All’s Fair in Love and War
by Virginia Heath
Release Date: May 28, 2024
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Book #1 in the Miss Prentice’s Protegees series
Number of Pages: 380
Source: NetGalley ARC
Historical Romance
Ages 15 and up
CW: child neglect, cheating, death of a parent
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In the first installment of a Regency romp of a series, a governess who believes in cultivating joy in her charges clashes with the children’s uncle who hired her, only to find herself falling in love.
When Harry Kincaid’s flighty older sister decides to join her husband on an Egyptian expedition, Harry, a former naval captain, is left in the lurch, minding her three unruly children and giant, mad dog. But Harry has a busy career at the Admiralty that requires all his attention, and he has no clue how to manage the little rascals or when his sister is coming back. In desperation, he goes to Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies prepared to pay whatever it takes to hire an emergency governess quick sharp to ensure everything in his formerly ordered house is run shipshape again.
Thanks to her miserable, strict upbringing, fledgling governess Georgie Rowe does not subscribe to the ethos that children should be seen and not heard. She believes childhood should be everything hers wasn’t—filled with laughter, adventure, and discovery. Thankfully, the three Pendleton children she has been tasked with looking after are already delightfully bohemian and instantly embrace her unconventional educational approach. Their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle, however, is another matter entirely.
Georgie and Harry continue to butt heads over their differences, but with time it seems that in this case, their attraction is undeniable—and all is indeed fair in love and war.
The burn in this book was a bit too slow for my taste, but there was great yearning so it helped to make up for the wait. This story did a wonderful job of being a series opener. The women this series is focused on are introduced, some briefly and some a little more. I did wish there had been more of the beginning of their friendship. However, that could have made this book too bulky if it had been included.
Georgie is loving, smart, witty, and strong. She knows her mind and doesn’t hesitate to speak it, which can be a huge problem when you are a governess. Harry likes order and is, at first glance, a cold slab of immovable marble. Turns out there is actually a very gooey center to Harry, especially when it comes to his family. These two have an instant spark, but both realize it is ridiculous to even think about such things when they are so different. Harry represents something Georgie hates after her upbringing, and Harry has no time for distractions if he wants to keep his career on the right path. Of course, they cannot resist each other forever.
When Harry and Georgie are working together they are fantastic. Whether it’s getting on the same page regarding the children or attending an important dinner together, they have each other’s backs and work well off each other. Those are my favorite parts of this book. Like I said, this is a very slow burn and there were times during the first half of the book that I wished they weren’t so adversarial. The deep longing was phenomenal though.
4 stars
**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**
All In Good Time 