disclaimer: I received this free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

rep: biracial Muslim m/c

'I have my own voice. I have my own story. I have my own name. It's Khayyam'.

Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know follows Khayyam, who is spending the summer in Paris. Devastated by a rejection of her essay to get into Chicago School of Art Institute, Khayyam is determined to try again – to prove her theory that Alexandre Dumas was gifted a painting by Eugène Delacroix. While investigating, she meets one of Dumas’ descendants and is determined more than ever to uncover what she believes to be a piece of missing history. Soon, she comes across the mention of a woman named Leila and becomes determined to uncover her story – the story of a woman who was just a name in others lives.

I am positive that Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know will be a hit for those who enjoy reading about art and art history. It delves into the works of Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron – hence the title. I don’t know a lot about poets or artists, and obviously a lot of it was fictionalized, but it was an element I enjoyed. There are two alternative timelines happening in Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, one follows our amateur art historian Khayyam uncovering secrets and histories, and the other follows a woman named Leila – a woman who lived two hundred years ago in the Ottoman empire. I really enjoyed these interwoven stories.

Our protagonist Khayyam is great – she’s inquisitive and persistent but also reckless and romantic. She’s passionate and protective about Leila and her story. I also really loved her exploration of her identity:

“I live in between spaces. The borders between nations, the invisible hypen between words, the wide chasm between “one of us” and me alone.
French American.
Indian American.
Muslim American.
Biracial.
Interfaith.
Child of immigrants.

I really enjoyed the French setting – it was vivid and atmospheric, and also romantic. Her romance with Alexandre Dumas, a descendant of the Alexandre Dumas was *adorable*.

Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know is a book about stories and about histories. It is about how we all have stories to tell and it’s about who remembers us and about who doesn’t. It’s about how we are all connected, in the end. It looks into women and how their histories and their stories tend to be forgotten, how history, especially women’s history, is rewritten predominantly by men. It is a story about truth, having agency, and being heard.

The reason I am only giving this 3 stars is that the middle of the novel was a little slow and less enticing than the beginning and the end so it struggled to hold my attention for a little while. Ultimately, though, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to know is a fun novel about stories, history, art, and has a little treasure hunt.