<3 it!

WHAT IT'S ABOUT
After years of escaping etiquette lessons in favor of the stables, Christine Devon’s grand debut in London is only weeks away, though her deportment lacks the sophisticated polish she needs to achieve her goals of a lofty marriage. Desperate to take her place in society, she needs someone to instruct her in proper behavior.

Thomas Gilbert, newly returned from Italy, is ready to begin his dream of founding a horse farm. But during his time away, the estate’s finances have dwindled to almost nothing. Unless he can find a way to save his family from ruin, he will be forced to sell his horses and give up his dreams entirely.

A chance meeting between them may solve both their problems. Christine gains a tutor in the finer arts of polite behavior, while Thomas is given access to the finest bloodlines in England. But as time passes, the arrangement is less about business, and more about love. Will they see it in time, or will Christine leave Thomas behind for the splendor of London’s ballrooms?

MY TAKE
I LOVED this book! I've read The Gentleman Physician but didn't realize until much later that Christine's older sister is the heroine in that tale. It makes me so happy because I felt so bad for Julia.

Thomas and Christine are fun characters, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them fall in love. My only issue with Thomas was how he handled one particular lesson. It was one that needed to be taught, but he carried it too far and lowered my respect for him a little.

Christine is bright and kind of clueless in the beginning but determined to make her father proud--not understanding that no one would ever make that man proud. It was beyond his stunted emotional makeup. I think Christine must have gotten some of her feistiness from her mother because it would take a special kind of passive aggressiveness to have gotten her way in staying in the country with her daughters and horses while married to such a heartless man.

I also loved the earl who played the role of a fairy godmother. He needs to have his own happily ever after.

I listened to the audiobook, and Rachael Beresford did a great job. My only issue was that it played REALLY slow. I don't normally change the speed but I found that if I upped it to 1.15% it read more fluidly and didn't drag.

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12 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Refreshing

I enjoyed this clean story because it was a lovely change of pace not to have been assaulted by a lust fest. The plot and characters stood on their own merit without trite fillers about embarrassingly detailed sex scenes. I sped it up through the slower parts, but still thought it was a light, entertaining read.

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10 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Great story, needs a different narrator

I had enjoyed another series by Sally Britton and this story sounded fun, so I thought I'd give it a go. The story itself was fun and engaging, sweet and clean for a love story, but the narrator was not great. She read at a slow, kind of strange cadence, and I had to speed it up to 1.25x to get through it. She didn't distinguish voices very much between characters and didn't put much emotion into her reading. I'd like to continue the series, but I won't be getting them on Audible since they all have the same narrator.

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3 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

First half of story defies belief.

If you can endure (or skip) the inane first half, the ending is well done. Clean read.

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3 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Clean romance

Not bad for a clean romance, a little repetitive, but of love wins out in the end.

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1 personne a trouvé cela utile

A Lovely Story

An engrossing story with excellent characterization and plot. Romance fully developed without the use of explicit sex scenes.

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1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Delightful!

Love the idea of romance without sex or details. Sweet story and an easy read.

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Very cute story

I enjoyed the story and the characters in the book. I like a little more definition of voices from narrators. Definitely worth the time.

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Very enjoyable

Great book, unique storyline that you normally read in the Regency novel. Good character development.

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A Sweet Romance

Spoiler alert! I loved the twist at the end. The Father gets what he deserves.

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