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Someone really needs to stage an intervention because it seems like the only books coming to me lately are single-parent historical romance novels.
I’m not exactly complaining, but it would be nice if I picked up a book for once and it wasn’t centered around a single parent.
Anyway, this one was lovely, but I do think it didn’t quite hit in certain specific ways that might just be personal to me.
Before I get into the actual review, here’s a quick summary: this book is about Catriona, who is sent away by her father to rusticate after a big argument. She ends up living with her aunt, who’s seriously ill and she takes care of her for about a year until her aunt passes away.
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Before her death, her aunt passes her guardianship of Catriona over to Michael, our male lead – an attractive man, by the way – who had been a frequent guest in the house for some time.
The aunt thought they would make a good match and dropped hints while she was alive that they should get together. But neither the female nor male lead was feeling that connection at the time (or so we thought), so nothing happened.
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Before her aunt dies, she tells Catriona that her final wish is for her to help the male lead get his life in order – specifically, to manage his neglected estate and bring some structure to his world, like a woman would.
She goes to him and tells him about it. Unbeknownst to her, her aunt had also included this in her will, so the male lead already knew. But he didn’t want to say anything because he figured if he kept it quiet, no one would ever know.
Little did he know that the entire transaction was double-encrypted and Catriona was already committed to helping him. So she moves in, tells him she can’t leave because she has to fulfill her aunt’s last wish, and they start cohabiting.
Michael is extremely reluctant to let her into his life at first, but it’s not long before she starts making little changes – to the house, to his temperament, even to how the staff behave. She slowly needles her way into his world, and affection begins to blossom between them.
As for Catriona, she’s sort of floating. She doesn’t have a concrete plan for what’s next, but she knows she wants to travel – and for that, she needs money. Michael promises her that if she gets the house fully sorted out, he’ll give her the funds to go and start over somewhere else. She agrees, throws herself into the task and somewhere along the line, they fall in love.
Now that I’ve given the most unbiased and crystal-clear summary of this book you’ll ever find (I try), let me mention one reason this book felt a bit flat to me: it was both too dramatic and kind of dull.
I know those are opposite critiques, but let me explain.
I didn’t check what year this was published, but I’ve noticed that older historical romance books sometimes lean too hard into the comedy and drama. You get these stories where every character is slightly caricatured, a little too extra and that’s exactly what happened here. I just wasn’t into that tone, so it felt a bit off to me.
Another thing: I mentioned earlier that she’s essentially passed off like one of her aunt’s possessions. While that dynamic could have been interesting, I wish we’d seen more of their relationship before the aunt died.
All we really know is that he was a frequent visitor with a crumbling estate, and the aunt adored him – which kind of explains why she’d pair them off.
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But the romance came on way too fast. One day they were barely tolerating each other, and the next, she’s asking why he’s hiding his love for her and he’s confessing he’s loved her from the moment they met? I was shook.
Even in books like this, where characters are nudged together by circumstance, we still need to see them appreciating each other, finding joy in each other, and noticing the little things. That’s what makes their connection feel real.
In this case, the love just sprang out of nowhere, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of that. In fact, I can confidently say I wasn’t a fan of that at all. I still loved the book, don’t get me wrong – I just felt like that specific part came out of thin air.
Now, I’m quite young, but I can proudly say I’ve read at least 100 age-gap romances. And for an age gap romance to really bang, the age difference needs to be significant – 20 years, 30 years, I’ve even read one with a 40-year difference.
The point is, the gap needs to be something society would side-eye for it to really feel like a dilemma. But in this book? They were like 10 years apart, and I don’t get why he kept referring to her like she was a child.
She, on the other hand, treated him with the reverence you’d give someone at least 20 years older. I actually thought he was 25 years older because he already had kids.
But realistically, women in the British Empire were marrying at 18 or 19, so if he’d married at 20 and had kids, he’d barely be scratching 40 now. So when he kept going on about their age difference, I wanted it to actually be significant or if it wasn’t, at least explore why he was so hung up on it.
That could’ve added nuance to his character. Instead, it felt like the book wanted to have the age-gap tension without really committing to it.
And remember how I said I didn’t know when the book was published? That really hit home when I read some of the dialogue. There were quite a few politically incorrect lines that, in today’s world, would absolutely get someone canceled.
I’m torn on this – on one hand, I get wanting historical dialogue to be more authentic. On the other hand, I don’t want to spend every few pages mentally cringing at a sexist or classist remark. So just know: if you read this book, you’ll probably run into a few of those lines.
The main theme of the book, I’d say, is family – particularly the relationships between parents and stepchildren, and between children and their parents in general.
We see the female lead interact with her stepmother, stepfather, and stepbrother. We see the male lead with his children. We see her with his children. There’s just a lot of family dynamics, and it’s clear the author put thought into them.
At one point, we even get a side character’s point of view, which I personally don’t love. I prefer when the POVs are set at the start and stay consistent. But in fairness, it did add more layers to the story and helped distract me from all the back-and-forth between the main characters.
Because they talk. A lot. And not in a bad way – I loved their banter, their conversations, their chemistry. But it felt like they were stuck in this endless cycle of emotional push and pull.
The frustrating part was that, as I said earlier, for the longest time, you don’t even get the sense that they like each other romantically.
Then suddenly – bam! – they’re in love. The chemistry is there, yes. She challenges him in ways that matter. But all the emotional back and forth is driven mostly by his reluctance to admit his feelings, which, again, would make sense if the age difference dilemma had been more compelling. But it wasn’t, so it fell a little flat for me.
That said, the ending? Gorgeous. I loved that he finally gave in to his feelings. She had been emotionally open from early on – maybe not in words, but in her actions.
And even with all the drama surrounding them, they got their happy ending. Maybe there’s a metaphor there about how love can still flourish amid chaos. This book really nailed the complexities of forced proximity and all the rich dynamics that can emerge when characters are stuck together.
So yes – I loved the themes, the story, the connection between the characters. I’d absolutely recommend this. I’d love to read something else set in this world, or at least by this author, because it was such an enjoyable read. Give it a chance and let me know what you think!
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