The arrival of the new
Earl of Hawkesbury has the entire village aflutter—everyone except Lavinia
Ellison, that is. In fact, in Livvie’s eyes, he is just as arrogant and thoughtless
as his brother—who stole the most important person in her world.
Nicholas is weighed
down by guilt, by ancestral obligations, and by the legacy of war. He hadn’t
anticipated that a perfunctory visit home would engage either his mind or his
heart. Then the hoydenish, intelligent, and very opinionated Miss Ellison
challenges him to see past his pain and pride. But between society’s
opposition, his brother’s reckless past, and a shocking family secret, there
may be too many obstacles for the two of them to ever truly get along.
The Elusive Miss Ellison
is the first book in Carolyn Miller’s Regency
Brides: Legacy of Grace series, and is also the first book I have ever read
by her. I must confess, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I first
picked up this novel, but the description definitely intrigued me, and since I love
historicals, I had to give it a try. Fortunately, I wasn’t disappointed!
Carolyn weaved quite a story into so few pages, and I really enjoyed getting to
know the character and the secrets behind them.
Lavinia Ellison is quite the personality! She has so much
fire and compassion in her small frame, and she definitely is the loudest
character of the bunch. I don’t mean that in regards to vocal volume, but she
just has the most outspoken, goes-after-what’s-right type of attitude out of
all of the characters, so even if she wasn’t the main character that would make
her hard to miss. Her family’s secrets that are revealed close to the end absolutely
floored me—I never saw them coming—but I have to say they really helped me to
see what made her (and her aunt) who she was, and I loved the plot twists those
secrets brought in.
The Earl of Hawkesbury is such an intimidating figure at the
beginning of this story! It is immediately obvious that Nicholas has faced some
serious opposition in his life, and it initially seems that he definitely wasn’t
changed for the better because of it. He is surly, and rude, and almost
completely compassionless, and I had no idea how he and Lavinia would ever be
able to end up together! They seemed to be total opposites! But as the story
moved on, he became warmer and kinder, and near the end I was finally able to
actually grow to love him!
All in all, this was an adorable, enjoyable story, and I really
commend Carolyn for coming up with some interesting plot twists! I will have to
be honest and say that in a couple of scenes the writing was a little less than
it could be—in my opinion, anyway—but other than that I think Carolyn did a
wonderful job! I am most certainly looking forward to the next books in the
series, and I can happily give this novel four out of five bookshelves. I highly
recommend it!
Happy reading!
I received a copy of this book through the Litfuse Publicity
Group in exchange for only my honest review.
To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party
page.
All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Carolyn
Miller and Kregel Publications.
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