Overall I love this series. The Grand Palace on the Thames is essentially a character in the books. The series is about a widow/lady whose husband dies leaving she and his former mistress destitute. They create a rooming house on the docks, in a former bordello. In their rooming house, which they dub, The Grand Palace on the Thames, they try to create a little community and have a regular cast of characters along with a new couple each book that either meet or get together at the GPOTT.

In this book. Magnus Brightwall and his erstwhile wife Alexandra stay at the GPOTT for a bit after she has been put in jail for a scheme of her cousin's and he is back in the country after fighting in Spain. Magnus and Alexandra married 5 years prior and on their wedding day he spied her kissing a (former) beau and went off alone to Spain. 5 years later he's decided to make a change and send Alexandra to her family who have moved to New York, while he is made an Earl in London because of his service and having saved the life of a peer.

They start off their relationship estranged, and having to make some forays into society because of his homecoming and also upcoming promotion to Earl. Magnus was an orphan who worked his way up through the military and met Alexandra's father when she was about 22. He got to know her over a house party and then offered to essentially set up her family if she married him. She was planning on having a standard upper class marriage, but he was hurt by the kiss and she was essentially alone for 5 years.

Over the few weeks they are going into society they learn a bit more about each other, including Magnus telling Alexandra that he essentially married her because he fell in love with her at first sight and would do anything to be with her. They have a one night stand essentially and Alexandra starts to realize that she really does enjoy spending time with Magnus.

I loved their story and felt so much for Magnus. And of course the GPOTT and the community atmosphere helped their relationship along. His letter to Alexandra at the end made me more sad than relieved for Alexandra and I didn't enjoy the epilogue. The book was a solid 5 for me for most of the book until the last few pages and the epilogue, so I'd perhaps give it a 4.75 and a cursory round up to 5 just because I love the series.

I hope there are more adventures (including the romance Long hinted to between Dot and Mr. Pike) at the GPOTT.

I received an advanced promotional copy and am giving an honest review.

As always, these are delightful. I do admit that the hero was a little thinly drawn here - the heroine's internality was great but his, eh, a little undercooked. Still nice to spend time with friends but I wonder if these are getting just a bit formulaic?

The book is written well and has interesting characters. I liked the concept of the story and the overall book. It did feel the story was a bit disjointed and jumped around a little bit. I wish there was more backstory between Alexandra and Magnus and more after they reunited. The true reasoning regarding their separation seemed a bit too unbelievable to me. There were times I found the side characters (those running hotel) to be more interesting. The reunification of Alexandra and Magnus felt too rushed and I wish we’d have learned more about the contents of his pocket. For me personally, the ending was wrapped up too quickly. I enjoyed the writing and think the disjointed feel was likely due to formatting and some final editing page breaks or images which were not on this uncorrected copy. I enjoyed the donkey race scene and it made me wish for more about Dot.

This was a cute historical romance. I've like other books by this author and thought I'd give it a try. I loved how the book started - captured my interested right away, but then I thought it slowed down a lot...perhaps too much. I wish there would have been a little more character development and maybe a little more action to the story overall.

I give this one 3 stars.

Julie Anne Long is an automatic request, automatic buy for me. I love this series SO MUCH. Every one holds up. One typo in "The Beast Takes a Bride" can be found in Chapter 13- it says "taken take" instead of just "take."

Another slow-burn, very funny romance. A not-uncommon Regency trope - estranged couple forced back in proximity and discover they have *feelings*. But, this story has a very fresh take, and damn, it works.

There was one particularly raucous conversation in the sitting room of the Grand Palace on the Thames involving fountains and other garden statuary (don't ask). I had a flashback of reading the "Dortmunder" novels by Donald Westlake, and the "gang" meeting in the back room of the O.J. Bar & Grill. Westlake was the Grand Master of absolutely pitch-perfect bonkers conversations, and I think he'd cackle at Julie Ann Long's characters.