4.5 stars

I hadn't read a historical romance quite like this before that I can remember and I enjoyed that neither of the main characters were highborn. The h was opinionated and strong-willed, but she was also kind, resilient, and willing to learn. The H was grumpy and gruff, but had a very caring heart towards the h under his initial bluster. I loved how the circumstances that brought them together were so unusual, but they slowly worked through their differences and found a rhythm. Each...

4.5 stars

I hadn't read a historical romance quite like this before that I can remember and I enjoyed that neither of the main characters were highborn. The h was opinionated and strong-willed, but she was also kind, resilient, and willing to learn. The H was grumpy and gruff, but had a very caring heart towards the h under his initial bluster. I loved how the circumstances that brought them together were so unusual, but they slowly worked through their differences and found a rhythm. Each was able to bend some for the other and I found their whole romance engaging, with some laughs, some wanting to shake them, and (eventually) plenty of steam.

I would have loved a more extended epilogue, but we get a bit of a jump ahead and I believe in their HEA. I also imagine that they could make appearances in other books in the series down the road. Several side characters were introduced that I would like to see get their own HEAs. There was no ow/om drama (but the H is jealous/possessive at any opportunity) and the h was a virgin but very little was said of the H's history. I'm thankful that Ms. Coldbreath's books were recommended to me and I'll absolutely be reading more of hers.

I've been a horrid person lately, writing one- and two-star reviews of books I've just read. It's so great to be able to say, "Hey, I really liked this one!"

Alice Coldbreath has been a popular romance novelist for a while now. I've tried some of her faux-medieval HRs and found them to have a certain charm, but they and I never quite clicked, especially when I read things such as characters leaving the castle or stronghold to take a carriage ride to town to go clothing shopping.

But thi...

I've been a horrid person lately, writing one- and two-star reviews of books I've just read. It's so great to be able to say, "Hey, I really liked this one!"

Alice Coldbreath has been a popular romance novelist for a while now. I've tried some of her faux-medieval HRs and found them to have a certain charm, but they and I never quite clicked, especially when I read things such as characters leaving the castle or stronghold to take a carriage ride to town to go clothing shopping.

But this one, set in what seems to be early Victorian times, is right up my alley. It has fun and feels and, although divorce seems to be as easy as filling out some paperwork in Las Vegas, is not especially anachronistic. For the first half of the book we are witness to the loneliness and sadness of our heroine Mina after the death of her father. He left her nothing but debts and no place to live or wherewithal for her survival.

But he did leave her a big surprise: She has a half-brother of the peerage and her father had requested him to come and take care of her after his death. So, yeah, Lord Faris does come to take her away, but he's three sheets to the wind, apparently his normal state, resents her, and, instead of settling her in his own home, takes her to The Merry Harlot, a disreputable inn, and arranges her marriage to the innkeeper there.

The innkeeper, Will Nye, is our prizefighter of the title of the book and he's also a half-sibling of Lord Faris. Okay, that all sounds a bit squicky but it's not. Faris and Nye share a father, Faris and Mina a mother. There's a careless regard for the state of holy matrimony here, what with divorces, remarriages, and hanky-panky in their parents' lives.

Nye is a rough, gruff, grouchy, earthy, taciturn brute of a man. Mina is a former schoolteacher, rather prim and proper, kind and friendly, and oh-so-civilized. He's not nice to her but she soldiers on, making lemonade out of lemons, by making friends with people at the inn and spending her hours cleaning up its pigsty condition and helping out the cook. I became exhausted just reading about all the work she was doing to make her life more bearable.

So he's an under-educated prizefighter/innkeeper/smuggler. She's straitlaced and genteel. Oil and water, you might say. So, just sit back and watch their successful emulsion. I loved their relationship. It developed beautifully. And the characters were well-drawn, more complex than usual in an inexpensive HR. The book had feels galore for me.

All the characters, secondary and main, were fun and most had very redeeming qualities. Even Lord Faris, whom I truly hated at the beginning, showed himself to be a complicated, complex guy. There is good writing here. Interesting plot development. Even some intrigue. This book felt a bit like Daphne du Maurier's JAMAICA INN meets Beauty and the Beast.

For those readers who don't like lots of sex in their stories, the author warns them that there is a good bit of sexy time. She's right. I usually don't go for lengthy and detailed sex scenes, but they worked here as we watch earthy, lusty Will turn prim and proper Mina into his perfect mate. At the same time, outside the bedroom, prim and proper Mina has her own civilizing influence on him.

So now I have to criticize something since I don't want anyone to think I have become a nice, uncritical reader. Good grief about the proofreading. Or I guess I mean the lack of proofreading. Punctuation, especially commas, for example. Was there a surcharge on their use that the author didn't want to pay? There were other proofreading problems here. This appears to be common in Goldbreath books. So, dear Author, please take more care with your editing and proofreading and you could end up writing a 5-star book. (If you're careful.)