Amanda McCabe

Good friends-to-lovers/second chance story. Eleanor and Fred were best friends years earlier, and he was her secret crush. She was the vicar's daughter, and he was the earl's youngest son. Then Eleanor's mother died, and she had to leave school to care for her father. Fred joined the army and went off to fight Napoleon, and they lost touch.

After her father died, Eleanor and her sister Mary moved to Bath to join their friend, Lady Henrietta. Together, they established a matchmaking agency and have enjoyed some modest success. Imagine Eleanor's shock when she ran into Fred in Bath. As the new Earl of a financially strapped estate, Fred must marry a rich wife, and Eleanor promises to find him one. To do so, she must bury her feelings for him.

As the younger son, Fred joined the army to make his way in the world. He had dreams of returning someday and marrying Eleanor, but between the stupid things he did as a young man and the things he witnessed during the war, he no longer feels worthy of her. He returned to England after the deaths of his father and brother, only to discover that the estate was in dire straits. He needs an infusion of cash; the best solution is to marry.

I ached for Fred and Eleanor. It is immediately evident that they still have feelings for each other but are caught in an impossible situation. Fred needs money, but Eleanor doesn't have what he needs. The more time they spend together, the stronger their feelings grow. There were some sweet scenes of them as they rekindled their friendship, but their inability to find a way to be together was frustrating. I had hope when Fred found a way to raise some of what he needed, and I wanted to shake Eleanor over her determined self-sacrifice of her happiness. I felt like she didn't trust Fred to know his own mind and heart. I loved the surprise solution that enabled Fred to finally convince Eleanor that they could be together.

There was a secondary romance in the book between Fred's stepmother and a man from her past. Anthony was terrific, and I loved watching him fall deeper under Penelope's spell. However, another case of potential self-sacrifice nearly ended things before Pen accepted that she, too, deserved to be happy.

I enjoyed seeing the matchmaking business in Bath rather than London. It is always nice to see the world outside of the nobility and experience the lives of more ordinary people. Another character was introduced near the end that I suspect will play a part in the next book. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

#netgalley… (more)

Of the three authors I was looking forward to Marlowe the best. I've read her previous titles (An Improper Aristocrat by Deb Marlowe , Her Cinderella Season by Deb Marlowe) and enjoyed them immensely. McCabe and Gaston I know I've read before as well, but not as recently.

As a concept I think it was intriguing and full of possibilities. Its also possibly one of the more outlandish premises I've read in any historical novel. Its a 'Yours, Mine and Ours' set up--Manning had his 2 legal sons by his legal wife (Nicholas and Stephen), and his out of wedlock daughter Justine (from a previous liaison), the Duchess has her one legal son by her legal husband (Brenner) and together Manning and the Duchess had 3 children--2 girls and 1 boy (Leo, Annalise and Charlotte). Of all the children Brenner is the only one not to have grown up as part of the 'Fitzmanning Miscellany' as the group is called.

Gaston tackles the story of Brenner, made messenger by his recently departed mother the Duchess (having died on her honey moon trip with Manning) and his romance with Justine. Its a rather dry romance, with both being uncertain and afraid for their own reasons, but sweetly responsive to each other. The more interesting tale was of the Fitzmanning brood and how Brenner dealt with them. His stable, steadfast personality is a wonderful thing for the household and all the children had grown up in awe and respect of him even though they never met him.

Marlowe's story about Annalise and Ned, a friend of Nicholas', is far more spirited though still oddly subdued. The title is misleading as Ned is less of a rake and more like a regular young man of the ton. He doesn't purposely set out to seduce Annalise and is almost resistant because of the secret he harbors. The story takes place roughly a year later, but things haven't changed overmuch with the brood it would seem.

McCabe's story is about the youngest, Charlotte and her long time crush Drew. This story rather hot and cold for me. On the one hand I'm always in favor of long time crushes coming to fruition--who doesn't want their first crush to turn out to be their true love? On the other I think that Charlotte came off less of an ardent admirer and more of a stalker at times. It wasn't any one thing exactly, but she just seemed obsessive in a bad way.

I would have preferred if this had been a series of novels instead of three short stories--this easily could have been 6 books long, one for each kid's romance and it would have given me a better view of each of their individual personalities and traits. As it stood however the three boys--Nicholas, Stephen and Leo--were almost interchangeable at times. Less so in Marlowe's story, where Stephen is clearly the one who plays the most jokes on his siblings, but the fact remained that the overall premise didn't feel like it ended.… (more)

Once she arrived in London this was fine but in Ireland it was plain to see that the author had no idea what Ireland of the period was like, she did read Hardiman's History of the Town and Country of Ireland but it appears failed to properly look at topographical maps of the area. And I was so looking forward to reading a book that included Galway. Sigh.
Look, I'm from Galway, in the first Elizabethan era it was a walled city, within these walls were most of the gentry of the area, excepting a few who had a lot of retainers and soldiers. I know that the plot required her to be outside the walls but it's not good.
No, most castles in Ireland don't have moats, outside of, mostly, the Pale. And an envoy for the queen would have been nearer Dublin, probably somewhere along the East Coast. The west was not an easy place for the English, up to and including Oliver Cromwell. At this time Brehon Law was legit in the area and it complicated a lot of English ruler's lives. But it all felt very English.
A viper falling from the thatch.... a viper? FFS. Even now, with a few escapologist snakes, the snakes in Ireland are in Zoos or are pets.
Going from Galway to London was handwaved away but was implied that there was a long time on boat or boats. That would have been worse than unpleasant, the logistics of it are mindbending. The only parts mentioned are across the Irish Sea (how did she get from the Atlantic to there) and then up the river to London, how were the parts from Irish Sea to river-to-london done? Honestly it sounds like a trip to do in any other season than winter.
Signal fires from Dublin... these days it's a 2.5 mile drive. Signal fires may originate in Dublin but they come from elsewhere.
Cliffs visible from the castle they had... cliffs? Where are we?
We will not discuss how Dunboyton contains too many name sources for the era. Galway is a west of Ireland county, so Dún is fine, there are many Dún's around the area, Boy could be some sort of mishearing, so i'll let that one slide but the Ton is usually from earlier variations of Town, and is of Norman origin, and there are no real towns in the area, a village yes, but no town so the name place actually makes no sense. Beau Maris or Belleview or Queens Castle would have been more fitting based on the "cliffs"

Lady Alys Drury rescues a Spanish Armada sailor who calls himself Juan (oh and she's half-spanish and that's strange here, which forced me to blink lots in Galwegian, even before the Spanish Armada, there were Spanish Merchants in Galway, see Spanish Arch) who absconds after he heals and then she meets him again when she goes to the royal court.

It's not terrible and if you don't know details about Ireland and particularly Galway it would probably work but I couldn't just let it slide, dear Authors, Google Maps is your friend. For an Irish Woman of the Period please see the neighbour Grainne Mhaol.

I may have ranted a little about this book in my twitter feed.… (more)