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I don’t know why, but this is the second book I’m reading that takes place after the battle against Napoleon in 1816.
The one I read before this is The Rake Who Rescued Me by Samantha Holt. If you’ve read my review, you know I found it to be one of the funniest historical romance books I’ve ever read.
As I also mentioned in that review, I read a lot of historical romance novels, but that was the first one that actually had me laughing out loud. I couldn’t control my laughter – that’s just how good it was. Check out my review to see my full thoughts and a link to where you can get your copy.
Anyway, like I said, this book takes place after the Battle of Waterloo, when Napoleon is defeated and all that. It doesn’t really have any bearing on the story, but I found that very interesting and thought it was worth mentioning in this review.
Now, I was a little skeptical about this book because it features one of the tropes I generally don’t like.
Years ago, I read a book with the rich heiress and poor male protagonist trope, and I absolutely hated it. I can’t remember the title, but it was about a lady who had a childhood best friend she had always been in love with.
He thought of her as just a friend and worse, he thought she was ugly. It’s only when his family faced financial problems and they had to marry for convenience that he started seeing her good qualities and “fell in love.”
I found the whole thing very patronizing. Why did he only fall in love with her after she saved him financially? Why did he think she was ugly in the first place?
I’m not saying there has to be instant love, but there should at least be some attraction or appreciation of the other person from the beginning. In that book, he never even looked at her that way until he needed her help.
Calling her ugly was absolutely over the line. Long story short, that book put me off this trope, so I wasn’t expecting to love this one as much as I did but I completely fell in love with all the characters.
The male lead in this book, Adam, is positively disgusted by the idea of marrying someone just to get money and save his estate. He’s a romantic at heart, and I loved that.
I’ve been reading a lot of books with bad boys lately, so it was refreshing to see an emotional character. Adam always imagined that he would marry for love, so the idea of convincing an heiress that he was worth marrying was hard for him to accept.
Still, he puts on his big boy pants and decides to go to the ton to find a match. His intention from the beginning is to be honest with the heiress about why he’s marrying. But he’s shocked when our female lead, Gwen, proposes to him instead and offers to solve all his financial problems—as long as he agrees to her terms.
This book really flipped the usual setup, and I loved that. Usually, in these types of stories, the male lead hides his intentions, and the woman finds out after the wedding, which becomes the main conflict.
But here, he’s upfront, and she already knows. In fact, she uses that knowledge to propose. And he’s just such a sweetheart. He tries his best to make her fall in love with him and with his family and it was amazing to see.
Surprisingly, our female lead is actually the grumpy one. She’s not mean or rude, but she’s a very serious businesswoman who doesn’t smile often and doesn’t seem to enjoy much apart from work. He’s the complete opposite. So already, you can see how this book stands out, and I really appreciated that.
One thing that threw me off, though, is that in the early chapters, Adam is described as a ladies’ man. This is mentioned several times, but based on what we actually see of him – how sweet and bashful he is – I couldn’t understand where that reputation came from.
It’s never explained. If he had been a womanizer and changed after meeting her, that would make sense. But instead, we’re told one thing and shown another.
Also, I keep talking about Adam because he really was the cutest. He used to wear very colorful clothing, while she was always in browns and greys.
The opposites-attract romance in this book is top-tier. There’s even a line about a pigeon and a peacock falling in love, and I thought that metaphor was both accurate and heartbreaking.
Now, I usually complain about third-act breakups in romance novels – when done well, they’re perfect; when not, they just feel convenient.
In this book, they do separate for a while because of their differences, but it felt natural and organic. I wasn’t annoyed by it at all. It fit the flow of the story and made sense for their characters.
I hope you’ll read this book, and if you do, here’s a question for you: what do you think about the way they resolved their conflict at the end?
Personally, I love it when characters feel real and these ones definitely did. They lash out when they feel cornered, but they’re also able to admit when they’re wrong. And I think that matters most in the end.
This book also reminded me of a Chinese drama I finished recently called Oh My General. In that drama, the female lead is a general who has been pretending to be a man so she could lead the army.
When she returns home, the king orders her to marry, and to weaken her power, he arranges her marriage to a powerless dandy. Her husband used to hang around brothels and dance around, and he was just very incredibly average.
At first, he resents the marriage, but eventually, he falls hopelessly in love with her. You can see why Adam reminded me of him so much.
You can always trust a Harlequin romance to deliver.
Lately, all I’ve been reading are Harlequin romance books, and this one is definitely among the few I’ll be reviewing on my blog. It’s beautiful, sweet, and so lovely.
You need to read this if you want a very sweet historical romance.
