How to Meet Your Match on the Moors by Elizabeth Cole

On By TracyIn Book Publicity, Georgian Era (1714-1837), Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

How to Meet Your Match on the Moors: A Scottish Regency Romance (A Lady’s Guide to Scotsmen Book 2)How to Meet Your Match on the Moors: A Scottish Regency Romance by Elizabeth Cole

Tracy’s Rating: 3/3.5 of 5 stars

Series: A Lady’s Guide to Scotsmen #2

Release Date: April 21, 2026

Elspeth McGregor is stunned when her father announces that she it to be married in a matter of days to a man she has never met. He assures her that Struan MacInnes approached him for her hand and is anxious to marry her as soon as possible. Elspeth is an eternal optimist and is eager to make her marriage successful when she first sees her groom, she is surprised by his size and when she notices his scars, she is filled with compassion. She doesn’t understand why man who wanted to marry her, seemed determined to keep her at a distance, but Elspeth is a proverbial ray of sunshine and manages to worm her way into her new husband’s heart and gives hers to him in return. She believes that she has finally found her happily ever after, until she learns the truth of their marriage.

After years of war and months of recovery, Struan MacInnes wants nothing more than to return home to the highlands, but while in Edinburgh, he needs to find James MacGregor and insist that he repay the loan Struan made to him six years ago. But his meeting with MacGregor doesn’t go as planned and instead of getting his money back, he ends up with a wife. A very tempting and cheerful wife and no matter how hard he tries to keep her at an arm’s length, she manages to charm him just like everyone else who meets her. Soon he can imagine his life without her and is more determined than ever to keep her from learning of how their marriage came to be, but when truth comes out and she is hurt, it seems like any chance for happily ever after seems lost.

Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this book – I loved the story right up until Elspeth learns the truth about their marriage and she changes – drastically. I completely understood her pain and anger, but she reacted completely out of character and seemed intent on targeting all that anger solely on Struan and seems to completely absolve her father from any wrongdoing. From that point on the story just seemed to fall apart for me, I felt that she was being irrational and while she had a right to be upset, she could have handled things differently. Eventually, they find their way to their HEA, but it took too long and I stopped caring. Overall, the book was okay, there is a lot of emotion, a bit of intrigue, steamyish love scenes, great secondary characters and it does end with a HEA, but it is not a book I would read a second time. This is the second book in the series, but I think the first book runs concurrently with this one, so I had no problem starting with this book.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *

 

Nearly a Bride by Sabrina Jeffries

On By TracyIn Audiobook, Georgian Era (1714-1837), Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

Nearly a Bride (Lords of Hazard)Nearly a Bride by Sabrina Jeffries

Tracy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: Lords of Hazard, #2

Release Date: April 28, 2026

When a fellow French emigrant began to question Miss Giselle Bernard about her travel papers, she became concerned and needed help, but since her brother-in-law the Duke of Falconridge and her half-sister are out of town, she turns to Rupert “Heath” Oakden, the Earl of Heathbrook for help. Giselle has known Heath for many years, as she worked in her cousin’s boarding house in Verdun, the French town where thousands of English citizens were detained during the war. She once shared a kiss with him, but he seemed to lose interest in her almost immediately after, breaking her young heart. But while he remained aloof, she still considered him a friend and has turned to him to help her secure legitimate papers for her and her mother. She never imagined that he would need her help in return, and that help would involve her having to pretend to be his fiancée!

After an impetuous mistake as a young man, Rupert “Heath”, his father, the previous Earl took him to France to get him away from England, but as luck would have it, Napoleon decided to detain them, and Heath ended up spending the next 11 years trapped in France and losing his father, before he was free to return to England. But upon returning home, he learned that his father did not make him the guardian of his younger brothers, one of whom he has never met, as he was born shortly after Heath and his father were detained. Custody of the boys was given to his mother’s cousin, and Heath has not even been able to visit them. He hired a lawyer to fight for custody, but with his previous reputation as a rake, his lawyer thinks he will have a hard time winning. His attorney suggests that Heath marry or at the very least get betrothed to an upstanding woman. He has just about given up hope when Giselle approaches him for help. It is the perfect solution! All he has to do is keep his hands (and lips) to himself until his brothers are back in his care and he can help Giselle, what could go wrong?

I loved the idea of this series about a group of men who formed a bond of brotherhood when they were detained in France and became what was known as “the detenu”, the history about this is fascinating and I was eager to learn more about it! In this installment, readers get to know Rupert Oaken aka Heath and Giselle Bernard, who have a history together, but who have not been close for many years, they get reacquainted when Giselle feels threatened and seeks out Heath for help. They agree to help each other and hope they can do so without making their relationship complicated. Giselle tries hard to keep her feelings out of it, especially after he rejected her years ago – or did he? Heath believes that he cannot love, but that is clearly untrue considering how hard he is working to get custody of his brothers. Overall, this was fast paced story with lots of history, emotion, secrets, shocking surprises, some steamyish love scenes, wonderful characters, and finally a happy ending complete with a sweet epilogue. I will be honest that I didn’t like this book as much as the first book, but it was still a good story and one I would be happy to recommend. This is the second book in a connected series, but it could be read and enjoyed as a standalone title with no problems.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *