This was one of my first Harlequin Historicals in awhile. To cut to the chase it did not disappoint!
To give a very brief summary Alice sneaks into a ball with her friend and along the way a handsome stranger comes to her aid. Per Georgian times they are seen together in the garden and gossip runs amok. The handsome stranger turns out to be the Earl of Northumberland and he does the right thing asking for her hand. But as with most marriage of convenience stories there is so much bubbling under the surface. To find out more you will have to read it!
Both main characters are very likable and it is a very good look at how grief can affect so many aspects of life and those that love others going through grief need to remember patience.
I look forward to reading more of Laura Martin's novels!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC. I'll start off by saying that a publicly witnessed compromise followed by a marriage is one of my favorite tropes and in that regard this book definitely delivers. That being said, this is one of the few historical romance books where the influx of modern thinking/actions by the main characters took me out of the storyline. The way Alice (the heroine) sneaks in to the masquerade and subsequently interacts with hour hero was too far removed from the social standards of the time and for some reason keep me from immersing myself in the book. A solid read for anyone who isn't bothered by things like that.

When faced with the prospect of marrying her vile cousin Cecil, the ordinarily cautious Alice joins her friend Lydia in sneaking into a neighbor's masquerade ball. She encounters Simon, Earl of Northumberland, who saves her from an embarrassing mishap. They dance, they talk, and, during a stroll in the garden, engage in an ill-advised kiss before Alice runs off. Unfortunately, they were seen, and rumors began to circulate. Simon does the honorable thing and proposes.

Simon never intended to marry. He inherited the title after his older brother's sudden death, a death very much like their father's. He suffers from the same kind of headaches they did and is convinced that he will also die young. Rather than put his family through seeing that happen, Simon plans to leave the country and go off to die alone. But he won't leave Alice to suffer the consequences of their actions, so he marries her first. It will be a marriage in name only, and when he is dead, she will be free to pursue the love she craves.

They marry, and Simon leaves within days. Alice is left to build her own life, which she does. Meanwhile, Simon has been off in Italy, waiting to die, only to find that the headaches have stopped. When a doctor tells him there's no reason to believe he will die soon, Simon goes home to England and the wife he has ignored for almost a year. Alice is stunned by his arrival but hopeful that her marriage will become real.

I liked Alice. She is kind, compassionate, and determined. I loved how she moved to London and made a life for herself, making friends and finding a purpose that satisfied her. The scenes of her working with her charity were terrific.

I had a harder time liking Simon. His grief over his father's and brother's deaths was understandable, and I ached for him because of the guilt he felt for being alive. But after a while, I felt he was using it as an excuse to avoid getting close to Alice.

The development of Simon and Alice's relationship was frustrating at times. Alice is wary of letting herself grow close to Simon because she isn't sure he won't run again. But the more time they spend together, the more she sees the man he could be. Simon is attracted to Alice but tries to resist. He is also fascinated by her. But his survivor's guilt is so intense that every time he starts to feel that he could be happy, he pulls away, hurting Alice in the process. I loved seeing Alice finally call Simon out on it and its effect on him. The ending was emotional, and the epilogue was a nice wrap-up to their story.

Refreshing...

This was a refreshing read. Alice is about to wed her vile second cousin, Cecil. She and her friend sneak into the Earl's ball and Alice meets Simon, the new earl, who also finds her without guile and refreshing. He has inherited the title he did not want after his brother died. He does not want to wed. But, on that night, while Alice is trying to make memories before she is forced to wed Cecil, turns out, her fate is sealed when someone witnesses Simon kissing Alice.
Recommend.

Unfortunately I wasn't a fan of this book. The romance was great, you could tell the characters were good together, however the pacing of the novel was all over the place.

Miss Alice James is not normally reckless, but with the prospect of being engaged to her vile cousin Cecil, she embraces the idea of one final night of freedom and agrees to sneak into a masquerade party with her best friend Lydia. Once at the party the girls are separated and Alice meets Simon Westcroft, the Earl of Northumberland. They share a dance and then a kiss, before she runs off. The next day it comes out that they were seen, and Simon does the honorable thing and proposes. But Simon has secrets, and his proposal has conditions, most notably that he will be leaving the country within days of the wedding Alice and does not plan to ever return. But with her only other option is to marry Cecil – she accepts. She sets out to build a life for herself alone and does so for almost a year when without a word, Simon returns and upends everything. Can marriage to a stranger lead to HEA?

Simon inherited the earldom from his older brother Robert, who had been the earl for years, since the sudden death of their father – a death, that a very young Simon witnessed. Simon grieved hard for his father but thankfully he had Robert to help him through. But when just a few years after Robert married, he too suddenly passed away, Simon is adrift and lost to grief. He is sure that he too will die young and without warning, as he is suffering from headaches just like his father and brother – because of this he has decided to leave his home and die alone, to spare his family the pain of his death. He never anticipated meeting Alice and had never planned to marry, but when it becomes clear that she will be ruined unless he marries her, he proposes. But marriage changes nothing, he is still going to die, and he is even more determined to leave England. But when the headaches stop and a doctor tells him it is not his time to go, he returns home to England and a wife he hasn’t even written to in almost a year. Simon should be happy, but instead he is consumed by survivors’ guilt and refuses to try and have a happy life with Alice. Will he ever let go of his guilt and let love in or has he doomed them both to a lonely, loveless life?

I liked this book, but I don’t think I would read it again, as it was a lot more angsty than I thought it would be and I found Simon’s continuous running away to be emotionally exhausting. I understood that the author was trying to walk the reader through the process of his grief and his survivors’ guilt, and it was probably an accurate representation, but for me it was just annoying that he repeatedly refused to be happy and honestly it started to feel like a pity party. That aside, Alice was amazing, and I wanted better for her – I am not convinced that Simon won’t once again run away. One other thing that irked me – he is the Earl of Northumberland, but he referred to and called Lord Westcroft and Alice called Lady Westcroft (as well as his brother’s widow and his mother) WHY? They should be Lord and Lady Northumberland – sigh. This is my first time reading this author and while I didn’t love this story, I did like her writing style and would be willing to read more of her work in the future. If you like angst, low steam and HEA – I would suggest you give this book a read.

3.5 stars, rounded up

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own. *

Alice sneaks into a masquerade ball, where she catches the eye of a dashing stranger. Their enchanting evening ends with a kiss. Caught in a compromising situation, the stranger—the Earl of Northumberland—proposes a convenient marriage with separate lives. Can she convince him that he deserves love and a true family?

This book focuses primarily on the hero’s “wound”—the loss of his father and brother to a condition he may or may not have inherited. I would have enjoyed more interaction between the characters and less of him wallowing in his sense of unworthiness, hurting everyone around him in the process. Building a loving relationship isn’t just about overcoming past wounds. It’s about learning how to compromise and share your life with the other person. Northumberland acts more like a broody teenager than a grown-up man with responsibilities. Alice is wonderful, and it takes him far too long to give her the love and attention she deserves.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

On the whole, I found this to be an okay read, but it wasn't without it's problems. I liked Alice and Simon together, and the way that the author made the reader aware of the fact that there was desire between them, but managed to keep it at bay while they instead focused on getting to know another another.

One of the main problems I had was the fact that this book seems to move at a breakneck speed where weeks at a time pass "off the page" (meaning we are told that a week has passed, or a month, whichever), and while I can appreciate the author trying to convey that the book takes place over the course of months instead of days, we see so little of our characters either alone or together that I never really felt like I got a deeper sense of who they were. Even when they were having supposedly meaningful conversations, at the end of the day they didn't seem to matter. Alice tells him uncomfortable truths, he runs off, gets drunk and comes stumbling home. He tells Alice he cannot be more, a few pages later he is giving her more.

The other problem that I had with this one is the fact that despite the fast pacing, it still manages to become tedious.

Simon is so plagued with guilt and the thought that he is "stealing" his older brother's life and/or that he is "unworthy" of love and happiness just because he is alive and his brother isn't. And it makes sense to a point. But then he and Alice have a heart-to-heart where she makes him understand that every time he leaves, every time he pushes others away, he is hurting them.

And yet, even after the pair grow closer, what does he do? Gets upsets and leaves her (this time is worse than the others as she definitely should not have been left to walk home alone after what had happened to her). And while yes, it's understandable due to the circumstances, but there is absolutely no reason why he couldn't have gotten a note to her somehow to alleviate her worries.

Then of course, he chases after her when she's decided she's had enough and decides to declare himself in love and of course, she forgives him without making him actually prove it to her. But that, I've come to learn, is typical for historical romances.

All things considered, while this particular novel didn't work for me, I would give this author another chance.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

this book was just okay for me. i felt as if i was being pushed through the story without ever being given the chance to enjoy it or get to know the characters in a meaningful way. i think i may try it again in a few weeks and see if i feel differently.

I’ve never read a book by this author before so she is new to me. I tried very hard to like this book as I love historical romances but I just couldn’t get into the book at all. The beginning just dragged on so badly and the plot didn’t feel well thought out.