Publication: 30th July 2024 – Perfectly Proper Press
A Victorian bluestocking with a passion for lost causes attracts the unwilling attention of a frost-hearted viscount during her tumultuous debut season in Bath in USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews’s fifth book in her acclaimed Somerset Stories series.
West Country beauty Hannah Heywood may be quiet with fashionable strangers, but when it comes to animals in need, she has no trouble finding her voice. Newly arrived in Bath for her very first season, all she desires is to find one like-minded gentleman. A man of warmth and compassion, as sensitive to animals as he is to people. But if such a man exists, he dare not approach her. Not with the tall, blond, and menacing Viscount St. Clare standing in the way.
James Beresford, Viscount St. Clare has often been described as a sentient block of ice. A man so cold and dispassionate, he would never suit a young lady of Hannah’s disposition. And she would certainly never suit him. Focused on repairing his family’s infamous reputation, James requires a diamond of the first water. The daughter of a duke or a marquess, at least, not a simple country girl with a passion for four-legged creatures.
And yet, there’s something about conscience-driven young Hannah that draws James, first to Bath, and then into one increasingly hare-brained scheme after another. She confounds him at every turn, subverting his expectations and threatening to do what no lady has succeeded in doing before—thawing his ice-cold heart.
A Lady of Conscience is the fifth book in the Somerset Stories series by Mimi Matthews and I have been waiting for it since I read the third book, Return to Satterthwaite Court, where Hannah and James first met.
I was very curious about their story because since the beginning it is clear that Hannah and James are looking for different things and make an unlikely pair, except that they are attracted to each other.
Hannah is sweet, soft-spoken, and kind. She inherits her love for animals from her mother, writes articles for a magazine dedicated to them, and she doesn’t eat meat. She is also extremely shy, but also very protective of those she loves. On the other hand, James Beresford, Viscount St. Clare, thinks that, as the eldest son, it’s his duty to restore the family reputation. Cold and determined, he thinks he needs to marry someone of high reputation and standing and Hannah, the timid daughter of a country gentleman, is not what he needs. Then why is he not in London, courting the daughter of a duke or earl, but he travels to Bath where Hannah is making her debut in society?
I loved this book so much and I never wanted it to end. Mimi Matthews is one of my favourite authors and the Somerset Stories series is one I enjoy rereading because of the wonderful cast of characters and their beautiful and immersive stories. I loved everything about A Lady of Conscience: the addictive and beautiful writing, the engaging cast of characters, the swoony romance, the marriage proposal perfectly borrowed by Mr. Darcy, an entertaining fist fight at the end, and the two protagonists that I loved from start to finish!
A huge thank you to the author for providing me with a proof of this beautiful novel.
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 an Andalusian dressage horse, a miniature poodle, a Sheltie, and two Siamese cats.
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