I really enjoyed this Regency romance featuring widow, Noelle Rutherford, her son Gil and her husband's best friend and surrogate brother, Carlisle Thorne. Noelle and Adam Rutherford ran off to be married against his family's wishes. They have a child when he dies suddenly, so Adam's father, an Earl, wants Gil to come and live with them so they can raise him to be the new Earl. Carlisle Thorne is sent to fetch him and offers Noelle money to allow him to take Baby Gil. Big mistake, she runs. The story picks up five years later, after the Earl has died and Gil is now the Earl. Carlisle finds them once again and convinces Noelle to come to the estate and meet Adam's mom, Gil's Grandma. It seems things will work out, until someone tries to kill Gil. Carlisle now has to protect the young boy and his mother, who he is extremely attracted to. Who is after Gil and why?

This is the first book I have read by Candace Camp and I will be checking my library to see if they have any of her backlist. She created wonderful, relatable characters that I was cheering for. The emotion Noelle would have felt during this story (fear, panic, anxiety) broke my heart. As a mother, I can only imagine those feelings and was happy that she didn't give in to the easy way out. At the beginning of the story, Carlisle was somewhat unlikable, but as we learn his story, as well as recognizing what was going on during this time, I began to understand him and like him more. This is a story with action and adventure, a mystery and romance. I liked the enemies to lovers trope, and liked how it developed. There is sizzle, then some steam as Carlisle and Noelle give in to the feelings they were fighting. I did not figure out who was after Gil, but once it is revealed it made perfect sense with a motive as old as time. If you enjoy historical romance, adventure, some steam and a good enemies to lovers trope, then you will love this story.

Title: An Affair at Stonecliffe
Author: Candace Camp
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5

Noelle Rutherford will never be accepted by the London ton. Her late husband, Adam—a free-spirited aristocrat with bohemian tendencies—married her for love, much to the dismay of his well-heeled family.

In the wake of Adam’s death, Noelle is approached by Carlisle Thorne, who was raised as a brother to Adam. Noelle is horrified when the severe, irascible Carlisle offers her money in exchange for taking her young son, Gil, to be raised at the Rutherford estate, Stonecliffe.

Convinced that Carlisle will use any means necessary to take Gil from her, Noelle flees, hiding from Carlisle and the Rutherfords for five long years. But Carlisle never stopped looking for them.

When he finally catches up, it’s clear that each has made wrongful assumptions about the other, and grudging mutual respect gives way to a close bond that is both lively and tender.

And when Noelle and Gil find themselves in danger from someone after Gil’s inheritance, she and Carlisle must work together to protect what matters most—even if it means losing their hearts.

I really liked Noelle, and I enjoyed this read. I liked the mystery running through it, and all the supporting characters were well-done and intriguing. The characterization, as Noelle and Carlisle go from being enemies to lovers was fun to read, and this was a sweet story with a vein of strength and attitude through it.

Candace Camp is a bestselling author. An Affair at Stonecliffe is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin in exchange for an honest review.)

Candance Camp is one of my favorite Regency romance writer and this book didn't disappoint.
An enemy to lover story, a very brave heroine who challenge the powerful family of her late husband for the love of her child, a pinch of mystery
The historical background is vivid, there's humour and I loved the banters, the romance is realistic and I liked how the characters related.
An excellent story, highly recommended.
Many thanks to HQN and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Carys Davies flaunts the fact that she skirts past society's rules, all the while hiding a secret that could ruin her reputation and that of her family. She tries to avoid getting a suitor to keep that secret, but family rival Tristan Montgomery sees past her facade. He accepts her mocking challenge to show her what she's missing from marriage, and what follows is a rivalry of an entirely different kind.

A Daring Pursuit is the second book of the Ruthless Rivals series, following "A Reckless Match." In that book, Madeline Montgomery and Gryffud Davies took their families' rivalry too seriously and wound up falling in love. Carys and Tristan are their siblings and will try to help make their parties a success. Tristan finds out Carys's secret early on in the book and takes it personally as a gentleman and as someone who didn't realize he had a crush on her for years. Carys had thought him handsome as well, of course, and the two engage in a battle of wits that they both enjoy. Of course, they love each other, and Tristan cares nothing for her secret. The waiting game in the story is how Carys' blackmail is resolved, and how the two of them reveal their feelings for each other.

This was an enjoyable read with a solid mystery, which I enjoyed more than the romance angle. Some overdetailing created a lull, and the story could have benefitted from a tighter edit to fix that. Parts of the story did have a Downton Abbey feel, which will likely attract some readers. Prejudices among various social classes was addressed. I liked Noelle, as well as Gilbert and Thorne. They were well-crafted and believable characters. There were some unexpected twists, and secondary characters are well utilized. I really enjoyed Gil's grandmother, though she was a bit hard to take at the beginning. A key theme is to not judge people based solely on first impressions.

This was a good book for it’s time period. It has a nice romance and mystery. It was a bit drawn out and could have been fifty pages shorter. It was still enjoyable
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

Noelle Rutherford and Carlisle Thorne are at cross-purposes due to misunderstandings concerning aristocratic prejudices and the fate of a young son. Years pass before they finally realize neither is exactly who the other thinks they are, so they join forces to discover what game is really playing out. I enjoyed this Regency romance and look forward to what comes next.

An Affair at Stonecliffe by Candace Camp reads like an installment from Downton Abbey. Like Downton Abbey, Camp addresses such human tropes as the importance of breaking prejudices among social classes and discovering that no one can judge another individual without learning about that individual firsthand.

Noelle Rutherford, the heroine is a widow and the single mother of a young boy, Gilbert. Her husband's family are members of the beau monde, who never accepted Noelle as their equal. To incense the divide, her husband's family sends their son's executor and close friend, Carlisle Thorne, to Noelle to convince her to allow her son to be raised at Stonecliffe, the family's manor. A few chapters into the story and the reader discovers that Thorne, a very rude and irascible character at the start, actually comes to be Noelle's hero. His effort to track down the villain who has made several attempts to abduct Gil surprises the reader, and also enables the reader to warm up to this not-so-obvious hero.

Camp keeps the tension going between Noelle and Thorne for several chapters, which make it difficult for the reader to accept Thorne as a good guy later into the story. The twists and turns along the saga build the plot and the audience's awareness of the main and secondary characters. Characters like Gil's grandmother, who is irritating and obnoxious in the beginning, surprise the reader by becoming a rather clever and caring individual towards the end. Camp touches on such tropes as people should not judge others by first impressions because oftentimes there is more to an individual, and secondly that the artificial divides enforced by social classes should not be upheld as absolute truths. Such divides keep happiness out of people's reach.

An Affair at Stonecliffe is an enjoyable human interest read that enlightens readers about society's preconceived and artificial prejudices that lead people down the wrong path. Camp shows that going down the wrong path takes people away from true happiness. One wrong decision ends up in a lifetime of discontent. Intentional or not, Camp's story educates young readers about such life long lessons, written in a manner that makes the story comprehensible and relatable to real life situations.