I really enjoyed this book! I love a good regency romance and this one delivered all the feels! I laughed a lot at the dialogue, I cried a little bit and it had me smiling the whole time!

The only reason I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5 was that I felt that the one sex scene felt a tad more modern than the historical setting of the rest of the story. I’m not quite sure if it was the dialogue or just the way it was written, but it almost felt like a different book in that one scene.

Other than this though, I highly recommend. It was a great story, and I look forward to reading more from this author now.

A fun an enjoyable historical fiction romance! Binged this one in one sitting. Super fun and quirky. Similar vibes to Evie Dunmore "Bringing Down the Duke" series!

I love Virginia Heath's romantic and comedic voice in her historical romances and so I really enjoyed this story. Such a great comedy of manners and miscommunications . . . and love!

#neverfallforyourfiancee
#viginiaheath
#arc
#stmartinspress
#NetGalley published 11/9/21 (yes, I'm a little late)
#historicalfictionromance
#romance
#fakefiancee
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 (rounding up for ratings)

Very cute story. It's been a while since I've read a straight up romance. Of course this one was historical fiction. But you didn't see much of the times in which it took place. That's why I took off half a star. But I do love the fake girlfriend/fiancee trope! Especially when done right.

You know how there is always some miscommunication in EVERY romance novel? Which is always quite annoying. But this one was done so well! @viginiaheath knows what she's doing. It wasn't really miscommunication. It was more of withholding information. And for a change, it was done well meaningly. If it were me, I probably would have hidden that info too. 😊

Titled gentlemen has been lying about his life for the last 2 years. He's been saying that he is engaged to a Minerva. And one day he meets a Minerva in the streets of London. They strike up a deal. It's perfect! Or is it?

Fun book. So quick reading! Loved it! Highly recommend for romance lovers!

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3.5/5 Stars

** I received this as an E-ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, Thank you!**

I really had a great time time reading this book. I enjoyed the relationship between Martha and Hugh. They banter was fun and I really enjoyed watching them develop feelings for each other. I will say the younger sister really got on my nerves. I understand she was the youngest and therefore was a little bit naive , however she really annoyed me regarding her father and what she believed verses what her sisters tell her. I will also admit I was a little disappointed the the lack of steam in here. While yes there were a few kisses, the anticipation of them being together was a little anticlimactic. That's just more of a personal opinion though. Overall a very cute and quick read and would for sure recommend.

There is so much to love about this book! It has a fake engagement, hot chemistry between the leads and it's funny.

Tired of his mother's matchmaking habits and wanting to avoid becoming like the lying cheating men in his family, Hugh creates a fake fiancée to keep his mother off his back. But when his mother decides to leave America to meet his fiancee, Hugh realizes if he doesn't find a fiancee quick, his whole ruse will be exposed. All seems lost until comes to the aid of a beautiful artist. Sensing that Minerva might be the answer to his troubles, Hugh asks her to pose as his fiancee. Struggling to stay afloat Minerva accepts his offer. Hugh promises Minerva that it will be a quick and easy job.

But when Minerva and her sisters show up at Hugh's estate, his brilliant plan starts to take a hilarious turn. As Hugh and Minerva fight to keep their stories straight, can they fight the growing attraction between them?

I really enjoyed this book. It was a simple but fun story and I found myself rooting for the character right away, I love reading historical romance, so I was excited to get my hands on this. I love how this story was not only sweet but incredibly funny.. It's probably one of the funniest historical romances that I've read.

If you're looking for a historical that is as funny and romantic, then you should definitely read this one!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This historical romance had me swooning! (also can we talk about how gorgeous this cover is???) Virginia Heath, consider me a new fan. This book was full of banter, swoon, and all-around delight. Everything I look for in a historical romance.

When I felt as if I needed a fluffy, easy to read book, I noticed this title and decided to put in a request for it. To my delight, I was approved for an early copy in exchange for an honest review. I adored Hugh and Minerva in this book. These two main characters were rather predictable, as was expected. However, when I read a book like this, I enjoy the predictability. I read this type of book when I want to go on a quick adventure without thinking too much or worrying something horrible will happen to the characters. I adored the humor and the flirtation between the main characters, along with their gradual character growth and development as the story went on. The supporting characters were very likable and I hope to see them in possible future books by this author. This is the first time reading a book by this author and I hope to see more from her in the future.

Hugh believes philandering runs in his blood. He doesn't want any woman to suffer by being married to him. His interfering mother, who lives in America, wants him married. So for two years he writes to her about his fictitious fiancée, Minerva. He creates a fantasy world of reasons they must postpone the wedding. He panics when he receives a letter that his mother is on the way to meet his intended bride and will arrive in a few weeks. And then he meets a real Minerva......in dire straits, she takes care of her two sisters since their father abandoned them and her mother died. In desperate need of cash, she agrees to a scheme to impersonate the fictitious Minerva. He hires an actress to portray their mother as a chaperone, and they all move to his country house to await Hugh's mother. Now, all of this could have been avoided if Hugh had just put on his big boy pants and told his mother to back off. But Hugh is too nice, a pleaser, and avoids confrontation at all costs. The sisters cause problems, the actress turns out to like her alcohol, and the butler, Payne, is the best character of all. I thought Hugh was tiresome and Minerva too accommodating of his foibles. It was the side characters that brought the book to life.

I really loved the idea of this story. Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes and this is it. When you combine it with historical regency vibes I was hooked. There were some moments where I yelled at the book because the miscommunication between the two characters.

I know this is the 1st in a series so I am into going in and reading further.

Never Fall For Your Fiancée by Virgina Heath is publishing today! Thanks to @smpromance for sending this copy my way. Historical romance is hit or miss for me but this one was definitely a hit. Closed door, slow burn and pretty fun. Definitely worth a try if you are a newbie to the genre.

The Earl Of Fareham has been faking a fiancée in his letters to his mother in the US to stop her constant matchmaking. But when she heads over to meet Minerva and finally plan this wedding, Hugh needs to hire a stand in and plan a break up, fast. He stumbles on a young lady in the street one day and brings her and her sisters to his country house to fool his mother. Antics and longing looks occur.

Hugh Standish created a fake fiancée to keep his mother off his back, but now his mother is coming home. And he has no actual fiancée. Minerva Merriwell has been supporting her sisters with her woodcarvings. They bump into each other when he comes to her rescue, helping her get paid for her work. Then he makes a deal with her to be his fake fiancée, since he decided her name was Minerva as well. Miss Merriwell travels to his estate with her two sisters, where they meet their fake mother, and then his real one (arrived two weeks early). Hugh’s mother never quite believed him, so she keeps testing the lies that he told when she speaks with Minerva. The lies start to come apart and misunderstandings between Hugh and Minerva complicate things, but it still makes a fun read. The other characters are mostly well written, Vee struck me as younger than her age, but Diana was a snarky one.

This is a hilarious Regency rom-com, featuring a man who invented a fiancee to appease his mother who finds himself in a bind when his mother is planning to cross an ocean to meet this non-existent fiancee... and just when all seems lost, he happens to encounter a young woman named Minerva--the exact same name he gave his imaginary fiancee. Together, they can save the day, fake a relationship, and go their separate ways....

And then it all snowballs from there.

Historical rom-com is a great way to describe this book. Minerva and her family are one thing, but when you add in the drunken fake mom, resurrected dad, and meddling best friend, this story blossomed from a typical historical romance to full-on romantic comedy and I am here for it.

This book sounded like something I would love but unfortunately, it wasn't for me. I got bored and ended up quitting at about 40%..

I will not be able to recommend this one because I just couldn't get into it.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: death of a parent (past not on page), parental abandonment, poverty

Contains (SPOILERS)
-m/f historical romance
-fake engagement
-a meddling mother
-lots of hijinx

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and the bonkersness of it. My disconnect was I struggled to believe that the characters actually liked each other and the things they both brought to the relationship. It was fun, the execution felt a bit off but I think people looking for lots of hijinx will really enjoy this one.

Steam:3 (one quick open door scene, rest of book is 1 on steam rater)

I love a good Regency romance story, and this is the first in a new series by Virginia Heath. With Never Fall for Your Fiancee, readers get the fake dating trope taken to the next level with a fake engagement storyline.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

The premise is a little ridiculous and over the top but I enjoyed this historical romcom as a whole. If you like a slow burn romance this is the book for you! The beginning of the story was promising with lots of action going on as Hugh and Minerva make their deal to fake date. It’s rather silly that a grown adult was too immature to simply tell his mother the truth and had to create this elaborate illusion instead. This immaturity of the story was hard to shake and made it a little difficult to get really into it.

However, I did enjoy the progression of Hugh and Minerva’s romance. There are a ton of up and downs. At one point, they legitimately seem to hate each other. But the one constant was the undeniable attraction and connection they felt towards the other person. The middle part does drag as the entire first half is more about executing the ruse and less on the romance. There is little progress on the romance but after you pass the middle, the plot switches to focus more on the romance and that’s where the story picked up for me.

The last miscommunication crisis is absurd. I’ve seen this “don’t want to me like my father/genetic failings” conflict, almost always given to the male hero, is used in historical romance books before, and I don’t like it. It creates unnecessary miscommunication since the hero is usually cagey about it, which is what happens here. I did like how the author does challenge that misguided belief through Minerva’s good sense. I think the reason I didn’t love this was because of Hugh. There were great qualities about him but they never quite redeemed him in my eyes. He just felt too immature and thoughtless compared to Minerva.

3.5 Stars — The premise and tone falls somewhere in between traditional historical romance and a contemporary romcom. It doesn’t go into as much detail about the customs and dress of the time period like other historical romance books. The humor in this is much more over the top with caricature like characters at times. But overall it was a fun historical romance with a satisfying conclusion. However, I did kind of hope for an epilogue but it looks like we’re getting a book for each Merriwell sister so I hope we get more glimpses of how Minerva and Hugh are doing.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

This is quite a difficult review to write because this book was … um. Fine. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t have particularly strong feelings about it, and I’m worried that’s going to make it anything I say about come across as faint-praisey.

In any case, the basic premise here is that the hero, Hugh Standish, Earl of Somewhere-Or-Other has been lying to his mother for two years about being engaged to and in love with a woman called Minerva. This is because she desperately wants him to marry for wuv, he believes he is incapable of marrying for wuv because his father and grandfather were both philanderers, and he doesn’t want to disappoint her. But now she’s returning from America, where she’s been living with her new husband, leaving Hugh in the awkward situation of having to admit to his mother that he’s been lying to her for the past two years. ALTERNATIVELY he could meet a woman called Minerva at random in the street and pay her forty pounds to pretend to be his fiancé.

As you can probably tell from that description, this is a light, frothy, low-angst kind of read given the main conflict is a man not wanting to upset his mum. And, to be fair to Never Fall For Your Fiancé, the book is pretty clear that Hugh’s behaviour does not reflect well on him. To quote Minerva herself (who is not above the occasional zinger): “What sort of man invents a fiancée because he finds responsibility too daunting and is frightened of his own mother?” Well, quite.

And, in many ways, Hugh is an unusual character. Yes, there’s nothing particularly unusual about the whole Now We Got Bad Blood (in the hereditary sense) arc, but people-pleasing, sensitive and conflict-averse aren’t exactly standard romance hero fare. I rather wish more of had been made of it, if I’m honest, but the book was also at pains to emphasise his feckless fuckboyness as well, lest—I suspect—he came across as insufficiently masculine. Minerva is sharp, clever and likeable, but also felt more typical. She also starts the book as a talented engraver, struggling to get work because of her gender, a … I don’t even think it’s a plot exactly … a story element perhaps … that gets completely subsumed into pretending-to-be-an-Earl’s-fiance-and-then-falling-in-love-with-him business. Which, I don’t know? Maybe that’s fair enough? If I was a woman in the 19th century and my options were deal with institionalised sexism in the engraving industry or marry an Earl, I might go with the marry an Earl option too?

Anyway, Never Fall For Your Fiancé has all the hallmarks of an entertaining, light-hearted histrom: amusing dialogue, an absurd premise, a well-drawn supporting cast, and strong chemistry between the leads. Why I think I struggled occasionally when I wished to romp was that the writing sometimes tended towards the over-expository (at least for my personal preference) and towards the end there are a run of miscommunications between Minerva and Hugh that got a little wearing: she thinks he’s asking her to be his mistress, he’s just asking her to wait until he sorts his head out, she thinks he’s rejecting her because she’s not of his social class, he’s actually rejecting her because he does feel he’s worthy etc. etc. I also pedantically tripped on the actual plot in the sense that Hugh meets Minerva entirely at random and is all like, oh thank god, a woman called Minerva who can pretend to be fiancé. Couldn’t he have just got ANY woman? Like, they’re lying about everything else. Why did it matter that her name was genuinely Minerva?

On top of which there’s sex scene at the end that I personally didn’t feel was doing anything other than being a sex scene: I know banging in romance is a heavily contested subject, with some people feeling banging is integral to the romance genre but, personally, as a reader, I’d rather have no sex or less sex, than sex that wasn’t meaningfully part of the character’s journey. But, let me emphasise, that’s personal preference. I’m not saying the sex scene is bad or books with non-narratively driven sex-scenes are wrong. Just, to me, having Hugh put his dick in Minerva felt less about who they were, both as individuals and together, than, for example, the picnic they’d gone on earlier in the book. PLUS an earlier point of misunderstanding/conflict had been Minerva being offended she thought Hugh had wanted her to be his mistress, because she wasn’t going to “debase” herself for him. And while he’s assured her didn’t mean that, he’s still not ready to confess his feelings or, y’know marry her, but she’s suddenly all I WANT TO DO THE BANGING. And I don’t think I quite got how having sex with a gentleman without an offer marriage went so abruptly from not-okay to okay. Because wouldn’t sleeping him under the circumstances of his not being ready to do any marriage stuff but he might be maybe at some point in an undisclosed future mean she was sort of in practice his mistress anyway?

There’s also some of the … um. I guess I’m just going to call it the standard histrom stuff that might not be ideal for some readers? I don’t mean to pick on this book specifically for it because it’s so widespread as to be almost a genre feature (though, let’s be clear, I kind of wish it wasn’t). So there’s a bit of gendered language in here (hot men affecting ‘feminine parts’ etc.) and a middle-aged stage actress who is used solely for the purpose of comedy. Hugh has hired her to play the part of Minerva’s mother, and when she’s first introduced she gives a delightful speech about method acting so I thought the joke was going to be that she was going to be pretentious but awesome at her job. Except no. The joke is that she is fat, old, vulgar, and drinks too much. The hero even imagines her when he needs to control his desire for the heroine. Which is, you know, not cool. And, listen, I know that histrom is specifically the place where we indulge our fantasies about aristocrats (and Never Fall Your Fiancé goes out of its way to note Hugh’s privilege, which I appreciated) but I really wish that didn’t always come at the cost of portraying anyone who isn’t an aristocrat as morally and aesthetically moribund. It strikes an especially strange note here, too, because Minerva and her sisters are genteel but impoverished, and their father is dodgy AF, so instead you get semi-Dickensian distinction enforced between the virtuous and the non-virtuous poor. And as far as I can tell, Lucretia DeVere’s only flaws are daring to be fat and earn her own living.

If you’re looking for something that'll make you feel like a hopeless romantic, then this is definitely the book for you. Never Fall for your Fiancée by Virginia Heath was a refreshing, albeit predictable, take on the fake dating trope. I constantly found myself falling in love with the romance that was brewing between the main characters and couldn’t keep the smile off of my face.

If you attempt to do fake dating, it has to be done right, and I think that Virginia Heath excelled at it. The bantering between all characters was effortless and added to the overall comedic atmosphere. Although the plot was predictable and had the dreaded miscommunication trope (which is to be expected with fake dating), I didn’t mind because of how enamored I was with all of the characters. I wish we got more from Minerva’s sisters but, seeing as this is an ongoing series, I’m excited to see the next sister’s relationship unfold. I can’t wait for the sequel!

Thank you to Netgalley for a ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!