AUTHOR: Emma Hart GENRE: NA Romance PAGES: 292 RELEASED: 19 October 2021 SERIES: The Aristocrat Diaries #1 SYNOPSIS: An aristocrat and a gardener walk into a bar, and the barman says—never mind. They walked into a shed, and they’re kissing. Oops. My father trying to set me up with every eligible bachelor in England? Check. A crazy aunt with even crazier goats who keep eating the flowerbeds? Check. Me secretly moonlighting as the internet’s newest agony aunt and fixing relationships one love language at a time? Check. One grumpy, bearded gardener that I keep accidentally kissing? Um, check… This book was kindly sent to me from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. She’s the daughter of the duke. He’s the gardener. And then there’s the storm that forces them into close proximity.
Lady Gabriella Hastings is hiding two secrets from her father – she’s taking a horticulture course at the local university, and she’s a Tumblr agony aunt helping people with their love life, despite not having a love life of her own. To top it all off, her father keeps wanting to set her up with eligible dukes and earls, all of whom she has no interest in dating, let along marrying. Then there’s their gardener, Miles Kingsley, who seems to dislike Gabriella for no apparent reason. When a storm sweeps through, flooding roads and cutting power to the estate, Gabriella and Miles are forced to bunk down in the manor together. Alone. They’ve both had a crush on one another, but neither have any plans to act on it – for Gabriella, she’s sure Miles hates her; for Miles, he knows he’s not in the class for marrying the daughter of a duke. But that storm changes their relationship, and when Gabriella asks Miles to help her with her garden design assignment, they both struggle with continuing to deny that there’s mutual attraction. There’s nothing like an Emma Hart book to get you back in the reading mood! A majority of Emma’s books have taken place in the US, so it was super refreshing to not only be in the UK, but village life in the UK – I cannot wait for the rest of this companion novel series because I adore this setting so much! The world of Arrowwood Estate was such a joy to be in, and I loved all the characters we got to meet. Aunt Cat in particularly seriously needs her own book because she’s an absolute blast and would no doubt have a laugh-out-loud book. Gabi and Miles are such fun characters to follow, and I only wish we had had more chapters from Mile’s perspective. Their relationship was fun, cute, and tugged at the feels, and I desperately wished the book was longer just so we could spend more time with them, and the rest of the characters. I was so immersed in the world of Arrowwood Estate that, while the characters were living through the storm that brought flooding and power outages, I was disappointed to look up and see that it was bright and sunny - this most definitely should have been read on a cold dreary day for the full effect! I think the only thing lacking was that there was no real development or resolution to Gabriella’s Love Language agony aunt blog – it’s a secret she’s been keeping, and she even off-handedly mentions it to Miles, but there’s no big reveal or even an explanation to Miles about it. Maybe it’s something that will continue to be part of the next books, but it just felt a little unresolved. And speaking of unresolved, the opening line of the book is a real hook but there’s no resolution to that either... Overall, I adored hanging out with Gabi and Miles and can’t wait for Adelaide’s story in the next book – the world of the British upper class is one I can’t get enough of and if you’re a sucker for a good romance read like myself, this is 100% a book that needs to be near the top of your TBR. |
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