Series: The Unconventional Ladies of Mayfair, #1
Traits & Tropes: fake relationship; marriage of convenience; slow burn
Publication Date: 07.27.21
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; London, England, 1817
Heat Level: 2
Rating: 3.5/5
Upon seeing his own betrothal announcement in the morning paper, William Atherton, the Earl of Norwood, is just as surprised as the rest of society. A livid William storms to the home of his alleged fiancé to confront her and prevent her scheming from ruining his political career. But when he learns she is equally surprised, William begins to see the potential benefits to them both in continuing on with a temporary engagement.
Charlotte Hurst is both a wallflower and a bluestocking, but she’s not spineless and would never attempt such a brazen entrapment scheme. She’s less than impressed with William’s arrogant display of temper, but agrees to go along with the engagement, as long as everyone remembers it’s temporary. Only, the more she comes to know William, the more they both develop real feelings, just in time for their future to be threatened by the real mastermind behind the effort to destroy both their reputations and see them both imbued with scandal.
This is a very solid debut effort from a promising new author. I enjoyed this new twist on the marriage of convenience/arranged marriage/fake relationship trope and found William’s character progression to be very natural and charming. I really enjoyed his playfulness in trying to engage Charlotte, especially with his letters, and his work to bring her out of her shell. Charlotte was harder for me to like. She was willfully naïve and most times purposely absurd. Her constant reiteration of the fakeness of the engagement grew very repetitive and rather tedious after a while and she just came off as petulant. Charlotte is sensible and practical one minute and then woefully naïve the next so that I had a hard time pinning down her true characterization and it was therefore hard to see how William figured out what was the real her.
The story itself was strong, but at times became too bogged down in the details and minutiae of the main characters’ daily lives and movements. This caused a bit of a lag in the flow that was not helped by the very slow burn of the romance. The villain here was very readily identified, but nothing was done about him, and his threat as hinted at in the blurb, didn’t develop much suspense or intrigue for me. Rather, it left me disappointed in Charlotte’s rather poor decision making. The romance here was resolved very quickly and, though I found it very satisfying, and William delivered a very good declaration of love, I still felt like the story’s ending was rather rushed, especially after the long, slow build up to get there.
Overall, this was an enjoyable story and a promising new series so I will look forward to Serena’s book next.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4130452281
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1159599489
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