November’s Serial Reads Pick is Julia London’s The Trouble With Honor

Have a reading quota you’re trying to meet? Want to try new genres? Like free books? Meet serial reads! Each month, the Barnes & Noble NOOK team gives all readers access to one book for free, delivered directly to your device in daily installments. November’s Serial Reads pick is The Trouble With Honor by Julia London, an historical romance with a lot of sizzle.
I can be pretty fickle about my romance: I like it heady, but not too cloying; high-stakes conflict and tension; realistic dialogue, and most importantly, characters that I root for, even in their darkest hours. The Trouble With Honor checked all those boxes, and more. Fans of the female societal machinations of Pride and Prejudice will love reading about Honor Cabot—and the serious trouble she finds herself in when her stepbrother is poised to marry, and possibly cast her off in the streets.
The title itself was enough to make me smirk; the trouble with Honor is, of course, that she is severely lacking in it. She and her three siblings have lived lavishly thanks to the generosity of her stepfather, the Earl of of Beckington. But he has fallen ill, and once he is dead, the estate—and the future of Honor, her sisters, and her dementia-addled mother—are left to her step brother Augustine’s devices. Augustine is a kind man with a gentle heart…but Honor is concerned that his betrothed, Monica Hargrove, will insist that he cut back on the funds that have allowed Honor the freedom she’s had thus far; being unmarried, and without a fortune of her own to force her into a match.

The dynamic between Honor and Monica is the quite enjoyable historical version of Mean Girls: two women, each with their own goals and desires, attempting to manipulate societal protocols for their own gain. (And who each use the age-old means of fashion to one-up the other.) Honor is a rule breaker and a bit of a thrill-seeker who, after being burned in an almost-courtship a few years before, has decided she prefers flirting and freedom to the limits of marriage; Monica, on the other hand, has resigned herself to the trappings of female obligation—to marry well, and marry as soon as possible.
So, Honor does what any girl trapped in a corner would do: she enlists a notorious gambler, rake, and the bastard son of of a Duke, George Easton, to seduce Monica away from her stepbrother—thus giving Honor enough time to find a suitable match for herself and prolong her lavish way of life. (What a dishonorable proposition indeed.) George is intrigued by the deal, Honor’s promise of a pretty penny…but most importantly, by Honor herself.

Honor and George exemplify the best qualities of the “hate-to-love” romances, but London imbues their relationship with more complexity than I’ve seen in other interpretations. Honor is incensed by George’s flagrant lack of modesty when it comes to his sexual prowess…but she is also impressed by him, for he represents the sort of life she would want for herself—a life of money she could do with as she chose, and the freedom to bed whom she wants. George wants to bed Honor, but as she becomes concerned that their game is being discovered by Monica and urges him off of it, he decides that he will stop at nothing to secure her the freedom she so desperately seeks. Their scenes sparkle on the page, and their dialogue is both seductive and smile-inducing.
The first in a series, The Trouble with Honor also introduces the other Cabot sisters: Grace, Prudence, and Mercy, who will all go on to have romances of their own—so London’s effervescent and enjoyable writing can be consumed in two other volumes already published, The Devil Takes a Bride, and The Scoundrel and the Debutant.
The Trouble With Honor is that sometimes, well, dishonor is sexier. A fast-paced romance with a lot of heart, and one that would certainly be enjoyed in free installments, thanks to Serial Reads.