Series: Wantons of Waverton, #1
Traits & Tropes: widowed heroine; I've loved you for years; nice guy hero; friends to lovers; second chance
Publication Date: 04.20.21
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; London, England, 1829
Heat Level: 3
Rating: 3/5
After a terrible experience married to a husband who loved another, widowed Lady Sylvia Elton is determined to claim her independence and keep other young ladies from making the same mistakes. Her late husband’s reputation remains pristine in his absence while Sylvia suffers the damage wrought by his infidelity. When Sylvia establishes her own household with two other ladies, her bid for freedom leads to the accidental inception of the Mismatch Society. As their membership grows, the male half of the peerage finds their betrothals broken and marital prospects dashed, wreaking havoc and heartbreak on the structure of Society. Sylvia has many men at her door demanding answers and collecting female family members, but she’s shocked when one of them turns out to be her old friend, Viscount St. John.
Clayton Kearsley, Viscount St. John, needs to marry to ensure his mother and six younger sisters are secure when he’s gone, so he needs to stop the damage being wrought on the marriage mart. He’s surprised to find the leader of this subversion is his childhood best friend’s widow, a lovely woman he has cared for since the moment he met her. Believing himself unworthy of her and cursed to die young, Clayton introduced her to his best friend, a well-meant action he now deeply regrets, and which causes him to feel responsible for the hurt she has endured.
Now, brought back into her orbit, Clayton is determined to reason with Sylvia and tamp down his ever-present attraction to her. But if he could drum up the nerve to be honest with her about his feelings and convince her to let down her guard, they could both find happiness they only dreamed of.
I have been so looking forward to Sylvia’s story after how she was hurt by her clueless first husband, and I loved that Clayton had loved her and pined for her all along. That said, as Clayton himself notes, there is a sadness that comes with that when thinking of all the time they wasted. Otherwise, this book was incredibly heavy on its denigration of men and rather light on the romance. I liked that Clayton was such a good sport and a genuinely good man, and I never felt like his character was emasculated, though I do wish he’d stood up for himself a bit more. The way Clayton was treated by his mother and sisters was just wrong and callous on their parts. He was stressed about their futures, finances, and welfare and they couldn’t have cared less about his happiness as long as they got their freedom.
I wanted more balance here. There was entirely too much reiteration on Sylvia’s part of her intention to never marry again and all the reasons she was against it. Similarly, Clayton’s own inner monologues on all the reasons he could never be with Sylvia were overdone and both of these themes got extremely repetitive. In her outbursts at society meetings, Sylvia merely reminded me of a child showing off in front of friends with all her vehement railing against marriage than as a mature and critically thinking woman. The concept of the Society was a good one with several solid points, but they had just as many that were nonsensical and their insistence that men should marry to secure their families rather than women marrying made no sense. If women were to cease marrying altogether, just who were these men to be left with?? The woman didn’t want to be judged or stereotyped by men even as they hypocritically judged and stereotyped men and their treatment of ladies who were married or wished to marry was definitely not inclusive. These were just a couple fatal flaws in the argument that made me annoyed with the society as a whole, but I’ve never been one to have many female friends so maybe that’s part of my issue. I don’t disagree with all the points made by the Society, but many of their arguments were just impractical and nonsensical and had me rolling my eyes at them and their lack of foresight.
It was also frustrating to me that Sylvia constantly affirms how good of a man Clayton is and defends him to the other ladies, yet she still doubts him when it comes to his interactions with her. I thought Clayton was truly a good and honorable man and he deserved better from all the females around him, especially Sylvia. I think many of these scenes, especially the banter between Clayton’s truly odd sisters, were meant to be humorous but they were just a bit annoying to me and slowed the flow of the story. Given how serious and slightly dark this author’s books tend to be, the lightness and comedy of this one was unexpected and rather lost on me. The contradictions in the women’s arguments made this story seem rather convoluted to me and I think Sylvia’s character was let down a bit here and her behavior didn’t match up with the Sylvia I liked as a supporting character in previous books.
Overall, this was a solid second chance story between Sylvia and Clayton, but I wanted more romance, and especially to see Sylvia giving more and being warmer toward Clayton. The ending and resolution of the villain also felt rushed after the tedium of the first half of the book and could’ve been detailed a bit more. Also, though this is the first book in a new series, it does contain spoilers for the previous series, The Lost Lords of London, and I’d recommend reading that series first. All in all, this was a sound story with a satisfying ending, but I would’ve loved to see more development from Sylvia earlier on in the story, more appreciation for Clayton, and less of a farce with the ladies.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/247522206
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3488468360
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