I am SO excited to be today’s stop in The Belle of Belgrave Square book tour!
Thanks to NetGalley, AustenProse, and Berkley for this print (and digital) copy in exchange for for an honest review. This book releases on 10/11! 🙂
From media kit:
“A BookBub Best Romance of 2022
A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive stranger. Tall, dark, and dour, the notorious Captain Jasper Blunt was once hailed a military hero, but tales abound of his bastard children and his haunted estate in Yorkshire. What he requires now is a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has his sights set on the enchanting Julia Wychwood.
For Julia, an incurable romantic cursed with a crippling social anxiety, navigating a London ballroom is absolute torture. The only time Julia feels any degree of confidence is when she’s on her horse. Unfortunately, a young lady can’t spend the whole of her life in the saddle, so Julia makes an impetuous decision to take her future by the reins—she proposes to Captain Blunt.
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In exchange for her dowry and her hand, Jasper must promise to grant her freedom to do as she pleases. To ride—and to read—as much as she likes without masculine interference. He readily agrees to her conditions, with one provision of his own: Julia is forbidden from going into the tower rooms of his estate and snooping around his affairs. But the more she learns of the beastly former hero, the more intrigued she becomes…”
After this story and The Siren of Sussex, I am definitely a Mimi Matthews fan! I loved getting to read Julia’s story and the Beauty and the Beast vibes. Julia’s family experience is pretty heartbreaking and disturbing, and I love the happiness she found with Jasper. While part of the plot is one character keeping secrets from another character (something I struggle with in books), it actually didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story like it usually does. It had many swoon-worthy moments and I loved Julia and Jasper’s conversations around novels!
I definitely recommend if you enjoy historical romance. Romantic scenes are not very graphic. I do think you could read this book without reading The Sirens of Sussex, but I will always encourage reading books in order. 🙂
The Bookish Bird 