⭐️⭐️⭐️💫- 3.5 stars
Spring at Tribbley Hall by Sian Bessey
Charlotte and her grandmother leave their home in London to escape from all the fanfare and hubbub surrounding Charlotte’s sister’s upcoming wedding. They visit one of grandmama’s friends who lives in the country, close to the sea. Her son is a baron, Lord Cheston. Shortly after arriving and while exploring the grounds, Charlotte meets the baron but mistakes him for a farmhand. It’s lambing season and Lord Cheston is busy tending to the sheep whilst trying to understand how many have turned up missing. It’s a race to find out who is behind the vanishing sheep with Charlotte as the last person Lord Cheston would have thought could be of assistance.
Love Of My Heart by Sarah M. Eden
Cordelia and Seraphina Wakefield are anxious to enter society in London. They love London and all it has to offer. It’s all they’ve ever known since birth. Unfortunately, when they’re informed that the family will have to retrench by moving to a rural area in Scotland their hearts melt. Cordelia finds some delight in painting the nearby landscape where Sebastian, the home farmer works. There’s something about Sebastian that’s different from the area residents. As Cordelia spends more time in his company she allows herself to confide her concerns about her family’s overindulgent spending. She’s comfortable with the home farmer but her parents are not at all enthused. But Sebastian has a secret that could change everything.
Miss Smith Goes to Wiltshire by Rebecca Connolly
Young Martha Smith is determined to marry for love. Her mother disagrees with her assertions to this effect and believes that banishing her from her home in London to visit with her common cousin Eliza and her multitude of children in the country for several weeks, might change her mind. Eliza married for love. Martha has never been far away from London and the country is foreign to her. She immediately notices it’s beauty during her travels, and newly appointed Lord Hillier (Benjamin Steele) of the crumbling Pontcaster Estate notices Martha. Even though she’s of the gentry she’s not afraid to feverishly ride horses or get dirty. And she sees the diamond in the rough that is Pontcaster Estate, which encourages Benj. Will Martha’s casting away actually lead her directly to what her mother wished her to avoid, a marriage of love?
Three sweet stories comprise this anthology and they soothed my fretful soul during these unsettling times in which we live. The recurrent theme of a country gentleman was pleasant and the HEA’s brought a smile to my face. I found all three authors’ stories to be of equal or similar caliber. If you like shorter stories that take place over a brief space of time you will likely enjoy Her Country Gentleman.
Audiobook: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 – 3.5 stars
I found the audiobook narrator’s delivery a bit overly emphatic and a little too sugary for my taste. It had the tendency to become cloying if I listened for extended periods. I kept thinking it was better suited to a children’s book narration. The senior characters’ voices were raspy and I pictured them as haggard-looking, bedraggled townsfolk who’d spent their lives chain smoking, and not the genteel ladies that I imagined given the setting and their station in life.
Overall, the narration wasn’t bad, just not particularly my taste.
Thank you Austenprose PR and Mirror Press for a complimentary book, and an audiobook download, of Her Country Gentleman. The thoughts I expressed about them are my own.
Cozynookbks 