Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Historical Romance
Length: 288 pages
Author: Heidi Kimball
Publisher: Covenant Communications
Release Date: October 24th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Lady Charlotte Darrington’s path in life is clearly laid out before she will select a suitable husband, marry, and one day inherit her father’s Scottish dukedom. But a growing restlessness has her desperate for a bit of freedom before her all-too-certain future closes in. When the opportunity to travel to America arises, Charlotte leaps at the chance and soon finds herself across the Atlantic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her American hosts and their friends couldn’t be more welcoming―all except one. The insufferable Dr. Galloway captures her eye―and her ire. Life has made Dr. Alec Galloway wary of everyone, including the self-important Lady Charlotte Darrington, who thinks herself above Pittsburgh society. He makes no qualms about voicing his disapproval of Britain’s archaic peerage system, or of a certain peeress herself, though he never intended for his brusque opinions to reach her ears, sparking a conflagration neither could have foreseen. Yet as Charlotte gains insight into Alec’s wounded past, she offers him something that changes everything―her friendship. Despite Alec’s determination to keep everyone at bay, she slowly erodes his defenses, allowing him glimpses of a future he never imagined. Soon he must decide whether to face his past fears and grasp a second chance at love or risk losing Charlotte forever.

Thank you to the publisher and author for an eARC.

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH.

This was exactly what I needed when I picked it up. I was misty eyed finishing those last few pages because this book held so much goodness and powerful themes and that raw human nature of coping with grief and the battering your faith can take sometimes.

I ADORED Charlotte. I loved that she was a take charge type of character and that she knew what she wanted. And Alec? SMITTEN doesn’t even begin to cover it. I felt deeply for his soul and the struggles he was working through. I loved every single moment of their romance. From getting off on the wrong foot, to finding true friendship and falling into that soulmate kind of love.

This was beautiful. I already want to read it again so I can highlight many lines and pages. I love the way Heidi Kimball presented the faith elements and how profound the characters are. The general them of second chances was scattered throughout and with many of the side characters. My heart was fit to burst reading this y’all.

Another incredible book by one of my favorite historical authors.

Overall audience notes:

• Historical Romance
• Language: none
• Romance: toe curling kisses
• Violence: moderate
• Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a spouse, mentions of epidemics, depictions of grief/depression, loss of loved ones

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph