Actual quotes from the book as Livia arrives in her new home: "It was a place to LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE!" and "Now it was filled with LIGHT, LOVE, JOY." (attempting not to gag)

Good story but so, so poorly written. It feels like it's trying way too hard to be a Jane Austen romcom.

At first I didn't like a single character in this book. Livia comes across as immature, constantly playing the victim with a "woe is me" attitude. And Gabriel? He's just a Mr. Darcy wannabe.

Now, I love cheesy, over-exaggerated historical romances, but this book takes it to a whole new level of bad writing. The cheesy elements just don't stick.

Finally, just when I start to gain some interest, the book takes a sudden turn in a completely different direction. It's frustrating how it often starts on one storyline, like a tense conversation in the parlor, and then abruptly shifts focus to Livia's internal monologue for the next three pages. Did the conversation even finish? How did it end? And then, it tries to snap back to said conversation or without warning, it's suddenly the next day.

The book rambles on, leaving stories hanging in the middle of the page. It leaves important things out and then overstuffs it with random nothings.

Overall, liked the story, detested the writing. ( )

Gabriel's grandmother (who only goes by Mrs. Penhallow) tries to set him up with a perfectly refined wife. However he comes across Olivia who is essentially a nobody but who also stirs his passion. The family goes to Bath where Gabriel mostly avoids his grandmother and Olivia whom she is turning into a real lady. He still learns that he's falling for Olivia even through the few encounters they share. Mrs. Penhallow becomes ill and the struggles that come from that bring the family closer together. Then they go to the country estate to find things in disrepair and this causes a rift in the family again. Gabriel's cousin shows up and there is a misunderstanding in which Gabriel thinks his cousin and Olivia have fallen in love. Gabriel releases her from their engagement and Olivia runs away. Gabriel goes after her, tells her he loves her and everyone becomes close again. ( )

Gabriel Penhallow comes to Wiltshire to meet the woman his grandmother as picked to be his bride. She is beautiful, accomplished, a perfect ornament to the society marriage he expects as a member of the wealthy Penhallow family. Instead, he ends up kissing the poor but rebellious orphan neighbor girl, Livia, in the garden at the ball where he is supposed to propose to Celia, the aforesaid 'perfect' woman. Of course, they are caught and Gabriel proposes to Livia instead.
She is whirled away to Bath to be trained in 'the Penhallow Way' by his grandmother while Gabriel makes places to ensconce her at his country estate while he travels the world.
I enjoyed this book very much. There were times when Gabriel was too 'Mr. Darcy-like' (the pompous, arrogant one), and one scene was a take-off of Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre meeting, but as the story went on, I could see the reasons for his pomposity in his childhood. Livia was a bit immature as could be expected from her upbringing, but she lost some of her fire partway through the book as she took on a bit too much of 'the Penhallow Way' persona. Ms. Berne is an engaging writer though, and I couldn't stop reading it. I just grabbed the next book in the series about the Scottish wastrel Penhallow cousin and I'm looking forward to reading it. ( )