I’m not a huge regency romance reader but I do enjoy when the stories have good banter and women who have depth. When I read Waters’ To Love and to Loathe last year, it was the best of the genre I’ve read so far, I wanted to see what Jeremy and Diana would be up to in this new story. While they are not the focus, they are frequently present and the story culminates with their wedding. Instead this story focuses on Emily and Julian, each attending the party at Elderwild and looking for new directions in their lives. Emily is in her sixth season and her best prospect is an older man who holds her father’s gambling debts. Julian is a second son without much desire for marriage or direction in life. He owns a bawdy theater and has been all but cut off from his family by his father the marquess. When they realize a marriage between them might solve all their problems and they act quite quickly without putting a ton of serious thought into it. They make a relatively arbitrary list of “agreements” which will define this marriage of convenience.
Quite quickly they realize they quite like one another and they have different ideas of marriage. This leads to great banter and miscommunications and hilarity. But it also leads to some sweet, tender moments and character development. It was a quick read and entertaining but nothing new from a historical fiction perspective if you’re like me and hoping to glean some historical nuggets from these reads. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Thanks to Netgalley for access to an advanced copy. All opinions above are my own.
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