Series: A Royal Match, #2
Traits & Tropes: widowed hero; titled hero & heroine; grumpy hero; enemies to lovers
Publication Date: 09.27.22
Genre/Setting: Historical; Victorian; Devonshire, England, 1858
Heat Level: 1
Rating: 3/5
Amelia Ivanosen, Princess of Wesloria, has become intolerably restless since her sister’s marriage and ascension to the throne. She’s a notorious flirt and her mother and sister are afraid she’ll cause a scandal, so they have arranged to send her to England with Lady Lila Alexander, a matchmaker. Lila sends eligible bachelors to meet Amelia, but she’s as bored as ever safely tucked away on a friend’s country estate. After meeting several suitors, she has no spark with any of them, save one man who is not at all what she wants.
Joshua Parker, Duke of Marley, is a surly recluse who just wants to be left alone and has no interest in having a royal for a neighbor. Since losing his wife in childbirth, Joshua has kept to himself and endlessly annoyed by everything. When his friend forces him to attend his neighbor’s dinner party, he meets Amelia and they have an instant mutual dislike of one another, though their banter is second to none. She thinks Joshua is a know-it-all snob and he thinks she’s an entitled, selfish royal. But there are definite sparks between them and soon it becomes rather obvious that they don’t actually hate one another, but rather the opposite.
Having read some of this author’s books before I must say I definitely expected more steam. Not only that, but I also found myself wishing the MCs had a bit more on page time together. That is not to say that they were so often separated, but at the same time, much of their interaction occurs when there is still much animosity between them and for me, that made the romance feel rushed and incomplete when they did finally work things out. Amelia definitely came off as a pompous, self-assured royal who couldn’t conceive of a circumstance in which she might not be right. She was definitely lacking in tact and struggled to fit in with English society, but none of that mattered to Joshua. He was able to see something beyond her frivolous façade and she was able to see beyond his grief and surly, unapproachable exterior. Joshua nearly left it too late, but I liked that these two were willing to admit their feelings to one another fairly readily once they’d realized them. I only wish we’d gotten to that book a bit sooner as much of the narrative leading up to this point wound up feeling like filler to me and left the romance a bit short, otherwise, this was a perfectly enjoyable story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/501110701
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5014996737
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