Publication: 27th June 2023 – Perfectly Proper Press
A chance meeting between the sheltered daughter and the forward-thinking son of rival Victorian families sparks a forbidden romance in USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews’s fourth book in her acclaimed Somerset Stories series.
Shy and stammering Meg Burton-Smythe has spent the whole of her life living on the fringes of local society. She’s more comfortable with her daydreams than she is with people. But when a dashing, golden-haired hero rides to her rescue one morning, she dares to hope that her dreams might finally come true. There’s only one problem: her handsome rescuer is the son of her father’s sworn enemy.
Ivo Beresford doesn’t believe in clinging to the past. Freshly returned from a lengthy grand tour, he’s looking to the future, eager to spearhead the building of a new railway extension in Somersetshire. But an unexpected encounter with Meg Burton-Smythe, the isolated only daughter of his parents’ oldest foe, sets the past and the future colliding.
Resolved to put ancient grudges to rest—at least where innocent young ladies are concerned—Ivo encourages lonely Meg to embark on a secret friendship. After all, what harm can a friendship do? It isn’t as though there’s any danger of the two of them falling in love…
It’s publication day for one of my favourite novels and authors. I can’t recommend Mimi Matthew’s novels enough and the Somerset Stories is a beautifully-written, enchanting, and immersive series with a cast of exceptional characters.
Appointment in Bath is the amazing fourth book in the series, a Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending. Two rival families, living side by side. What happens when their two children become first friends and then something more?
The feud between the Beresfords and the Burton-Smythes goes back decades, since when they were children (I highly recommend reading Gentleman Jim!!!). Now, their own children are adults and after a fortuitous and adorable meeting, Ivo Beresford and Meg Burton-Smythes develop a friendship and start meeting in secret.
Ivo is handsome and charming, kind and gentle. As a second son, Ivo has none of the responsibilities that fall on his older brother James, but he has business ambitions and wants to build something of his own. Meg’s father has always treated her more like a servant than a daughter. Shy, quiet, and mostly isolated from the world, Meg has a stutter that comes out whenever she is nervous and, following her mother’s death and her brother’s escape to Europe, she is the only one left to care for her father. Their friendship and slow-burn romance allow those two characters to grow and also their relationship with their families to develop.
Having had a few glimpses of Ivo and Meg’s story in Return to Satterthwaite Court, I was really looking forward to Appointment in Bath and I was thrilled to get an early copy which I read in one day. There are beautiful descriptions, wonderful characters, interesting and detailed historical facts, and a fantastic swoony and forbidden love story whose only fault is that it was too short. Also, I am excited that it sets the story for the next book in the series, which will see James Beresford, the strict heir determined to restore the family’s name, and Hannah Heywood, the timid daughter of a squire, fall in love. Highly recommended!!!!
USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews writes both historical nonfiction and award-winning Victorian romances. Her novels have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus, and Shelf Awareness, and her articles have been featured on the Victorian Web, the Journal of Victorian Culture, and in syndication at BUST Magazine. In her other life, Mimi is an attorney. She resides in California with her family, which includes a retired Andalusian dressage horse, a Sheltie, and two Siamese cats.
To buy the book: https://www.mimimatthews.com/books/somerset-stories/appointment-in-bath/
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