Fil Reid
Dragonblade Publishing
7 February 2025
256
eBook - EPUB
Regency Romance
ARC via NetGalley
Having been forced to help bring up her younger siblings, Miss Elenora Wetherby knows one thing: she does not want to get married and have children of her own. Her mama, though, has other ideas. She insists on presenting her oldest daughter in society to secure a rich husband who will support the nearly bankrupt estate and preserve her older brother’s inheritance. However, Elenora is not like either her younger sisters or the other debutantes. In a time before autism was understood, she’s very much “on the spectrum” and has no idea why she doesn’t feel things the way others do.
Jack Deveril, Viscount Broxbourne, is nearing his fortieth year, and has so far successfully evaded predatory mamas’ attempts to ensnare him for one of their daughters. He lives a charmed life with a small but productive estate in Wiltshire, his latest mistress in a London town house, and a clique of like-minded friends. His life is perfect. But Jack has a secret. Living in his own house in London is the child of the actress he once loved, who was already married to a scoundrel who’d abandoned her. She died giving life to Jack’s son, little Edward, and Jack has sworn to bring him up with every advantage his mother never had.
When Jack and Elenora find themselves in a compromising position at a ball, their parents demand that he make an honest woman of her. Which neither of them want. But the mismatched lovers secretly agree to a sham engagement, planning to see out the season then quietly go their own ways—until Edward is kidnapped by his late mother’s ne’er-do-well husband.
A Sham Engagement was a book with an interesting premise, which I felt worked on some levels but not on others. On the plus side, it had an engaging plot that moved at a good pace throughout, and there were no glaring anachronisms to pull me out of the story. I had no issue with the age gap, but I did struggle to feel any chemistry between the characters, so their romance felt a little forced and, from Jack's part, seemed to focus on Elenora's looks a little too much. There were a lot of tropes in this story, too, and sometimes that made it feel a bit trope-heavy and overdone. I was on board for most of the narrative; however, Elenora's actions during the kidnapping seemed, to me, a bit farfetched and I struggled to suspend my disbelief in one or two of those scenes. Still, overall this was an entertaining Regency romance read that was mostly sweet with just a little bit of spice at the end. I am giving it 3.5 stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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