Engaged H inherits children and gropes h governess who is actually a nobility or some such ALL THE TIME and wants to make her his mistress because HE MUST HAVE HER. Leech. Nope.

A very funny book. Lots of banter, jokes and romance. I love books like these. I really like the Earl and Anna and those kids were adoreble and so funny! One of the best books i ever read!

I had read two of her shorter works in the Whistledown collections, and knew immediately that I enjoyed her style of writing, but this was my first full length novel by Karen Hawkins. What a treat! I completely enjoyed this story! Loved the characters, the pacing, the hearts, the substance of the tale... the ending, of course. This might be the first romance novel I've read that included children, prominently, in the story. There is this natural feel, this deep and abiding appreciation for the broader sense of life, in which a romance takes place. I loved this story. And highly recommend Karen Hawkins as an author.

Pretty awful all around, very disappointed considering the fact that I loved the other one by Hawkins.

All through the book, there are just too many characters and disturbances to get to the couple itself, and for over half the book, the H has only plans to seduce and ruin the h, whom happened to be his sister's friend and also he knew to be innocent. That is just so wrong and plain disgusting to me, especially when he isn't free to offer her anything besides ruination when she was determined to make her way by herself and not disgrace the family name.

Besides H chasing the h around, there isn't much interaction between these two that can credibly make an engaging romance. There are mostly a lot of things happening to these two separately, children, relatives, even intended. Focus is totally on everyone else but on these two, so I was pretty bored and couldn't really care less if the H ended up alone and miserable.

The h in contrast is more admirable and has more of a backbone. It is obviously very hard for a woman to make it during that time, but she is determined to support her family and not take the easy way by being someone's paid mistress. She also genuinely care of other people and has a big heart, big enough to see things from other people's point of view and understand them enough to be compassionate. In contrast, H is just a totally unlovable character. He doesn't listen, is bullheaded and more or less for most of the book, wasn't willing to admit to be in the wrong. Just a totally nasty character that I just don't like really.

Story's focus was on the H chasing the h for most of the book (to bed), while the h was trying to help everyone to make H's life easier. And till 80% of the book, H is still not available, and the reunion scene was like 3 pages to sort everything out, so to me the focus of the book is totally wrong, and it was so boring it really took me a long time to finish it.

All in all, very disappointed.