Reviews

A Husband for Hartwell by Lisa Henry, J.A. Rock

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bookstosoothethesoul's review

3.0

Awww this was very cute! This was a very quick, short read. I enjoyed that it was set in a queernormative world (while still being a historical). Gay marriage being an option for our main characters was a really lovely addition. I enjoyed that Hartwell wasn't the perfect hero. He was a little more cruel to poor Warry than deserved but he did a fair amount of groveling so I came around to him in the end. I had a good time overall with this book. If you're looking for a queernormative historical this could be the book for.

tuhkasirius's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

authorofthings's review

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emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

barometz's review against another edition

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2.5

2.5 stars.

I would have liked this book more if there was less of it, unfortunately. I never love romances built around grown adults who won't use their words, but it just felt like it dragged on forever in this one. There were parts I genuinely enjoyed, though; I just needed them with less pages in between.

lalexvp's review against another edition

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3.0

It had more potential than it lived up to, unfortunately. I’m going to give the second one a go because it wasn’t horrible by any means, just sub-par in many aspects.

fishreads's review

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challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

William, Marquess of Hartwell, is the only son of the Duke of Ancaster. Considering his advanced age of 23, he is expected to marry soon. In this regency universe, men are allowed to marry men and women are allowed to marry women. However, William, being the only son and therefore his father's heir, is expected to marry a woman, despite being gay. William's best friend, Rebecca Warrington, who is a lesbian herself, proposes that they marry each other, as both their parents pretty much expect anyway, considering their close friendship since childhood.

Rebecca's 19-year-old brother, Joseph Warrington, better known as Warry to his family, has problems of his own, trying to pay off a blackmailer

and retrieve a scandalous letter his sister wrote to a woman below their station

. When Warry gets mugged on his way to meet with the blackmailer, Hartwell takes him in and proposes Warry help him woo Rebecca while his bruises heal.

Warry and Hartwell's relationship is not easy; when they were children, Hartwell considered Warry an annoying pest in the form of a younger brother who always followed him and Rebecca around. Now that Warry is grown up, Hartwell doesn't know what to make of the sullen and silent man.

Things take a turn for the worse when Warry's blackmailer

turns out to be one of their peers, Lord Balfour, an older man who wants to marry Warry in order to claim a family inheritance

. Having no one to confide in, Warry is forced to be at the man's beck and call and pretend to enjoy being courted by him.

While I don't think this story deserves a low rating, I can't say it was an enjoyable reading experience. Both the plot and the characters made this story quite challenging. One thing I did like was Warry's character, who, being young and inexperienced, made it impossible not to sympathize with him. He did make some stupid decisions, such as not telling anybody he was being blackmailed

and stealing his sister's letter in the first place

, but his actions were understandable. Hartwell, on the other hand, I found quite unlikable. He was self-centered in general and quite cruel to Warry in particular. There was absolutely no excuse

for the comment he made about Warry and the horses

, and if I were in Warry's place, I would behave as if Hartwell were made of air from then on. To be fair to Warry, he did stand up to Hartwell on multiple occasions, but the sad fact is he still ends up with Hartwell in the end when he deserved so much better.

This story was supposed to be a romance, but with Warry being forced to endure

Balfour's

advances and Hartwell behaving like an oblivious, yet jealous, ass for the majority of the story, it didn't exactly read as romance for the ages. The Warrington siblings were the only enjoyable thing in this story; as for Hartwell, he made for quite a disappointing main character.

Themes: dual POV, regency, best friend's younger brother, marriage of convenience, blackmail

Content Warnings