By Lex Croucher
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️
Blurb
There's a new governess at Fairmont House, and she's going to be nothing but trouble.
Emily Laurence is a liar. She is not polite, she's not polished, and she has never taught a child in her life. This position was meant to be her sister's––brilliant, kind Amy, who isn't perpetually angry, dangerously reckless, and who does (inexplicably) like children.
But Amy is unwell and needs a doctor, their father is gone and their mother is useless, so here Emily is, pretending to be something she's not.
If she can get away with her deception for long enough to earn a few month's wages and slip some expensive trinkets into her pockets along the way, perhaps they'll be all right.
That is, as long as she doesn't get involved with the Edwards family's dramas. Emily refuses to care about her charges - Grace, who talks too much and loves too hard, and Aster, who is frankly terrifying but might just be the wittiest sixteen-year-old Emily has ever met - or the servants, who insist on acting as if they're each other's family. And she certainly hasn't noticed her employer, the brooding, taciturn Captain Edwards, no matter how good he might look without a shirt on . . .
As Fairmont House draws her in, Emily's lies start to come undone. Can she fix her mistakes before it's too late?
Genre: Historical Romance
Read if you Like:
⛵ Found family
⛵ Governess and single parent
⛵ Chronic health rep
⛵ LGBTQ plus rep
⛵ Engaging side characters
My Thoughts:
I always love a nanny or governess romance! Seeing someone fall in love with a family not just a person one of my favorite types of stories. I also loved that this story had an aspect of found family that went beyond that.
Emily isn't the easiest heroine to sympathize with. Her life has been challenging and it makes her wiling to do anything to help the people she loves. It also makes it difficult for her to initially see the non financial challenges that some of the other characters she interacts with are facing.
There is a lot of great representation in this book. I loved the LGBTQ plus and BIPOC rep. I also really appreciated seeing a character struggling with a chronic illness, who didn't want to be defined by it. I particularly related to this because I have been recovering from COVID-19 for the last few weeks and have to be incredibly mindful about how I use each bit of my energy. Getting to remember that I'm not alone in that experience was helpful.
I enjoyed the romance between Emily and Captain Edwards but I would have loved to see it build a bit more. We saw them bond a bit but I felt like it was more admiration of how she connected with his children on his side and physical attraction on hers.
I think this would be a great romance for anyone who likes found family, lgbtq plus representation, a brooding hero, and a fun cast of side characters. There were multiple side characters who I'd happily read a whole book about!
🌶️🌶️ - This book has one open-door scene that is not terribly detailed. It is somewhere between fade to black and open door.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC. All opinions are my own.
Comments