Wimpole Street Widows Society: Book 1
Publication Date: September 30, 2025
A vigilante widow and a casino owner are both trying to bluff their way to a winning hand.
Heloise Marlowe has always forged her own path. As a former blacksmith and fencing instructor, she wasn’t just going to sit around knitting after her husband died. The Wimpole Street Widows Society, a secret group dedicated to balancing the scales of justice, was a much better fit for her skills. Her newest mission: seduce the owner of the club Dionysus and gain access to the den’s inner workings. She didn’t mind putting her body on the line, but she wasn’t prepared to gamble her heart.
Ethan Sinclaire has worked hard to clean up his club after the betrayal of his brother. But now, rumors are swirling that his club is just as crooked as before. He won’t let anyone destroy what he’s built, so when Heloise starts poking around, he decides to go all in, in hopes that she’ll show her hand. Enjoying her company is the easy part. Keeping himself from falling—that’s a whole different card game.
To Heist and To Hold by Christina Britton is the first book in the Wimpole Street Widows Society series—a historical romance set in Regency England.
Heloise and Ethan are the stars of this romance, and it has several layers as they learn more about each other when Heloise and her friends concoct a plan to get some jewelry back that was lost as collateral in a card game at Ethan’s club.
Twists and turns keep the readers on their toes, and multiple storylines are interwoven nicely throughout. Neither Heloise nor Ethan is from the ton, and both of them seem to hold back the truth or a derivative of it unless it’s absolutely necessary. There is definitely an attraction between them that neither one expects, which leads to some steamy moments but also one step forward and many more back.
We get to know each character a little at a time, and it’s nice to know the others will eventually get their own stories. I liked how each of the widows had a specialty when brainstorming ideas on how to infiltrate the club. There are vivid descriptions throughout, especially of the Dionysus club.
Finding the jewels and other ill-gotten gains was filled with a lot of adrenaline and excitement, as well as some tense moments. There is closure, with a happily ever after in the offing, which unfolds in the epilogue one month after the story concludes.
To Heist and To Hold is a historical romance set in Regency England. With likable characters and a mystery to solve, we are taken on a whirlwind ride.
Christina Britton developed a passion for writing romance novels shortly after buying her first at the impressionable age of thirteen. Though for several years she put brush instead of pen to paper, she has returned to her first love and is now writing full time. She spends her days dreaming of corsets and cravats and noblemen with tortured souls.
She lives with her husband and two children in the San Francisco Bay Area.
