A gentle Regency romance. Eleanor Mitcham is saved from a life of drudgery as companion to Earl Peter Lavenham’s Aunt. Peter comes. to visit his Aunt and Eleanor enjoys talking to him. A friendship. develops, only to be thwarted by his Aunt forbidding her to talk to him! He needs a wife and asks Eleanor. She agrees seeing this as the ultimate way to annoy her mistress. They become engaged but Eleanor panics and flees during the night. Peter goes after her to see she is okay and finds her in London masquerading as a foreign princess.

This book is okay. It has fairytale-esque Cinderella moments but the book would have been enjoyable and less cluttered without the foreign princess ending.

A gently paced Regency fairytale where Eleanor, lives a life of drudgery only lifted by her friendship with Peter, obviously cast as the Prince. It is a tale of total escapism and took my mind away from the problems of the day!

Eleanor Lavenham is a companion to Lord Lavenham’s aunt, when he visits his frankly horrible and bitter aunt, they enjoy spending time together, when his aunt lets her vicious nature loose on them both, Peter asks Eleanor to marry him, but she runs away because she doesn’t want to be a disappointment to him.

She gets swept up in the journey by the Duchess of Theakstone, who we met in The Scandal of the Season, the manipulative and strange woman, with a household of servants who are more like friends, who wants to Pass Eleanor off as a princess for her own purposes, including to stop her stepson from evicting her from his London residence.

I felt that there was a lot of time spent on the duchess and her machinations in this book, and not enough time with the main characters and their interactions for me. Eleanor and Peter had a solid connection, and I did like how we saw his feelings very clearly, and his character arc was complete, I just felt like I didn’t see enough of Eleanor.

However, Annie Burrows is an accomplished writer who I always enjoy, and this book was no exception.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book and all opinions are my own.

Eleanor sadly fits the role of Cinderella in her life of drudgery as a paid companion. Peter Earl of Lavenham owns the house where her employer lives and often visits. Eleanor and Peter become friends of sorts until her employer warns Eleanor off and forbids her to see him at the house. What follows involves a Cinderella escape into the night where she meets her fairy godmother, of sorts.
Meeting the Dowager Duchess from 'The Scandal of the season adds plenty of humour and intrigue.

An enjoyable gently paced, Regency romance full of vivid characters and vibrant settings.

I received a copy of this book from Mills and Boon via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

I've read this author before and always thoroughly enjoyed them so was thrilled to be able to read this, and it doesn't disappoint

Great characters and story - I read this in one sitting - couldn't put it down.
Can't say more than that for a book !!

I enjoyed this well written historical romance. The characters were well written and likeable, though I felt the hero and heroine might have spent a little bit more time together.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars
Lady’s companion Eleanor Mitcham longs to escape her unhappy life. Having been told she’s too lowly to speak to Peter Lord Lavenham, Eleanor defiantly accepts his challenge to teach her employer a lesson—by marrying him! He is an eligible earl after all! However, his determinedly cynical view of marriage makes her dissolve their convenient betrothal and flee leaving the drama of the household behind and Lord Lavenham hot on her heels!
A well written book that was well paced. The characters had plenty of depth & were well portrayed. I did enjoy the book but whilst I liked Peter & Eleanor I didn’t love them & felt that there wasn't much chemistry between them. Maybe because a large part of the book focused on Eleanor's time with the
Duchess rather than with Peter.
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

From Cinderella To Countess is a stand-alone book by Annie Burrows.

All the books that I have read by this author I have thoroughly enjoyed and this book is no exception.

Peter, Earl of Lavenham knows he must marry but is putting it off as long as he possibly can. His parents had a miserable marriage and he doesn't want to find himself in a similar situation.

Eleanor has always wanted to marry. Her parents married for love and had a relationship that Eleanor wants although she doubts it will ever happen because she is just a paid companion since her parents died.

Peter and Eleanor know each other because Eleanor's employer is Peter's aunt. They get on famously as they have a lot in common and often they find themselves laughing together. When the aunt realises that Peter is visiting more often and believes that Eleanor is going to make a play for her nephew she instructs her to have nothing do do with him when he visits. He, of course, finds out and is furious. He won't be kept apart from somebody he truly admires. His answer to the problem is to offer marriage to Eleanor. They get on well, she is beautiful, and the best part would be that he would get the ultimate revenge on his aunt. He is so sure of himself that he is dumbfounded when Eleanor refuses him. It's love or nothing for her and she knows he doesn't love her. He thinks he can change her mind, she thinks so as well. Determined that he mustn't she runs away in the night and so starts the Cinderella aspect of the story.

Peter is determined to find her if only to make sure she is alright. She left during a very cold snap when the fog was so thick you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. He is worried sick about her and won't give up looking for her. When he does finally catch up with her she is in London masquerading as a foreign princess and he is once again dumbfounded by her.

I won't tell you why she is pretending to be a foreign princess, you can have that enjoyment first hand. Suffice to say keeping her secret gives Peter a hold over Eleanor that keeps them in contact with each other even though she believes he dislikes her now. Does he though...

At times this story seemed a little slow-paced, but it soon picked up and I enjoyed all the shenanigans that Eleanor got up to thanks to her masquerading. There were some twists and turns to the story that I didn't expect which kept the story unpredictable. I enjoyed that. I also enjoyed where the author set the scenes on the Thames during the Frost Fair. It's something that I can't ever imagine happening and yet it did. I love that a romance book can teach me such interesting things!

Apart from the slow pace at times, the only other negative thing that I can say about this story is that it was right at the end that our couple had their happy ever after. I wanted to see them wed, I wanted an epilogue where I could see that they had children etc and that they were set to live a very long happy life together. Oh well, I will just have to leave it to my imagination as perhaps the author intended.

From Cinderella to Countess is the perfect way to counter lockdown blues. Annie Burrows has produced engaging characters who you can really care about and a situation that makes you keep reading "just one" chapter more. I will definitely seek out more books by this author. Thanks to Netgalley and Mills and Boon for providing me with this free ARC in return for an unbiased review.

A sweet and sappy romance that lifts the spirit with its daft dowager who has servants who adore her.
And a naive beyond belief heroine, and the cynical hero - who recognised the truth of most of society’s marriages – that they are purely for gain – wealth or land ,and that after the production of the heir and spare, the two ‘combatants’ need rarely see each other and can continue with their own amusements.

Annie Burrows books are always a delight: well written with a good storyline and rounded characters. This book is no exception. It is a fast paced romance with a range of characters, most of whom are likeable and some also quirky, and the book is definitely in the ‘can’t put it down’ category.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.
Eleanor doesn't come from a bad family but all her parents left her were books that didn't sell for much so she becomes a ladies' companion to a quite abrasive older woman whose nephew, Lord Lavenham, comes to visit sometimes, and whom she gets on much better with. So she's horrified when her mistress forbids her from interacting with him when she sees something between them, but when he finds out, Lavenham strikes out by proposing to her. Yet his practical offer of an open marriage is quite different- and insulting- to her idealistic view, making her reject him. Eleanor decides to flee but Lavenham is determined to track her down, to where she is staying with a duchess.
It sounds like the premise where a heartless man gains one, and they say he does, but I couldn't see him. I more understood what Eleanor saw in him before the proposal, certainly not afterwards when he says to be helping her but it's always so he can boost his own ego in some way. He also acts like he's tracking her down to keep her safe but he seems pretty intent to brutally murder her at times. The duchess was totally manipulative and although that made sense, not much was done with her. When I saw I had only 3% of the book left but the couple hadn't really said a nice word to each other, and that the plot was just idling around Suffolk, I knew it wouldn't be able to stick the landing.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

From Cinderella to Countess follows Eleanor Mitcham as she navigates life following her parents deaths as a Lady's companion. Firstly working for Lady Bradbury, she is treated as a skivvy and told she is far below Lady Bradbury's nephew, Lord Lavenham, and shouldn't even speak to him when he's visiting. Lavenham, on his part, is intrigued by Eleanor, and confronts her after days of avoidance, and proposes a marriage between them, to teach Lady Bradbury a lesson, and prove she can't control them. Eleanor can't believe that Lavenham has proposed, and in a way that makes it sound so mercenary, so she flees in the night, and is luckily helped by the Dowager Duchess of Theakstone. The Duchess takes Eleanor under her wing, and remakes her into a mysterious foreign noble, to hide her from Lavenham and hopefully keep her close before Eleanor travels to her uncle's. This all backfires when Lavenham sees straight through the disguise, and wants revenge for the suffering he felt when she left. As he spends more time with her, getting under her skin, he realises that she isn't the hoyden he thought she was, and is alone and doesn't feel like she deserves to be happy, and he will do anything he can to help her.

This book was enjoyable, and a quick read, but I didn't love it. I really liked Eleanor's character, and felt for her having to take paid positions when she was a gentleman's daughter who had just fallen on hard times. She doesn't deserve to be treated as a servant by all those who do, including her own family members, and because of all of that, she really felt like she deserved what she got, and didn't deserve anyone looking after her. Lavenham, who's parents marriage was horrific, had always thought negatively of the idea, but knew he would need to marry eventually, if only for the succession of his title. With Eleanor, he found someone who he could talk to, and honestly felt like could have a pleasant companionship with. The way he posed the proposal though, was definitely lacking, and he was trying to make up for it all the way through the story. The chemistry was definitely there, but I wasn't as invested in their relationship as I could've been. All in all, an enjoyable book, but something was missing.