Series: Cambridge Brotherhood, #2
Traits & Tropes: titled hero; brother's best friend, best friend's sister; unexpected inheritance
Publication Date: 11.08.22
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; London, England, 1815
Heat Level: 0
Rating: 2.5/5
Lord Rowles Haywind was never envious of his brother’s role as Duke of Westmore, instead enjoying his position as a professor of divinity at Cambridge. With his brother’s tragic death, Rowles is left to assume the responsibilities of the dukedom as well as care for his mother, who suffers from a mental illness he strives to hide from the eyes of London’s gossips. Rowles is concerned this trait could be passed on to him or his children, but that doesn’t stop him seeking out a wife to help him face all the responsibilities he's been saddled with and when he reconnects with his best friend’s sister, Lady Joan Morgan, he believes he’s found the perfect woman.
Lady Joan seems to see right through to Rowles’ core in a way that no one else has ever done. She has longs to confide in Rowles her own secrets about her role within the home office, but she fears his rejection. Joan doesn’t want to destroy their burgeoning attachment, but she also doesn’t want to make things worse if he were to find out in some other way.
This book was very sweet, but I didn’t find it to be particularly romantic. It was very centered on grief and loss, as well as dealing with a loved one who has dementia. All of these topics hit very close to home for me personally after a year laden with loss and grief and I think that tanked my enjoyment of this story. I did find comfort with some of the Biblical references and verses mentioned in the text, but I read romance as an escape from reality and that was definitely not what this book provided for me. Those issues aside, I think it is also worth mentioning that most of the conversations between Joan and Rowles are really just erudite debates of religion, philosophy, and social issues. I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy a smart romance, because I do, but these conversations were nearly the only interactions to be found between these MCs and they almost always ended in Joan being offended and going off in a huff without explaining herself, leaving Rowles to seek her out another day to explain himself and mend things. I know some readers will adore this because he really fell for her mind, but it just was not romantic to me.
Also, as a side note: Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy we didn’t have to deal with any hesitation to marry and have children on Rowles’ part, however, I am also surprised that we didn’t have this because of how frequently he mentioned his fear of ending up like his mother, and also because of the blurb description. Another oddity of this book.
With the romance already suffering in this one, it was further hindered by Joan’s brother and his disapproval of her attachment to Rowles. He went so far as to ask Rowles to distance himself from her, which Rowles thankfully couldn’t bring himself to do because he somehow already loved her, and of course later on he supported their love and could think of no better match for Joan. I was just left super confused as to why he disapproved in the first place, and this was never explained. The feeble concerns he did have were about Joan’s past and her role within the home office and it seems to me that those factors would’ve made Rowles a much better candidate for her marriage than some random lord since he was at least a friend to the brother. The two men also have a random fist fight after Rowles has a painful experience with his mother and is having a bad day and seeking the comfort of his friend. They definitely didn’t seem especially friendly, and I could never really make heads or tails of their dynamic. It just made absolutely zero sense to me and yet it was a plot point for a good third of the book for some reason. Unrelated but also annoying for me was the fact that Joan referred to her brother, her only remaining family in the world, by their shared surname. It just felt off to me and I found it irritating for some reason.
There is an attempt to add some intrigue with relation to an issue Joan and her brother have been working on for the home office, but that peters out to nothing very quickly and it just becomes an odd side trip, and her secret was not a big deal at all. This whole book was a bit like that, with a lot of different plot threads going on, and yet at the same time I found the story to be pretty slow and boring. I’m not sure how that happened, and I’m sure other readers will find a lot to love about this story, but it was too sweet and yet also too sad and grief-focused to be a hit for me at this point in my life.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/347582133
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5058316376
Comments
Post a Comment