Chronic Ever After

5 Stars | 2025 Favorite | Historical Romance | Spice

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Amazing. One of my favorite books I’ve read this year. The writing, the banter, the spice, the trauma and the healing, the relationship. . .all the things. This is just pure fun and I didn’t consume this book – it consumed me entirely. I couldn’t put it down.

Isabel Dumont is a formidable thief trained under cruelty and sharpened into a blade. Ronan Callahan is a man with a past that has shaped him into a highly effiecient and dapper spy. Together these two collide in the most delicious, adorable, spicy, tension-filled good time. I loved their collision, from the first chapter that ends with Isabel putting a dagger to Ronan’s throat and the banter and charm that tangles them together. . .so. much. fun.

I loved A Lady’s Handbook of Espionage, loved. The eventual partnership between these two to take down the horror that controlled Isabel and almost destroyed her is beautifully wrought. I loved how Kendrick dealt with the traumas that both Isabel and Ronan encountered in their lives and the gentle handling of the subject matter that could have been glossed over or shoved down the readers throat in less deft writers hands but here is written beautifully.

Altogether, read this book. It’s fun, it’s spicy with purpose, it’s got the historical vibes while not feeling fully historical, the relationship is perfection – the banter, the push and pull and eventual safety and healing they find together – it’s a pretty perfect book.

Loved it. Hoping for more books to follow in this world because there were quite a few characters that I need to know their stories.

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