Format: ebook
Release Date: February 7th, 2022
Age: Adult
Genre: Historical Romance
Goodreads
Rating: 3/5 Stars
This is one of those books I found myself really enjoying and getting into at certain points, only to then have something minor whip me out the story. The ‘issues’ might be particular to me, but this just scraped by with a 3 Star rating – at points I was leaning towards 4, but again, there was a kind of whiplash effect throughout.
The premise was definitely something I was interested in right from the start. Greyson Everett is the son of a duke, and his rakish ways see him exiled by his father. On the face of it, this seems fairly reasonable, and it’s not totally a bad idea for the gentry to actually experience what work is like before they take over running things such as farms. But the duke has an ulterior motive, and thinks sending his son to a particular farm will result in ruin for the family, exacting his revenge for a slight experienced decades prior.
Here’s where things kind of fell apart for me – it was hard to grasp the kind of outcome the duke wanted? He seemed excited at the idea his son would ‘ruin’ one of the daughters, yet wouldn’t have allowed his son to marry one of them for various reasons, which would be the likely outcome if he was caught? Not to mention the pregnancy risk. It just felt a bit contrived. Also early on Greyson considers how it’s “1804” (possibly 1806? I can’t remember) and his father needs to “stop living in the Georgian era!” (or similar). Not that I’m expert on historical matters and I’d be more than happy to be corrected on how people at the time would have considered the era they lived in but…this is still the Georgian era? And the ‘Regency’ wouldn’t officially start for another few years, and even then it was still under the ‘Georgians’? It was one of those things in the book that stood out to me as just reading oddly!
For the most part, I liked Hailey and Greyson as characters at times, especially as they got to know one another. I know I haven’t read a whole lot of Historical Romances, but unfortunately this book made me aware of a new bookish peeve – certain words used during the sex scenes were very, well, unsexy, and made me hope they’re not common in steamier historical romances! This is what kept happening though – I’d be getting into the book, enjoying it, and something would jar me out, such as the words used in the steamier scenes. The ending, too, felt really rushed and extremely convenient for the two leads (and it took Greyson a month to actually rectify the situation? Which didn’t really make sense to me?). Most romances, of course, do have a third act breakup before the HEA, but I find it frustrating when it’s all resolved a little too easily, and with no effort on the part of the characters at all – where the obstacles are simply brushed aside, hand of God style.
I wouldn’t say this was a bad book, as such, but it’s middling, with the cons standing out more than the pros. I find myself kind of glad when it ended, if a little dissatisfied, and not really keen to carry on with the series. Ah well. Can’t love them all.
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Prompt: Anne With an “E” – Historical Romance
Progress: 8/24 Completed
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