Lover of Romance's Reviews > The Stranger I Wed

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖
Narration:🎧🎧🎧🎧
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨

First Impressions
The Stranger I Wed was a delicious witty historical that led me through a various set of emotions and a powerful journey of our characters, Leo and Cora. This is a story that has the classical elegence blended so beautiful in a gradually built romance to leave your heart shuttering in delight and a sense of poignant longing. It takes a very common ground and blends in such beautiful emotional that tangles so wonderful with history and modernity that will work for all historical readers whether you prefer the modern sensibility or more authenticity to your historicals.

First Line
Fifth avenue was Cora's birthright, but that's only if one adhered to biology rather than social expectation.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Leopold Brendan, Earl of Devonworth
The Heroine: Cora Dove

Summary
Cora Dove, is determined to fight for her family no matter what it may cost her. After receiving a letter from her grandmother, informing her of an inheritance for herself and her sisters. Cora meets with her distant father who abandoned them when they were young as their mother was his mistress. Now he placed a stipulation on their inheritance, she must marry a man of societal caliber and commanding of respect but must not be someone in the America's. So Cora comes with an idea, of heading off to England to find a respectable husband that would pass her father's approval. Leo, the Earl of Devenoworth, is in need of funds. He has inherited an estate, with debts from his family and a desire to serve in politics and assist in passing a public health bill he is passionate about. He then meets lovely Cora, and they share common ground and interests of sort, and they form an attachment and determine to marry one another for convenience. But what starts as just a political logical match, turns into something deeper as their connection builds into friendship and even deeper and much more intimate.

What I Loved
The Stranger I Wed was a delicious tasty morsel of intimacy and a endearing love affair and I gobbled it with pleasure and wit. This is a very slow burn so might not work for all readers. I highly recommend the audio for this one if you can get a copy of it, because I can guarantee it will help get you through the slower moments. While the focus is the romance in this one, its definitely more slowly built but it honestly felt more resonating into what a marriage of convenience would actually feel like. I found this book to be poignant in the character growth that we see from Leo and Cora and the author really balanced our their journey's together. I loved the way in which we see them grow towards each other. They each have their own inner fears and secrets that they keep from each other but despite what is holding them back we also see their connection that just builds into a crescendo with each chapter.

I was most intrigued to see how modernistic this novel would turn out to be. You all know how much I struggle with the modernistic historical's and while there is some aspects of that, there are other aspects of the story that still felt authentic in some ways to the actual time frame and Harper St. George balanced out these elements just right that I feel like this author will work for both sets of readers, but you do need to be a bit open minded to it. I did appreciate that some of the secrets involved in the story wasn't dragged out until the end and that the heroine did come clean with the hero in some ways before it came to light. But I also don't think these secrets were super serious or something that would break their relationship. We also have a great foundation that is built, as they start with common allies, then quickly to friendship and that friendship is slowly woven into something more romantic and intimate.

What really tore me up throughout the whole story was seeing a heroine who is so pragmatic and not needing love at all until she comes to England. One of the couples (from the previous series) enter the story, as she stays with them for a time before she gets married, and there she sees them being so in love, affectionate and tender with each other. We see her crave someone to love and to be loved in return. Neither Leo or Cora have had that type of connection with anyone, and we see that yearning truly grow within each other. And as a reader looking into this story, it struck me so deeply and my heart just ached for these two to find what they both deserved.....someone to match them and fight for them as they both deserved.

What I Struggled With
The pacing is a bit slow at times, its more slow burn so the romance isn't as prominent as I would have liked, and some of the historical aspects was a bit off putting at times.

Narration
Brilliant!!!! I loved the way this narrator handled this story because the accents were softer and not as heavy which I found so refreshing in a historical romance.

Overall View
The Stranger I Wed was a beautiful blend of humor, intelligence, historical relevance and a true testament of the human heart.

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Historical Romance, Victorian Era
Character Types: Earl, Heiress, Politician
Themes: Pining Heroine, Heart/Emotional Touching, Slow Burn
Tropes: Marriage of Convenience

Book Perspective
3rd POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Both

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
Julie Anne Long
Joanna Shupe
Laura Lee Guhrke

Song This Book Inspires
Better Place by Rachel Platten

Recommendation For Reading Order
Standalone

Steam/Spice Explanations

Simmering cup of tea---soft warm touches and light intimacy
Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

Narrators:
Saskia Maarleveld