I loved this regency romp filled with joy and unexpected love. The writing is engaging and the characters come alive on the page. It is a great start to a new series.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This new historical romance series from Virginia Heath was a fun read, but the insta-love never seemed to get on track with the characters. I love her previous writing and I think this series will be a fun one to continue with periodically, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters overall.

II've decided to DNF this title. Review witheld due to the SMP boycott. I will not be releasing a review until SMP makes a statement. Thank you.

This is the first book in Virginia Heath's new historical romance series, and I was excited to read it after enjoying her Merriwell Sisters series. Heath writes such lovely romances, and I really enjoyed this one! It kind of reminds me of The Sound of Music with the military and ordered MMC and the free-spirited governess, as well as the slow-burn, opposites attract feel to their romance.

A governess who hasn't made it past the interview stage, Georgie is too opinionated and not traditional enough in her educational philosophies. Luckily, Henry is a bit desperate for a governess since his sister dropped her children off for an extended stay with him, and he needs to hire someone immediately. And luckily for Georgie, Henry's impetuous charges thrive under her instruction. I liked Georgie a lot. She is intelligent and firm in her beliefs about teaching and interacting with children. She's very different from the conservative military man who hired her. Henry is a good man, kind and caring, but he is very structured and controlled, which clashes with Georgie's more relaxed attitude.

The banter between Georgie and Henry is great, and I liked all of their conversations about education, philosophy, what the kids were learning, and more. They have a ton of chemistry even though they are very different, and I think their differences and their growing closeness changes both of them for the better. And the kids are great! They're wild and inquisitive and funny, and they bring a lot of life to Henry's home, as does Georgie.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. It's entertaining and fun, and the characters and romance are lovely. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

All’s Fair in Love and War was a little too insta-love for me. The rest of the story was fun but the romance fell a little flat for me. I think perhaps others will really enjoy the book, it’s more of a “not for me” thing.

3 Stars.

🐕 The vibes:
- Temporary guardian and governess
- Wild children
- Regency romance
- Enemies to lovers
- Military MMC / governess FMC

🐕 My thoughts:
Georgie - a governess protege has been declined from 33 governess interviews. She’s too opinionated and untraditional for most families. But when Captain Henry Kincaid is desperate for a governess for his nieces and nephew, he snatches Georgie up.

🐕 While I do think this was more focused on Georgie and the kids and Norbert the family dog- it was still a fun read. The romance was there but did feel a bit instalove for me because of how few interactions there was overall. The romance did feel a bit of a side plot for most of the book and I wish for a little bit more interactions between Georgie and Harry throughout so that I could feel a bit more invested in their journey together. But even so, I did enjoy both characters and their individual journeys.

🐕 I’m so interested in this new series from Virginia Heath. I’m a big fan of her Merriwell Sisters series so I was thrilled to see more from her. The fact that this series is called Miss Prentice’s Protégées makes me SO EXCITED because when the other protégées were introduced in this book, I was thinking how I wanted books on each of them. Little did I know that’s what the whole series follows. So I’ll definitely be checking those out in the future.

Release date: May 28, 2024

Thank you so much to Virgina Heath, St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*note- posted on Storygraph, Instagram stories on 4/23/24 & saved permanently on Story Reviews highlights, goodreads, and barnes and noble. Links provided. Will be posted on Amazon after release date when Amazon allows me to.

Funny, fun and charming. As expected when reading a Virginia Heath book, I was delighted and highly entertained. Georgie is an immensely likable character. I loved her “inner Joan of Arc” she was constantly battling when she felt an injustice being done. I look forward to reading more about her sisters-in-arms, aka governesses.

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press.

Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

This book had a lot of potential. I think the general plot was great and characters were lovely. My complaint and it is rather a big complaint— in an instant, Georgie and Harry went from barely tolerating each other to some pretty heavy making out and eventually the full deed. It is hard to believe they actually loved each other when there was not really a basis of friendship. There was also some pretty crass language that I didn’t care for.

This was delightful! In the past I've been annoyed by FMC that are "outspoken" or have too fiery of a personality that the entire book (and their character development) is just to describe how outspoken and fiery they are...., but Georgie was a perfect blend that I absolutely adored! The banter between Harry and Georgie was great in slow building their relationship. Speaking of Harry, he is neurotic military man who hilariously misquotes famous military leaders but is genuinely a tender-hearted man who is oblivious and needs Georgie to keep him grounded.

The children were hilarious, and their antics were exactly what I would expect of bohemian parents with a touch of discipline.

There were a few typos/grammatically incorrect things in this book. It honestly took a long time for me to get into it, but loved the story like halfway through. I love Virginia Heath so I will read any regency book she writes. I am excited about the rest of this series.

This book was adorable. I did really like it, for what is was, which is a really adorable historical romance. There wasn’t anything wrong with this book, there were just a couple places where the sentence structure felt choppy and it pulled me out of the story.

All in all, delicious and delightful and I loved reading about Georgie and Harry, but mostly Norbert and Cuthbert :)

💜What I loved:
Opposites attract trope
Mischievous children
Closed-ish door romance (it is not the main reason they're together anyway)
Excellent characters-I loved all the supporting characters and the supporting pup.
The bond between Henry and his nephew and nieces

What a great start to this new series, and I can't wait for book 2!

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 (Romance)
Release Date: May 27, 2024

Synopsis: Georgie Rowe was taken to Miss Prentice’s School when she was sixteen to learn to be a governess, seven years later, she has graduated and is struggling to find a position. When Harry Kincaid’s flighty sister drops her three children off at Harry’s home, he is in desperate need of a governess. Harry hires Georgie as a temporary governess, but will he want to keep her around for a long time?

My Thoughts: I thought this was a very cute slow burn romance. I did like that Harry finally realized that the life he was living maybe wasn’t actually fulfilling. I, like George, found Harry to be quite insufferable for the first ~50% of this book. But I honestly think that was the point, and I did warm up to him at the end. I thought the kiddos were delightfully rambunctious and I thought Georgie was great at adapting her teaching style for them. Anyway, I liked the book a lot. Would recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for providing me an advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

If you love Regency romances or Slow burn romances, you’ll love this book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I hadn't read a regency romance before, but the recent trailers for Bridgerton inspired me to pick this up. It was lighthearted and fun with minor angst (no miscommunication, phew) and moderate spice (I'd say 2.5 out of 4 chili peppers). The first person POVs were focused but I felt they sometimes went on too long about things unimportant to the plot. This is a series and I'd be interested in reading Lottie's story, as she seems the most rebellious to the norms of the time period.

This was such a fun cute romcom that I really enjoyed. The writing wasn't perfect but it was sweet. I ended up finding tons of moments where I found myself giggling. I rated this a solid 3 stars. I appreciate the opportunity to review this novel and would consider reading another by this same author.

Fun and easy to follow, love this romcom a lot, the setting was great, like the plot and how the characters developed , would be recommending

This was a really slow burn, and at first I was really not into the attitude of the FMC towards the MMC at all, but once she let up on her prejudices and started having fun with him I thought things really picked up. While I have a ton of Virginia Heath's books on my TBR, this is my first one and now I will definitely go back and catch up on what I've missed. 3.75 stars

i am OBSESSED! this is probably my favorite novel by virginia heath by far! i cannot wait to buy a physical copy for my collection so that i may read it again and again!

Thanks to NetGalley for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Virginia Heath is slowly becoming one of my favourite regency romance authors. After really enjoying the Merriwell sister series (although I was slightly let down by the third), I was pretty familiar with Virginia Heath's writing. She, however, continues to keep her stories engaging and entertaining while maintaining some depth to each of her main characters. Georgie is a great female main character. I loved that she was strong-minded and never backed down from her principles. The slow-burn between Georgie and Harry is well done - I love a good pining male character (haha). My one gripe with the book is that I would have liked more to the ending i.e. exploring Harry's journey in his decision, as it did seem slightly rushed with most of the character development occurring off the page.

Overall, this is a really well done historical romance and I highly recommend picking this one up

Struggling governess Georgie Rowe who believes in cultivating joy in her charges clashes with the children’s uncle Captain Harry Kincaide who hired her. This has Sound of Music vibes, especially with stern, navy career focused Harry with his two watches and the opinionated and loving Georgie.

It was a fun premise that struggled with pacing, even with knowing this is the first in a series and needs a little more setup. Characters being in their own heads for long paragraphs at a time slowed the action for me. There could be pages of exposition before one character answered another character. I ended up skimming big chunks which is too bad because the characters are likable. They just needed more page time together for me to be invested in their low stakes conflict.