Series: Dear Lady Truelove, #3
Traits & Tropes: single dad; widower; hidden identity; second son; employer/employee; bluestocking; forbidden; titled hero/heir
Publication Date: 01.29.19
Genre/Setting: Historical; Victorian; London, 1893
Heat Level: 1
Rating: 4/5
Narration Rating: 5/5
James St. Clair, Earl Kenyon, is determined to find his sons a tutor since they keep running off every nanny he hires. His friends say what they really need is a mother, but Jamie has no intention of marrying again so a strict tutor capable of whipping his ruffian twin boys into shape for school is what’s needed.
Cambridge educated Amanda Leighton has been a governess and a schoolteacher and knows she has all the qualifications necessary for a tutor, save for one. She’s female. It also doesn’t help that she has a scandal attached to her name. But she needs a job, and she knows a perfect opportunity when she sees one so she decides she must disguise herself as a man and interview for the position.
Jamie isn’t quite sure what to make of the new tutor, but the boys haven’t yet managed to run him off, so he doesn’t make much of a fuss. That is, until he discovers that the tutor is in fact a lady, one of whom he is entirely and inappropriately aware of. His initial reaction is to dismiss Amanda, but this proves impossible given the vast improvements she’s encouraged in his boys’ behavior. Soon enough, Jamie realizes she’s teaching him quite a lot as well, important lessons he’d forgotten about passion and love and the chance to be happy again without the loneliness that has plagued him.
I’m usually not that into stories which feature children as main characters or driving points of the plot, especially when pranks and the like are involved, but I have to say it really did work here. I liked seeing Amanda build a family with the twins and their father where she’d had none and it was also satisfying to see Jamie gradually open up his heart again. The pacing was a bit odd here just because this was a very slow burn with Jamie and Amanda not spending very much on page time together for the first half and most of the scenes featuring Amanda and the boys together as they worked out their dynamic. However, when Jamie and Amanda did come together, things happened quickly as they acted on the attraction that had been simmering between them all along.
Jamie was definitely surprised and taken off guard when Amanda finally confessed the whole truth about her past to him, so he did have to have some recovery time before he got it together and made things right with her, but his proposal and assurance of their HEA was pretty adorable. This is usually not the case for me, but I definitely think the twins being such large characters helped the story here as they are essentially what brought Amanda and Jamie together. This was a pretty low steam book and Amanda, and Jamie didn’t have all that much page time together, so I’m surprised myself at how much I enjoyed it and how much the audio narration held my attention. This was a fun way to occupy my mind on the commute to work and I really loved how determined Jamie was to make things right and ensure Amanda felt secure in starting a future with him and his boys, regardless of what society might say. That unconditional acceptance and willingness to forgive is what we all search for, and I never get tired of reading it.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/357818455
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3139887903
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