Captain William Hawksmoor never expected to inherit a title or estate and is not impressed when it happens. He is especially annoyed by the little detail that he must marry in a year or be forever under the control of trustees. The new Marquis of Altheney takes command of his new home, Kingscastle, determined to do his best despite the machinations of his widowed aunt.

The cover of this book caught my attention because it is really pretty. When I saw that it was “A classic Regency romance in the tradition of Georgette Heyer“, I was intrigued. I really enjoyed reading this one. It is very much to the similar to the style of Georgette Heyer, who is one of my favorite authors.

The characters were interesting and felt like they fit the word that the author created. I loved the details of Kingscastle. The new marquis was the kind of hero I enjoy reading, although in the end I felt like his personality changed a bit. His love interest, Eleanor Burgess, was a lovely lady as well, and I loved seeing them together.

The marquis’ aunt is our “villain” of the story. She has her plans for who he should marry, her timid daughter, and she sets out to make sure her nephew is going to falling with her plans by inventing tales. She is a rather one-dimensional character, and I was a little surprised how easily the marquis believed her.

Overall, it was an entertaining tale. I do think readers who enjoy a more traditional, clean Regency book will enjoy this one. I received an advance copy through NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. ( )

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I thought this was well-written and sweet, although the secondary romance, where the characters actually spent a lot of (page-) time together being kind to one another, was more convincing in the end than the main romance. The protagonists of the blurb were kept apart for much of the novel and spent the last third in the throes of 'a big misunderstanding'. My only other quibble was the scene where the hero is unnecessarily and uncharacteristically rude to the two women hoping to make money out of his (unknown to them) dead cousin. There is a similar scene in Heyer's 'False Colours' which is much kinder. ( )