Oy Vey. This book started off so well and just got to be So. Damn. Tedious. At only 211 pages, Meara Platt’s, The Promise of Love, commits the mortal sin of catching a case of the ‘splaineys’ and finishes off with little to no sexual payoff. In lieu of action, the reader suffers through one exhausting conversation after the next between hero and heroine as they encounter so many contrived soap opera set pieces.

A little plot
Young debutante Juniper (June) Farthingale (that fucking name, amirite?) travels with her two equally gorgeous and somewhat insipid sisters to London for their first season out. After a chance encounter with dreamy and swoon-worthy Scottish captain, Augustus MacLauren, June is struck with an insta-love so strong that she vows never to be happy again unless she can convince Augustus to marry her. The entire story spans 3 days, during which June is almost raped, kidnapped, and mutilated. In between these periods of overdone melodrama, Augustus and June spend hours reading from the Book of Love, which will prove beyond a doubt they are fated to be soulmates.

Yeah, nothing says “spellbinding drama and excitement” than being subjected to two trite characters yammer at each other for pages on end.

The Compliment Sandwich.. :sigh:

The Top Bun (Pro)
POTENTIAL!!!
Call the manager, because I was fricking sold - at least, for the first quarter of the book. The banter between the sisters was charming; the aspect of utilizing Augustus as their ‘test frog’ to determine validity of the Book of Love was inspired.

He warned himself...whatever you do, do not look at her bosom.
Do not…
Oh, mercy.
She sighed, causing her chest to lightly heave.
He looked.
Just a glance.
She hadn’t noticed. Nor had her companions, he hoped.
Well, he wasn’t going to look again.
Mercy.
He looked again.

The outrageous presumption of three young women in 1830 testing men with their femining wiles I found to be comical and quite original. While I’m sure it’s not historically accurate, I found it refreshing. The reader can envision this is something a teenage girl today to employ - some trick featured on tik tok, insta, or twitter which would ensnare their ‘man’ while probably with the same unfortunate results. Think about it: how many tv shows and movies from the 80’s and 90’s featured a scene of some teenage girl stuffing her bra with socks, or on occasion chicken breasts, to entice a boy. The results were very much the same - they didn’t normally work as one would hope.

The Meat (Con)
Around that quarter mark, after June deploys a series of self defense moves that would make Black Widow jealous, the story stops dead. Like roll it into the morgue, slap a toe tag on, coins on the eyes...dead. June kicks ass and takes names. She’s kind of a bad ass. She then delves into simpering young miss mode.

After one decent scene where we are teased with some possible hanky panky (yeah, I said it), we must listen to June either wimper like a watering pot or just dither on about this stupid book and the five senses. Seriously, if I was Augustus, I’d take the friggin book, light it on fire, get on my horse and peace out. No amount of blathering is worth a little roll in the hay.

“Fine”, she said with a sigh. “No more discussion of chapter one. Let us concentrate on the five senses now, sight touch, taste, scent, and hearing. The importance of these chapters is to teach us how to open ourselves to the truth of what we are seeing, or hearing, and so on. We can use each other as mutual test frogs”.

Poor sexy captain Augustus. He’s that one friend we all have that you just want to take aside and say “seriously, bro, RUN. Run like the wind”.

The Bottom Bun (Pro)
I enjoyed the characters that made up MacLauren’s band of comrades. I’m envisioning that a mandolorian-esque side story with these characters would have been much more enjoyable than this overdramatic escapade. Honestly, the best character might be Augustus’s horse, who, side note, I’d cast as the Baby Yoda of the tv show that I’m optioning to Disney for the Fall.

Augustus himself is a decent character: he’s Scottish, so it’s an automatic pass for me. His vacuous turn of character toward the end of the book, however, negates all the good will, and naughty thoughts, I had toward him from the beginning.

In summation, I’m casting Jock (the father figure and Augustus’s right hand man) as Mando (Din Djarin) and looking to sell my screenplay for 700K. Disney: Call me. Bonus, we can sell so many horse figurines with jedi powers at Christmas. Cash grab.

In other words: Take a hard pass on this book.

He’s on his way to Scotland to see his family. She’s on the way to London for her first season. This is the brilliantly entertaining and sometimes (a lot) amusing story of General Augustus MacLauren and Juniper Farthingale who fall in love at first sight during their stay at an inn on their journey. It is fast-paced, a little unpredictable, and a lot of fun. There is some trouble from a group of privileged bullies (actually pretty bad guys and more than once) and a sort of joint rescue. June’s sisters and aunt and Augustus’s men keep an eye on these two. June’s explanation of the information in the Book of Love is laugh-out-loud funny for the reader and desperate avoidance of the same for Augustus. Augustus has some concerns about a future for them, and June is uncertain of his feelings for her. But things have a way of working out. Aunt Charlotte and the Book of Love say so. An entertaining story with wonderful characters. I recommend it and the series.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

June and Augustus meet at a posting inn and are immediately smitten. They expect nothing to come of it, since they are about to leave the next day and go in different directions. Then, they're attacked by drunken revelers, and end up staying for the trial. When the ruffians begin targeting witnesses to their crimes, will the couple survive long enough to fall in love?

I enjoyed this author's writing style. The plot is brisk, though there's not much character development. It's not historically accurate, but it's fun nonetheless.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

June Farthingale has met the man of her dreams. Unfortunately, he does not seem to have the same thought toward her. Or, does he? Augustus was stunned by the beauty, bravery and honesty of the young lady by the name of June. But, is there really a love at first sight?
When Augustus is injured by the Earl of Monkton’s brother, June is first to respond and assist. Which, if this information comes to light, will cause her to be ruined in polite society. He doesn’t want to love her, but his-according to the Book of Love-small brain becomes engaged, he wants all of her!
Once June becomes the focus of Lord Belfy and her life is in danger, Augustus must make a choice to declare his love and protection or just walk away.

Juniper Farthingale is on her way, with her sisters & aunt, to London for her debut season, they break their journey at an inn when their aunt isn't feeling well, when she meets handsome Scottish general Augustus MacLauren. He’s known for his deliberate, thoughtful nature and his tactical military brilliance. But he has fallen in love with June Farthingale within a mere hour of meeting her.
The tenth book in the series & still as fresh as the first, it’s easily read on its own but I love how the world around the Red book is growing. Another very well written page turner which I loved. The characters as always are well portrayed & I loved both Augustus & June & thoroughly enjoyed their road to a HEA even though love at first sight isn't my favourite trope but the auther pulled it off beautifully
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

This is a story of Insta-love between our too beautiful for words heroine Juniper aka June aka Talullah and breathtakingly handsome, manly and well-connected Scottish continental commander hero General Augustus McLauren. They were immediately besotted, as in within seconds. The problem is he is headed to Scotland and she is headed to London for her coming out. H & h knew insta-love was a ridiculous notion and they both tried to convince themselves it was merely lust or infatuation. Definitely not love. Except. They couldn’t stay away from each other.

There were some plot devices that I thought were unnecessary but since this book is part of a series, i think there is an overarching villain/conflict that help introduce our other heroes and heroines. I’ve found that insta-love works best when the author focuses most of the pages on the development of the relationship between the main couple, so that their HEA makes sense. At a little over 200 pages, it was hard to achieve that for this book. I found myself wondering about June’s upbringing and Augustus’ time as a general. I just wanted to know a little bit more about them and how they would suit.

Back to insta-love. By day 2 they were talking about spending the rest of their lives together and at Juniper started bringing up their future children. In the present day she would be someone we call psycho. Back in the day it was just normal… i think. To be fair, her aunt was totally an enabler and convinced her to persuade the hero to give her/ a relationship between them a chance.

There was some humor infused as well. Reading about them reading the Book of Love is actually like going to a therapist or couple’s counseling. It was cringey for my black heart at times but overall cute.

The author’s writing style was reminiscent of Jude Deveraux’s earlier books. I think I would’ve enjoyed this very much if I was younger. Think early teens, before I became a cynic. It is so sweet and innocent.

These are my own personal opinions. So just because a book didn’t suit me doesn’t mean it won’t suit others.

This book does not have other man/woman, no cheating. There are two explicit scenes towards the end but they were pretty tame. I gave it three stars because, well, I’ve rated less than 5 books 5 stars, and it didn’t make me feel as many emotions as my 4 star reads.

What didn’t work for me:
- Lack of tension. I like some angst in my stories and this one was too whimsy for MY taste.
- The Scottish (brogue— as it was mentioned plenty of times) accent of the characters were mere caricatures.
- A total side note: H was h’s test frog for the Book of Love theories and each time I read “test frog” i was reminded of when we had to dissect frogs in bio lab.

The preview of The Wonder of Love had me excited for Shayne and Willow’s story. It seems it will be an enemies to lovers trope.

I received an ARC of this book. Thank you to Dragonblade Publishing and NetGalley.

The Book of Love Series has given me many hours of enticing entertainment, joyful and humorous characters, but most of all it has been a savior from a stressful hectic busy lifestyle!
Meara Platt has written such charismatic characters and quick-witted plot lines that each book has been so unique. Promise of Love has been no different in its uniqueness in that we find a quirky young woman, Juniper”June” Farthingale on the cuspid of womanhood. She is the new owner of the Book of Love! She has identified her quarry. One, General Augustus MacLauren who has declared himself impervious to the wiles of women. The Book of Love is no recipe untried, one should ask the Braydens!

This book is fun, engaging, and some hair-raising moments as well!

I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

The Promise of Love is another delightful and engaging regency romance in the Book of Love series by Meara Platt. June and Augustus are smitten at first sight, a brawny Scot and an innocent debutante make for a charming story. The book of love does it again.

That red leather bound book with gold trim creates mischief again. The Farthingale sisters are on their way to London and stop at inn until their aunt recovers. Peeking over the staircase railing observing a wedding celebration, they discuss details of the book and propose looking for a test frog. Overhearing the conversation, Colonel Augustus MacLauren decides to lure the one he calls the "spectacular one" to his table. Twenty-two and innocent, June approaches Augustus. Unbeknownst to him, she will keep him in knots and he will become her frog. How the Colonel will fall! Funny and very entertaining, THE BOOK OF LOVE continues to create more chaos.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book.

I love this book and the others in the series. As always, Meara Platt did an excellent job on her characters. I liked them immediately. June (Juniper) is as daring as the other Farthingales and is in need of a test frog for The Book of Love. Lucky for her she ran into Augustus, General McLauren. Together they discover love through an exciting story that introduces more Brayden men. I look forward to reading the next books in this series.
I recommend this book, this series, and the Farthingale series.
I received this book from NetGalley and Dragonblade Publishing for an honest review.

More Farthington women to use the Book of Love to find their one true love. This time it is June who finds it leads her to a Scottish general, Augustus, who has no time for love. But can he resist the power of the book? I received an ARC from NetGalley and Dragonblade Publishing for my honest review.