Tropes: grumpy MMC/sunshine MFC; governess falls for her employer
Steam level: 2ish (open door sex scene is pretty mild)
Angst level: low
Start of a series

Although this started off rather slow start for me, I found myself charmed by the end. Georgie, the MFC, is a likable heroine whose stubbornness and outspokenness are balanced by intelligence and honestly. While the MMC, Henry (his nickname Harry is used through most of the book) seems stuffy and negative at first, he gradually shows a sweet, vulnerable side that's genuinely appealing. And while I'm not always into HR's that feature multiple kids and pets, the kids in this one are cute and non-obnoxious, and I absolutely loved the scenes between Harry, Norbert, and Cuthbert. It's hard not to be a sucker for a guy who's good with animals.

The plotline is predictable for the most part but well executed in the last third, with the baddie not exactly who you might expect. The romance is slow-burn. No OTT confrontations or language; everything is PG-rated. The central theme of not living someone else's life is nicely conveyed, but what makes this a solid 4 star book for me is the intelligent writing and the warmth of the humor.

Why not 5 stars? I mentioned the slow start. There is a glut of long-winded interior monolog-ing, particularly in the early chapters, which is honestly best skimmed through. I wish the author had edited out some of this and replaced it with more scenes where the MC's got to know each other. For all of Georgie's pondering her difficult past with her stepfather, for example, she and Harry never discuss how it's impacted her take on men and relationships; meanwhile, he gets a chance to explore what he really wants but on his own. Also, there are occasional lapses into purple prose.

Bottom line: I think this does ultimately do what it sets out to do. It's lighthearted, good-hearted escapism that's like a fluffy confection that you have to spend a bit of time getting into before you hit the best bits.

I read an advanced reader copy of this book and this is my voluntary review. Opinions are my own.

This book had really cute moments but overall I was just bored while reading it. It moved at a glacial pace and even still there was no real chemistry between the main characters. As someone who usually finishes a book in a day or two, the fact that this one took me almost a week says it all.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review..

- I enjoyed reading this book. However, I didn’t love it, for a few reasons. First, it felt like there was a general lack of attention to historical realities, including those of class and the workers’ conditions. So many of my favorite historical romance books are radical and abolitionist and this was not that. It felt too ahistorical to even register, honestly. Second, I don’t feel like we got the character development arcs we (and Georgie and Harry) deserved. The last third of the book felt generally rushed and kind of unfinished? I think both main characters had deep-seated trauma that was kind of just pushed aside for a convenient, quick ending and I feel like we missed out on some of the good stuff. I will absolutely read more by Heath, because I loved her Merriwell Sisters series, but this one just wasn’t it for me!

All’s Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath was an interesting regency romance that I enjoyed.

When Henry Kincaid finds himself in need of a governess to educate and take care of his sister’s 3 children, he heads straight to Miss Prentice’s School for Girls to find someone for the job. Georgina Rowe happens to be available and ready to start immediately. Georgie and Henry have such a great connection and Georgie’s interactions with the children were so sweet and heartwarming as well.

I enjoyed this book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Georgie enjoys working with children. She is a hit with her new changes. Their uncle is another story. I liked this book.

Georgina (Georgie) Rowe is one of Miss Prentice's proteges, which means she should easily be able to obtain a governess position. However, her propensity for speaking her mind, especially about how best to educate and discipline children, does not go over well with prospective employers whose beliefs she is challenging, if not outright disparaging.

Captain Henry (Harry) Kincaid is an overworked naval officer currently seconded to the Admiralty where he was in charge of procurement, as well as fixing seemingly insurmountable problems -- the biggest of which is currently the much-delayed building of the HMS Boadicea. However, he is soon to be faced with an even bigger problem -- his flighty sister Flora and her husband have left on a trip to Egypt and deposited their children (Felix, Marianne, and Grace) and Felix's dog Norbert, with their uncle Harry, without informing him in advance or obtaining his consent. Harry adores his nephew and nieces but is not in a position to properly care for them for months. As a result, he desperately needs a governess, and that governess is going to be Georgie.

Georgie does not have particularly fond opinions of the military, having been dragged from barrack to barrack by her stepfather, an Army Colonel, who found Georgie more of a nuisance than anything else. So, she takes an immediate dislike to Captain Kincaid, with his two pocket watches, orderliness, and desire for discipline and decorum. Captain Kincaid, for his part, has serious doubts that Miss Rowe can be commanding and forceful enough to get his nephew and nieces to behave and to implement the structure and discipline that is woefully lacking due to their upbringing by two bohemian parents.

Georgie's new role as governess does not get off to the most auspicious start, as she cannot help but chafe at and resist the strictures that Harry wants to impose with regards to the children's education. Sitting at their desks and practicing their sums or their writing or listening to her lecture has its place, but Georgie believes children learn best when given the opportunity to explore the world around them and combine learning and play. This is certainly true for Felix, Marianne, and Grace, who are not used to sitting in a classroom, but whose unconventional upbringing has left them well versed in areas that interest them. Also, Harry has the unfortunate habit of turning up to check on the children and Georgie at the most inopportune times, when everything is falling apart.

As Georgie witnesses how Harry interacts with the children, and as Harry observes the improvements in the children's behavior and how much Georgie cares for them, their opinions of each other start to change. More significantly, feelings of a much more intimate nature start to develop, but there are multiple obstacles to pursuing their feelings, including Georgie's belief that her appearance, especially her wild red hair, is unappealing. Yet, the reason that Harry can so often be seen looking at her hair has nothing to do with distaste.

With very different personalities, considerable personal baggage for both of them, and three rambunctious children and their rambunctious dog, there are plenty of misunderstandings and missteps, and lots of hilarity. There are also plenty of sweet, tender moments, and eventually some rather intimate moments.

Virgina Heath’s newest series just might be my favorite by her! Anything that has a Sound of Music feel is always going to be my jam and this was no exception.

Georgie and Harry are delightful together in a delicious slowburn with a scene stealing dog and two free spirited children. Harry is so starchy and exacting (which is my favorite historical MMC trait) and he NEEDS Georgie to lighten him up a bit. The angst was perfectly done and Georgie’s backstory with her abusive stepfather was handled with such care. I especially love the moments with the kids. Kids can be hit or miss in romances for me, either feeling like adults in tiny bodies or like background furniture. But these kiddos were delightfully present and I adored them.

I do think at times the story lagged (there is such a thing as too slow of a burn) but I was so in love with everything else going on that it wasn’t as bothersome as it has been in other stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for an ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this start to a new series. Set in the Regency era, the book is about an orderly-type former naval officer, Henry, who cannot seem to handle the hustle and bustle of his sister's children and seeks help from a governess, Georgina, whose methods of "let children be children" conflict with Henry's. I always love an opposites attract storyline, and of course we have that here, but the author does as great job of not making that plotline formulaic. This was quite more slow than typical, which drew out all of those tensions and made for great anticipation and also a lot of room for the characters to discover things about themselves (I see myself in Henry a bit). I also really loved the dog!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3 Stars ⭐️

I am a fan of this author’s writing style. I thought I would love this story because it’s has a blue stocking/governess heroine and a stuffy former naval officer hero but it was missing something. The heroine has strong opinions on children’s education and discipline however she is trying to curb her tongue to land a job as a governess.
There is a lot of internal dialogue which slows the pace of the book. There are some witty scenes but the preconceived opinions of the protagonist which led to unnecessary miscommunication between them was distracting. Overall, this is a well written book.

Thank you to the publisher for providing the ARC.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have read quite a few books by Virginia Heath, and enjoyed them all. But this was my favorite by far of all of them. Heath's writing gets better and better with each book!

“All's Fair in Love and War” by Virginia Heath
Oh, my what a FUN adventure ! !
I was completely captured by this story. I felt the pulls and pushes that had brought all the characters to be the people they were at the beginning of this story. Then I lived through the turmoil aka adventure as their lives are buffeted twixt: what they think they know, what they have experienced, and what they learn. Happy Reading ! !
Note: This review expresses my honest opinion.

What a wonderful start to a new series! The setting and characters were dreamy and the story was so charming. I loved Georgie and Harry and the children were the perfect additions to this cast. There was some redundancy to the internal dialogue that got to me a bit, but it didn’t impact the overall all enjoyment at all. Fans of regency romance, grab this ASAP!

I enjoyed this story very much. I loved Georgie and all her modern ideals. Harry was a proper gentleman and did his best to resist his attraction to Georgie. I found the juxtaposition of his reservations about relationships and Georgie’s interesting. This one is definitely a slow burn, but not in a bad way for me. It made sense within the context of their power dynamic, station and economic situations for the time period it took place in. Harry’s nieces and nephew and the dogs added a playfulness to the story. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, assuming it will be about one of Georgie’s other governess friends.

***Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Griffin and Virginia Heath. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own.***

Virginia Heath has written a beautifully romantic story about a unique governess, Miss Georgina Rowe, the children she is in charge of and their stickler for rules Uncle Harry, Captain Kincaid. I was extremely fortunate to receive an ARC of All's Fair In Love and War from Netgalley. I was enthralled with the witty dialog, the children's antics, and most especially the uniqueness, stamina and persistence of Georgie for standing up for her methodology of teaching attributes. The love story develops from a budding relationship into a blooming coming together of two souls who look at life with opposing viewpoints but complement each other with their antagonism. An absolutely wonderful book.

Honest review ahead:

This was a hard read for me, and I ended up DNFing at 52%. I've read other books by Virginia Heath and enjoyed them, and while the premise for this book was good, the pacing and plotting felt painful.

Georgie has been trained to be an excellent governess, despite her radical views that children learn more through play than by sitting in a classroom. Strict naval captain Henry has the opposite view when it comes to his unexpected acquisition of his nephew and nieces. Henry has every minute of his every day planned and structured, and expects Georgie and the children to adhere to a strict schedule as well. What he couldn't have planned was his attraction to Georgie's delectable figure and out-of-control hair.

Being honest, by 50% of the way through this book the two main characters had really only had one interaction together where they weren't strictly discussing the education of the children. After this one moment of intimacy the MMC decides it's been too long since he's "sowed any oats" and that he needs some "shore leave". There is much internal discussion about how eager he is to find a willing woman, and multiple paragraphs describing how he's gained some weight and needs to wear his newer, larger pants because they're less constricting for his nether regions. This is just one example of what felt like lots of filler that I read without any real character development or any indications that the two main characters were attracted beyond the physical at all. I can appreciate a slow burn, but there has to be some kind of fire lit to begin with, some kind of spark to start the process, and this book was lacking that.

I'm interested in reading more from Virginia Heath, despite this book being not for me. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

4.5 stars
Whew this was definitely an eye opening experience and read! Thoroughly enjoyed this one more than some others! My father is a Vietnam era Navy man!
Harry Aka Henry aka darling has made the Navy and ships his mistress and wife! He’s the fun uncle doting too! He’s suddenly left with a nephew and 2 nieces ad his sister and husband gallivant across the world!
Enter Georgie from Miss Prentice’ school for girls! Georgie had been the longest running pupil without an ever actually getting a position as a governess! She is very opinionated and this has not set well with any prospective employer!
Captain Henry aka Harry Kincaid is desperate! His flighty sister Flora had left 3 offspring with him and flown the coup to Egypt!
This is Georgie opportunity to finally get and keep a position!
These two have chemistry off the charts and can’t agree on anything!
He’s a pompous idiot and Georgie is. Siren that Harry can not afford to get involved besides the fact she is in his employment! Sparks fly and there are several laugh out loud moments!
Find out how two people completely different but yet share similar painful childhood can ever be?
Between a ship’s deadline and an attraction that is actually catching fire to the pages is there any hope?
Read this in public and laugh out loud at your own risk!
This one stays with you long after the last page! Bravo
I received an ARC copy for my unbiased review!

All's Fair in Love and War features a well-trodden historical romance tale of a main male character overrun by children who finds himself in need of a governess. The two subsequently fall in love. The question is: Are the characters and path memorable? In this case, I can say, kind of. I read it over a month ago and honestly could not really remember it. A quick look at the summary and I recalled that it was an opposites attract story, with the governess an outspoken graduate of a school run by Miss Prentice. Georgina was essentially abandoned there by her stepfather, but was luckily able to bond with three other ladies training there (cue future novels in the series). All of the other ladies are able to be employed, except for Georgie who cannot keep her piehole shut long enough to placate her employers during her interviews. She subscribes to what we would think of as modern childrearing as opposed to say, spare the rod, spoil the child. Guess who is more in favor of the latter? And there, dear reader is the conflict. The children were tolerable, the hero adequate, and they all kind of grew on me as I read along.

4 stars

An ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

Georgie Rowe has had a tough life, but things turn up when she's sent to a school to learn to become a governess. She excels at the job in theory, but always stumbles in the interview, unable to hold her tongue long enough to be hired. Harry Kinkaid's sister leaves her three children at his house while she and her husband head off to Egypt. Too busy with the navy to care for them himself, and, frankly, overwhelmed by their energy, he seeks a temporary governor, hiring the first person he interviews. The pair clash on their ideas of what it means to care for the children, but Harry's busy work schedule gives Georgie pretty much free rein. Despite being attracted to the governess, Harry knows there's no room in his career for a woman, at least not until he secures his promotion. Having grown up in the military, Georgie has no desire to return to that lifestyle as a wife. Yet, their mutual attraction may cause them both to waver in their determination to keep things strickly professional. A very fun regency romance with spice and swoon.

A new series by Virginia Heath is always reason to celebrate.

All's Fair in Love and War is the first in Miss Prentice's Protegees. Miss Prentice run's a school for governesses and she hand picks the students that will be trained there. All's Fair in Love and War is Georgina Rowe's story. Georgie is sent to the school by her indifferent and regimented stepfather. While she is at Miss Prentice's school she makes friends with three very different young ladies, who each have their own interests. Horse crazy Lottie, Portia the resident bluestocking and Kitty who is easily lost to daydreams. I would have loved to read about their training, but that would have to be a different series. There is a time jump to the present, May 1820, when the young ladies are either getting their jobs or have jobs as governesses. Three out of the four young ladies are able to get jobs, but Georgie's personality and opinions stand in her way of finding employment. She is stubborn and has a hard time getting through the interviews with prospective employers because she speaks her mind and believes in a more open system of learning. Georgie ends up teaching at the school until one fateful day Harry arrives in desperate need for a governess for his sister's children.

Sparks fly at once between Georgie and Harry but instead of sparks of attraction they are sparks of annoyance. The physical attraction is immediate and mutual, but their personalities are incompatible. Their attraction builds slowly, and it goes against what either one of them wants for themselves. Georgie is resigned to her life in service and a loveless life without a family of her own. Harry is resigned to his life in the navy and does not want entanglement. Both characters are chained to the past and it takes the present-day chaos to shake things up.

All's Fair in Love and War is filled with charming characters, fun situations and witty dialogue that is Virginia Heath's trademark. The author infuses a sense of history in the world that the characters live in, and it gives the book a lovely cinematic quality. I loved the slow burn romance between Georgie and Harry. The children were fun and individual in their pursuits and dog lovers will enjoy Norbert the children's furry companion.

All's Fair in Love and War is another entertaining five-star read from Virginia Heath. If you love a slow burn romance with a dash of family chaos and memorable characters, then All’s Fair in Love and War is for you.

I can't wait for the next book in the series.

Reviewed by Gayle

Review ARC provided by St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin via Netgalley

Virginia Heath does it again. She is quickly becoming one of my absolute favorite historical romance writers. Her books always deliver tension, and chemistry along with a good grovel to get a delicious happy ending.

This debut in a new series Heath introduces us to Georgie Rowe, an orphaned young woman who finally purpose as a governess after years of emotional abuse and then abandonment. Trained under the esteemed Miss Prentice, Georgie's dream of becoming a governess hits a roadblock due to her unwavering and somewhat unique principles on child-rearing.

Meanwhile, Captain Harry Kincaid's orderly military life is turned upside down when he's left to care for his sister's unruly children. Desperate for help, he hires Georgie, sparking a tumultuous relationship marked by their opposing views, him being a stick-to-the-rules kind of guy and her believing in the power of spontaneity and creativity.

As Georgie and Harry navigate their differences, comedic chaos ensues with the mischievous children and their lovable but chaotic dog. Through witty banter and humorous mishaps, the two find themselves drawn to each other and despite their initial clashes, they find they actually have a lot more in common and a passion that lights up the pages.

These characters are super charming, and the dialogue is absolutely playful, and heartwarming that you can’t help but love “All is Fair in Love and War.” I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series.

Finally, I want to give a very big thank you to NetGalley and Avon HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review.