Unladylike Rules of Attraction – Amita Murray

Anya Marleigh is a musician in Queen Charlotte’s court. Despite her half-Indian heritage, she’s respected for her angelic voice and musical talent. She’d been hired by the recently deceased Dowager Countess Budleigh for private singing engagements and thought they had a pleasant business relationship – until she found out that the dowager had willed her the entire Budleigh fortune. The catch is that she must marry by the time she turns 25 – in months. If she doesn’t marry, the fortune will revert to Damian Ashton, the executor of the will. 

Although Damian and Anya aren’t similar people and can’t seem to stop arguing, they do have one thing in common: the rest of the Budleigh family hates them. As Anya looks for a husband and finds “accidents” happening to her along the way, both she and Damian realize that she might be in more trouble than they thought. When one of the family members turns into a corpse, she and Damian must both work to keep themselves out of the noose. 

I give Unladylike Rules of Attraction four stars. It wasn’t as dynamic as Lila’s story in Unladylike Lessons in Love, but Lila and Anya are ifferent people. Lila is outspoken, whereas Anya is more concerned with the rules of propriety – necessary as she’s employed by the queen’s court. Anya is mild and seems to carry more trauma from the sisters’ upbringing than Lila. I liked Anya’s general demeanor, but anything to do with her finer feelings was skewed, which seemed like a trauma response. She normally seemed logical, but any statement by Damian was twisted to the opposite. It was irritating to read as a Damian sympathizer, but as I kept going, I realized her reactions were guided by her history. I hope that as part of their HEA, Anya and Damian can heal together. 

I love a good marriage-as-a-clause-of-a-will trope, mostly because the injustice is real. For everyone involved! The outrage is so understandable, and I am here to support it. I think the last one I read was Scandal’s Bride, part of the Cynster series by Stephanie Laurens. And, the same reaction from me: a total sense of outrage right along with the characters. It’s so much better than them making dumb decisions and me having to ridicule them while reading.

Murray is good at working a mystery into her romances, and while this wasn’t as heavy on the mystery as Unladylike Lessons in Love, it was still good. Both a recent death and one from years ago turn into blackmail, and Anya and Damian must protect themselves. It added a nice amount of tension to an already tense situation, which caused all kinds of angst. 

Readers will not be surprised that Anya and Damian get their happily ever after ending. Damian always seemed like a standup guy, and Anya let her past traumas and others’ negative opinions about him influence her probably more than she should’ve. But, he didn’t make a great first impression on her, either. I liked them both as characters in general. They had obstacles to overcome and were pretty normal in how they went about it. I think they’ll have an interesting future together and I hope we get to see more of them throughout the series!

All in all, This was a great addition to the Marleigh Sisters series. I’m very excited for it to continue and grateful to NetGalley for sending me a copy. All opinions in this review are my own and given voluntarily.