This is one addictive historical romance novel, and I hope I get the chance to read this rest of this series. Devlin is the twin brother of a town pastor, but he is almost the complete opposite of Daniel. Devlin gambles, loves playing tricks on others, and does not care about people nearly as much as his brother does. He decides to play a trick on the town by dressing up and pretending to be his brother, but the joke goes awry when he injures his leg. He begs his brother to go to London in his stead to close out an important deal, and Devlin stays in the small town to play the part of a now-injured pastor. Mary is one of the unmarried town girls, and his brother warns him to stay away from her. Nevertheless, Mary is determined to prove herself to be a good pastor’s wife, so she volunteers to help him make his rounds in the town. Cue: slow burn romance.
I really didn’t like Devlin for the first part of the book. Rather than saying that he was not interested in Mary, he tries to “trick” her into being home by giving her the worst jobs as they go around to clean the church and help out the poor townsfolk. I feel like I’m tired of the poor communication trope, but I still liked Mary and Devlin as a couple in general so I will allow it! When Mary continues to help townsfolk even as she is exhausted and blistered day after day, Devlin starts to notice her more as the kind and caring woman she is. The minute I really started to care for Devlin and root for him, he did just about the worst thing possible (not abusive though) and I disliked him again. I never hated him, but there were a lot of times that I didn’t think he would be the best pick for Mary. The two did have a LOT of chemistry though, so I couldn’t completely write him off.
Oftentimes the girls in historical fiction novels can be rather boring. Mary is not one of those boring girls. She is stubborn, determined, and will do whatever it takes to become the wife of who she thinks is Daniel. She doesn’t want to be stuck being the wife of some rich snobby man from London, she would much rather be the wife of a truly kind and caring small-town preacher. I kind of wish Devlin had at least trusted her with this secret, but it would have ruined the story so I understand why things did not go that way. I also loved seeing Mary interact with the townsfolk that she visited with the “pastor,” especially her interactions with the lonely elderly woman.
The pacing and worldbuilding in this book were great. I didn’t think things near the beginning were rushed, and there was no real instalove that I noticed. The ending felt a tiny bit rushed, but it made sense for it to be rushed because of the actual in-story circumstances. I hope to be able to see where these characters end up as the series progresses.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a historical fiction novel.
I received a copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books.
