TL;DR: Bombshell was such a fun, empowering, sexy, and totally swoony historical romance! MacLean’s writing is so entertaining and made it incredibly easy to devour this in one sitting. I loved this group of powerful society ladies working to smash the patriarchy, one power-hungry, corrupt and deplorable man of the ton at a time. Sesily and Caleb were a fantastic couple who had incendiary chemistry and a deliciously angsty romance full of pining, and that had me feeling giddy with delight. I can’t wait to continue this series and see what else these Hell’s Belles get up to!

It kind of amazes me that I’ve only just read my first Sarah MacLean novel. I mean, I listen to her amazing “Fated Mates” podcast with Jen and I’m fairly obsessed with it. I’ve seen countless readers hype up her books and what they have to say always piques my interest. So I’m not sure why it took me this long to finally read one… But regardless, I’m so glad that I have read one of her books because damn, this was just a really good time and I get the hype.

Even though this was my first book by MacLean, I think it’s safe to say that I really enjoy her writing. It’s funny how distinctly I can hear the author’s voice in her writing and thankfully, I loved it! It’s witty and sassy and all of that really comes through in the telling of the story. I appreciated that there’s some diversity to the characters, which I think you (do but) rarely see in historical romances and maybe some people might gripe about the ‘inaccuracy’ of such a thing but I feel like with historical romances there’s already a need to slightly suspend your disbelief due to improbable or unlikely events but hey, I read it for pleasure and not to critique its accuracy. I will say that I do wish the down-with-the-patriarchy plot played a more constant role in the story because I think it would’ve upped the stakes a bit more, but I’m not at all mad about the romance!

Sesily has a rather scandalous reputation in society but I loved how, despite how negatively society viewed her, she was so unapologetically herself. She’s witty and bold AF, and she was such a fun FMC to read about. Despite that though, she did have her vulnerabilities and I loved her honesty. Her sassiness also resulted in some amazing banter with Caleb and I often found myself laughing out loud. Caleb has a strong sense of duty and a need to protect those he loves. He’s been hiding a secret all his life but the persona of gruff indifference that he has created to shield himself from feelings and attachment starts to crumble thanks to Sesily. He’s skittish and is terrified to commit but every moment he spends around her, the more he wants what he’s convinced himself he cannot have. Sesily is convinced he doesn’t want anything to do with her when in reality he can’t stop thinking about her and can’t seem to stay away from her and it’s just… Angsty perfection! This man was a simp and we stan. 😍

Oh, the romance was absolutely swoontastic and had me feeling all the butterflies! I loved Caleb’s gradual giving into his feelings for Sesily. Their chemistry was explosive and the build-up to their coming together was so intense and deliciously angsty, and I’m saying this as someone who doesn’t necessarily love angsty romance. I loved the banter between them and the when-will-they vibe because it created such amazing tension that kept me gleefully dancing on my toes and giggling with delight! Aside from these two, there are also some great side characters including the Duchess, Adelaide, and Imogen, and we’re given an idea of who will be the next two couples in this series. I squealed in delight with the set-up because I knew there would be some amazing opposites-attract, hate-to-love, and kiss-or-throttle-them moments to come! 😍

Have you read Bombshell or is it on your TBR?

• Follow me on Goodreads!
• Follow me on Bluesky
• Follow me on Instagram!
• Follow me on Twitter!