A quiet governess… An unruly heart Sir Nicholas Denny is desperate to find a governess to care for his boisterous nieces and nephews. Demure vicar’s daughter Mary Smith seems ideal–at first. All too soon Nicholas discovers a different side…a beautiful, vivacious woman, even if she infuriates him with her strong opinions! When he waltzes with Mary at a party, he knows he’s in trouble–the … he’s in trouble–the spark between them is so tempting, but she challenges everything he thought he wanted in a wife!
From Harlequin Historical: Your romantic escape to the past.
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Not necessarily a slow-burn romance but it seemed to take time for Mary and Nicholas to realize their feelings. I felt for Mary, so many things were against her. She needed a strong personality to not emotionally collapse beneath them. Nicholas has so many changes to make and Mary was a good influence on him, even though he fought against that change. His sister, Mrs. Fenhurst, needs to just return home. The children improved with Mary’s attention, and there is a HEA for Miss Cushing. Actually there are other HEAs as well.
Ms Tinley’s storytelling is consistent and seamless. Now for Lady Cecily. Recommended.
Miss Mary Smith has to find a job when she finds out her father was brought to the gaol and her school turns her away. By a stroke of luck she finds a job as Governess for Sir Nicholas Denny at Stiffkey Hall near the prison where his father was kept. She tries to be the best governess, to keep her thoughts for herself in order to keep her job but at times it’s difficult to do and her real personality shows.
Sir Nicholas loves his quiet life in country with the company of his secretary and books. When his sister and her offsprings announce their coming for a few months he decides to keep her busy planning some social events and he hires some more needed employees.
Nicholas is intrigued by the new Governess, she is beautiful and has a good mind but he tries to refrain his instict to pursue her because she is his employee and he is a baronet.
Will a relationship between them completely exclided? Will Mary be able to keep her job and to save his father from prison?
This is my first book by the Catherine Tinley and I really enjoyed it, there is a good flow throughout the book that held my attention, the characters are well depicted with unique traits at time a little shocking.
Needless to say my favourite character is Mary, she is witty, outspoken and unapologetic to be herself, it is hard to not root for her.
When her father is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, Mary Smith is kicked out of the finishing school she is attending with nowhere to go. Desperate to get back to her father in Norfolk and help him prove his innocence, Mary has no choice but to accept an offer of employment; assistant governess to the nieces and nephews of Sir Nicholas Denny. Of course, she can’t admit to her employer her ulterior motives – having a name like Mary Smith is obviously a great help in not being connected to her father locked up in jail! With little experience as a governess, she manages to get along by empathising with the children and listening to them, something neither their mother nor their present governess actually seem to do. At the same time she finds herself reluctantly attracted to Nicholas, a clever and kind man who nevertheless considers little outside his own comforts… until Mary comes along and forces him to confront some of his own preconceptions.
This is an interestingly different historical romance, because in a lot of ways the heroine isn’t really the one who undertakes a character growth arc here. Yes, Mary falls in love, but she’s still very much the same in essentials at the end of the book as she is at the start. It’s Nicholas who has to grow and change in order to become worthy of her, and it’s not the standard rake-reformed-by-love arc heroes often get in Regency historicals. Nicholas is a decent man, but he’s an utterly privileged aristocrat who has really never had his eyes opened to how everyone not at his social and wealth level have to navigate the world. Of course, there’s still the problem of a massive secret Mary is concealing which eventually has to come out, but by the end of the book, Nicholas has enough faith in Mary’s integrity to step up for her when she needs him.
I did feel like the final confrontation was somewhat skipped over, as it actually happened off-page and Mary didn’t get to even see the traitors being apprehended, was only told about it after the fact. It had been built up enough that I thought she deserved to actually be there; though it all hung together logically, it felt a bit rushed for my liking. It didn’t really reduce my enjoyment of the book in any significant way, however, and I’m happy to give it five stars.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via Rachel’s Random Resources.
My first full length Catherine Tinley and I loved it.
Mary and Nicholas had me obsessed! A blinkered Baronet and a gusty Governess (guess who’s been hitting up the thesaurus, lol!) get schooled in matters of the heart.
Appearances can be deceiving, as our Miss Smith can attest. There is drama, intrigue, suspense and simmering passions aplenty in a tale that had me smiling, laughing, growling (no joke – my grr is strong!) and swooning.
Yup, *nods* I went there. I mentioned The Swoon. At this point I’d like to say I apologise but I’d be fibbing because I give to you two words – palm kisses. Who knew? *shrugs* Hence, the very justified swoonage (is that a word?).
I’m going to tread carefully for fear of giving anything away, but needless to say Mary’s arrival at Stiffkey Hall breathes some much-needed life back into the staid household and its master despite his initial reservations. A master who needs to be challenged on every level *coughs*.
I’m fascinated with the Regency era and the author’s writing captured the period perfectly for me. Including, encapsulating the conventions of the time and how hard it was for women to be seen as more than their expected roles.
Let’s hear it for headstrong women!
*sighs*
It’s hard to say goodbye to some characters, isn’t it?
I look forward to my next CT read.
Maybe 3.5 stars
After years of being raised solely by her studious father, Vicar Smith, and being encouraged to speak her mind, he decides that Mary needs a more formal ladies’ education and sends her off to the Plumpton Academy for Young Ladies. Mary is miserable there but agrees to stay for a year to make her father happy. But she has only been there for 3 months when she gets the terrible news that her father has been arrested for treason! She is promptly turned out of school and needs to find a way to get to Norfolk where her father is being held. In a rare show of kindness, the headmistress recommends Mary to Mrs. Gray’s employment agency and as luck would have it, Mrs. Gray has a temporary governess position available in Norfolk, very close to the Brightwell prison where her father is being held. She offers Mary the position but warns her to remember that her behavior reflects on the agency and that she must keep her opinions to herself.
Sir Nicholas Denny is preparing for an invasion, his sister is coming to Stiffkey Hall for a long visit and is bringing her five unruly children. Nicholas loves his family, but as a bachelor, he is unused to the noise children generate and as a scholar, he desires peace and quiet, so in an effort to keep things as normal as possible, he instructs his secretary to hire additional help, including a governess. He is not prepared for his reaction to Mary, he is immediately attracted to her, but is a bit disappointed that she is so demure and reserved.
For her part, Mary struggles to control herself and to conform to her new lower station in life. She doesn’t tell anyone about her father, but wonders if she can trust Sir Nicholas with the truth. Slowly Nicholas is able to bring the real Mary out of hiding, but this just ends up causing him more grief when she speaks her mind about him and makes him examine his life and what possible place she could have in it. After Nicholas has a rather nasty confrontation with his sister’s governess, everything goes wrong for Mary and she loses her position and leaves. Nicholas is beside himself when he learns she is gone –can he find her and tell her his true feelings or is it too late for him?
This was an interesting story; it is definitely not your run-of-the-mill historical romance and Mary is certainly not your average heroine. While the writing was good, the story did drag a bit in the middle and the ending was a bit of a mad dash to the finish. Overall, it was a good read, different and out of the ordinary. I don’t know if I would call Mary “outspoken” as much as I would say she is quick to judge and condemn and doesn’t always think before she speaks, she is, however, usually sorry for her words and is not above asking for forgiveness. The romance in the story is very subdued and the love scenes are nothing more than a couple of kisses. So, if you are looking for something with no steam that is a bit off of the norm – this book is for you!
*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher.*