The Forgotten Daughter
Series: The Ashmead Heirs #3
Author: Caroline Warfield
Published January 27th 2022 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.

Goodreads Synopsis
Fanny’s worthless father forgot her entirely. The earl’s steward plans to make it right; if only he can avoid falling in love with her while he does.

Welcome to book 3 in the fabulous series The Ashmead Heirs by bestselling author Caroline Warfield!

When the old Earl of Clarion leaves a will with bequests for all his children, legitimate and not, listing each and their mothers by name, he complicated the lives of many in the village of Ashmead and beyond. One of them was left out. She is the third of The Ashmead Heirs.

Frances Hancock always knew she was a bastard. She didn’t know her father was an earl until her mother died. The information came just in time. She and her mother’s younger children were about to be homeless. She needs help. Fast. What she wants is a hero.

Eli Benson, the Earl of Clarion’s steward, took great pride in cleaning up the mess left behind by the old earl’s will. When a dainty but ferocious young woman with the earl’s hair and eyes comes demanding help, his heart sinks. She isn’t in the will. She was forgotten entirely. And the estate is just getting its finances back in order. But he knows a moral obligation when he sees one. He may not be her idea of a hero, but people count on him to fix things. He’s good at it. Falling in love with her will only complicate things.

Eli will solve her problems or die trying. It may come to that.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Following the death of her mother, and drunkard step father, Frances Hancock knows she needs to find her birth father, the wastrel Earl of Clarion, and demand he give her her due, in order to save her family's business, and allow her to care for her siblings. But when Frances has managed to scrap together enough to travel to Ashmead, all she finds is that her father has passed, and the estate's steward, Eli Benson, has to tell her that she was the only illegitimate child of the previous Earl not to be left a bequest. Frances is at a loss, but Eli can't allow her and her family to suffer, so will do whatever it takes to help her, though his growing feelings for her may just complicate matters.

I've been wondering a lot about Eli, the brother of Rob, the protagonist from the first book, and hoped that he would be the hero at some point in this series. He's definitely an Ashmead boy, born and bred, and will do anything to help anyone, so Frances' story definitely hits a soft spot for him. When they meet, it's not the best of first impressions, but soon the spark that was there takes light, and they are clearly falling for each other, and falling hard. Another thing I loved was the mystery plot line, running alongside the romance, as I felt like it was one of the best if read recently, and kept me gripped until the final page. Now all there is to do is wait for the final book, and see if the current Earl can find happiness again, and overcome all his own difficulties.

Dates Read:
January 22, 2021

Rating
3 Stars