From London with Love

Emilia is minutes from the altar when suddenly she finds herself tossed over the shoulder of the one man she did not expect to see on this wedding day, Hamilton Sparrow. The man who jilted her some years earlier at the altar, and who broke her heart. See, while Emilia isn’t head-over-heels in love with her now fiancé, she does wish and expect to marry, does find an attraction in being the wife of a diplomat, and does feel that she is doing the right thing. If her heart is not all in, at least she believes she can trust her soon to be husband.

Hamilton Sparrow was in His Majesty’s service as a spy for years, but an unexpected inheritance of a title meant that he no longer could continue to spy. He’s a guest at Emilia’s wedding (they were betrothed as children) and he notices an assassin he fears is coming for Emilia. So, he does the next best thing, rescues the woman he’d wronged in the past.

This easily could have turned into trite and tired, the rake making attempts to right a wrong he’d done to the innocent woman, realizing his mistake and begging her to take him back. She, still in love with her first, quickly reverting to innocent clichéd female of the time, head full of romantic possibilities and the allure of him foregoing all others due to his abiding love for her. But Quincy managed to leave that aside and take us on a fun romp through the story, adding clues and red herrings to keep our interest as the pair gradually move from polite to friends to love.

While the villain was easy to spot early on, plenty of secondary characters from dubious to upright were introduced as Hamilton unearths the who and why behind the threat to Emilia, even as there were no early indications as to why she, a rather unremarkable young woman from a moneyed family would (or could) be enough of a threat to require her demise.

For her part, although Emilia was innocent and in her way, strong in her own beliefs, she isn’t quick to forget or forgive Hamilton’s jilting, and even less apt to offer him her trust. Their friendship allows her to see the man as he truly is, and he comes to realize that she isn’t the “usual” of her type, and he perhaps didn’t see the advantages of such a woman by his side when he was younger. Gradually the reader untangles the webs of deceit, agendas and the background between our couple, most often as Hamilton himself finds the answers. Clever and quick to read, the story holds interest and is a nice twist on a more traditional romance.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Hamilton Sparrow, a former agent for the Crown who years ago broke off an engagement with Lady Emilia because of the danger of his work as an agent, is now a titled Lord who believes he is incapable of love because of adverse relationships he had while he was an agent. In the meantime, Emilia has always been in love with Sparrow but has been promised to another Lord for marriage by her father. Because of mysterious attacks upon Emilia and suspicions about the man she is engaged to marry, she is in Sparrow’s company often enough for both of them to become attracted to each other once again. This is a romp of a romance complete with misconceptions on the part of the hero and heroine and danger throwing them together all too often. I loved it! A copy of this book was provided to me by NetGalley.