Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Merry Misfits of Bath #2
Publication Date: 12/17/2019

This is a romance that is intriguing from beginning to end. If you don’t absolutely fall in love with Carter Westbrook, you can’t possibly have a romantic bone in your body. Charlotte (Lottie) Danvers is just as admirable as Carter – meaning we have two very likable, very relatable, very charming people who are working toward their HEA. Carter is calm, steady, patient, and absolutely determined when it comes to something he wants – and he wants Lottie. Lottie is beautiful, smart, educated, graceful, sweet, caring, dedicated to her friends, and seems to become a klutz whenever Carter is around.

Charlotte was raised first by a lovely caring couple in the countryside of England and then at a boarding school outside Paris. Her mother wanted her to live outside London and not have to breathe the nasty air – and then, of course, she needed an education. Even when she’d finished her schooling, at her mother’s encouragement, she stayed on to teach at the school. During all of that, she and her mother managed to be very close. Her mother visited her regularly when she was in the countryside and twice a month when she was in France.

Charlotte decided to leave her position at the school and surprise her mother in London. However, when she arrived, unannounced, at her mother’s home in London, Charlotte is the one who got quite a surprise. Her whole world shattered when she learned the truth about her mother’s life. Charlotte left for Bath the very next day, changed her name to Lottie, and has remained there, estranged from her mother, for a year.

Lottie has shunned any social involvement during the year she’s been back in England because she is afraid someone will recognize her since she looks so much like her mother. She would love to go to assemblies, parties, etc. but she just can’t risk the exposure. She has to make an exception to that when one of her best friends is getting married in London. So, she dons a disguise (spectacles) and prays no one will make the connection between her and her mother. Sadly, she meets a man – the kind of man she could have loved if her circumstances were different.

Carter is attending his best friend’s wedding and is intrigued by the best friend of the bride. She is lovely, graceful and very standoffish. He is confident he can win her over – he’s never had a problem with ladies before. This one seems much more resistant than anyone else has ever been – but, he’s a patient man – he’ll win her over.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I hope you will as well. It was lovely to see these two lovely, deserving people find their HEA.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.