One Night in Hartswood

Not a bad story by any means, but I found it a little boring—I was much more interested in the two hinted past/potential love stories of one main character's siblings than in the actual relationship depicted in this book, which is a bit sad.

I'm not a huge cataloger of historical inaccuracies, but this book had a lot of things that struck me as probably historically iffy. Even beyond that though, a lot of the setup, world, and plot events of the book don't much hold up to plain logical examination. It was a bit distracting! Also distracting, to me anyway: sex scenes in which the characters involved have, canonically, not bathed in several weeks—if you're going to be historically inaccurate, why not choose to be so with that, yikes!

this wasn't a bad debut novel. I would say that the last 25% of it was the best. The first half of the novel was pretty slow and there was far more telling than showing. Sometimes, there were pages and pages between dialogue which isn't my favourite thing :) But that's just me. Penn and Raff were a lovely pairing. Penn in particular was rather adorable. I really felt bad for the way he had grown up.

This disappeared back to the library before I finished so I don't know the ending yet, but 80% through I was right into it.

An historical romance. Two guys meet in the woods - one is fleeing an arranged marriage, the other is the brother of the jilted at-the-altar woman. However, neither knows who the other is and this unknown identity carries through 75% of the novel - at which time we have the required pen-ultimate plot drama.

Raff and Penn get to know each other and unwittingly Raff helps Penn escape the obviously tortured life he has led in his family home. The story is full of Raff's protectiveness, bravery and loyalty - a winning combination for a dashing hero.

It had echoes of courtly love where the hero proves his devotion through show more heroic deeds, poetry and service. I loved the development of the love story - it was finely written - which is a good thing because beside the "journey north" road trip element of the book, there wasn't a lot of plot.

The historic setting in the near-mystical woods was enchanting. Lucky I wasn't thinking about historical fact, though I acknowledge your point biblovermis. The location and time seemed deliberately vague with the intention of mimicking fantasy, not anchoring it in fact. However, this wasn't fantasy, which is why I was able to finish it (soon).

Narrrators were Tom Alexander and Sebastian Humphreys, both new to me, and each with very little adult fiction in Libby. Hopefully more to come. show less

All in all, this one was sweet. Raff and his siblings roll up to the territory of an Earl their father has decided to marry their sister off to the son of. They're all bantering around about what could possibly be wrong with these people because they don't know anything about them. Raff just wants to make sure his sister is safe and then duck out into the forest to clear his head.

Penn, the groom to be, is suffocating and does not want to be married, let alone to a woman and bails. He meets up with Raff and their connection is near instant. Both of them leave some pretty big details out, like who the other one actually is, and away we go. I thought Penn's character was developed quite a bit more than Raff's but he didn't feel unfinished. show more I just wanted more of him.

I appreciated how much Penn stepped up to the plate when he was so terrified of his father. He's been told he's a terrible heir and would make a terrible Earl but he seems to have done alright in my opinion. His father is just a terrible abuser and I hated that he never seemed to suffer true consequences for his actions.

One of my biggest questions in this book is what exactly did Leo do to get disowned and is this a series? I kept expecting him to pop back up but I never really understood what happened with him. I would love to see him pop back up and knock surly Ash on his butt.

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper 360, and Mills & Boon for a copy in exchange for an honest review. show less

This book had a lot of potential and I believe it met up to some of it! I really liked the main character, Raff, and how he developed. The storyline was a great idea, although I was hoping there was more drama or something to the plot that pulled me in more. This could have been a great story if it were more of a teenage romance– the ideas of longing, mutual respect, and context behind the story would have sold more. Overall I prefer wlw stories so I may be a little bias, but I wish we were able to see more of Raff's family's relationships with other people.

Also, sometimes the dialogue was difficult to follow. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the main characters were lovely. Their relationships with their siblings were lovely, too. show more Some aspects of the book could have been reworked, but beautiful and authentic story regardless! show less

Penn runs away, trying to escape his abusive father and arranged marriage. Raff, whose sister was not looking forward to the wedding either, is sent to find him.

I liked this. I don't think it'll become one of my favorite books or anything like that, but I enjoyed it and I'm definitely looking forward to the two planned sequels.