A Lady for All Seasons by T.J. Alexander
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical romance, queer romance, regency romance
Pages: 304
Published by Vintage on March 10, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

From the acclaimed author of Chef's Kiss and A Gentleman's Gentleman comes a riotous Regency romp, featuring a charming and unforgettable bigender lead.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single noblewoman who has lost her fortune (no thanks to her father’s terrible business dealings) must be in need (not want) of a husband.
It’s the end of the 1820 London season, King George III is dead, and there are no suitable suitors in sight. Beautiful, cunning, formerly wealthy Verbena Montrose must devise a new plan to secure a position for herself and save her odious family from abject poverty. Fortunately, what she lacks in a dowry, she makes up for in the currency of gossip. 
When she hears an alarming rumor about her very dear, very queer friend Etienne that could put him at risk of ruin (or worse), she comes to his aid with a proposal—for a marriage of convenience, that is. But when Verbena discovers that a mysterious poet by the name of Flora Witcombe has been gaining popularity and publishing poems that hint she is onto their scheme, Verbena has no choice but to pretend to be a poet herself to confront her in a local salon. And—unexpectedly—be charmed by her.
Flora agrees to rectify the issue she’s caused, not least of all because she’s terrified by and smitten with Verbena in equal measure. After all, she holds a secret of her she is also William Forsyth, a struggling fiction writer and fifth son of a minor noble family. And if circumstances don’t allow Flora to woo Verbena, perhaps William will. Faced with two suitors and a fiancé, Verbena, who has always had to know everything about everyone to survive in society, may need to learn more about herself to discover whether true happiness actually lies outside of society’s constraints.

My Review:

Verbena Montrose (a terrific name for a terrific character, TRULY) is on the horns of the same dilemma that the Bennet sisters faced in Pride and Prejudice – although Verbena’s character more closely resembles Emma from her story without Emma’s financial resources. Also, Verbena’s mother makes Mrs. Bennet look – and sound – like a saint.

Nevertheless, this is very much a Regency ‘comedy of manners’ in the style of Jane Austen, both in its setup and its language. I want to say this isn’t Austen’s world, but it most likely was. It’s just that A Lady for All Seasons delves into aspects of that world that Austen could not have written about safely. But aspects we know existed because George Gordon, Lord Byron, was every bit as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ as he was painted and he is one of the secondary characters in Verbena’s story.

The story opens with Verbena. It may not, precisely be her story, and it certainly isn’t in its entirety, but she is the prime mover and shaker of events – even if often hidden in the wings. As she prefers, because that’s where she can overhear all the gossip that she frequently weaponizes for her own protection or gain.

Verbena, at least in the privacy of her own sharp mind, is extremely realistic about the way the world of the ton operates – particularly for women. Her family has lost its fortunes because her father was frankly an idiot, but Verbena is the one who is blamed AND the one who is castigated for not securing a wealthy husband. She is supposed to save the family that has denigrated her at every turn (see above comment about her mother) in order to become the property of a man who will ignore her at best and abuse her at worst.

And she knows it.

So she hatches a scheme to rescue a friend as well as herself. A marriage of convenience to her friend Étienne Charbonneau, will save him from the stocks – or worse – for being homosexual, will save her family’s fortunes, provide her with safety and security and get her out from under her mother’s control. Verbena and Étienne are honest with each other about what their marriage will be – but they are the only ones who know the secret. (Not Étienne’s secret because it isn’t really a secret in their circles, but the secret that they are both going into this arrangement willingly and with full knowledge. If her parents knew, they’d stop it even though it will rescue them as well.)

Which is where Flora Witcombe and William Forsyth come into the story. Together, because they are one and the same person. Forsyth writes novels as himself, and turns gossip into poetry as Flora. Flora is considerably more successful. She is also a fully realized individual who goes out into the world as Flora. As does William.

And thereby hangs this tale. Because Flora’s poetry threatens Verbena’s arrangements. Flora’s dear friendship with Verbena threatens Verbena’s willingness to enter into the marriage of convenience with Étienne. While Verbena’s attraction to William makes her doubt herself, in that a woman who had little interest in either romance or sex does not know how to act or react when she can’t decide between two potential lovers.

Flora / William may not be sure of their identity in any number of ways, but they’re certain they are wholeheartedly in love with Verbena. And that neither of them can have her. Unless they ALL start being honest with themselves and each other.

A situation fraught with danger and ringed by disaster, because if any of their secrets are revealed to the wrong person, ALL will be lost.

Escape Rating B-: This is a story whose reach may have exceeded its grasp. Or it didn’t grasp me nearly as much as I expected it to. Or both. In other words, definitely a mixed feelings review.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise reminded me quite a bit of Cat Sebastian’s Unmasked by the Marquess, which I loved. But part of what I enjoyed about that is that the story was more straightforward than this one is because Charity/Robert is aware of her own identity and her own motives. She may not be sure how she’s going to pull it off for the rest of her life, but she’s still sure of who she is and what she wants. Even if that want includes a life in breeches publicly playing the part of a young man with all the social privileges thereof.

So all the obfuscations were outward in that story. Here, at least in part because Verbena can’t retreat to a male persona, she’s putting on a mask 100% of the time and as much to herself and to others. I love that she’s honest about the way that her society treats women, but the way that she pretends to everyone around her AND herself gets, not so much confusing as limiting. And also results, frequently and often, in the situation I call a ‘misunderstandammit’, where so much of the conflict could be resolved if she would just have an honest five minute conversation with someone – including herself.

It’s also true that I’m not fond of the ‘comedy of manners’ style as a whole, because it practically guarantees this sort of obfuscation. So much of everyone’s surface is entirely false, everyone knows the real score and no one can ever say anything about it for fear of social ruin and ostracization. I recognize that it’s the convention of this particular kind of story, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it.

There’s also a question about whether this is a romance or a farce. It did remind me of many of Shakespeare’s comedies, particularly As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing, that also involve masks and changes of gender and identity and the confusion those switches in persona and personality engender. The farcical elements in A Lady for All Seasons are a huge part of the events at the country house party, as both Flora and William are guests and spend a great deal of energy pursuing Verbena in both personas and desperately flailing around to not be caught in the midst of those changes.

This has already gotten too long, so to sum things up, I liked many of the ideas that power this story. Not just Verbena’s plight of needing to find a husband without admitting that she either needs to find a husband, or needs to find a husband for his money, or really doesn’t want to find one at all and recognizes that she shouldn’t have to. As well as her recognition that she wouldn’t need one if the society she lives in didn’t force her into a straitjacket.

Flora/William’s dilemma, as we first meet them, has more depth. They are caught not just between what society demands and who they are, but also between two poles that society believes are immutable. Their crisis of identity is dangerous, potentially both heartbreaking and life threatening. They can never be themselves unless they find a partner who loves them as they are. Which requires a level of trust that means their end in both personas if they get it wrong.

In other words, this had a tremendous amount of possibility that it reached for but didn’t quite achieve. Putting it another way, this was a gallon’s worth of excellent story possibilities that only had a quart-sized number of pages to deal with everything it had on its plate and piled too much too high in order to fit everything in. Your reading mileage most likely varies.