His Lady to Protect by Justine Covington

Description From Goodreads:

The cost of his redemption is trust. Her trust…

When Nate promises to protect his best friend’s little sister from her traitorous uncle, he knows it’s the least he can do to atone for his past sins. And if a marriage of convenience is the most efficient way to guarantee her safety? So be it. He’s ready for anything…except how quickly his lovely new bride would steal his heart…

Susannah never intended to marry the man who led her brother to his death. The fact that she once loved him? Irrelevant. She just can’t allow herself to trust him again. But it’s not long before she starts to wonder if there’s more to Nate than meets the eye. What if he’s not the villain she assumed he was? And if that’s the case…can her poor, beleaguered heart survive another inevitable fall?

Nate and Susannah have much to overcome if they have any hope of finding their way to happily ever after. But what if trust is simply a luxury neither can afford?

Buy His Lady to Protect to read the first in an exciting new series centered around six friends from Eton and set in the infamous Regency period.

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My Review:

I just want to say that I was really excited to read this book. I love historical romance and I was also excited because the author is from my area. Unfortunately, I had to drop this book halfway through.

First, I want to say that I love that this book is mainly from Nate's point of view. It's not often we get the male lead's point of view for the majority of the book. The thing is though, I did not like Nate at all. He had no respect for Susannah. I felt like the author tried to paint him as a good guy cause he was trying to "save" her but not once did he take her feelings into account and he belittled her just because she wouldn't trust him. Understandably so if I may add. I would trust him as much as I could throw him and that is not far at all. Plus, he felt lust at the most inappropriate times and I was worried this would get a little rapey. He always seemed to get turned on when she was trying to run away from him or was angry at him. One of the scenes that finally made me nope out was when he was in the middle of a literal struggle with Susannah as he was trying to convince her to trust him after she overheard something she wasn't supposed to and suddenly he felt the "urge." There was also another scene but I am not going to spoil it if someone still wants to read this book.

Second, the romance was also way too forced. Most of it is Susannah hating Nate and not trusting him and then all of a sudden wonders why she doesn't want to be mad. The author kind of sets it up that they were old flames by revealing a memory for Susannah, but other than that there is really nothing for them to build a relationship on. Again, especially because Nate doesn't really respect her. He even keeps calling her an old nickname that she asked him to stop using. If the author has included more past memories maybe, I think it would have made it better.

Overall, I felt this book had a lot of potential going for it. I think the idea of it was really good, but the execution was just not doing it for me. I really tried to get through this book and finish it, but this book just wasn't for me.

Have you read this book? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!