Series: Lords in Love, #3
Traits & Tropes: pining heroine; childhood friends; working heroine; hero needs to marry for money; friends to lovers
Publication Date: 04.04.23
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; Hampshire, 1817
Heat Level: 1
Rating: 3.5/5
Thanks to his father’s poor decisions, Phineas Radford is left to contend with an estate that is teetering close to bankruptcy, without sufficient funds to maintain his family’s botanical garden that is the cornerstone of the annual Merrywell May Day Matchmaking Festival. He’s doing all he can to keep his situation a secret lest any of the townspeople worry about the festival’s future, but he’s running out of options and the only thing Phin can think of now is to find an heiress and marry her quickly.
Leah Webster left Merrywell seven years ago and never looked back, but now she’s returned for the festival as companion to a young society lady searching for a husband. Her employer soon catches Phin’s eye, much to Leah’s chagrin as she’s long carried a torch for her oldest friend. Leah can tell that Phin and her charge aren’t well suited and attempts to nudge them apart, until she learns Phin’s true reasons for the courtship. Knowing it will break her own heart, Leah decides to try to save her town and Phin’s finances.
This was a quick friends-to-lovers story that gave me a few Cinderella vibes. I liked how true to herself Leah was, but she definitely put up with too much for too long, both from her family and her employers, as well as from Phin. She knew her feelings and was eventually willing to own them and be open about them, but Phin remained clueless for a long time. In fact, he was pretty indecisive and unreliable. He withheld the truth from Leah for too long and that, for me, undermined this deep foundation of friendship their relationship is supposed to have. I definitely wish he’d ended his pursuit of Leah’s charge before kissing Leah as well, rather than adding the love triangle vibe. These elements made Phin’s sudden epiphany about his true feelings for Leah feel fake somehow and not believable, like it only happened because we’d reached a point in the book where it was inevitable. It felt like he just decided this because he found out the woman he was pursuing was going to turn him down and I didn’t love that. Phin was likable enough, but I felt like he needed to show more backbone beneath his surface charm and Leah gave him quite a lot of leeway to reach their HEA, though theirs was still an enjoyable story, nonetheless.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/210725741
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5452040295
Comments
Post a Comment