I enjoyed this novel with its twists and turns but I took off one star because I felt about one hundred pages could have been cut and it would have been just fine.

It's probably a "me" problem. I have a lot of good books to read. ( )

How have I lived my entire life never reading this book until August of 2019? Honestly, I don’t know. I am so disappointed in myself for letting this book pass my way and not reading it earlier. Out of all the books I read I 2019, this book is probably my favourite one of the whole lot (and I read over 60 books in 2019).
In the little notebook I have where I journal all the books that I’ve read, I wrote this simple sentence for this book:
I will never read another gay romance this engrossing. Even the twists were so well done. Original, inspiring and absolutely lovely.
And I mean every word of that.
This book has everything – LGBT romance, the Victorian era, pornography, the heist of the century, a scam artist, the gallows, prison, decades of planning, twists and turns on every corner, an insane asylum… The only missing thing is time travel but really, who would want that when the story is so good?!
The story revolves around two young ladies, Susan and Maud. Susan has been raised a pickpocket and a thief, living in the worst part of London, never having learnt how to read or write except her own name. She is street smart and wise beyond her years, and knows that life is never going to be fair to people like her. Maud is a young lady raised by a distant uncle who will inherit an insanely large fortune when she marries. Susan willingly becomes a part of a scam to get all of Maud’s money off her by this man called The Gentleman, a man who seems to be the biggest con artist of them all and the brains behind this operation. And he has promised Susan three thousand pounds if she’ll help him (a lot of money nowadays, trust me) (although, realistically, I’d do it for three thousand pounds too; I’m very broke). Everything seems to be going well, until Susan and Maud fall in love, and from there the story just goes in so many directions.
I really want you all to read the book if you haven’t because holy shit I don’t think I could ever read a book that incorporated twists into the story so well. I was left completely shocked by the whole book because of how effortlessly it seemed to build up to everything, and how amazing the writing is. I was enthralled from start to finish; I read this book in three days and then immediately watched every adaptation of it that I could find.
Speaking of, the BBC adaptation that goes by the same name is actually very well done and very very faithful to the book, and it is in fact a three hour long adaptation so make sure you have time to sit down and watch it. It’s fantastically acted and portrayed, and I do recommend it if you don’t have time to read the book (although really you should do both).
Another adaptation, The Handmaiden, is a Korean-Japanese production that is also very good, though not as faithful to the story and, unfortunately, very very very sexually graphic, so if you’re not a fan of explicit sex scenes, don’t watch it. I don’t have an aversion to sex scenes, but some of the scenes made me very uncomfortable.
So what have we learnt from this book? We’ve learnt that you can have LGBT characters in a story without the main focus of them being there is that they’re gay. We’ve learnt that a good story can envelope you in it for days on end. We’ve learnt that adaptations can be true to the book if you’re willing to make it, you just have to have a longer running time. And we’ve learnt that I am a sucker for gay romances in the Victorian era.
Just read this book. I give it a 5/5 for a reason. ( )

Loved it! So many plot twists. ( )

Loved it. Twice.

1/28/20 - Another listen to the fantastic Juanita McMahon read this great book to me. ( )

It had been long enough since I last read this that I didn't remember all the detail—how the ending came about, in particular. I love the reversals and surprises in the novel, how Sue and Maud both have their secret goals and are surprised by the truth of their origins. ( )