Queen of Lombard Street – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice: 🌶️

Title: Queen of Lombard Street

Author: Lisa Kleypas

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 448

Publication Date: 10/20/26

Publisher: Avon

Categories: Historical Romance, Women’s Fiction, Mystery

Disclaimer: **I received this book free on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Avon for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

In Victorian England, no woman—not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin—is allowed to open her own bank account. Men will take care of everything, women are told. But Reina knows better. As the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish immigrant mother, she’s haunted by the memory of living with unpaid grocer’s bills and no coal for the hearth.

So together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women’s bank, where women can manage their own financial security.

At home, Reina’s domestic staff of recently paroled prisoners are building new lives and becoming a found family. But soon Reina is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective. He’s been assigned to investigate Farlow, who’s suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive, it could destabilize the British economy. Pembroke needs Reina’s expertise for a high-stakes nighttime heist to obtain incriminating evidence.

Now Reina faces the agonizing choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything. Either way, her dream of the women’s bank may be over.

But courage and sacrifice aren’t limited to the battlefield—they also occur at the kitchen table, where women who believe in compassion and community are working to remake the future. And when the stakes are highest, Reina knows to trust her heart as well as her intellect.

Based on real-life trailblazers such as Mary Paley Marshall, Britain’s first female economist, and financial titan Hetty Green, Queen of Lombard Street brings to light the hidden history of extraordinary women whose achievements should be celebrated. How can we know who we are, if we don’t know who we were?

Content Warning: mentions of rape, death, grief

+ I love Lisa Kleypas and I thought this book cover looked different from her regency romances so I wanted to give it a try and I was not disappointed. It isn’t regency romance but something with a little more debt and a little more of women’s fiction. It gave me Downton Abbey vibes, which I loved. This story also focused on women empowerment and I learned a lot! I loved all the strong female characters in this book. We get to see what they go through, what they face, and how Reina is trying to change things, a little bit here and there at a time.

+ Reina was born a bastard but that didn’t stop this amazing woman from trying to become more than she was destined to be as a woman. She went to school, worked, and learned to invest. She made connections, built up her wealth and always wants to pay it forward. She’s brilliant and kind. I loved her story!

+ The secondary characters in this story are fantastic – Reina hires a staff for her house from reformed criminals looking for a second chance. It’s a chaotic household until John comes along – but he’s undercover as the butler, trying to get information about a woman’s bank Reina is trying to open up with her friend/banker, William Farlow. Each of these staff member had their quirks, didn’t exactly like one another at first but in the end they are a family. It warmed my heart. Some of their stories made me emotional.

+ As for the romance, there are two. One with side character June (who is Reina’s best friend and cook), and Mad Dog (Maddock), their romance is so absolutely sweet – I loved them together so much! The main romance is between Reina and John, which is unconventional because he’s the staff but I couldn’t blame her falling for all the welsh phrases he kept piling on her. It was so poetic and romantic! I loved their romance and how Reina was all for bucking the rules of society. I want to say the romance is signature Lisa Kleypas – full of emotions and love, just less on the spice, but it still made my heart swoon.

+~ The only thing I think disappeared in the middle of the story was the case about William Farlow. Most of the story is focused on the staff members and them trying to learn the ropes. But the mystery does come back in the latter half of the story, when John’s cover is blown. Then we get into the mystery would have liked it to stay consistent throughout the story but I didn’t mind too much because I was invested in the other characters.

Final Thoughts:

Reina is a force to be reckoned with and I loved her story. This story is about women empowerment and how one woman refused to be what society wants her to be. It made me learn something about women and their access to banks more than a century ago and made me realize how far we’ve come. The found family trope is so strong in this story, it made me emotional. I was so invested in all of them. And the romances made me swoon, even with barely any spice. This just reminded me why Lisa Kleypas was and still is one of my favorite historical romance writer ever.

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