I loved this book! I devoured it in only a few sittings and wish there was more to read. The story line was paced very well and the characters were easy to love!

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-arc! I really enjoyed One Night in Hartswood. There are so few sweet, queer romances out there (though more and more each year!), that it's such a treat to discover them. I grew up with just Paks as an example of anything not heteronormative and it's always a pleasure to see others represented. That aside, Denny did a great job with her characters. She has a thoroughly engaging story set in a beautiful world!

Set in 1360 England, a wedding has been arranged and brothers Ash and Rafe are escorting their sister Lily to her nuptials. However, the groom William de Foucart disappears before the wedding occurs, and and as he is returning home, Rafe comes upon a man in the forest, Penn. Over the first part of the book, as the two begin traveling together they learn to depend on one another, while fighting their growing feelings for one another.

Remember the TV series "House" and Dr. House's credo: "Everyone lies" ? Because Penn is lying, Rafe is lying, and things are not as they seem. Penn and Rafe are richly drawn characters and the author does a very good job of showing rather than telling how these two very different men navigate their feelings. However, the first 1/3 of the book involves Rafe and Penn in the forest, huddling together for warmth on the cold nights due to several unlikely plot devices that force them together. At over 350 pages, the book seems a bit bloated at times.

Otherwise, the plot held my interest throughout the book and the secondary characters are nicely fleshed out, although the big problem with the Earl Marcus de Foucart ends up being much ado about nothing. This is the author's debut novel and the book has good bones, plus Rafe's brother Ash has an intriguing past, and I hope the author continues this series to include his story. 3.5 stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC. This is my honest review.

I requested this as soon as I saw it was historical fiction.

The story takes place in the 1300's and starts with Raff's family heading to meet his sister's betrothed, for their politically arranged wedding. It starts off with Raff's family--his father the Earl, his brother–a somewhat embittered former military man, and his sister. It was good getting a glimpse of the family dynamic before the actions began.

We get a similar intro to Penn and his sisters and then the story gets going. William, the betrothed, and Penn are the same person! And Penn is not a willing participant in this arranged marriage. Cue a daring escape, chance encounters, subterfuge and lies of omission on both sides as well as a tender exploration of expectations, family dynamics, chronic emotional and physical abuse, and toxic family relationships.

Penn and Raff were lovely together and they both defied the expectations of those around them to fight and support each other. There were definitely some questions left unanswered in this book--such as the true stories of Penn's brothers, Raff's brother's backstory and more. I could see a second book about the secondary characters of this book.

Overall an enjoyable read. Tropes include arranged marriage, mistaken identity story with some darker themes as far as toxic family and emotional and physical abuse.

I absolutely loved this book and I wish I read it sooner! Denny does an incredible job of not just making you fall in love with both characters and their love story, but also the setting of the book and the Hartswood forest. The whole book is beautifully written and I loved feeling like I was also on an adventure with Penn and Raff through the beautiful English countryside during winter. The plot was fantastic and I did not see a lot of the twists and turns coming which really helps keep the reader interested in the story beyond the romance. I would love to see books for each of Raff's siblings, they were wonderful side characters and I loved how they supported him.

I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a queer historical romance that is the perfect cozy read.

I love this book and its characters so much! A M/M historical romance set in 1360 England, Raff and Penn meet by accident and feel an immediate spark, although both hide the truth about their true identities. They later find themselves on the road together, as their attraction continues to grow. But they have more connections between them than each of them know, and there will be severe fall-out when their secrets come out, How everything is resolved is a journey well worth taking. Highly recommended.

I absolutely loved the use of the 14th century time period in this novel! It was completely unique and helped with book stick out to me. The romance was full of beautiful chemistry and intense emotions and still had room for secrets and inter-relational politics.

This was such a wonderful story. It was well written, and the story flows naturally. There were a few places I wish could have been made a bit longer, in particular, the ending felt a little bit rushed.

I loved Penn and Raff. They genuinely cared for each other, but the romance evolved over time. And the supportive family in 1300’s England is so amazingly wholesome. I think things will turn out well for these two. I’m so glad I was given the chance to read this book. So if you like historical romance please pick this up.

While I am glad that I got the opportunity to read this, there were quite a few things in this that kept taking me out of the story.

I was surprised when I read the first page and noticed it was set in 1300! That was a lot earlier than I was expected from the blurb for some reason. It gave me the sense of the some what more common Victorian set historical romances. Which actually ended up being the same sense I got throughout the book. Truly the most medieval thing about the book is that they had a dungeon/cells. I assume those were done away with by the Victorian period? Other than that it was just the diving right of kings and mentions of squires that placed the novel's setting as unique.

That being said I did enjoy the story. Raff and Penn had good chemistry. That they were both lying to each other was always something in the back of your mind however. So you will be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I would say this was medium spicy and a lot a bit sweet between the MCs. I would recommend this to readers of historical romances that want a slightly different setting but no fantasy.

This book was SO lovely to read! It was a slow-burn, which I enjoy because two people need time to get to know one another before jumping into anything romantic. The characters of Penn and Raff are both so different from one another and yet compliment each other perfectly. I loved each of their POVs and learning how they viewed the other. There were many warm, beautiful, steamy moments once they finally finally give into their feelings. Penn grows so much during the story and learning about his past trauma was heart-wrenching. We never learn fully about Raff's past, but there are enough hints for us to know it involves pain and grief. Seeing these two wonderful characters find peace and happiness together (after going through so much to get there) was gratifying. I'm definitely recommending this book!!

Okay, so, by all rights I should have loved this book. It's queer, it's historical fiction, it's got angsty backstories. But I could not get in to this for the life of me.

This is one of those cases where I think it's just not for me. I cannot exactly explain why this didn't grab me, the best I can say is that I found it boring. I wasn't drawn to either Penn or Raff and so it made it hard to be interested in either point of view. By the time the story got to plot points I would have been interested in (like Penn's scars) I was 50% of the way through and I was already just reading for the sake of finishing the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

One Night in Hartswood is an excellent debut by Emma Denny. It's refreshing to read a queer historical set in the medieval era (rather than Victorian or Regency London) and One Night in Hartswood incorporates its historic setting without getting bogged down by it.

Rafe and Penn are charming protagonists whose double-mistaken-identity and forced-proximity road trip serves as the heart of the plot (which One Night in Hartswood is admittedly light on). They are endearing as their insta-lust grows into something sweeter and more tender.

I don't have a lot of bandwidth for romances where characters don't clear up misunderstandings when offered the opportunity to do so and One Night in Hartswood is definitely a bit predictable, but overall, it's a lovely read.

Thank you, Netgalley, Emma Denny, Harper 360, and Mills & Boon for the ARC.

"Penn looked like he belonged. Like he was...home."

There was so much I loved about this book and several things I did not. Good stuff first. Raff and Penn were adorable. While their romance was a really slow burn the spark was there from the first. I also loved how laid back Raff's sister and brother were about it all. Brother Ash was also a very interesting character and I kind of wish there had been more about him.

A few problems. First let's address the elephant in the room. I was surprised a historical romance with so much hype, that won a contest and everything would be so poorly researched in regards to the time period it was set in. And I'm not taking about tiny details, either. Some where so huge it was almost embarrassing.

Another issue I had was the number of threads left loose. I still don't know who Oliver was nor what exactly happened to Leo.

The beginning of the book was a little slow and the emotion and chemistry between Penn and Raff kind of slowed near the end, which is too bad as for most of it, they were the best thing the storyhad goingfor it. The end was also too easy and trite, especially with all the build up.

Despite these issues I still actually enjoyed the book. I think it's a great first effort for a new author and because of this I rounded this 3 1/2 star book up to four stars.

A truly spectacular debut for Emma Denny!

Raff and Penn's twisty little lies and excruciating tenderness sunk their claws into my heart. This novel took everything one could want from a queer historical romance and ran with it until the very last page.

Denny created characters that shimmer with personality and left us wanting to see more, to know more (Ash and Lily, I'm looking dead at you). Raff's unconditional kindness was borderline heartbreaking to bear witness to. Penn's chaotic spiral of lies and guilt and fire was an intoxicating mix that left me second-guessing the truths and lies.

Penn's trauma was well-represented, which resulted in the last third of the book being gut-wrenching. Raff's sturdy, dependable presence simultaneously grounded and propelled the plot forward. All in all, a delightful whirlwind of a read.

As always, thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I lost interest at times, as the story was quite boring to me. It took me a long time to get through it. I feel like I can’t give a very in-depth review, as I didn’t come away from the book feeling much of anything. I feel like this could be a very amazing book for those interested, though!

Heat Factor: The get it on a couple times

Character Chemistry: I would have liked to care more about these guys’ relationship

Plot: Earl’s son runs away from arranged marriage to another Earl’s daughter, so that Earl’s son has to chase after him, but he doesn’t try very hard when he finds a mysterious cute guy in the woods (who wants to hide from Earl 1 but is definitely not his son)

Overall: I really wanted to like this book, but I’m left one part disappointed and one part annoyed

This was the longest road trip in history. Snuggling under cloaks while camping outside in the winter is great and all, but there was just no urgency to the middle 50% of the book. Actually, there wasn’t much urgency to any of the book, now that I think of it. I’ll recap the situation for you:

Raff’s family has traveled to Oxfordshire to deliver his sister in marriage to the son of Earl Marcus de Foucart—

Tangential rant: Look, technically, if an earl’s title is derived from his surname, one does not use the “Earl of…” that we might be accustomed to hearing. Okay. BUT. Both Earl Marcus de Foucart and Earl Griffin Barden are somehow earls (Barden being an earl from a long and distinguished lineage) unassociated with lands. Which is weird, because after Billy the Conq started creating earls, he used them as land managers for all his shires. Furthermore, medieval kings used earldoms as political chips, including withholding permission to transfer the title, but usually including the title with a land grant because what good is a title with nothing behind it? Also, I looked briefly, and I only found ONE earl with a title based on his surname EVER, but here we somehow have two? It smacks of a lack of research, rather than such a depth of understanding that would entail so much research that my (not insubstantial) background knowledge and cursory research disprove it. /end rant

—and while both parties are willing to go through with the marriage, neither is particularly excited about it. Upon discovering that his father is so unsure of his following through on the marriage that he’s locked the bedroom door, Penn—

(whose given name is William and…did no one consider the (absolutely enormous) American market in editing this book at all? William Penn? Really?)

(Also, maybe the British internets are different, but I poked around online a little and Penn didn’t even come up as a proposed nickname—but Reggie did—for Peregrine, which is the source of Penn’s nickname because he’s a falconer. I feel like there were other options here.)

—escapes into the night through a secret passage in his room—

(that apparently literally no one knows about because it is behind a tapestry? No one? Really? Servants do clean tapestries…)

—where he runs across Raff, who has also decided to take a stroll to clear his head in Hartswood forest. They share a kiss, and apparently this is the impetus for Penn finally deciding that he just has to lead his own life. He runs away into the forest with, like, absolutely nothing (even though all his meager belongings are packed to go to his new home upon his marriage), in the winter, with absolutely no life skills. Honestly, it is kind of impressive that he didn’t freeze to death the first night.

So, Raff, who is an awesome tracker (as one is), is sent out to look for the missing William. William/Penn’s dad is apparently such a self-absorbed doofus that he doesn’t describe Penn’s appearance, and is also apparently literally the only person that Raff talks to even though there’s a whole-ass castle full of people who have known Penn his whole life, so Raff doesn’t know what William looks like. Naturally, when he finds Penn shivering in the forest outside the castle, he’s like, “Oh hey! It’s you! And you’re running away from the castle? And you have literally no idea how to survive? ThIs iS NoT SuSpIcIoUs aT aLL.”

Side rant: So, my issue here is this: Penn is the son an heir of an earl, and he has no idea how to use weapons, and he can only hunt with falcons, and his primary skill is social manipulation (because Court, obvi), but when Raff assumes Penn is a servant, Penn is like, “Yep, that’s me!” And their plan is to get him work in another noble house as a servant, and, like…he doesn’t know how to servant? He has not considered his position enough to wear warm clothes in the winter, but he thinks he’s going to be able to go from pampered (albeit abused) son to answering to a lord whom he cannot leave…ever? (Because one thing this book did acknowledge that isn’t usually acknowledged was that there really wasn’t a lot of social mobility for people. Which really makes Penn’s plan worse, if you think about it.) I honestly couldn’t get over this plan. At all. /end rant

And off they go on their long and meandering road trip that seems exclusively designed for snuggling together in the cold and Raff teaching Penn to fight. Not gonna lie, after a while I started to wonder just where we were going with the story, because emotional intimacy is not exclusively developed from snuggling and the same unrequited feelings over and over.

Because this is a double deception plot, the dark moment obviously stems from the discovery of the deception. They’re both pretending not to be the earls’ sons, so I’ll let you guess which one is the more problematic lie. Grand gestures ensue and just, like, couple things:

Gangrene in the shoulder? Really? Who TF is going to survive that in 1360?
There is no way that the wife of an earl would not know that her son would be sent off to serve in another household. That was the standard operating procedure for medieval nobility because then their sons would both learn the art of, like, knighting under the guidance of (hopefully) a competent and successful noble and also they would help cement alliances between noble families. This lady would have probably had to say goodbye to her son when he was still a single digits age. But sure, she can add the drama that allows for the hostage agreement instead.

Side note: Did you know hostages were different in the medieval period? Check this out.

And finally, a note on the writing.

This story is very competently written. There were a couple weird turns of phrase (“Raff took a sharp intake of breath”? What?), but I was never wondering what on earth I was trying to read. That said, there also wasn’t a lot of…oomph? Energy? A unique voice? To this story. I mentioned in my opening that there wasn’t much urgency to this book, and what I mean by that is that the writing is almost too refined. At one point, Penn refers to his deception as a “poison, slowly destroying him,” but poison is a strong, dramatic thing, and this is the first time that we’re getting any sense of that dramatic energy from Penn. He sometimes thinks about how he shouldn’t be lying to Raff, but it’s not dragging him down or eating him from the inside—

(because he’s too busy snuggling and flirting)

—so when it suddenly becomes a poison, it doesn’t quite hit the level of drama that it should. Likewise, that whole gangrene in the shoulder situation I mentioned at the end of the book… Sorry if this enters spoilery territory, I’ll try to be mostly vague, but Penn’s dad is portrayed as a tyrant for the entire book, then all of a sudden Penn’s whole personality changes—

(which I was honestly expecting to happen a little earlier considering his whole “journey of self discovery” situation on his trek north with Raff)

—and there are no consequences. He’s not even worried about consequences. Where is my angst? WhErE ThE tYrAnT gO?

I really thought I was going to have fun reading this book. I’m honestly astonished at how annoyed I am now that I’m getting this all out on paper. Win some, lose some, I guess. Maybe if you don’t know or care about, like, ANY medieval history—

(I mean, we don’t even get into the fact that the Black Death ended less than a decade earlier. Or that we’re in the early stages of the Little Ice Age. Or that Raff is spectacularly unconcerned about being caught poaching.)

—and you like very low angst romances, this one could work for you.

Additional side note: This book is written in 3rd person with a dual POV, and the audiobook is a dual narration. Why? Seems spectacularly unnecessary for a 3rd person book in which both protagonists are men and both narrators are perfectly competent at creating different accents/voices. But whatever. I’m fine. I’m over it. I promise.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

Oh wow, I couldn't put this one down! I haven't read a lot of historical romance, much less MM historical romance, but One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny is a GREAT one. It kind of reminded me of a Cat Sebastian book - low angst, lots of feelings, and vivid characters. Add in the fact that it's set in 14th century Britain, and I was absolutely hooked. Definitely check this one out!

The son and heir of a powerful earl, Penn is desperate to escape his marriage to the daughter of an old noble family. To clear his head, he decides to take a walk through the Hartswood forest. There he happens upon an intriguing stranger, assuming him to be a tracker for the visiting wedding party. The men end up spending the entire night together walking in the woods, aware of a growing spark between them. The night before the wedding, Penn decides to run away for good. When the man, Raff, once again runs into him, he assumes Penn to be a wayward servant seeking freedom from a cruel master. They decide to journey together to Raff's home to find a place for Penn to settle, but they never reveal their true identities. As they get closer and can no longer deny their attraction, their secrets become harder to hide. Will they ruin their burgeoning relationship when they both finally tell the truth?

This book is primarily a journey story, and everything about it is subtle, yet I was completely mesmerized from page one. I loved that BOTH guys have hidden identities, so they really get to know each other without pretense from the start. The story switches POV's often, so we get frequent glimpses into Penn and Raff's thoughts, and, while it's obvious from the start that they are attracted to each other, the slow burn is just delicious. We also get some very cleverly done forced proximity ("oh no, it's cold, we have to share a bed roll!"), "who did this to you", and beautiful hurt/comfort scenes (the only real source of serious angst in the story, despite the direness of Penn's situation). Not a ton happens until the end, but while I loved getting to see their relationship develop, the emotional ending gave me all the feels.

I think this book just lit a fire under me to seek out more queer hisrom, I really forget how much I love this subgenre until I read it. If you are looking for something refreshing and unique, this book is it. I'm very grateful to NetGalley for the ARC, it's an amazing new release.

Queer historical romance is just about the only sort of historical romance I find enjoyable. I felt immediately sucked into this book. Love the unique road trip story. I felt like both characters were developed & had plenty of depth.

Thank you to the publisher, author, & NetGalley for a copy of the arc.

A sweet LGBTQIA+ historical love story! Especially love that tit takes place during Medieval times! A very unique period to be able to read about, and such a romantic story with lovable and well-written characters