I knew I'd love this book at first glance. After reading, I can honestly say I really did enjoy it. It was as if I was IN 1825. Virginia Heath pulled me in the world. I barely put the book down. I could feel the love that Hugh and Minerva had for each other. The way they communicate and share longing stares had my heart soaring. But the banter was the best part in my opinion. 'Never Fall for Your Fiancee' was very well written and a must-read. I will definitely be reading more books by Virginia Heath.

This was a light and quick read that was a goofy and whimsical romance.

Hugh, the main character of this story, has kept up a two-year long charade to keep his meddling match-maker mom at bay. Throughout those two years, Hugh constantly added fibs to an already extravagant story about a fake fiancé -- to the point where he even had his best friend Giles send love letters pretending to be Minerva when he visited his mother Olivia in America.

Despite this charade, Olivia questions whether Minerva actually exists and decides to visit Hugh in England. This surprise visits catches him off guard and he doesn't know if he should he tell his mother the truth or not...?

Soon after, Hugh meets a strong-willed artist, serendipitously enough, named Minerva, and comes up with a solution for his predicament. He offers to pay her to be his fake fiancé while his mother is in town. The lie gets so far-fetched when Hugh hires a nonsensical-actress to be Minerva's mother and even has Minerva and her sisters learn genteel skills like sidesaddle horseback riding and waltzing.

Never Fall for Your Fiancee is a fun and light read with some whimsical and sassy dialogue. The characters and side characters were all goofy and endearing (minus Vee -- I just didn't understand her!) There were moments where I wish the two main characters Hugh and Minerva would just communicate and express their feelings to each other. Additionally, I thought it was strange that Hugh had a radical 180 degree shift once he learned the truth about his dad when historically those values were painted to be the cornerstone to how he lives his life. In short, it felt like a silly and ridiculous rationale for Hugh's commitment issues.

“The more she learned about her fake fiancé, the more she liked him—when already there was so much she liked. A dangerous state of affairs when they had no future.”

What You’ll Find:
✔️Historical Romance
✔️Romantic Comedy
✔️Fake Engagement
✔️Slow Burn
✔️Dual, Third Person POV

Hugh, the Earl of Fareham, has done everything he can to keep his matchmaking mother away. Including faking a fiancé. When he learns she’s set sail for a visit, he quickly hires a fake fiancé to continue his charade. Minerva has been taking care of her two sisters and agree to this deal to provide for them. But when they all arrive at Hugh’s estate, nothing goes according to plan.

This one had a slow start for me. Hugh and Minerva seemed to have an attraction from the start. Their romance however was very slow building, though with a smidge of steam. It seemed to lack that chemistry I was anticipating in a fake relationship story. And I think it was perhaps this, that made it difficult to get into this story. Though it could have been it being in third person too, that’s not my favourite. Either way, it was hard for me to truly feel the romance or their connection. Something was just not there for me with these MC’s.

I will say, I feel conflicted, because I did enjoy many parts of the story, especially the latter part. It actually had me chuckling. The whole scene, if you’ve read it you know which, was written perfectly for a good laugh. Aside from this, my favourite scenes and humour came from Diana and Giles, who I truly adored most. Overall a likeable read. My first from this author and I would definitely read Diana and Giles’ story, should it happen!

3.5/5 Stars.

*Thank you to St. Martins Press for the ARC via NetGalley for my honest review. All opinions are given freely and are my own.

Hugh Standish, Earl of Fareham, just received a letter from his mom in America saying she was boarding a ship and would be there by Christmas. She would be there in about two weeks. He was panicking. He told her he had a fiancée but he didn't. He was just tired of her trying to play match maker. He was in London and happened to pass this girl, she was beautiful. She was trying to get this man to pay her for her work, but he didn't want to. So Hugh stepped in and helped her. Then he suggested she play his fiancée while his mother was here..
Minerva Merriwell is very poor, she takes care of her two sisters, they had been abandon by their father and hadn't seen him in five years. When she gets an offer from Hugh to help him and he would give them twenty pounds. They could live on that for a while. But she didn't feel right so she started to turn her down and he offered her forty pounds. She could not resist and took it.
An excellent story that goes thru a spectrum of emotions from laughing out loud to feeling guilty, to outright crying in this praise worthy story. He does not feel worthy of her and blames it on his standish blood because of his father and grandfather. He has nothing but good things to say about her including she was perfect. The characters interacted so well with each other. They were believable and so nice. This gets complicated and just getting worse. The author does a wonderful job of keeping it all straight and gets it explained. I can't wait till the next one.
I received this ARC from Net Galley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Hugh Standish, the Earl of Fareham, has a reputation of being a rake. He has no intentions of getting married but his mother insists that he find love and marry. To ward off her matchmaking and meddling, he lied to her by telling her he is engaged. When she announces that she is coming to visit him with the purpose of helping him prepare for the wedding, he hires a woman he meets on the street to pretend to be his fiancé. Minerva only agrees to the farce because she is in dire need of the money he is offering. Minerva and her two younger sisters arrive to Hugh's estate and they begin to roll out a crazy and impossible plan to dupe Hugh's mother. Only they end up duping themselves into thinking that they wouldn't fall for one another in the process.

I haven't read many historical rom-coms and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this one! The complicated back story that Hugh had created to make his mother believe he was engaged was entertaining and inventive. I loved the complicated scheming and planning that they had to go through to make their story come to life in front of the mother.

The characters in this story really captured my heart. Hugh is charming, mischievous, and he doesn't believe he deserves love. Although he denies a desire for love, the fact that he doesn't believe he deserves love makes him a romantic in my eyes. Minerva is selfless and eager to please and she is the perfect person to fill the role that Hugh needs. Their chemistry together was titillating and I loved their little moments of stolen glances and intimacy.

The ensemble of supporting characters in this novel was very fun and their antics had me laughing out loud. They played off each other and egged each other on in ways only loving family members could. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the next book has in store for them.

This is my first Virginia Heath novel and I really like her writing style. The dialogue in this book is exceptional! Heath did a fantastic job of turning a kind of unbelieving premise into a tenable and entertaining story of two people finding love when they least expect it.

Steam level: 🔥🔥½
⚠️: grief, abandonment

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

Excellent! I love books with fake engagement premises and this one was particularly exciting to read. I loved how tough and witty Minerva is and Hugh is such a charming gentleman! The storyline is pretty straightforward: Hugh lies to his mother, Olive, about having a fiancé (named Minerva) so she will stop bothering him about getting married. However, Olive is on the way to meet this mysterious fiancé and Hugh needs to find one quick. Enter Minerva (and her two sisters).

I loved the chemistry and the connection between the two main characters. I've never read a historical romance with a fake engagement premise, but this one was very well done. It was a fun read and I absolutely loved the cover! I'm a huge fan of cartoon covers and this one is adorable! Looking forward to the next books in the series!!

Fake engagement trope.... loved this story! Our hero, Hugh, makes up a fake wife to get his match-making Mom, who is living in America with her dreamy hubby, off his back. All is going great as he invents one thing after another to put off the wedding. Unfortunately, Mom's curiosity gets too much for her to bear, and she hops on a ship to meet her future DIL. She brings her hubby along and just wants her son to be as happy as she is. Poor Hugh. He needs a stand-in immediately and finds her. Our heroine is Minerva (who happens to have the name of the fake fiancee), and Hugh rescues her. Then he takes a good look at her, and thinks his problem is solved. Ah Hugh--his problems are just beginning. He just took the first steps to falling in love and getting married after all. We know it. Fate has decided it. It's a fun ride to the inevitable, happy conclusion!

I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. Mainly because I'm not a huge fan of regency romance nor books set during that time period outside of Jane Austen. But this book has me willing to give the genre and other books set during that time a try.

This entangled romcom is a delightfully good time, though it harbors enough seriousness to make the word "romp" inapplicable. Not only is the heroine Minerva scraping to make ends meet to keep her family fed, she faces threats from the past that could cause her and her loved ones serious harm.

She's rescued by Hugh, who's incorrigible in a way that's supposed to be charming (and, annoyingly, kind of is). He's created a fake fiancee to keep his matchmaking mother at bay. He's happened to call her Minerva. So when he effects a street rescue of an actual Minerva, well...it's a contrived setup, and it still works and is very charming. This is a series opener, and readers will look forward to seeing the ongoing adventures of these sisters, whose care for each other is evident.

I struggled with this book a lot. I gave up at 27%. The characters just fell flat for me and I didn’t like the writing style as it wasn’t compelling enough to continue reading as I couldn’t connect with the characters at all. The premise was one of my favourite tropes, but the execution fell flat.

Historical romance meets the "fake dating" trope is such a clever mix and thoroughly entertaining! Hugh, the Earl of Fareham, is attempting to fool his mother into believing that he is settling down. He makes up a fiancee named Minerva. Lucky for him, he meets a Minerva right before his mother comes to town, and bribes her into helping him. With the addition of an actress pretending to be Minerva's mother, utter chaos ensues, and navigating the lies and stories Hugh told his mother in the past was a challenge for everyone involved.

I loved that the heroine, Minerva, is taking care of her younger sisters and is resistant to helping out the Earl of Fareham at first. Hugh is relatively shameless with his charade, so it was nice to have Minerva balance that with worrying over his poor mother's feelings.

Great side character fun: The side characters such as the sister, Diana, and Hugh's friend, Giles, had great chemistry and their verbal sparring was perfect for any enemies-to-lovers fans out there. If those two are getting a book of their own, then I will love to read it! Scenes with the actress, impersonating Minerva's mother, were pretty hilarious and added a lot to the romcom vibe of this book.

Overall, this was a fun read, but I wasn't feeling super attached to Hugh as a hero of this story. I would have loved more chemistry and time with these two characters alone, perhaps seeing some more character growth from Hugh as well. Hugh's perceived flaws and fears about falling in love were a little bit farfetched and fit into a trope that I am not a huge fan of. The plot and scenarios were a little bit stronger than the romance in this one.

I am happy with the end and would recommend this to historical romance readers!

Thank you Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in return for my honest review.

This book was like a bag of chips: light, airy, and a treat to read. Hugh Standish, Earl of Fareham, does not want a wife. But as his mother is determined to see him wed, even from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean—he has maintained the lie of Minerva, his perfect fiancée, for several years. When he learns that she is on her way for a visit, however, he’s stuck—and hires the first Minerva he encounters.
Minerva Merriwell has been struggling to support herself and her two younger sisters ever since her father abandoned them years ago. She has her own scars and no time for love. But when the Earl of Fareham offers her money to pose as his fiancée for a few days in the British countryside, the deal is just too good to pass up.
What follows is a romantic comedy where nothing goes right, and yet somehow it all does in the end.
The book takes place among the fun-loving British aristocracy of the spillover from the end of the Regency era. I felt that there was too much being hung up on silly things and old fears that they don’t communicate (but easily could have), but then without those ridiculous reasons there would be no “rom com” genre. The characters do deepen as the plot progresses. While no one seems to speak in a manner that would be authentic to the period, the details do seem realistic- clothes, customs, houses, etc. In the end, there are enough misunderstandings and bad timings to be worthy of the genre, and it is fully enjoyable and readable!

I really enjoyed this book (and it definitely made me want to rewatch Bridgerton). I loved the dynamic between Hugh and Minerva and I can't wait to see them pop up in the books about the other sisters.

I laughed out loud a couple times while reading this book, a true sign of how funny it was at times. I loved Jeremiah and his little background comments (Payne too!).

I would've liked some references to slavery (particularly considering Jeremiah was American). I know this book was set after 1807 (the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade) but it was set before the 1833 abolition of slavery in British colonies and the 1864 abolition of slavery in America. It obviously didn't fit the genre of the book but I do think historical fiction should reference it (if only to have a conversation about abolition or something).

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. Definitely quick and easy to breeze through and a great pick you love historical romance.

It's a cute historical romance book, great for a summer light reading. However, it is quite slow in places.. and the characters and their pasts & life stories are a bit... typical.

I thought it was cute, but a little slow in parts. Overall, it was a fun and flirty escape and I was cheering for true love. I would recommend for those who enjoy a lighthearted, over the top historical romance.

The book blurb for this one sounded "meh" and I almost didn't start it. I am so glad I did. If you want to read something that is super fun with heart, this is a winner. The hero is sweet, but thinks he is a rouge. The heroine is tough, she has had to be. And it is a lovely comedy or errors to bring these two together. There are twists and turns and you are waiting to see how the house of cards will finally fall, and what the fallout might be. I can't wait to see what happens to Diana, I hope she gets her own story soon!

Hugh, Lord Fareham’s mother is on the way from America to meet his fiancée. Only Hugh has made up a fictitious one named Minerva. Our Minerva is struggling to make ends meet, pay the rent and feed herself and her two sisters. Hugh meets Minerva in the street and offers her 40 pounds to play his fiancée. Considering a few shillings will pay their rent and put a small amount of food on the table 40 pounds is a fortune. She can’t turn it down. The hijinks begin as, predictably, Minerva and Hugh begin to fall for one another. This is a wonderful romp that involves an alcoholic Drury Lane actress playing Minerva’s mother, the quintessential English butler, a belligerent sister and an adolescent and belligerent other sister. Minerva has been praised for her singing voice - she is tone deaf, for her grace in dancing- she has two left feet, and skill as a horsewoman- she is deathly afraid of horses.
It is that rare thing: a farce that works and makes you laugh out loud. I would recommend this book to my patrons.

When Hugh Standish, Earl of Farehame, gets himself into a pickle by convincing his mother in Boston that he has secured himself a fiancée over the course of their writings for two years. When he hears she’s on her way for Christmas, he has to find a way to make it seem like he wasn’t lying in order to keep his roguish lifestyle as it is.

Minerva Merriwell is an artist and the sole keeper of herself and her sisters Venus and Diana after the death of their month and abandonment of their no-good father. When trying to collect payment for an advertisement she had completed from a withholding old grump, Hugh swoops in to help her.

It just so happened that the fake fiancée he created was also named Minerva and he may have found the answer to his prayers with the pert miss. He explains the situation and they strike a deal. 20 pounds in exchange for posing as his fiancée for a few weeks. Minerva cannot help but take the deal as it could set her and her sisters up for at least a year, with one caveat that he also takes her sisters in for the duration of the charade. It also helps that Hugh seems to be handsome and “nice”, a word that Hugh detests.

What should be a simple two-week deception turns into a month of whirlwind of mishaps, close-calls, and a growing and undeniable attraction between the scandalous Mr. Standish and his fake fiancée. Will they be able to fight their attraction in favor of their business deal or will they be pulled together by the people and feelings that are pushing them together?

Although slow at times, Never Fall for Your Fiancée was a great summer read. It wasn’t super heavy and the pace was relatively consistent. It was never boring, only slow at times. There are definitely parts of the book that could have been shortened and that would have made it better, but otherwise it was a good read that I would recommend to any romance enthusiast looking for a good strangers to lovers historical romance!

An excellent historical rom com that entertained and delighted with witty banter between not only the main characters but secondary characters too. Although the plot was predictable, the story and quirky characters made me smile while reading.