enjoyable Regency Romance for fans of the Bridgertons. This has been an extremely popular category since the series release and fans can't get enough. Even teens are asking for Regency romances!

Apparently cold, laconic H marries h on very little acquaintance. He is a marquess, she is a Cit's daughter, but he doesn't really need her money. He seems to want her mainly as a companion/governess for his daughter, but I really didn't get a good "feel" about why he married her in the first place, except that he needed an heir.. And though he does give her time to adjust to living in his residence, he does claim his marital rights. She, of course, can't resist him due to physical intimacy (not graphic) and begins to have feelings for him that she feels are clearly not reciprocated, because he does not give up his mistress. There are times when it seems that the pair may be growing closer, then he gets all annoyed with her for her knowledge about the same business he has that her father succeeded in, in which business the h was very helpful. Several times, she seems to start to do something about that business inefficiency under his ownership, and then that storyline gets drops, when I thought she was going to pursue it, in favor of a storyline of his bringing his mistress to his house to flaunt her in front of his wife! This really irritated me, and for a long time, I was wondering how in the world this would work out for the H to redeem himself. And when she does go forward with some of the "business" improvements she knows about, he again berates her and goes off with his mistress! I was beginning to think maybe she needed to find someone else. Enter a former mildly villainous character who was seemingly redeeming himself, at this point a lot better than the H was! The H had seemingly abandoned the h at his estate, where she was able to do the rest of her "good work" successfully and earns the approval of everyone else, and then he returns WITH HIS MISTRESS AGAIN and berates the h unmercifully again! I really did get engrossed in the story and kept reading it to find out how the H was ever going to redeem himself. He did at the end, but it was far too abrupt. And the h was far too forgiving too fast. Then I read some reviews of this author's other books, and this seems to be her pattern -- not very standardly "heroic" HR male leads. So, although I enjoyed reading it, I can't rate it higher because of the H's actions. #NetGalley #FireOpals

Fire Opals is a historical romance which was released many years ago and has recently been re-released. As a result, it completely stands out compared to newer releases in the same genre and comes across as out dated in some of its concepts and handling of certain issues.

Charlotte lives life by the pants of her seat, enjoying herself with her brother and a few other members of the ton and often finds herself in some scrape or another. Her father despairs of her behaviour and decides that the only solution to her wildness is marriage. He arranges a match with Darcy Saltash, Lord Arundell.

I found Charlotte to be a really good character but as much as I tried, I couldn't like Darcy. He was high handed and autocratic and whilst historical heroes usually start off like that, by the end of the book, the heroine has brought them down a peg or two. This didn't happen here. I didn't like the way he treated Charlotte and the more he behaved like a brute, the more I found Charlotte shone. She showed real growth as a character through the book although she also had a small share of not-so-great moments.

There were some real hard hitting social issues addressed in the book which I thought were handled really well but don't make for light and easy reading.

I have to admit that when I started this book, I was a little wary. This book is (very slightly) older than me. Sometimes, when I've read romance books that are a little bit older, I've struggled a little. Just because they have become so dated. Of course, when you are dealing with a novel that's set in the past, it is already in some ways 'dated' so that doesn't always matter.
I quickly got pulled into Fire Opals and really enjoyed the way that the story unfolded. It's marketed as a Regency Romance, but to me I would have thought it later, perhaps victorian. There is a lot about the mills and the conditions that the children are working in. Although I think that weaving and spinning mills were around in the Regency period, much of it was fairly new technology. I'm sure that it's mentioned that in the case of our hero, the mill has been in the family for a couple of generations at least. Our heroine's father has also worked his way up from working as a child to owning his own mills in Leeds. It just all screams Victorian to me, not regency.
The romance itself is very much in the style of Georgette Hayer. We have the brooding and sarcastic (but ultimately misunderstood and very much in love with our heroine) hero. Our heroine is trying to fight for her freedom, falling in love with the hero but thinking that he hates her.
I loved the story. I couldn't help but read on and find out how Charlotte and Darcy would work out their differences. Although Darcy is distant from Charlotte, he's not a monster. The first night they have sex was a little uncomfortable, as she is clearly not fully willing, but I think in the context of the period and the situation it was actually handled quite well.
There were a couple of things that did stand out to me, although not full of Americanisms it was quite clear that the book is written by someone who is not British and having checked she was American. It's not anything major, just little things that someone living in the UK would know. (Types of trees, slightly odd turns of phrase, that kind of thing.) Also, rather oddly, the mill is based in the Cotswolds, but the children from the mill have Scottish accents. Why, how did they get there, where did they come from (other than Scotland obviously) it makes no sense, but never mind.
I really enjoyed this romance. It has a feel of Hayer, but with a very little bit more of the romance and physical side of things than she would show, although less than we might be used to today. I would certainly be keen to read another historical romance from this author.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.