Reviews

This was fun, but I would say it was more of a humorous historical novel with a romance side plot. The plot was a bit ridiculous & overly complicated, but it made for some interesting situations. I did like seeing Emmeline & Will get to know each other once again. The kids were a blast as well!

kaulhilo's review against another edition

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1.0

i'm so glad this book is finally over, i could weep. it made me want to dnf it countless times, and i could throw up with how happy i am now that it's finished, because i've really not read something this repetitive, pointless, hurtful, and inane in what feels like positively ages.
on first glance, the synopsis sounds so interesting: a reimagined, historical take on you deserve each other (in my head), but with fake kids, and a manor inheritance decades-old rule that has possibly been violated. and i'd agree for about 10% of the book, it came off as so fun, and well-paced, to the point where i genuinely thought this would be another near-hit romance novel.
and then the next 90% happened. something in the heir just does not make any sense at all; i can't expound on this without spoiling everything but, in between making up children no one asks about for 7 years, to planning to effectively "loan" real children for an elaborate ruse, while getting one over not only *all their neighbors, and their entire families*, but also entire towns and cities, with somehow literally no one the wiser, to scaring an ex-convict away by holding a.. theatre.., i think maybe the leads need to just... be serious for once. (and we're supposed to applaud all this like it's a grand scheme and not some random run-of-the-mill last-minute desperate, disturbing ploy).
- even suspending disbelief, i'm just stumped how this book reads at all stable, at any point. why is "borrowing actual children from an orphanage to use them to lie so the rich main characters can keep their very expensive family house, and then get rid of the children wherever convenient" a real plotline?
- the writing was such a headache to go through, and the repetitions made it worse, where the same thoughts and sentiments (and entitlement) kept making rounds for almost the entirety of the book. this might've been less annoying if it was a shorter novel, but a needlessly long word length reprising the same conversation 12 million times with no development or reflection is.. quite literally, a nightmare to read.
- and obviously, this continued until the last act. which was (gasp) so unbelievably idiotic, you could tell it was forced in to trigger the characters into more random, drastic, dramatic decisions. because that's what we're missing in this mess: implausibility.

- and last - this is not a romance book. i think this part irked me more than anything because this book is primarily marketed as romance when it's nothing of the sort. the romantic-storylines are not the main part of the story, come off as more of an afterthought or a casualty, and honestly aren't even written well enough for it to get by. the character dynamics were very odd because it really felt like stick figures playing at a script rather than developed personalities - and i just hated all of it, for reasons i still can't begin to explain. and neither do i care to, i'm just glad it's done and i can put everything about this out of mind. thank you to st. martin's griffin for the arc.

cobaltbookshelf's review against another edition

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3.0

Regency and marriage of convenience is as a combo I have to read when it gets on my radar. This is the first book by this author which I have read. Rose and George really brought charm and humor. Premise, it was a bit silly, but amusing.
If you’re a fan of Bridgerton and want a quick, easy, light-hearted historical rom-com then definitely give this one a shot!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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