The Captain’s Valentine by Jane Charles

Tracy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Other Trents, #3

Release Date: February 11, 2025

Captain Harrison Trent is at a crossroads, after years of sailing and achieving professional success, he is no longer satisfied with life at sea, yet neither is he ready to walk away. He has a journey to Barbados planned and it may be his last, he will use this visit to London to make a decision about his future. When he finds a child next to a dead woman in an alley on the docks, he makes the acquaintance of Benedick Valentine, and he suggests that Harrison take the child to a foundling home – Westbrook House. It is here that he meets Miss Perdita Valentine and is immediately captivated by her. His growing attraction to Perdita adds to uncertainty about his future, but the more he gets to know her, the more convinced he is that she must play a role in his life. When a shocking revelation about Perdita comes to light, Harrison keeps his true feelings to himself and offers Perdita his friendship, but with his departure growing closer, he wonders if he has made a mistake and may lose the only woman he has ever loved.

Perdita Valentine is the youngest of the ten Valentine children and has come to London for a season with her sister, Rosalind, the Marchioness of Felding. While in London, Perdita began to work in the foundling home run by family friends, Lady Xavier Sinclair and Lady Victoria. Perdita finds the work rewarding and is in no rush to marry. But when she meets Harrison Trent, she begins to rethink that decision. She and Harrison agree to be friends and when he asks her to wait for him to return to England to court her, she happily agrees, but then life as she knows it takes an unexpected turn and waiting for Harrison might not be possible when her family is threatened.

This was a wonderful story, with lots of familiar characters and a very interesting plot. I loved the relationship between Harrison and Perdita, they are both very open and relatable characters and the chemistry between them is evident to the reader – even if it wasn’t quite so obvious to them. The story is filled with emotion, secrets, shocking revelations, low/no steam love scenes, cameos from many previous characters, a lot of twists and finally a surprising conclusion complete with an epilogue. I really enjoyed this story, but I did feel like it moved a lot slower than I am used to by this author and that might be because this novel was a bit longer than Ms. Charles usual offerings. Overall, this was a delightful read and I would be happy to recommend this title to my fellow historical romance readers, especially those who prefer kissing-only romances. This is the third book in the “Other Trents” series, but it also has ties to several other series and the Valentine family, but it could easily be read as a standalone title.

*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. *