Author: Jennifer Wenn
Genre/Age: Historical Romance/Adult
Series: None
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Format: ebook via The Romance Reviews
Rating: ✺✺✺.5
Links: Goodreads
Synopsis: Hell will freeze over before Miss Philomena Aubrey willingly marries the insufferable Honorable Luther Whyte. Her mother had angled Mina’s quite hefty dowry in front of the vicar and secured him, but Mina still resisted. When Mrs. Aubrey threatens to force her into the marriage, Mina’s father hides his daughter with a friend of his as he leaves for an extended business trip.
A wounded war hero, burdened by guilt after inadvertently sending his French fiancée to death, Lord James Darling keeps his family as far away from his tormented heart as possible. But as he keeps bumping into his mother’s new lady’s maid, he grows suspicious—is she a spy?—and sets out to expose her, only to find himself mesmerized by her feistiness and her warm heart.
When you need to escape an unwanted engagement...
Mina doesn't want to marry the man her mother has chosen for her. She thinks he's only after her for her very hefty dowry and doesn't actually want her as a person. When it becomes apparent that her mother will do absolutely anything to make this marriage happen, Mina appeals to her father to help. His answer is to send his daughter away to stay with a friend for three months.
Jamie hasn't had an easy life since returning home. He feels guilt and shame for his actions that sent an innocent woman to her death. He knows a spy when he sees one. So when a new maid shows up in his home, he immediately knows she isn't who she says she is. But uncovering the truth may not lead him to the conclusion he was expecting. And his feelings for her will complicate things in a way he couldn't have predicted.
This book had both good and bad points for me. I enjoyed most of the story and I do recommend it if you like historical romances. My issues were mostly with the way the book was written. I'll go over what I liked first.
The characters were interesting and pretty likable. Even though Mina's decisions baffled me a times, I still rooted for her to find a way to escape her forced impending engagement and find a love match with another. Jamie was a mystery for most of the book but I did like him as a male lead and hoped that he would come out of his shell and learn to love again.
The pacing of the story was fairly steady, if not a bit quick. Our couple don't experience insta-love but more of an instant fascination with each other, which I think most can enjoy. I read the book in two sittings so it did keep my attention and I was never bored.
The uneven point-of-views gave me a problem since we only see Jamie's side of things a few times throughout the book. When he began to suspect Mina, it would have been nice to understand why he thought she was hiding something. And as he grew to care for her, I would have liked to see how he dealt with those feelings in regards to his lost love. This POV just gave us the surface of Jamie's character whereas Mina's was better fleshed out.
Also, Mina made some very odd decisions that didn't quite make sense to me. I'm not sure if the author just wanted the story to go in a certain direction and couldn't find another way for it to get there but some things did feel forced. I would have believed Mina ran away and hid as a maid to escape her mother much more than a rich old lady telling her to act like a maid for no good reason at all. This was the big one for me, but there were others too. I won't list them since they could be spoilers.
The romance between our couple grew as the story went on. By the end, I did feel like enough of a connection had been made for the pair to finally come together. I just wish I had been able to understand some of the characters' choices and Jamie's viewpoint a little better.
In closing...
Even though this wasn't really a hit for me, I would read another book by this author in the future. 3.5 suns!
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