Misunderstandings, Villains and Abduction
Once upon a time Caro and Lucas were good friends and on her side there was a deep, abiding love but now she despises his dissipated lifestyle . Their marriage of convenience, he so that he can inherit money from his grandmother and she to provide for her sisters future is a mistake. Lucas neglects her and it is only when they are torn apart and he can see past the bitterness and hurt caused by his father, that he realises he loves her. Wooing his own wife however will not be easy. Didn't rate 5* for me because both characters spent a lot of time feeling sorry for themselves.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated for my review, and I was not required to write a positive review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

This is the first book I've read by Ms. Lethbridge. In NO REGRETS, she takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride of misunderstandings, doubt, passion and love. Carolyn Torrington has loved Lucas, Lord Foxhaven, since she was a young girl growing up next to him in the adjoining estate. Lucas has always considered Carolyn a friend and when his father forces his hand in marriage, Lucas believes that a "in name only" marriage to Carolyn will cause him the least amount of trouble while still securing his inheritance.

I would have liked to seen more of the friendship between Carolyn and Lucas as they grew up, but without that, I didn't quite believe that she was Lucas's best friend. It would have made more sense why she agreed to marry him in the first place. Carolyn's character had depth, but I didn't like the fact that she was constantly doubting her womanly figure even though men flocked around her while in London and again in Paris. She jumped to too many conclusions about Lucas's behavior without even talking with him about it. If they were such good friends, she would have at least asked him to clarify, but she never did. She just assumed the worse. And Lucas did not help his cause by never explaining any of his actions to her. Why didn't they at least sit down and have a conversation? I thought adding in a French cousin was a good twist and helped move the plot along.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Horses indoors?

Getting married for the vacation seems like a bad idea.

What lads, and who is Lady Bestborough?

It's kind of reverse discrimination.

His cousin is jealous, I'd say, which breeds bitterness, which breeds hate.

He says he wants a marriage of convenience but he keeps staring at her and wanting to spend time with her.

Well, what did he expect? I'd leave him too, although making him wonder for a month was not well done of her.

Why the heck is everyone listening to Cedric? He's not God.

She's funny when she's high. I knew her "cousin" was not trustworthy. He was too nice.

A person should never have to eat and pee in the same room.

Well, at least he finally wised up.

1.5 stars

The blurb would have you believe that this is a marriage of convenience whereby two childhood friends enter matrimony for financial purposes. The heroine has been in love with the hero her entire life and the latter only starts seeing her as a woman after their marriage. Forget everything you know about the marriage of convenience trope because pretty much nothing happens except for crazy villains bringing their evil plan to fruition at a French castle.

The writing is fine, but choppy. First of all, the story begins in such a confusing manner that I felt like Alice trying to make her way through wonderland. I had to reread several paragraphs to truly understand why the hero and heroine were acting that way. I almost got vertigo. Moreover, it is hard to follow both the narration and the conversation. Topics are switched abruptly or the characters say something random that does not connect to the subject of the conversation. Finally, I was not a fan of the way the flashbacks were inserted in the story. The flashbacks were written in detail and it was narrated in italicized font. I think the flashbacks would have been better used had they been included in separate chapters, rather than being included right when a character is ruminating on the past.

The characters and the plot were not well-written. Both hero and heroine were unlikable. We are told that Lucas and Carolyn are childhood friends, which is something that I can believe given the number of flashbacks there are. But Lucas always refers to Carolyn as his "best friend" and that I find extremely hard to believe. Lucas and Carolyn barely know each other as adults. They barely talk to each other about anything of substance. As a matter of fact, there is zero communication between them. They simply make assumptions about each other or jump to hasty conclusions without even investigating. For example, Carolyn immediately assumes that Lucas has a mistress when she finds out he bought a house. And when she mentions this to him, he does not even try correct her assumptions. Not only does Lucas not tell her about his project, he doesn't say anything to her about her inheritance. Even though their marriage was a business transaction, they didn't act like a team at all. Finally, there was no build up leading to the intimate scenes, except for the scene after Carolyn's race and the only love scene in the last chapter.

Carolyn acted out of character many times, throwing caution to the wind, even though the main reason why she entered this marriage of convenience was to help her sisters. She was also TSTL: who the hell immediately accepts a random family member without even questioning him?? Why didn't her aunt seek her and her sisters in England?? She asked no questions regarding this claim and just went along with it. This made no sense at all. Furthermore, Carolyn was always so unsure of herself. She kept changing her mind about Lucas and their wedding constantly and her reasoning made zero sense. Her self-esteem was so low that she kept refusing to admit he was jealous when she was around other men. She also took everything little thing he said or did (or stopped doing) out of context. The lack of communication did not help matters either. When Lucas flat out told her she was beautiful, she thought it was only because he said it in the heat of passion. Then 2 seconds later, she thought to herself that he told her she was gorgeous and that must be true because he never lies. MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!! Carolyn NEVER stood up for herself. Don't even get me started on how she broke her promise by telling Cedric about her business arrangement with Lucas. What. the. Fuck? And the author did not even describe how that happened, which irritated me even more. And she wanted to give Cedric and Francois the benefit of the doubt even after being kidnapped by them. Girl, bye. Carolyn was a passive character who failed to make up her mind even in the end.

Lucas was a bearable character, but he was also stupid at times and very prideful. I can't believe he even thought for a minute that Carolyn was in love with that asshole Francois, even after the kidnapping business. Lucas was also kind of asshole, but at least he was not a passive character like Carolyn and took action (even if his friend had to push him after Carolyn had left for France). At least he came to his senses after the whole ordeal, unlike Carolyn.

Moving on to the plot. The author had two wonderful tropes to play around with: marriage of convenience and childhood friends-to-lovers tropes. The latter was done well, despite the fact that I did not like the method of flashbacks the author used. The first one was just not well done at all. There were so many opportunities for character and relationship development, but all of that were thrown out of the window for some paltry, utterly predictable villains, who were revealed very early on. I think that the author had the chance to at least leave Cedric's identity a secret. She had done a good job with this one flashback where she had hinted that Cedric was not all he pretended to be (the one where Lucas and Carolyn were blamed for leaving the stable door open). Maybe then I could have been as outraged as Lucas was when he found out the truth. The rescue mission in the end was dragged endlessly.

To summarize: the writing overall was chaotic. The characters and plot were also chaotic and there was practically zero character development for Carolyn. I was going to rate this only 1 star, but the character development for Lucas's dad was well done, so 1.5 stars it is.

Publisher's Description:

Description
A passionate Regency romance from award-winning author Ann Lethbridge!

“A hero and heroine who don’t quite fit the conventional mold make for some interesting surprises and unexpected twists!” —Romantic Times

Carolyn Torrington’s romantic dreams of her childhood friend Lucas Rivers are shattered when the wily lord offers her a marriage of convenience to gain his inheritance. While it breaks her heart to say yes to the arrangement with a man she’s always loved, it’s the only way to secure her sisters’ futures.

To the world, Lucas, Lord Foxhaven, is an irrepressible rogue, and wedded bliss is the furthest thing from his mind. But he’s been forced up to the mark by his father, and he’s certain the demure Carolyn won’t give him an iota of trouble—if only her voluptuous body weren’t driving him to distraction.

As Carolyn struggles to keep her true feelings hidden, Lucas is drawn ever more powerfully by thoughts of unbridled passion, and he’s stunned by his burgeoning feelings for a woman he’s always seen as a friend. When a scheming Parisian relative threatens to take her from him for good, Lucas realizes he must stand up and be the man Carolyn always knew he could be—even as he suddenly comes to know he wants their marriage in name only to become quite real . . .

My Thoughts:
I had never read anything by this author before so I had no idea what I was missing.
This poignant friends to married in name only story carries our couple on a bumpy ride from friends to adversaries in spite of their no regrets agreement.
Carolyn has many reasons to mistrust her longtime friend in this marriage of convenience which is turning out to be very inconvenient.
Lucas is in love with his wife but even though she feels the same she has no idea that he loves her. It us after all not part of their arrangement.
Will they ever realize their mutual attraction has lead to mutual feelings or will they part without any knowledge of those feelings?
There were times in this story that I wanted to take both hero and heroine and shake some sense into them? It was a frustrating story at times but it held my interest. I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know what would happen next.
I gave this book 4.0 of 5.0 stars for storyline and characterization and a sensual rating of 3.5 of 5.9 flames. There is a frustratingly warm sensuality throughout the book that finally culminates near the end.
I received a complimentary digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley to read. This in no way affected my opinion of this story which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

Carolyn Torrington’s romantic dreams of her childhood friend Lucas Rivers, Lord Foxhaven are shattered when he offers her a marriage of convenience to gain his inheritance. While it breaks her heart to say yes to the arrangement with a man she’s always loved, it’s the only way to secure her sisters’ future as they are almost destitute after their Vicar father’s death.
Lucas is seen as a gambling rake but everything isn’t as it seems. Cedric Rivers helps to manage Lucas’ father’s estate & he isn’t all he seems either & then there’s the Chevalier who encourages Caro to go to France after the debacle of her race, again someone who isn’t all he seems.
A well written easy reading book where the characters are well developed, Lucas is likeable but his pride almost cost him dearly & at times I wanted to shake him. Caro has loved Lucas forever but she is very lacking in self esteem & can’t believe he could ever love her. The plot has some twists & turns, the villain isn’t hidden & is obvious from the start as are his motives. An enjoyable read & the steady plot kept me engrossed

'No Regrets' by Ann Lethbridge is the story of Carolyn 'Caro' Torrington and Lucas Rivers, Viiscount Foxhaven. Caro and Lucas where childhood friends and now they are best friends. When Lucas asked her to marry him a year ago, Caro turned him down. Caro is a Vicars daughter with sisters to help out. But even with Norwich a suitor asked her to marry him she turned him down too. But now a year later Caro is having to do manual labor to earn money. Lucas corners her while washing dishes and insists that they marry. Its seems his father has taken away him money and also convinced his Grandmother not to give him money until he settles downs and marry. Lucas tells Caro that his father insist that he marry her. Lucas strikes up a bargain to help Caro and her sisters if she would only marry him. Caro is slow to agree but asked that he give them a season in town. Caro thinks to help her sisters this way too. But Lucas had laid it down that theirs would be a marriage of convenience and that they could go on being best friends. But can Caro protect her heart...because she loves him as more than a friend.
"My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read."
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