It was cute and well-written, but kinda slow! Not much happened until halfway through, and I struggled to keep going sometimes. Still, I really liked the characters and the story! The ending was nice, though not super exciting. But I did enjoy the book, it was good to pass time.

Georgia is a governess who has just graduated from Miss Prentice’s School for Girls and finds herself in the one place she doesn’t want to be - a military household. Her previous experience with her stepfather left a bad taste in her mouth with military men and Henry Kincaid is the most stereotypical of military men, or so she thinks. He is left in charge of his two free-spirited nieces and one nephew while his sister travels, and he hires Georgia to tame them.

A proper historical fiction romance, this novel is a slow-burn love between a straighlaced navy man and a fierce orphan (and innocent) governess. It has a cinematic quality to it - I felt like several times I could see the actors on the screen! For genuine fans of Regency literature, it scratches the itch of historically-heavy descriptions, and lengthy unfolding of plot points, all thrown together with a romp at the end. Slightly spicy Austen, if you will! I enjoyed this book, although I felt the beginning was a bit slow to take off, but once it did, I was hooked. Also, I love the dogs - a super fun addition to the story. Can’t wait to read the rest of the series about Georgie’s friends and former Prentice school graduates!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Opinions are my own.

I've read all three of Virginia Heath's Regency era romances in the The Merriwell Sisters series and loved them all which is why her new series held such interest for me.

I wasn't let down either.

The protagonist, Georgie Rowe is an orphan (pretty much) with a neglectful stepfather ("the colonel") who washes his hands of her when she's 16 when he ends her off to Miss Prentice's Governess School where she befriends, Lottie and Portia, whom I can see becoming the next heroines in Heath's romance serial.

Georgie's a bold talker and not afraid to share her informed thoughts which makes her more disagreeable to finding suitable work as a governess as she doesn't pass muster during the interview stage, most often. Hence when the desperate Captain Harry Kincaid comes beckoning for a governess after his older sister leaves him strapped with her three children, Harry calls on Miss Prentice to find him a governess. Straight away there's physical attraction between Harry and Georgie though this is an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope so Georgie finds Harry mostly full of himself and a stickler for his order, unable to see anyone else's views. Harry takes to misquoting generals and great military leaders often which Georgie quickly corrects him for. As time passes, through their love and affection for the children and one another, they hook up.

I thought it was a slow burn of a romance and followed a more conservative approach to hooking up which is pretty much on par with Heath's style. It took almost 80% of the way into the book for two leads to fully act on their attraction. By way of comparison, most romance novels, it's about 60% of the way in. That said, it didn't bug me. I was invested and felt the characters were fleshed out enough for me to care.

Heath doesn't disappoint in her latest addition to her Regency romance arsenal. This one is a good debut for a new series as well.

It was adorable and very well-written, but definitely too slow! Nothing really happens until the halfway mark, and I found it hard at some points to continue reading. But I loved the characters and the story! The ending was cute, although a bit underwhelming! I adored the nautical references in Harry's speech at the end though, very adorable.

VIRGINIA! You scallywag.

Just kidding! What a cute and fun story! I instantly loved Georgie while also wanting to strangle Harry for being so pig headed. The characters were so well written and while it was apparent there was to be a happy ending, I was still gobbling up every sailing pun and Harry’s tendency to badly quote military men.

This is a slow burn book. Be prepared for giggling and feet kicking by the reader.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️/5

All's Fair in Live and War was a cute and easy read. Though, I did have to read it over a large chunk of weeks, because I was juggling other books at the same time. I like the idea of the school for governesses and following the girls on their assignments and seeing their friendship beyond the school. Georgina was good as the main character. She's everything you would expect a top governess to be... smart, strong, sassy when needed. Overall, a nice read. I hope that the next books follow Georgina's friends.

My only complaint really is that certain things are repeated over and over. For example, her mentioning that Harry doesn't like her red hair. And how he must be staring at it so much because he dislikes it. So on and so forth throughout the entire book. This really bothers me in books! (I fully recognize that this is just a reading quirk of mine, but felt it worthy of noting.)

Thank you for the opportunity to read an ARC!

Historical Romances are hit and miss for me, and while overall I enjoyed All’s Fair in Love and War, the pacing was a bit too slow and it just didn’t capture my attention the way I was hoping

DNF at 15%
In theory, I should’ve been obsessed with this book. I love a good historical romance. However, I quickly realized this was probably not going to be for me. But I keep going on, hoping it would get better for me. It didn’t. The reason I DNFed came down to the writing style. Now this style may not bother other readers, but for me, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Below I’ll go a little more into detail as to what I mean, but just know, this is my personal taste in books. I think other readers could love this book. And according to other reviews, they do. I just sadly couldn’t last longer than 15%.

So I was kind of into the story during the prologue, even though I was beginning to grow annoyed at how 75% of that chapter was info dumping. It was active enough that I didn’t automatically despise it, but it still caused me to not connect with the narrator, to not be invested in her story. But then she gets to the school and her “friends” introduce themselves in a way I expect a novice to introduce characters: Hi I’m so and so, I’m the blue stocking girl. And this is so and so and she’s the shy one. Literally. Then they started info dumping info about the school and the headmistress’s thoughts & reasonings for taking her on as a student even though they just arrived to that school too so how would they know this? Honestly, the prologue was useless and the nuggets of important info could’ve been slowly sprinkled into the main narrative. But deciding to shove away this annoyance, I continued, hoping things got better. It didn’t. I kid you not that each chapter is 75% internal monologues. I hate that. I’m here for a story not a lecture. And there were lectures too from the narrators! Like the narrative was paused so the current narrator could lecture us on some unimportant details. Or they would be telling us facts that would’ve been better if they were shown to us. The worst was when something was shown to us, it was immediately followed up with the author telling us what was happening, pretty much holding our hands like we wouldn’t be able to reach that conclusion on our owns. Honestly, the story could’ve been fine, but because of all the internal monologues and the telling and the hand holding by the author, I was done.
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Griffin for providing an advance reader copy of this book for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC copy.

Opinionated, and maybe a little too outspoken, recently graduated governess Georgie does not like the military. However, in an unfortunate twist of fate she ends up working for Captain Henry Kincaid, temporarily overseeing the education of his nieces and nephew. Georgie has her own ideas about education, which are completely different from the shipshape household Harry would prefer. A battle of wills ensues that draws the entire household into the melee.

Captain Henry (Harry) Kincaid is completely overwhelmed when his sister dumps her three young children and mutt at his home for several months while she and her husband are on an adventure. Harry needs help and he needs it fast, so perhaps he can be forgiven for hiring Georgie so quickly without really examining her references, and how he might feel about her.

From London to Plymouth the two well come to the point where they cannot deny their attraction for each other and without really realizing it, Georgie and Harry fall in love. Unfortunately, they can not figure out a way to make it work.

It's going to take Harry's family, Georgie's friends and mentor and two adorable dogs to get this couple to their HEA.

I have always enjoyed Virginiia Heath's books, and this is no exception. I am excited to begin a new series, and look forward to the other governesses’ stories.

3.75 stars. This was really cute, but a bit slow to start. I liked the banter between the MCs, especially the MMC constantly misquoting military leaders and the FMC correcting him. The kids were a bit too precocious for their ages. Also dogs! I was picturing an Irish wolfhound like dog? Adorable. The last chapter wraps it up really nicely and boosted my rating a bit — it was a lovely way to end their story.

This was a cute, fun book. There were times that it was kind of slow, but I enjoyed it overall. I enjoyed Georgie's character and found parts of the story to be funny. It had a mild spice level.

Delightful slow burn, regency romance with a swoony man in uniform and strong Sound of Music vibes. Would make a cute movie!

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my review.

All’s Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath is a charming slow-burn romance. I breezed through it in a day because I NEEDED Georgie and Harry to FINALLY get together! It was absolutely worth the wait in the end. I’m very excited to see what Heath has next for this new series!

All's Fair in Love and War is one of the best historical romances I've ever read. It's got Sound of Music vibes with an uptight naval officer falling for a free-spirited governess.

Harry Kincaid is an up and coming naval captain who's in charge of a huge project. His sister unexpectedly drops her three rambunctious children off at his home for an indefinite stay. He loves his nieces and nephew, but he's a bachelor with a demanding job and he needs a governess ASAP.

Georgie Rowe is a governess who's having trouble finding a job because of her modern sensibilities about childcare (as in treating children like children). Harry hires her out iof desperation and she quickly turns his life upside down.

This was such a fun book. Starchy naval captain meets a free spirit is a favorite trope and I love how the author handled it. It's also got grumpy vs. sunshine vibes. Although the two characters don't seem to have much in common at first, they both had difficult childhoods and they're more alike than they think.

The main characters have great chemistry, the book is hilarious, and the children are really fun. I ended the book with a giant smile on my face. I highly recommend it.

All’s Fair in Love & War had elements of so many things that I love: The regency & royal naval feel of Persuasion by Jane Austen, the banter & chemistry of Bridgerton, and a plucky governess & cranky Captain from The Sound of Music.

Somehow Virginia Heath made all of those things work together to create a hilarious regency rom-com, complete with a fiend of a dog
(Norbert is the best!).

The title tells you immediately that this is an enemies-to-lovers story. Harry endured too much chaos as a child and insists on order. Georgie endured too much order as a child and insists that some chaos is beneficial. But neither Harry nor Georgie is only one thing; they are multi-faceted people who can change their minds. Georgie keeps us updated on her feelings for Harry by telling us what what fraction of him is insufferable and what fraction is likable (very funny). Harry would have gone head over heels for Georgie instantly if he didn't have such a complicated past. The push and pull are entertaining. The children are funny, and Norbert the dog is hilarious. This is a good start to this new series.

I found this book very hard to get into. I liked the spunkiness of Georgie but I had a hard time believing that she would say and do some of the things she did-I was unable to suspend reality. I liked the male lead but not enough to sustain my interest.

This was my first Virginia Heath book but I’ve been curious about trying her historical romances. This was the perfect time since this is the first in a new series.

This gave me The Sound of Music/Mary Poppins vibes. There’s a huge family of kids and the adults start as enemies/adversaries. I liked the vibes a lot and found them to be entertaining.

The romance is a slow burn. It fit the characters and setting. I enjoyed the build up to the romance.

A delightful, entertaining read!

When Georgina 'Georgie' Rowe was sixteen, her horrible stepfather sent her to a prestigious school, hoping they'd turn her into a respectable governess. But despite her miserable upbringing, Georgie doesn't subscribe to the theory that children should be seen and not heard. She knows that children do better when there's a little fun involved. Unfortunately, her carefree attitude hasn't led to many job prospects. But then Harry Kincaid shows up. As a formal naval captain, Harry adheres to a strict schedule. He likes everything to be in order, so when his flighty sister leaves him in charge of her three children while she and her husband set off on an expedition to Egypt, he's left in desperate need of a caretaker. Instead of easing his burdens, Georgie only seems to frazzle him more. The pair couldn't be more different, but they'll soon learn that the heart wants what it wants.

I enjoyed Heath's previous series, so I was looking forward to diving into a new one. Her writing is always lighthearted and fun but still serious when necessary. It was fun watching Georgie and Harry interact because they were opposites. Georgie was free-spirited and playful, while Harry was a bit of the stick in the mud until you cracked his defenses. It led to so many endearingly awkward moments between the two that were so sweet. As for the romance, it did feel a little one-sided to me, and I would've liked more emotion on Georgie's part. Other than that, I liked it. Just like Heath's other books, her secondary characters stole the show. I love how they're always so sassy and bring humor into the story. The children, especially, were chaotic little tornadoes I couldn't get enough of. I'm looking forward to picking up the next book.

I enjoyed this story and the setting it was in. The world building was done really well. It gave Bridgerton vibes and I loved it. I can’t wait to purchase a physical copy because that cover is GORGEOUS.