Alone, pregnant, and facing difficult financial strains after the death of her husband, Lady Laura Chamberlain is protected by her husband’s cousin Lord Wyckham, who experiences unexpected feelings for the lovely widow.
Lady Laura eloped with the mercurial Freddie Chamberlain, causing a scandal and for both to be disowned. After five years, left largely alone in a little cottage in Shropshire, Laura is finally pregnant. When Freddie dies unexpectedly in a freak accident, the head of his family, Lord Wyckham arrives to do his duty, and offer Lady Laura a home.
This is an unusual Regency romance novel because the heroine is pregnant for most of the book. This uniqueness made it interesting, and presented some unique challenges for heroine and hero.
Beyond the pregnancy, you have a traditional provincial Regency. It takes place almost entirely at Llys Manor, as Laura figures out how she might fit back into Society and into a family that is vastly different than her own. Lots of characters provide opportunities to showcase Laura’s personality, determination, and quiet kindness. It is through these gentle interactions and quiet, deft management that she and Lord Wyckham develop a friendship that blossoms into love.
Its a slower paced Regency, and the main conflict revolves around whether or not each will reveal their true feelings (which is similarly rooted to the misunderstanding trope) but it did inspire me to think a lot about Regency people and how this situation may have very well occurred a time or two. I like books, when they aren’t making me laugh, to get me to think about the Regency in new and interesting ways…and this book definitely did that.
This is kisses only, clean romance. There is some light adult subject matter, including passing mentions to mistresses, but no real violence or intimate scenes. There is a lot of pregnancy and childbirth talk, which is not exactly era appropriate, but is so different and definitely relatable to lots of women who might enjoy it for a change from the ingénue type, virginal heroine.
The romance is subtle and, while not one of my favorite Dunn’s, thoroughly enjoyable and one I would consider re-reading when looking for something different than balls, Ton, virginal debutantes and dashing Dukes.
4 out of 6 Sweet and unusual romance between pregnant heroine and her guardian
| Content Rating/Heat Index | |
|---|---|
| Mature Content |   |
| Mild mentions of adult subject matter | |
| Intimacy | |
| Limited kissing. | |
| Violence | |
| Not really | |
| Overall |  |
|---|---|
| Appropriate for most ages, although older heroine may be unrelatable for younger readers. | |
