I had a hard time focusing and connecting with the characters. This being said after some time I did DNF this title. I loved the premise of the story and the cover but the writing wasn’t my style and I was unable to continue reading.

Omg our Arabella is growing up 🥹

It feels incredibly fitting that Arabella Tarleton and Sir Horley Comewithers should be the stars of this final instalment of the irreverent and sweet and sexy as fuck Something Something series. Arabella gets one heck of a character arc across all three books. And by god does she grow from the most dramatic to the most… assertively herself in the course of it, and I’m so here for it. And what a beautiful finale this is to Arabella’s continued grappling with her identity. Centre staging queer platonic relationships in a romance novel and giving them all the love is just *chef’s kiss*

The book opens with some really moving scenes that muse on the significance of friendships and how we sometimes overlook them without meaning to. But the course of true aromantic love doth not run smoothly and without shenanigans. And ofc it wouldn’t be a Tarleton story without an extended road trip 😂 This time there are no pirates and no planks to walk, though a very bad highway robbery may or may not occur. Sometimes you just have to travel far and wide to find your way home 💜

And Sir Horley, sweet, pained Sir Horley very much gets his HEA too, often in the most unexpected places. I don’t want to say too much and risk spoiling it. Just.. go read it, ok?

ARC received from NetGalley with thanks

I'd not read this series so I came into this without any knowledge of the characters but after finishing this- well, I certainly know Belle and Rufus very well. It's a modern historical romance if that makes sense. Belle and Rufus are headed to Gretna Green to escape weddings neither of them want. They're determined to marry one another not because they love each other but because they don't love their intendeds. But over the course of the carriage ride (and all the craziness), they find themselves in love. It's light it's fun. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This will brighten your day.

4.5 stars

I’m on record with Arabella Tarleton being my least favorite character in this series. So I was wary of this book. I should have had every faith in Hall to make this extraordinarily beautiful.

Sir Horley and Belle are such an unlikely but amazing pairing. He has to learn to love himself and she has to learn that there are so many more kinds of love than romantic, and she’s not broken for bejng aro. The way they negotiate a unique relationship that’s wholly their own and works so well for them is a delight.

Obviously being an Alexis Hall book, there are madcap adventures, spicy as hell interludes, laugh out loud banter, and memorable side characters. Plus there is just so much heart, and emotionally resonant moments and discussions. I had a grin on my face so often while listening.

Plus! The audio is narrated by 2 of my favs, Steve West and Ell Potter. They do such a fantastic job! Highly recommend!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the preview. All opinions are my own.

The majority of this story takes place in a long carriage ride to Gretna Green, Scotland in order for Arabella Tarleton & Sir Rufus Horley to get married. (Apparently Gretna Green was the "Vegas" of spontaneous elopements in the 19th Century!) Being stuck in a carriage and at various Inns sets the stage for drunken bickering, talking and whining with a bunch of Belle-inspired chaos. There is a LOT of talking and so I think you need to be in the mood for Belle & Rufus discussing all sorts of things, including their platonic relationship and Belle's aromantic nature. I'm sad to say the first half didn't *quite* work for me, but it started to grab me more once they are married and taking other lovers and fixing up her neglected house. It was lovely to see Bonny & Valentine being Bonny & Valentine early on, and I was looking forward to a cameo from Peggy & Orfeo. The last 20% of the book has some delightful surprises which I won't spoil here.

I really liked this series as a whole, and I would say Something Spectacular is my favorite of the 3 books. I love Peggy & Orfeo so much and I liked how it took place more in town with more soirees and balls, which I personally tend to prefer reading about. Where Something Fabulous is very funny and Something Spectacular is perfection, this one feels more introspective with a few really funny moments like:

– The Inns star ratings system that has an elaborate 20-word title, clearly a precursor to Yelp ;-)
– Bonny. Always Bonny.
– Belle dabbling in some light kink
– Belle speaking with a lisp

If you've read the first 2 books of this series, I definitely recommend reading this one to round out these stories in this engaging Regency world.

**Thank you to NetGalley & Montlake for the ARC**

Something Extraordinary by Alexis Hall is a quirky, over the top Historical Fiction Romance novel. The premise of arranging a marriage of convenience for the two main characters is fascinating but the characters are too juvenile and unbelievable to engage me. I am besotted with British humour but this is too irreverent for my taste.

In this case, it's a matter of it's not you, it's me. There is a target audience...I'm just not it.

This was such a delightful read— hysterical in a way that veers towards absurd and full of equally hilarious modernisms, but it has so much heart and Big Feelings, and I admire the way Alexis Hall portrays the diversity of the queer experience so well in a historical setting.

Arabella is on the aromatic spectrum, and it's really interesting because she's also a big book lover who sees herself as the heroine of her own story (it's giving Catherine Morland)... except heroines usually have happy endings that involve falling in love and having grand romances, and Arabella has never quite been able to figure out that part. She's spent the last two books running away from a forced marriage, and then pushing away potential romantic partners, and now she's feeling lost. And it makes sense looking at this even from a modern perspective; In addition to the compulsory heterosexuality pushed upon us early on, there's also amatonormativity, the assumption that being in (usually monogamous) romantic relationships is the norm.

Belle is struggling to figure out what a "happy ending" means for her, so the distraction of "saving" Sir Horley from marrying a woman forced on him by his homophobic aunt couldn't have come at a better time. But Arabella being Arabella means that somewhere along the way, she decides to abandon her plan of kidnapping and eloping with Sir Horley... except Horley has a pang of conscience and kidnaps her right back to "save her reputation".

And that's Arabella to a tee; I think she is one of the more frustrating heroines I've read in a romance novel just because of her tendency to literally run away from her problems therefore making them bigger problems for everyone (as valid as her problems are; The patriarchy and forced heteronormativity suck!), and also her being quite.... trigger-happy. BUT Alexis Hall completely converted me over by the end, and other than enjoying her zany antics and novel way of looking at world, I empathized with her quite a lot.

I also really loved getting to read Sir Horley as a hero in his own right;. I'm SO glad he was never written off as a gay best friend because in the last two books, other characters considered him a shallow bon vivant even though he was a reliable friend to the Tarletons and co. Here, you get the raw, stripped down version of him (and unlike the prior two books, you do get both his and Arabella's POV). Horley— Rufus, as he decides to go with halfway through the book—has faced his share of tragedy and rejection, but the narrative doesn't super wallow on that.... he's not a sadboi hero by any means. He's quite cutting and much more competent than people give him credit for, but he also this tender side with Arabella that was already present while they were friends, but it's really lovely to see it develop into something more permanent as the book goes on.

The sex:

There is an EXCELLENT variety— there are MM, FF, and MF scenes. Arabella and Rufus have a non-monogamous relationship, and later on marriage as well.

This book is also a lot kinkier than the prior two and it's approached with the same lightheartedness as the rest of this book; consent is discussed and then you have everything from highwayman kidnapping roleplay to spanking, and yes, there is a Daddy moment— you'll be surprised how that comes about, but like the rest of this novel, in a GREAT way.

Overall:

I adored reading how Arabella and Rufus create their own rules for their marriage and seeing them happy together is everything. This is truly a boundary-pushing historical romance and I would highly recommend this to any romance reader.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5
Heat Level: 3.75/5
Publication Date: December 17th

While I do adore this series of queer found family shenanigans, NGL, I was NOT excited to read an Arabella centric installment because she was often the most chaotic and selfish element of the earlier books in the series. And I found the first third of the book insufferable as Sir Horley, who I enjoyed so far, acts most unlike himself, and him and Belle kept hand wringing circles around who is kidnapping who and who is ruining whose life by doing so. I had to take a long break from it. As much as I adore Horley, this seemed to be largely Belle's stand for independence and aromantic aspirations. That said, her internal monologues were far less annoying than they were in the first two installments. Eventually, other characters show up, like in Something Fabulous, all significantly more interesting. While still meandering, the narrative takes a turn for something almost cathartic -- whether it's in Belle and Rufus's introspections on living with shame and rewriting their internal monologue of what happiness they deserve, or even some interesting explorations of kink and healthy aromantic polycules. Emphasis on SOME, because by the nature of this series, everything has a sheen of unseriousness and while I'm always happy to see celebration of platonic romances, something about Rufus and Belle's dynamics and their version of an HEA didn't really come together for me.
That said, Valentine and Bonny remain extremely silly, and Peggy and Orfeo, still my faves. This is NOT a Regency Romance -- all of the installments are very much subversions of the tropes of that genre, usually the Regency bit, and this one subverts even the Romance but with a largely aromantic relationship at the heart of it. Is it the story I wanted? No. Was it still a fun check in with a crew you find amusing? Yes, timed correctly between heavy reads and during heavy times

Alexis Hall books have always been on my TBR but this is the first I have read by him.

Although this is not a typical romance i.e. two people meet, fall in love, break up for some reason, get back together again, it is no less a love story. In fact I think it might be one of the most honest love stories I have ever read. And it's very very funny.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A really good book, but you should read the firsst two books in the series to fully understand the connections between the characters,
Beside that this was such a fun and good read, I am really happy I read it.

Thanks netgalley and montlake for this eARC!

Sir Horley has been slowly pickling himself in liqour to distract from his upcoming nuptials. Its not the bride, who is lovely and pious; its more that he is EXTREMELY gay, and also feels himself extemely undeserving of happiness. On the brink of despair, he is rescued by the impetuous Arabella Tarleton, an old friend and notorious dramatic, who steals the man bodily from his family home to save him from himself and unhappy future. However, in an unlikely turn of events, the two find themselves embarking on a life together on the road to gretna green.

Well this was a ride. Definitely requested this not fully realizing it was the close of a series, and furiously read through the first two to fully enjoy this book, which may not have been necessary to enjoy this book but 100% added to my understanding of sir horley and belle, and made me invested in their story. The front part of the novel dragged a little for me, and i wondered how we can pull a happy ending out of this for either of these characters, but the genius of hall is that one was found handily, and hilariously. I thought the supporting cast was funny (and spicy 👀) and it was wonderful to catch up on the lives of the other series mains. I also love the "come as you are" message of this book-there can be love in your life if you let it in.

Just enjoyed this fun lil series.

This was slow to grab my attention but it really picks up about halfway through. It is witty, and its cleverness only increases as you read. It's worth pushing through!

Something about Something Extraordinary didn’t quite resonate with me the way the first two books did. The characters just didn’t stick out for me as different enough from the rest to make me attached to their story. I also just wasn’t engaged for too much of the book, maybe the pacing was off? I’ll give it another try after pub day once the audiobook is out and see if that helps!

Delightful, hilarious, and so sweet! Alexis Hall has taken two of my least favorite characters from the series and turned them into my definitive favorites.

Arabella Tarleton has taken it upon herself to rescue Sir Horley from his impending marriage via yet another abduction turned elopement turned abduction turned elopement. It makes sense when you read it. And, of course, Tarleton shenanigans ensue.

You can't fully appreciate the growth that Belle and Rufus go through without reading the first two novels, but having done that, you see how this book is the perfect conclusion to the series. I adore how Belle is aromantic/bisexual and her platonic love is given just as much weight and importance as a romantic love would be. Belle is so encouraging of unconventionality in every format and still struggles to find that acceptance for herself and her journey to get there is just so good.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!

I first want to spread some love on this series. I've read them all and absolutely loved them all. One of the most beautiful parts of this series is the different types of love and people that Alexis Hall showcases. It is a STUNNING series and it always just ozzes with love for the LGBTQIA+ community. The books are all always hilarious and unapologetically queer.

Something Extraordinary Truly was something extraordinary! I was a fan of Belle's from the beginning, and I was so happy to see more from her and see her enter a new "era" in her life, and more importantly, getting to see an aromantic MC thrive in a romance book. I loved seeing her grow in the background for the first two books and now she's getting to really thrive as the main heroine of her own book.

One thing I particularly love about this book is its focus on platonic love. Getting to see Bell and Sir Horley (Better known by Rufus now) develop a strong platonic relationship within their marriage of convenience. They also get to explore relationships outside of their marriage and it allows for some fabulous character studies.

Side note but equally important all the side characters were wonderful and hilarious as always.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hard to explain... MF, MM, FF
Historical romance
Sassy FMC
Found family
LGBTQ+

Rating: 4/5 - I will probably reread this one
🌶️: 2/5 - there are a few explicit intimate scenes

TLDR: Great continuation of the series

This series has brought me so much joy. It's funny, ridiculous, and sweet. While you could read this as a standalone book, I think the richest experience comes from reading the entire series in order. It helps with the understanding of the main characters. The main characters grow a lot in this book which I enjoy. The relationship is very unconventional but still so sweet and supportive. I was definitely rooting for them. This is a historical romance but it's not accurate. Alexis Hall bends the rules quite a bit in order to keep the story light hearted. If you liked the first two books, I don't think you'll be disappointed by this one.

Ultimately, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical LGBTQ+ stories.

Alexis Hall books always and will always give me so much warm and love, they are truly all comfort books that I van read when things seem horrific and this was no different, I got so much warmth and love from this book

Something Extraordinary by Alexis Hall was an absolutely fantastic and extraordinary read. Alexis Hall knows how to deliver a story that is full of heart, humor and originality. I loved this and found it very entertaining. I caught myself actually giggling out loud, which rarely happens. Overall, a truly entertaining book from a fantastically amazing author.