When Amelia Allenby escaped a stifling London ballroom for the quiet solitude of the Derbyshire countryside, the very last thing she wanted was an extremely large, if—she grudgingly admits—passably attractive man disturbing her daily walks. Lecturing the surveyor about property rights doesn’t work and, somehow, he has soon charmed his way into lemon cakes, long walks, and dangerously heady kisses. kisses.
The very last place Sydney wished to be was in the shadow of the ruins of Pelham Hall, the inherited property that stole everything from him. But as he awaits his old friend, the Duke of Hereford, he finds himself increasingly captivated by the maddeningly lovely and exceptionally odd Amelia. He quickly finds that keeping his ownership of Pelham Hall a secret is as impossible as keeping himself from falling in love with her.
But when the Duke of Hereford arrives, Sydney’s ruse is revealed and what started out as a delicate deception has become a love too powerful to ignore. Will they let a lifetime of hurt come between them or can these two lost souls find love and peace in each other?
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The first few chapters of this novel are a study in building dynamic characters with rich details that reveal the characters. Then we get to a wonderful relationship based on quiet neighborly walks that Elizabeth and Darcy might have taken, only instead of being limited by manners, Amelia and Sydney are liberated by each other’s personalities. I loved these characters, I loved the relationship, and I loved how the novel examined the tropes of Regency romance and Regency power structures while still having a lot of fun.
There are many kinds of relationships and this story explores one of them. Thanks to the author for exploring the different kinds of normal.
Cat allows a love story to break out of the narrow heterosexual, cisgender, monogamous mold, while being sexy, funny and emotionally appealing.
Great book for reading by the lake. very entertaining
I did not think it was a bad book but the characters did not have the same convictions on many issues that I held. It may make some readers uncomfortable.
Started to read this book not realizing it was about homosexuality. I felt is was mispresented
A good light historical romance.
Did like the ending.
Unusual for a Regency romance.
Unconventional
Love comes in many forms, not necessarily what society deems conventional. A lady born out of wedlock who fears living in society and an engineer who builds roads, find their on way with the help of love and family. A unique look at what can be an acceptable life.
A Delicate Deception is a really sensitive, smart, feminist historical romance about two lovely, grumpy, anxious people finding love and the right path forward for themselves outside of social convention. I enjoyed it a lot. This book is especially insightful about how anxiety lies and often sabotages intimate relationships. I also greatly appreciated how Cat Sebastian handles the heroine’s first experience of intercourse. It demolished all the sexist, patriarchal fallacies that linger even in 21st century popular culture.
This was my first Cat Sebastian book (though I’ve had her books on my TBR forever) and I really enjoyed it. If the story of a socially anxious and abrupt woman and a grief-ridden engineer that was raised by quakers sounds good to you…and it should…you should pick this one up. It’s so funny.
“Amelia, are you looking for a loophole in my fictional vow of chastity?”
I kept sending funny lines to other readers I know because they made me laugh so much. I’m so pleased that I have more of her books to read!
When Amelia Allenby escaped a stifling London ballroom for the quiet solitude of the Derbyshire countryside, the very last thing she wanted was an extremely large, if she grudgingly admits passably attractive man disturbing her daily walks. Lecturing the surveyor about property rights doesn’t work and, somehow, he has soon charmed his way into lemon cakes, long walks, and dangerously heady kisses.
This is the third book in the series but the first I’ve read. Whilst it took me a little while to ‘get into’ the book once I’d worked out everyone I thoroughly enjoyed it & will now be going to read the first two books. A well written, well paced book with engaging characters who had depth. I really liked Amelia & Sydney , their road to their HEA was very entertaining
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read
Amelia Allenby is not cut out for London society, or even any form of social interaction at all. She’s escaped to a quiet cottage in the countryside of Derbyshire with only the company of Georgiana, her former governess turned companion. The last thing she wants is the company of a large and rather attractive land surveyor on her daily walk. Lecturing him about property boundaries doesn’t scare him off, however, and the two form an unlikely friendship of sorts, walking together and sharing increasing intimacies.
Engineer Sydney Goddard has no desire to be back at Pelham Hall, the half-ruined house he unhappily inherited after his brother’s death, but while he’s stuck there awaiting the arrival of his friend, the Duke of Hereford, he grows increasingly closer to Amelia. He soon finds himself falling in love with her, but when she finds out he’s actually the owner of Pelhma Hall and her landlord, she’s rather furious at his deception. Neither Sydney nor Amelia is skilled with admitting to or communicating feelings and their painful pasts may prevent the powerful love growing between them from developing and finally giving them both peace.
I appreciated the unconventional characters in this story. I’m a sucker for a brooding hero and Sydney certainly fit the bill with his sadness, guilt, and feeling unworthy of love. I can definitely sympathize with Amelia’s social anxiety, at least to a point, but after she’d grown more comfortable with Sydney, she was still rather harsh, judgmental and overly dramatic towards him, even when he managed some difficult apologizing, and that was a bit of a turn off for me.
I loved the secondary characters and the writing quality was quite good, but the plot was rather lacking. It was highly character driven, which is fine, but I never felt much tension or spark between Amelia and Sydney. One minute she was being fairly awful to him and the next they were having a silly banter and he was falling in love with her. I honestly felt there was more tension between Sydney and Lex than between him and Amelia. Amelia and Sydney spent most of the story debating their worries with inner monologues and not doing much real communicating, which got a bit repetitive after awhile, and also didn’t really seem to match up with how much they grew and how many of their issues they overcame; I expected a big heart to heart for them at the end and it never really came. I did love the silly banter between them, even if it did feel rather few and far between.
The sense of family being who you make it, regardless of convention, is what bumped this up for me. However, I would’ve liked something more concrete for Amelia and Sydney, as well as more interaction between Sydney and Leontine, especially since he’s her true guardian, rather than Lex. This felt a bit like happy for now not HEA and that may be realistic, but I like to know that everything is at least going well in romanceland, so that was slightly less than satisfying for me.
I found this to be an enjoyable read, just not all that romantic. Nonetheless, I did enjoy this book and will be looking forward to further installments in the series.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
A Delicate Deception
The Regency Impostors Book 3
Cat Sebastian
https://www.facebook.com/catsebastianwrites/
Release date 12/10/2019
Publisher Avon
Blurb :
When Amelia Allenby escaped a stifling London ballroom for the quiet solitude of the Derbyshire countryside, the very last thing she wanted was an extremely large, if—she grudgingly admits—passably attractive man disturbing her daily walks. Lecturing the surveyor about property rights doesn’t work and, somehow, he has soon charmed his way into lemon cakes, long walks, and dangerously heady kisses.
The very last place Sydney wished to be was in the shadow of the ruins of Pelham Hall, the inherited property that stole everything from him. But as he awaits his old friend, the Duke of Hereford, he finds himself increasingly captivated by the maddeningly lovely and exceptionally odd Amelia. He quickly finds that keeping his ownership of Pelham Hall a secret is as impossible as keeping himself from falling in love with her.
But when the Duke of Hereford arrives, Sydney’s ruse is revealed and what started out as a delicate deception has become a love too powerful to ignore. Will they let a lifetime of hurt come between them or can these two lost souls find love and peace in each other?
My review :
When a woman hiding from society encounters a man running away for his past, do they have future written for them together …
This is my first read by Mrs Cat Sebastian, I have read many praises for her work, I could not past her next release. I confess at first, I was a bit lost, I had to accustom myself to her writing style and also the kind of characters she writes about. They first appear very peculiar with their view of life. I needed some time to understand their weirdness was due to their discomfort among their peers.
Then slowly I came to love them with all their flaws, as those same flaws make them even more lovable.
Both awkward among society and they each faced it in their own way, she wearing a bland mask to hide her fits of panic until it was too much when he avoided it, turning his back to everything remotely social.
As I do not use English in my today’s life, I had need of more time to understand the subtle humour and quips instilled all along this awesome tale.
This was not a story with a lot of action, it is more an interior quest to find what they truly feared, longed and needed.
A story of how life carries on and people reacts to it.
As Amelia goes forward, she is fast to pinpoint what are her expectations, yet she also knows her limitations prevent her to an easy journey. When Sydney tends to fear attachement and go backward, when things become too serious, he is inclined to change of course. He battles with his old demons, so believing he is unworthy of love. Why he always puts distance between him and those he came to care for, why he tried to keep Amelia at arm’s length. He doubts everyone’s bond to him, thus he expects the worst from everyone.
Why by misjudging Amelia he created a rift between them. Sure, it was painful to see them hurt by their own misconceptions, yet by having to start all over again, they get an insight of who is really the other.
Amelia does not do well with society’s expectations, why she masquerades to hide her true self. She steeled herself to endure this life for years, but now she has set herself free, even if she longs for company, she can’t bear to go back living among her peers. Her borderline personality, oscillating between OCD and agoraphobia, wards her off from life in a city. Smoothly Sydney breaches inside her defense because he is matter of fact genuine, his own insecurities when with people make him straightforward.
I loved all the so unconventional protagonists in this story, sure I wrote mostly about Amelia and Sydney but I just loved Georgiana, Lex and Leontine.
5 stars for this wondrous tale of making do with how life can be switched to one’s will when one is very amenable.
I was granted an advance copy by the publisher Avon via Edelweiss, I purchased too my own.
Here is my true and unbiased opinion.
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