Series: Misfits of the Ton #5
Author: Emily Royal
Published October 5th 2024 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Goodreads Synopsis
A spoiled heiress. An uncouth gardener. A match made in heaven—or in hell?
Lady Arabella Ponsford has it wealth, beauty, a title—and the vilest temper in England. She takes pleasure from punishing anyone who offends her—including the arrogant gardener whose impertinent gaze licks over her form and sets her pulse racing. When he threatens to penetrate her façade to reveal the unhappy woman beneath, she destroys his belongings then evicts him without payment.
Widowed father Lawrence Baxter staked his future on a gardening commission at a country estate. But the spoiled heiress living there—the very delectable spoiled heiress—has other ideas. After a brief but scorching kiss, when Lawrence glimpses a passionate creature beneath her conceited exterior, she ruins his livelihood in a fit of spite, and he vows vengeance.
When Arabella loses her memory in an accident and is left destitute by her treacherous family, Lawrence seizes the opportunity to take her home to work off her debt—provided he can stomach her foul temper, and she can manage his unruly family. But as Arabella adapts to a life filled with chores and children, Lawrence finds himself falling in love with the woman who rises to each increasingly difficult challenge he gives her—the woman who, beneath the harpy, is intelligent, resourceful, and kind.
But their life is a lie. Lawrence owes Arabella the truth—even if the truth will cost him the woman he loves.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
For Lady Arabella Ponsford, being stuck back in her country estate is a bore, so when the handsome new gardener arrives, she decides to have her fun. Lawrence Baxter is a widowed father, who needs this job, and could do without an arrogant and pretentious young miss getting in his way. So when she decides to kiss him and then get him fired, Lawrence sets out for revenge, and it is far too easy as Arabella soon gets into an accident and loses all of her memories. Pretending she is his wife, and mother to his children, Lawrence put her work to pay off the debt her family owes. Lawrence soon realises he's enjoying her being in his home, mothering his children, a little too much.
I really didn't like this book. I loved the previous one, and had high hopes for this one, but the story was just unpalatable at times. Every time we had seen Arabella in the previous books, she'd been the mean girl and I wasn't too sure how her story would go. I felt like she would have a redemption arc of some sort, and yeah okay, she did in this book, but the way it happened was honestly a bit disgusting for me. Lawrence getting his children to pretend Arabella was their mother, including the youngest who honestly believed it, was cruel. Then there's the way that Arabella couldn't really consent to what happened when she was Lawrence's 'wife' which just sickened me. I know I will read the other books in the series, but only because I'm hoping for better, and I was to clear them from my NG shelf. Not a book I can recommend.
Dates Read:
November 15-16, 2024
Rating
2 Stars
