Series: The Gilded Age Heiresses, #2
Traits & Tropes: antihero; road trip; compromised; class difference; heroine in trouble; hero walks with a cane; hero has never experienced love; forced proximity; sick/comfort; only one bed; authoress heroine; reformed rake
Publication Date: 06.29.21
Genre/Setting: Historical; Victorian; London/Yorkshire, England
Heat Level: 3
Rating: 4/5
Narration Rating: 4/5
Violet Crenshaw has always been a dutiful daughter and done what has been expected of her, but beneath that façade she’s rather rebellious at heart. Her parents expect her to marry a title, as many American heiresses have before her, but Violet has no intention of doing so. Instead, she flees London and the man her parents have chosen in hopes of pursuing her dream to become a published author. The only problem is the attractive earl who’s the inspiration for the most wicked character in her book has insisted he come with her.
Christian Halston, the Earl of Leigh, has enough money to get by despite his father’s best efforts to ruin him, but he doesn’t have enough to restore the Scottish estate that is the only place that’s ever felt like a home to him. To fix the damage a fire caused to it, he’ll need to marry an heiress and he has his sights set on Violet. Since her father refused his offer, he’s hoping to use the close confines of a trip north to convince her to marry him either way. However, the more time he spends with the rambunctious young lady, the more he realizes he needs her for herself more than her money.
Violet is sorely tempted by Christian, but she’s determined not to give up her freedom. It will take a good deal of convincing to make Violet believe Christian’s feelings are sincere and he’s not just a fortune hunter.
I usually really like the antihero trope and I think this hero really fit the bill. I loved seeing Christian’s feelings for Violet develop even as he questioned them since he had never really experienced love before and believes himself to be unlovable. This trope is another that I’m an absolute sucker for, so this story was pure catnip for me for the first three quarters or so and I adored it. I also loved the fact that we had a bit of an unconventional heroine. The forced proximity, only one bed, sick/comfort, sexual tension in a carriage, feelings and attraction developing on both sides, a heroine in a bit of trouble. Violet brings out the real man who just wants to be loved behind Christian’s rakish façade. It was just tropey goodness and I adored it all. Five stars for that part. What curtailed my enjoyment a bit was the third act separation. If you’re someone who’s ever read my reviews at all, you may know that I loathe the third act conflict/separation/what have you anyway, but this one was especially loathsome to me, and way too drawn out. For me, it threw off the flow of the entire novel and cut off all that great character and relationship development we got up to that point. Sure, things were resolved as they always are eventually in a romance, but that resolution felt too rushed for me to be brought back to my initial satisfaction and enjoyment of all those delightful tropes. It felt like Christian was putting more into the relationship than Violet and I wanted more equality, rather than this odd feminist setup of needing to have the heroine come out ‘on top.’ It felt like the love was being cheapened into some sort of competition and it just was disappointing for me after how much I adored those first three quarters of the book, especially since the catalyst for that conflict was actually something pretty simple that could’ve been avoided with a simple bit of calm, rational conversation. I definitely think this book was still worth reading, just because of how much I loved the first two thirds, I just wish we’d arrived at the HEA a bit differently.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3791978856
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/143325106
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