Rating: ⭐⭐✨⬜⬜
Title: Something in the Heir
Author: Suzanne Enoch
Genre: Romance / Historical Fiction
Setting: England
Month Read: August 2022
Book Type: E-Arc
Publication: September 2022
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 352
*Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the advanced e-reader copy of this book. It has in no way influenced my review.
TRIGGER WARNING-
Stealing / Abuse / Fighting / Weapons / Child Abuse
No Spoiler Summary:
Emmeline and William Pershing have enjoyed a perfectly convenient marriage for eight years. Their relationship is a seamless blend of their talents and goals. They’ve settled into separate, well-ordered lives beneath the same roof, and are content to stay that way—or so Emmeline thinks. And if William has secretly longed for a bit more from the woman he adores, he’s managed to be content with her supreme skills as a hostess and planner, which has helped him advance his career.
Then when Emmeline’s grandfather, the reclusive Duke of Welshire, summons them both for his birthday celebration and demands they bring their two little angelic children, William is stunned to discover that his very proper wife invented not one, but two heirs to fulfill the agreement for living at Winnover. But surely if Emmeline and William team up and borrow two cherubs to call their own, what could go wrong? Enter George, age 8, and Rose, 5—the two most unruly orphans in Britain.
As the insanity unfolds, their careful, professional arrangement takes some surprisingly intimate turns as well. Perhaps it takes a bit of madness to create the perfect happily ever after.
Review:
I'm pretty disappointed by how absolutely boring this book was, and how long it took me to get through it. I was expecting a romance (of which there was almost none), and the characters felt like they just kept repeating themselves and repeating themselves and repe---- you get the point. Altogether, this book never really came through for me, and it was quite the chore to keep trying to get through.
The kids were pretty cute, but the repetition got old really fast and took a lot of the charm out. It's really hard to make kids super unlikable but this book almost did for me. I also just didn't love how long it took to get to the points we knew it would get to from the first few chapters. (No spoilers) but when you read this book you'll get exactly how it ends, for the most part, with little surprise.
If you like old fashioned English romance novels that are completely PG, this would be for you. No sex, barely any kissing or touching, and a focus on two rambunctious kids. The staff at the estate gets almost more play than our leading lady and man do.
In the end, I'm glad I got through it and didn't DNF (it was an option for a while) and I'm excited to move on to some other ARC's I've been sitting on since I was unable to read during my first trimester. Expect some more reviews coming soon!
Recommendation:
Alex & Eliza by Melissa De La Cruz