I love this story. The end brought me to tears. The heroine had me rooting for her from beginning to end. The hero had me yelling Be A man!! I adored the secondary characters especially Lady Roundtree. Awesome story as always

Heath Grenville is so dashing, one of the first regency gentleman I think is actually swoon-worthy. I loved the tension and conflict in this one. Definitely recommended!

I love Erica Ridley's work. As always, Lord of Secrets did not disappoint.

I really enjoyed reading Heath and Nora's sweet Regency love story. Can't wait to read the other books in the series.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Heath and Nora's story. Lady Roundtree was a secondary character that definitely added to the book. I was glad to see Heath and Nora evolve over their class differences and come to find love together. A very sweet romance.

As always with Erica Ridley, you get a good solid Regency romance, with a twist, and with identifiable, real people. Who are far from prim and proper, but are indeed lusty and have real emotions.

Erica writes well and amusingly, and has enough knowledge of the period to make the stories ring true.

As always, Ridley builds a fun historical romance. The Grenville family is a delight, and this story runs parallel with those from Lord of Pleasure and Lord of Night. Just as entertaining as his sisters, Heath is an admirable hero. Nora is sweet in her devotion to family, though her internal struggle gets a tad repetitive. The conflict resolution comes a bit too quickly and too easily, given the long buildup, but there are plenty of delightful moments throughout.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The 'lord' in the title is Heath Grenville, who has made it his work to help the nobility keep their secrets and avoid scandals. As the only son of a baron, it is his duty to marry well and produce an heir. While half-heartedly looking for a mate to satisfy his mother, he meets Nora, the paid companion to a society matron. He is smitten with her, not knowing that she is the one responsible for the unflattering caricatures of society members, whom he has sworn to unmask.
I did not enjoy this book as much as the Rogues to Riches titles. Heath is not a rogue, and even though his father is only a baron, he feels pressured to not marry beneath his class. I also feel that each story in a series should be able to stand on its own. Had I not read other books in the series, I would have been thoroughly confused about Heath's various sisters and the Grenville back stories.

Book five in the Rogues to Riches Series was a nice read. I have enjoyed all the books in this series. Heath Grenville is widely known as the man to see if you need to hush up a scandal or fix a problem that would ruin you. He has made a career of helping people keep their secrets. He is the heir to a Baronetcy and does not have to worry about money, so he donates all his fees to his sister's boarding school. He has also promised his mother that he would look for a wife this Season. His father is hale and hearty so he has decades before he will become the Baron. All the young ladies out for the Season are the same, young, silly and just plain not worth a second look. Then one day he meets the paid companion of a lady he is acquainted with and he is dumbstruck. She is everything that he would want in a wife. She is beautiful, smart, kind and she loves her family and will do whatever it takes to make them safe and happy. He feels the same way about his three sisters. The only problem is that she is not well born, or so he thinks.
Miss Eleanora Winfield has been brought to London to be a paid companion to her second cousin Lady Roundtree, who has broken her leg and needs someone to help her. Nora is not used to this privileged life. On her farm, she toils day and night with her younger brother and takes care of her Grandparents. They are always one step from poverty. Nora has secrets that could send her back to the farm, but if it helps her family she will do whatever it takes.
As Nora and Heath get to know each other their feelings for each other intensify, but can they overcome the obstacles that are in the way of their HAE?
Erica's books are full of great characters, surprising plot twists, humor, heartbreak, and love. This series is a must-read.

If I could put a sixth star, I would. Another perfect addition to an already five-star series. Each book in this series reminds me why I love reading about Lords and Ladies. What was even better, I couldn’t figure out how the author was going to end the dilemma. The suspense was killing me and I couldn’t read fast enough. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every minute of this book! Book provided by NetGalley.

Lord of Secrets (Rogues to Riches, #5)
by Erica Ridley

Okay... maybe many shall disagree...but
BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY......
While some parts verge on the total unbelievable .....this is imaginative , creative and just gets better!
Each time I open a book from this author, I cannot help but wonder what shall it be. While I had some slight negative perceptions earlier, she keeps proving me wrong! I love it!!! Her writing just keeps getting better and better. I admit to being totally on the edge waiting for the next one from her. Okay, now for this book, I admit from page one to the end, this author had me. While I would not say it is the best book I have ever read. It was indeed a good read!

I enjoy her characters, the way she sets her scenes up. I also enjoy the way everything unfolds, even those slightly unbelievable elements that actually fit! But is that not what fiction is reallY? Capturing the audience, entertaining with the slightly unbelievable and going forward with characters that you love and hate? In this authors way, she does it . She makes those that you love and those you do not love. She makes stories that capture and taunt as well as entertain. So even if you do not enjoy everything in the book, you will still enjoy the read. I was given this book via Netgalley. ALL opinions are my own. I write this review voluntarily. Regards, Anna Swedenmom

Nora is a paid companion to her distant cousin Lady Roundtree, who has broken her leg. The only reason she took the position was to help support her younger brother and elderly grandparents in the country, where she usually lives. She's not used to the way that things are done in society. She's not great at reading and writing (she has dyslexia, though it's never stated that way) and so she draws little caricatures of society gatherings for her family back home. Little does she know, her brother started selling them to a publication, albeit anonymously, and the society she has depicted in these caricatures is not thrilled to see their laundry aired. Heath, a member of that society, is also known as something of a fixer. He is hired to track down the identity of the caricaturist. But he didn't expect to develop feelings for this new lower class girl and he definitely didn't expect her to be the person behind the pen.

Whew. I really got on a tear of requesting romance books from NetGalley. Honestly, I was just looking for some escapism, and historical fiction romance usually is great at that. Not as much this time around.

This is number 5 in the Rogues to Riches series. I hadn't read any of the others in the series, and the completionist in me is bummed by that, but the recovering completionist in me is quite pleased with this indication of progress.

Overall, this book was meh for me. Not bad, not great, just kind of meh. Which, honestly, equates to a bit unforgettable in the long run.

I appreciated that Nora wasn't a Mary Sue-style perfect heroine, though it did seem like the only thing keeping her from being that was this kind of shoehorned dyslexia. Now, I'm all for more characters in literature that have disabilities, but the fact that she had so much self-hatred about it (realistic for the time period but disappointing considering other "not realistic for the time period" moments) was not my favourite.

Although it was somewhat anachronistic or less prominent in history than it might seem from this novel, I loved how much Heath's sisters took Fleetwood Mac's advice to heart, and went their own ways. I know at least one of them is the subject of another book in the series, and I enjoyed the snippets that we got with his sisters so much that I'm actually interested in reading that book, even though this one was just whelming.

Alright, let's get into the things I found less than stellar. Insta love x100000000. Of all the tropes, this is among my three least favourite. They met once at a dance, he was nice to her, and immediately she's in love with him. As I noted on my Kindle, "Extreme, instant infatuation is a good start to every relationship."

I noticed a theme that is prevalent in historical romance which has always bothered me but which I haven't been able to hit on until this book. So often, the heroine is someone who shirks the expectations of society and does things differently, and that's why the hero falls in love with her. BECAUSE she's different. Which is basically just the old-timey version of "you're not like other girls." The heroes especially usually deride the other girls, the ones who are hunting for husbands. Like, what do you expect of them? They've been told their entire lives—by society, by their friends, by their families—that the entirety of their worth is wrapped up in who they are able to "catch" as a husband. You're really going to be an asshole about a girl who does what she's been told is the most important thing to do every day of her life? Ugh.

Honestly, the biggest obstacle to loving this book for me was that it seemed like nothing happened. The pacing was so terrible, and as a result, the passage of time was quite confusing. It almost felt like this had initially been planned as a novella and then had to be stretched into a novel-length piece. Not even character development was happening during that time, which might have been the only reason I would excuse such slow pacing. I got to 62% in, and made the note that it felt like nothing had happened. At 72% in, FINALLY a single kiss! Not another kiss until 90 PERCENT INTO THE BOOK. What even am I doing here?

As I mentioned, I would be interested in reading the final book in the series, Lord of Vice, which is about Heath's sister Bryony and a gaming hell owner Max. They were both introduced in this book, and immediately, as soon as Max was introduced, I made a note that I was CERTAIN he was going to get with one of Heath's sisters. And he does. I'm into it. I am a bit of a sucker for a rogue gaming hell owner story. There are surprisingly a lot of them.

I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

There is conflict between the hero and heroine in that Nora paints caricatures and Heath is trying to expose the caricaturist. Nora is outside his class and they’re both aware of it, despite their attraction to each other. They both struggle with this. The story overall is enjoyable, although I did feel at the end things were smoothed out a bit too quickly.

The secondary characters and the Grenville siblings are always entertaining.

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

Lord Heath Grenville and Miss Eleanora Winfield are the epitome of unsuitable couple by the haut ton standard. Heath is the heir to a rich baronetcy while Nora is a poor country girl and a paid companion. But, Cupid’s arrow caught them, so no matter how inappropriate, they found themselves in love.

Love can bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, but secrets can destroy it. Lord Grenville is a special kind of gumshoe. He can unmask secrets. And Nora has the biggest secret of them all. She is the infamous caricaturist that is currently rocking society. Can their love survive this secret?

Another sweet read and actually interesting because though we know who the caricaturist is from the beginning, we need to know how Lord Grenville will unmask that secret. It’s Sherlock Holmes with a twist because in this story, love conquers all.

Lord of Secrets is Rated T for Teens.

Lord of Secrets by Erica Ridley is book Five in the Rogues to Riches series. This is the story of Heath Grenville and Eleanora 'Nora' Winfield. I have read the previous books, but feel this is easily a standalone book.
Nora appears to be all things proper but there is something she is hiding due to needing money badly. So being attracted to Heath is a big problem because he usually solves other peoples problems and brings puzzles to light. But neither can seem to help stop the growing feelings even when both know that they shouldn't be feeling this way.
This was a fun read that I found hard to put down. I have really enjoyed this series and this book just added to that love.

This is a cute story of love at first sight where the hero’s profession is keeping secrets for the Ton and the heroine’s profession is a huge secret in itself. I loved Heath and Nora’s characters. Their romance was really sweet and adorable. This is book five from Rogues and Riches series but can be read as a standalone. Some of the other stories in this series rum parallel to this story. I have throughly enjoyed this series and would definitely recommend it.

* I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review*

*3.5 stars*

Lord of Secrets was a very nice story in the dependable Rogues to Riches series by Erica Ridley. Though it didn't blow me away, I enjoyed the story a good deal.

In historical romance, I'm a total sucker for the "royalty vs average person" pairings. There is just something dreamy about a titled man or woman finding love in an unexpected place and making things work between them, don't you think? Though, I had trouble buying that the somewhat morally and societally rigid Heath Grenville would end up with someone below his station (so to speak, though that term always makes me cringe).

I liked the talented and interesting Miss Eleanora Winfield, who always seems to see beyond a person's exterior. She was non-judgmental, and I liked how she viewed upper-crust society fairly objectively. She was a lovely female MC, and I liked being inside her head a great deal.

I found Heath Grenville to be much more one-note. I struggled with him a bit, and I was really, really anxious about how he would take the big reveal that Eleanora was hiding (it made me so nervous that I was flying through the last 20% to see what would happen). I found the tension to be resolved too anti-climacticly for my tastes, and the love to be a bit on the dull side, but I still enjoyed the writing and romance overall.

While not my favorite in the Rogues to Riches series, I always like visiting with the Grenville clan and having another strong female MC to cheer for. Erica Ridley is always a solid choice.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

A quirky historical romance. Light and easy to read with plenty of interesting aspects to the plot. Erica Ridley’s books never fail to disappoint.

The reviews on Goodreads are very positive, so this is a case of 'it's not the book, it's me'. Although I liked Nora and Heath, I didn't engage emotionally with their developing romance and the supporting cast of characters were fine, but nothing to write home about. 

I will note that this story has a couple that take the time to get to know each other personally instead of falling in insta-lust, which is something I really have to commend the author for because I always want more of that! The couple's devotion to their respective family members was lovely and I enjoyed Heath's interactions with his sisters and Nora's with Lady Roundtree, but it's not a great sign that I felt more interest in the family dynamics than I did in their romance.  There wasn't much chemistry between them at the start, and while I liked them as friends, I didn't feel it was believable that they felt this consuming passion for each other that would explain why they HAD to torment themselves with visions of the future they supposedly couldn't have. 

The main problem was that the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of their wildly varying social classes with Nora being a commoner and Heath being a titled lord expected to marry well kept being repeated ad nauseum. I started bookmarking every single time the whole 'I want him/her, but we're not meant to beee' refrain came up, but then stopped because it was in EVERY. SINGLE. CHAPTER. We get it! This isn't difficult to grasp! There was a marked lack of angst or dramatic tension, so it was as though the author had to keep falling back on this one obstacle to keep the story going and it had me gritting my teeth just wishing the characters would forget each other and move on already.  

If you're in the mood for a low-stakes fluffy romance, this will suit you well. Again, I seem to be the lone critical voice as the majority of reviews are filled with glowing praise, so this is a book that seems to work for most readers. Alas, it just wasn't for me!

The fifth book in the Rogues to riches series and I found myself smiling at some of the things that happen, I enjoyed reading Miss Eleanora Winfield and Heath Grenville a future Baron's story. Looking forward to reading the next book. I received a copy of this book and I am voluntarily reviewing it.

What a nice change to have a hero and heroine who choose to think the best of each other, rather than the tedious misunderstanding followed by prolonged pouting that characterizes far too much of the genre.

Heath and Nora are from two different worlds, but they fall in love at first sight, and manage to overcome the disapproval of their respective families and discover more about their own true selves in the process.