Publication: 28th May 2024 – Headline Eternal
When former naval captain, Harry Kincaid, is left in the lurch with his flighty older sister’s three unruly children, he hasn’t a clue how to handle it. Desperate, and prepared to pay whatever it takes, he turns to Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies for an emergency governess who can get his formerly ordered house running shipshape again.
After a strict and miserable upbringing, fledgling governess Georgie Rowe doesn’t believe that children should be seen and not heard. She believes that childhood should be filled with laughter, adventure, and discovery (. . . everything hers wasn’t). Thankfully, the three Pendleton children are already delightfully bohemian and instantly embrace her unconventional approach. However, their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle, is another matter entirely.
Georgie and Harry are soon butting heads over their differences, but as time passes, their attraction soon becomes undeniable and, after all, all’s fair in love and war…
When I read a novel by Virginia Heath I always expect a good dose of entertainment, romance, and intrigue and All’s Fair in Love and War didn’t disappoint.
Sixteen-year-old Georgina “Georgie” Rowe is left by her odious stepfather on the steps of Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies where she will learn to become a governess. Six years later, all her friends have found jobs, while she’s just failed her thirty-third job interview because she simply can’t help voicing her more progressive teaching method to the parents.
Captain Henry Kincaid comes home from a long day of work to discover that her free-spirit sister has left her three young children in his care while she is off on an adventure with her husband in Egypt. Desperate for help, he turns to Miss Prentice and offers Georgie a job on the spot. Right from the beginning, they argue on their different ideas not only about teaching, but about everything. After a troubled childhood spent following her stepfather from navy base to navy base, Georgie wants to make sure that the children have the care and stability that she’s never had and she prefers children to have fun while learning. Henry, on the other hand, was raised by a stern Admiral who instilled in him a sense of duty and discipline and, following a romantic mishap that almost put a stop to his rise in the Navy, he has put his job in front of everything else, including his family. Being a Navy man, he believes in time management and order and prefers a more traditional and strict kind of schooling and life. Of course, the more time they spend together, the more their differences pale against the attraction they feel for each other.
If you are looking for a witty and romantic read, I can’t recommend All’s Fair in Love and War enough: there is slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, an adorable dog who often gets in trouble, and three energetic and charming children who know how to create havoc!
A huge thank you to Headline Eternal and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.
When Virginia Heath was a little girl it took her ages to fall asleep, so she made up stories in her head to help pass the time while she was staring at the ceiling. As she got older, the stories became more complicated, sometimes taking weeks to get to the happy ending. Then one day, she decided to embrace the insomnia and start writing them down. Twenty-one books and two Romantic Novel of the Year Award nominations later, and it still takes her forever to fall asleep.
Book After Book 