Publication Date: January 16, 2024
About the Author: USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews writes both historical nonfiction and award-winning Victorian romances, including The Siren of Sussex, a 2023 RUSA Reading List shortlist pick for Best Romance; Fair as a Star, a Library Journal Best Romance of 2020; Gentleman Jim, a Kirkus Best Book of 2020; and The Work of Art, winner of the 2020 HOLT Medallion and a 2021 Daphne du Maurier Award nominee. Her novels have received starred reviews from 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.
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MY REVIEW
Anne Deveril broke with Felix Hartford years ago–when her father died, plunging her mother into limitless grief…when Anne became the sole prop to her mother in her sadness…when Felix failed to understand what Anne needed and grew resentful instead. But now, six-and-a-half years later, she needs a favor from Felix. She needs a gentleman to escort her and her mother to visit her friend Julia and check on her welfare.
Felix Hartford has been dealing with his own burden for years–a burden of secrecy to protect his dead father’s reputation and a burden of crumbling finances hidden from society. And now, when Lady Anne comes back into his life, he discovers she is “the last person he wanted to see at the moment. And, rather paradoxically, the person his heart most yearned to speak with.” Felix makes a deal with Anne–he’ll do what she asks, but only if she agrees to leave her mourning clothes and come to a house party at his grandfather’s home. Scornful of Felix’s penchant for amusement, Anne is forced to agree.
What follows is a second-chance romance of two hurt souls, trying to find out who the other truly is and to accept and respect the choices that the other has made. The theme of the book is unmistakably duty, examining whether following one’s duty hinders one’s true being or strengthens it. Anne tells Felix, “I decide who and what I am, and no one else. You mistake me when you accuse me of being weak. A flame willingly snuffed out by another. As if my sacrifice had somehow diminished me. Quite the reverse. There’s power in doing one’s duty.”
To the reader’s delight, there is power in discovering another’s true motivations as well, and Anne and Felix eventually find their way home to each other in this excellent romance by Mimi Matthews.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
“I suppose that sometimes you have to be put into the fire to realize what’s truly important to you,” he said. “It burns everything else away. Melts you down to your finest parts. In the end, all that was left of me were my responsibilities–and my love for you.”
– The Lily of Ludgate Hill by Mimi Matthews
Rosanne E. Lortz 