Rules for Engaging the Earl

Rules for Engaging the Earl

The Widow Rules, Book #2

by Jenna MacGregor

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

In the first book of the Widow Rules series we are introduced to three widowed women whom have fond out that they were all married to the same man! A sisterly bond is formed between them as they try to sort out the mess and move forward with their lives…

One of the widows, Constance is pregnant by her bigamist husband and needs to find a new husband in order to legitimize her soon to be born baby. She calls in a favour with her childhood friend and lost love, Jonathan who has recently retuned home from military service due to injuries received in battle.

Jonathan agrees to marry Constance, but he’s not the man she once knew… in order to make this marriage work he proposes they set some rules and Constance ends up having a few of her own!

This was a delicious second chance romance wrapped up in a Beauty and the Beast retelling! Jonathan’s scarred hero character was a perfect beast to Constances’s trapped heroine, making the best out of a bad situation and turning the beast and his hovel into a husband and a home!

Constance was strong and independent character, but also she was always willing to work for what she wanted, an actual family with her husband. I loved seeing her come in and transform the home and Jonathan with her positivity and can-do attitude. 

Jonathan’s inner turmoil, feelings of inadequacy and trauma were brilliantly portrayed and made me really empathize with his struggle, while I rooted for him to overcome and be the husband and father Constance and the baby needed and deserved.

Together Jonathan and Constance had electric chemistry. And their scenes together were always fun to read as they interacted. When the sparks finally light up the bedroom it was steamy and delightful to read the considerations made by  the characters to accommodate Jonathan’s injuries.

Lastly, as a reader of Janna’s work, I especially appreciated and loved the dinner scenes included in this story, which are a trademark of her writing. There were two in this book and the opposite natures of them made them both great to read for very different reasons as they moved the characters relationship along.

This is the second book in a series, but I feel it can easily be read as a standalone. I loved reading Jonathan and Constance’s grumpy/ sunshine, scarred hero, marriage of convening story. It had everything I could have wanted and I can’t recommend it enough!

Rules for Engaging the Earl by Jenna MacGregor is scheduled to release April 26th, 2022.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin’s through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

 

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