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Verdict: A yearning, witty Regency gothic about two rival novelists in a supposedly haunted house, with a Lambda Literary Award and two starred trade reviews behind it, undercut by a rivalry that fizzles early and a crowded second half.
Best for: Readers who love pining, banter and a working-class heroine meeting her teenage crush again, who want real heat in their historical romance, and who care more about emotional depth than sustained enemies-to-lovers friction.
Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — open door, a handful of explicit scenes)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.6/5 — a 3.71 Goodreads average across more than 8,200 ratings, well below what its awards and starred reviews would suggest)
Tropes: Rivals to lovers, second-chance first love, class difference, forced proximity, gothic haunted house, rival authors, secret pen name, closeted heroine, grumpy-sunshine, found family.
Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti is the third and final book in the Belvoir’s Library trilogy from St. Martin’s Griffin, and the only sapphic one — a historical lesbian romance set in 1820s England, in which an aristocratic gothic novelist discovers that her anonymous rival is the butler’s daughter she loved as a girl, and both end up researching their next books in the same crumbling, possibly haunted manor.
It holds a 3.71 average across more than 8,200 Goodreads ratings, starred reviews from Kirkus and Library Journal, a place on Kirkus’s best books of 2025, and the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Romance. Readers like it a great deal more than they love it. Why that gap exists is worth understanding before you start.
What Is Ladies in Hating About?
Ladies in Hating is a Regency romance with a gothic frame. The literary rivalry gives it a comic hook, the haunted estate in Wiltshire gives it atmosphere and a mystery, and underneath both is a second-chance love story shaped by class — a duke’s daughter and a servant’s daughter who grew up in the same house and were never allowed to want each other. It treats period homophobia as real but not all-consuming, which some readers find a relief and others find too easy.
Lady Georgiana Cleeve is a successful gothic novelist with a sharp tongue, a cruel father and a lifetime of hiding what she wants. Cat Lacey is the former butler’s daughter, working-class and quick-witted, who has been publishing her own gothic bestsellers under the name Lady Darling. The book alternates between them, so you get Georgiana’s armour from the inside and Cat’s clear view of what it is costing her — and the dual point of view is where the yearning lives.
What Makes This Sapphic Regency Romance Work
- The yearning: The most praised element by a distance. Around twelve reviewers single out the pining, the chemistry and the banter, and it is the reason readers recommend it.
- The premise: Rival gothic novelists with suspiciously similar plots is a delicious setup, and around seven readers call the book a love letter to the women who wrote gothic fiction.
- Emotional depth: Georgiana’s history with her father gives the romance real weight, and several readers — K.J. Charles among them — say the ending made them cry.
- The supporting cast: The dog, Sir Francis Bacon, is a reader favourite, and fans of the earlier books enjoy the series tie-ins.
- The trade verdict: Kirkus called it a top-notch, spooky Regency page-turner, Library Journal made it a romance pick of the month, and it won the Lammy — a strong pick for enemies-to-lovers readers who want literary polish.
Book Synopsis
Lady Georgiana Cleeve writes gothic novels, and she is very good at it. So when the newest book by the anonymous Lady Darling arrives with a plot that looks uncomfortably like the one Georgiana is halfway through writing, she does not assume coincidence. She assumes theft, and she sets out to find the thief.
The trail leads somewhere she never expected: to Cat Lacey, the daughter of her family’s old butler, the girl she grew up beside and was never permitted to love. Cat has built a life and a readership on her own, and she has no intention of being bullied by a duke’s daughter who once let her walk away. The accusation becomes a standoff, and the standoff becomes a contest neither will concede.
Both women need a setting for their next book, and both have heard about Renwick House — a decaying manor in Wiltshire with a reputation for strange noises, vanishing servants and a ghost. Under one roof, chasing the same story, they are forced back into each other’s company, and the house starts producing mysteries of its own. Georgiana has spent years making sure nobody gets close enough to hurt her. Cat is the one person who already did. The question is whether the old feelings were ever really gone — and whether Georgiana can let herself want something she was raised to believe she could never have.
My Review
The yearning is the reason to read this, and it is beautifully done. Vasti writes longing between two women who share a past and a class divide with real ache, and the banter between them is quick, barbed and very funny. The rival-novelist premise is a gift, too — there is a lot of fun in two writers trying to out-gothic each other in a house that may actually be haunted.
The second strength is emotional. Georgiana’s relationship with her father, and the damage it has done to her ability to accept love, is the real spine of the book, and it gives the romance stakes beyond who wins the literary feud. Readers who connect with that arc say it moved them to tears, and StoryGraph readers rate the character development strongly at 83%.
Where it struggles is the promise of the title, and this is the consistent complaint rather than a stray grumble. Around eight reviewers say the rivalry dissolves roughly a quarter of the way in, after which the conflict is almost entirely Georgiana’s internal trauma — even K.J. Charles, who gave it five stars, wanted more fighting. About as many say the second half sags under a busy plot: the mystery, a family subplot and a growing cast compete for space, and Publishers Weekly agreed the mystery meanders. Around four readers wanted more from the haunted house, and about five felt the declarations of love arrive too soon. A couple of readers found the dialogue too modern for the period.
One expectation to reset: the title promises hate, and the book delivers mostly longing. If you came for sustained enemies-to-lovers friction, calibrate; if you came for a second-chance romance full of ache and wit, you will find exactly that.
My honest note: A polished, heartfelt, genuinely steamy Regency romance that sells itself as a rivalry it abandons early. If you want two women sparring for three hundred pages, look elsewhere. If you want to watch a guarded woman learn to let herself be loved, this is lovely.
| Element | In Ladies in Hating |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Lady Georgiana Cleeve & Cat Lacey — duke’s daughter and former butler’s daughter, rival gothic novelists and second-chance first loves |
| Core tropes | Rivals to lovers, second chance, class difference, forced proximity, haunted house, secret pen name |
| Setting | Regency England in the early 1820s — London, then the decaying Renwick House in Wiltshire |
| Heat level | 4/5 — open door, a handful of explicit scenes |
| Series | Belvoir’s Library book 3 of 3 — the only sapphic instalment; reads as a standalone with an HEA |
| Content notes | Explicit sexual content, emotional and domestic abuse from a parent, death and death of a parent, homophobia and lesbophobia, classism, abandonment, confinement (crowd-reported on StoryGraph) |
How Spicy Is Ladies in Hating?
A 4/5. I could not get a romance.io steam reading for this title, so the number comes from the trade and the readers. Kirkus describes scorching-hot moments, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal both call the sex scenes steamy, and StoryGraph users who flag sexual content overwhelmingly tag it graphic. One detailed reader review counts three on-page scenes, and several readers say it was spicier than they expected from the cover. All About Romance rated the sensuality “warm”, so it is explicit without being wall-to-wall.
No reviewer I found flags kink content. The thing worth knowing in advance is emotional rather than sexual: Georgiana’s abusive father and the family history behind her fear of intimacy. If you want Regency sapphic romance a notch cooler, The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics and The Hellion’s Waltz are both open door at a lower heat.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you read romance for yearning and banter, you love a second-chance story with a class divide, you want a historical romance with real heat, and gothic atmosphere is a bonus rather than the point.
You may want to skip it if: you want sustained enemies-to-lovers conflict, a busy second half loses you, you came for a properly scary haunted house, or modern-sounding dialogue in a Regency setting bothers you.
In short: a heartfelt, steamy second-chance Regency romance dressed up as a rivalry it drops early.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)
This book’s momentum comes from the trade side, not from a viral moment. It arrived in September 2025 with a starred Kirkus review, a Library Journal star and romance pick of the month, positive notices from Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Shelf Awareness, and then a spot on Kirkus’s best books of 2025 — and in 2026 it won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Romance. Readers are warmer than lukewarm but cooler than the critics: a 3.71 average across more than 8,200 Goodreads ratings, with three stars accounting for 30% of them; 3.87 across almost 4,300 StoryGraph reviews; and 4.0 from 868 Amazon ratings. It is also the lowest-rated book in its own trilogy, the first two of which are male/female romances. I found no Reddit or BookTok conversation driving it. The US audiobook, from Dreamscape, is narrated by Mhairi Morrison; most listeners praise her wit and timing, though a couple found the two leads hard to tell apart.
Prefer audio? Listen to Ladies in Hating on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The yearning, first and most consistently — around twelve reviewers praise the pining, chemistry and banter. Then the premise: about seven love the rival-gothic-novelists hook and the book’s affection for women writers. Around five say Georgiana’s emotional arc made them cry. The dog and the series cameos have their fans, and about four readers were pleasantly surprised by the heat. StoryGraph readers tag it lighthearted, emotional and mysterious in roughly equal measure.
What readers argue about and complain about: The rivalry, above everything. About eight readers say the “ladies in hating” barely hate each other, and that the conflict shifts early to Georgiana’s internal fears. Second, the back half: around eight say the plot gets crowded and the pace sags, and Publishers Weekly agreed the mystery meanders. Third, the gothic: around four wanted the haunted house to deliver more scares. Smaller notes: the romance moves fast once it starts, Cat is thinner than Georgiana, and the dialogue can sound modern. The genuine split is over prose and pacing — one reader calls the writing overwrought and threads left dangling, another calls it tightly paced with nothing dropped. None of the starred reviews mentions the vanishing rivalry or the sag, which is precisely where the readers’ three-star ratings come from.
The standalone question worth asking first: it stands alone. Georgiana appears in the earlier books, but readers and reviewers agree you do not need them, and this one ends with a full happy ending and no cliffhanger. It closes the trilogy; Vasti’s next series moves on. If you want more Regency sapphic romance afterwards, The Perks of Loving a Wallflower is the natural next step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to read the Belvoir’s Library series in order?
No. Ladies in Hating is the third book, but it follows a new couple and readers and reviewers agree it works as a standalone. It is also the only sapphic book in the trilogy.
How spicy is Ladies in Hating?
A 4/5. The sex scenes are open door and explicit, and several readers say it was spicier than they expected, though it is not wall-to-wall.
Are Georgiana and Cat really enemies?
Not for long. The rivalry between the two novelists is the hook, but readers consistently say it fades about a quarter of the way in, and the book becomes a second-chance romance shaped by class and family trauma.
Did Ladies in Hating win any awards?
Yes. It won the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Romance, and it received starred reviews from Kirkus and Library Journal.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes — the US edition is narrated by Mhairi Morrison for Dreamscape, and listeners praise her wit and timing. The UK edition uses two narrators.
If You Loved Ladies in Hating, Read These Next
For another Regency romance built on wit between two very different women, The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics is the closest match on banter and social stakes. If the class divide was what moved you, The Perks of Loving a Wallflower pairs a lady and a woman who works for a living. And if you wanted the haunted manor to be stranger, Mortal Follies puts real magic and fae into a Regency comedy of manners.
For more like this, browse our list of sapphic books like Bridgerton or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Ladies in Hating is a book that is better at longing than at hating. The pining is exquisite, the rival-novelist premise is clever, and Georgiana’s arc gives the romance genuine emotional weight — enough to win the Lammy and two starred reviews. It also drops its rivalry early, crowds its second half, and never quite lets the haunted house loose. If you read historical romance for ache, wit and heat rather than sustained conflict, it is well worth your time. Check Ladies in Hating on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Ladies in Hating ranks as an award-winning, critic-favoured sapphic Regency romance — yearning, witty and genuinely steamy, held back by a rivalry that fades early and a crowded back half, and best approached as a second-chance love story rather than enemies to lovers.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ 3.71 average across 8,222 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 2026 Lambda Literary Award winner
- ✓ Starred by Kirkus and Library Journal
- ✓ 30% of Goodreads ratings are three stars
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Yearning the most-praised element
- ✓ Second-chance first love with real ache
- ✓ Banter sharp and funny
- ✓ Rivalry fades a quarter of the way in
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Georgiana’s arc moves readers to tears
- ✓ 83% on StoryGraph call development strong
- ✓ Sir Francis Bacon a reader favourite
- ✓ Cat thinner than Georgiana for some
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ Witty dialogue praised by Booklist
- ✓ Gothic premise handled with affection
- ✓ Dual POV gives both leads depth
- ✓ Dialogue reads modern to some
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Abusive-father arc gives real stakes
- ✓ Class divide adds weight
- ✓ Ending made several readers cry
- ✓ Internal conflict drags for a few
Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Open door, explicit scenes
- ✓ Kirkus calls it scorching
- ✓ Readers find it spicier than expected
- ✓ A handful of scenes, not wall-to-wall
Ending ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Full HEA, no cliffhanger
- ✓ Family threads resolved
- ✓ Closes the trilogy cleanly
- ✓ Mystery resolution felt thin to some
Re-read Value ★★★☆☆ 3.4/5
- ✓ Banter rewards a second pass
- ✓ Morrison audiobook well liked
- ✓ Standalone, no homework needed
- ✓ Sagging second half slows a reread
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