A slow burn, with a period setting and just the right amount of spice.

This booked suckered me and has some cheeky twists and turns that I definitely wasn’t expecting.

Emma Orchard’s latest novel is a fun romp. Sir Dominic de Lacy is about to get married to a lady he has met only once. This is to honour his late father’s wish. Dominic is going into the marriage with vague hopes that it will be amicable – even though he does not really feel anything for the beautiful Miss Maria Nightingale. But at his engagement ball he is shocked to discover that the lady standing next to him is not Maria – she is her identical twin Margaret. Maria has disappeared and Meg is standing in in the hope that they can find Maria before the scandal breaks. Margaret enlists Dominic’s help in finding Maria but what will be the outcome when Dominic realises he is engaged to the wrong Miss Nightingale?
Dominic and Meg are a likeable couple and they are pretty immediately a team together. Dominic is charming and honourable and Meg is smart and confident. They also don’t hide their attraction for each other so there is little angst in the romance aspect. Any misunderstandings between them are resolved quickly.
The story flows pretty well and Maria is found at the halfway point. I thought it might take longer actually. But there are consequently added twists to the plot that need resolving. Although you are rooting for the happy ever after there was never really any question or much difficulty in achieving it.
Emma’s writing is very Heyer esque which I find is very fitting for the time period. The story is fun with elements of a comedy of errors [as the protagonists themselves note]. The supporting characters are likeable – I thought Francis turned out to be a bit of a star even though he was introduced very late in the book. The villain fell a little flat for me because he folded pretty much instantly as soon as he was confronted – I felt he should have been shown to suffer a bit more. Maybe an actual scene where all his prized possessions were auctioned off and he was shown to be devastated.
Overall, I enjoyed Dominic and Meg’s story and am looking forward to Emma’s next. Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC opportunity and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

June, 1817. Sir Dominic De Lacy is one of the season's most eligible bachelors. At twenty-nine, the time is ripe for him to find a bride, so when his widowed mother tells him it was his late father's dearest wish that he marry the very pretty Miss Maria Nightingale, he gives it serious consideration. Although he barely knows the young woman in question, she seems amiable enough, and when he proposes marriage to her, she graciously accepts.

On the night of their engagement party, Sir Dominic is astounded when his betrothed takes him aside and tells him she is not Maria, but her twin sister Margaret (Meg). Maria has gone missing, and Meg requires his help to discover where she has gone before the scandal becomes known. As they set about tracking down the whereabouts of Maria, it is clear that Dominic and Meg are attracted to each other in a way neither have felt before. Could he be engaged to the wrong sister?

Emma Orchard has done it again, pulling out all the stops to produce a Regency romp that has everything you could want in terms of characters, story, and romantic suspense. The tale unfurls via the points of view of Dominic and Meg as their search for Maria takes unexpected twists and turns, burgeoning from a missing person mystery into a love story with oodles of intrigue.

Co-opting the assistance of all sorts of helpmates for their quest, from above stairs, below stairs, and even of the salons frequented by gentlemen in search of pleasure, Dominic and Meg soon discover that Maria's disappearance is more than the elopement they suspected - and they find out rather a lot about each other in the process. As the plot thickens, with witty banter galore, confessions, a dollop of blackmail, family reconciliations that greatly improve their stakes in the game, and plenty of simmering passion, Orchard brings everything together in a lush ending that will have you chortling with glee.

There are lovely threads running through the whole story, balancing lighter, comic storylines, and steamy interludes, with deeper social history themes about poverty, race, and sexuality, plus women's independence and their right to choose the course of their lives (and loves). I especially enjoyed the literary threads about women writers, and their admirable blue-stocking ways. Go ladies! I absolutely adored Meg and Maria's half-brother Francis too, who comes through to save the day.

This is my favourite Emma Orchard to date with sumptuous chemistry between the lovers, atmospheric locations that thrum with spot-on time and place vibes, and a stellar supporting cast for you to love and loathe in equal measure. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This one just scrapes into a 3-star rating. Unfortunately, I didn't gel with the writing as much as I would have hoped and honestly struggled to get through the story. The writing style was very much in line with things written in the actual time period, though there were still some very modern touches in there. It was just a lot of big, long paragraphs of dialogue, followed by big, long paragraphs of internal monologue. It's a 300-page book that could have been much shorter and still got the plot and characters across clearly.
The plot was pretty ridiculous, and yet things were either resolved much too easily or dragged on for much too long. And then I just didn't care at all about the characters. I didn't care if Meg and Dominic found Marie and honestly found her to be an unlikeable character.

What a conundrum! Sir Dominic De Lacy is told by his mother that his dead father entered into a discussion of a marriage between Dominic and Lord Nightingale's daughter. It's his duty to propose now during her first season. Now? Dominic doesn't even know her. What's the rush?
After his proposal and her acceptance, she disappears, only Dominic doesn't know it, yet. Her identical twin sister takes her place. That's not the end of the complications. It's enough to make a young lady cry and the gentleman she's not engaged to, but wants to be, more determined than ever to solve the problems. A missing sister, blackmail, an inheritance and a brother who may have the answers. A lot of twists and turns, questions and surprises.
Mild descriptive sex.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book from NetGalley.

A gentleman’s offer

Rating 3.5/5 | spice 1/5

I have not read many historical romance books yet. By now, I have come across books that are written using the language we are more familiar with in this day and age and books that use more ”historically accurate” language. A gentleman’s offer was definitely the latter. As a non-native speaker (and reader) this language took some time to get used to. But once I got the idea of the way the book was written, I did enjoy it.

The book follows a female and male main characters who are trying to solve a mystery surrounding the female’s sister while simultaneously developing a relationship of their own. The premise of the book is interesting, and I did enjoy the book very much though the mystery was quite easy to figure out before it was actually revealed. The events took place during one week, so the relationship developed rather quickly.

Overall was a cute regency book. It gave sort of the parent trap vibes with the twins switching places but mixed with bridgerton. I’d say it’s a solid read if you need a comfort read in the afternoon.

This book was fantastic! I have been a fan of Emma Orchard's since first reading one of her books and I have managed to get my hands on nearly all of them now!

I love how, for a regency work, the writing and characters are much more modern and a lot less cliche than you might expect. It's refreshing to see that there aren't any long drawn out misunderstandings, only for the lovers to realise and rush towards each other at the end or that they hear something about the other and run far away without first confronting and asking for the truth. None of those annoying plot twists that are used so often in romances today.

There are twists and turns galore in this book and I gobbled it up in very few sittings. I delighted in the characters of both Dominic and Meg, he for his good humour and patience and she for her sassy attitude and for knowing her own mind. The cast of characters made for a lovely community to read about and I wish there were a sequel so I could read about them more.

I loved the humour and banter and the pacing of the story. I think it's my favourite of all Emma Orchard's books. I'm hanging out for more!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for placing this ARC in my hot little hands. All opinions are my own.

This a feel good romance, entertaining but not with too much depth in characters and relationship.

The main plot line was interlinked with many sub plots and the couple grow close with trying to untangle the mess and build a way to their future together.

Okay for a mindless afternoon read.

#netgalley #AGentlemansOffer

This was pretty good, it didn't quite live up to my expectations but it's enjoyable. The romance wasn't really romantic, the description made it seem like their would be tension and yearning, a slow burn but it was very insta lust to insta love and lacked depth. But overall this is an easy and lighthearted read

This story was a good choice for me. High society London is always fun - a bit of family drama, a lot of romance, and family love was exactly what I needed. It was interesting to follow the plot and join Meg’s and Dominic’s quest for Maria. I liked most of the characters, their description, and the way their stories developed. Some parts did not fit in completely with the rest of the story, in my opinion, but this did not bother me too much. This book is a good choice for real romance lovers and those in search of a story to take away their focus from daily problems and worries.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I'd never think Emma Orchard would hold out on the spice until the VERY end, but here we are. We got a good ole twin swap, piles of family drama, blackmail and a baddie daddy to sort out until our heroes can be together.

Duke Dominic agrees to an arranged marriage with Lady Maria thinking it was his father's final wish and the lady seems willing....until she disappears and her twin sister Meg shows up to impersonate her and save them all from scandal. Now Dominic and Meg must work together to find Maria, sort out a tangled web of family secrets and of course, fall in love.

I plowed through this in one day mostly waiting for these two to make it to the bedroom - finally! I had to wait a surprisingly long time based on Orchard's other books. What this story did well was draw out the yearning, build the sexual tension and set up the players for the next books in the series.

I enjoyed this book. The mystery surrounding Maria's disappearance was an interesting take on a Regency romance. I felt like between 30-60% it dragged a bit, but I pushed through because I wanted to know the resolution.

Exceedingly well written, I was very invested in what happened to Maria from the outset. Description and backstory often slowed the pace, but besides that I really enjoyed this book.

This book is under the historical romance genre, however there are different modern circumstances happening in an era where topics such romance between two women from the ton or a woman sans chaperone traveling from a country town to London was simply unspeakable., to mentioned a few. However, the plot was interesting and entertaining from the early chapters until the end. I highly enjoyed the book for its moments filled with humor, suspense and drama. To me, Emma Orchard writing is always enjoyable and now matter the circumstances of life, she always makes me have a small release from reality.

I liked this one a lot, but I sort of wish it was more unhinged, if that makes sense? Yes, to a certain extent, historical romances should be period-accurate. But there's a lot of leeway within that and I love it when authors take big swings. This one was much more conservative in comparison; it was still very good.

I appreciated the portrayal of queer and interracial romances and I loved the majority of the characters. I only wish the plot had been a little bit wilder!

I really liked the premise of this book but wasn't a big fan of the execution. Dominic De Lacy is told that his father made a verbal agreement before he died, for Dominic to marry Lady Marie Nightingale. He has never even met her but agrees to do his mother's bidding and becomes engaged. He has zero attraction to her, but figures it will be a marriage of convenience. Then he shows up to his engagement party and is so attracted to her. He instantly thinks she's beautiful and is daydreaming about kissing her and doing other things. But his fiance Marie is secretly Margaret, her identical twin sister. This aspect really bothered me. I mean come on Margaret is the identical twin they look the same! The plot that Dominic being the only person who can help Margaret find Marie is strange. He has met Marie like two times and he has to find her now. How is Dominic supposed to find her with no context?
Dominic as a character just felt very stiff, I cant describe why but at times he gave me the ick.
Margaret at times comes across as a pick me girl. I couldn't stand her to be honest.
Some of the revelations and characters' actions were hard to believe. I wasn't fully invested in the relationship between Dominic and Margaret. In my opinion there was no chemistry.
The ending felt quite abrupt, and some of the crucial plot elements didn’t get wrapped up.
I would have DNF’d the book if this wasn't an ARC. I’m really sorry but A Gentleman's Offer was a miss for me.


Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Like many others that read a Gentleman’s Offer, I too struggled with reading and completing this book.

I loved the plot of the story and thought it had incredible potential to be a solid read. I unlike most, actually found that I enjoyed both Dominic and Meg and felt a connection between the two from the moment they first met. I enjoyed how detailed Emma is when it comes to writing about the locations the characters visit and found myself fully immersed in that place.

However, what I found difficult to get by was that the characters conversations were drawn out so much. The way they expressed themselves and conversed with each other felt never ending. More so than I’d like to admit I found myself thinking “wow… that was entire paragraph for a simple conversation.” I was also very confused that we found the solution to the initial plot at 60-ish percent and then a completely separate plot came in. It felt like it dragged and I just wanted it to finish. I just wanted Dominic & Meg to have their happy ending.

All-in-all I enjoyed reading about Meg & Dominic and enjoyed my time in high society London. Thank you to Emma Orchard, the team at Boldwood Books & Netgalley for allowing me to read A Gentleman’s Offer prior to pub day!

I struggled with this book. The characters all felt flat and plot too predictable. The author had too much telling and not enough showing. DNF at 50%

This was a fun book! It started out slow, but soon picked up the pace when Meg joined the scene. Dominic was a solid mmc, and by the end, I really wanted him to have his happy ending. I always enjoy Emma Orchard’s books and this was no exception.