Not Precisely Mr. Knightley by Carolyn Miller

 

What literary hero would you like to meet?

Emma-Jane (EJ) Bennett and Jordan Knight are life long best friends.  When EJ quits her job to work full time on her dating app, Dream Match, Jordan is happy for her but misses working with her.  As he realizes his feelings are more than friendship, will EJ come to the same conclusion?  Especially with the handsome and rich Eric Churchill turning her head…

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This is the second book in the Silver Teapot series.  I loved the first book in this series and can’t wait to see what happen next.  The next book, Not Very Sensible, comes out in October 2026.

·       Just like her inspiration, Jane Austen’s Emma, EJ frustrated me greatly at time with her decisions.  She was a very driven person which I related to.

·       Jordan was an honest guy, and he tries to get EJ to do better.  I like that he admits to his mistakes and asks for forgiveness.

·       I loved all the Austen references in this book.

·       This is a Christian and inspirational contemporary romance.

·       I enjoyed the Australia setting.

·       I liked the over arching theme of what is important in life?  Friends and Family?  Riches and knowing rich and famous people? 

Overall, Not Precisely Mr. Knightley by Carolyn Miller was an entertaining contemporary romance with Jane Austen flair.  I enjoyed it.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @carolynmillerauthor @barbourbooks @greatreadsbookpromo for a review copy of the novel as part of the Great Reads Promo Book Tour.

Not Exactly Mr. Darcy by Carolyn Miller (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Have you visited any literary locations?  I have visited many of the Little House on the Prairie locations, but still have a few on my bucket list.  One of my favorite literary locations is Gene Stratton Porter’s Cabin at Wildflower Woods in Rome City, Indiana.  Gene Stratton Porter wrote Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles.  It’s a beautiful and peaceful place.

Olivia “Liv” Bennett is a history teacher in Australia. When her teaching contract is not renewed and is given to another employee, her family decides she is the best person to travel to England and help out her Grandma who is having health problems.  Immediately after she arrives, she has an awkward run in with a gardener at a local estate.  While Liam and Olivia do not have a good first meeting, they get to know each other better when Olivia starts to work at Hartbury Hall to help open it back up to the public.  Will these two learn to look beyond first impressions?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       It was a clean read and a Christian read.

·       It was a cute story with a sweet romance.

·       I loved how it was a modern-day Pride and Prejudice story.

·       The characters were great.  I loved Olivia, Liam, and everyone in the village.

·       Hartbury Hall was the setting of a fictional 2015 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which made it a tourist attraction.  I wanted to see this fake adaptation!

·       This is the first in a new series – The Silver Teapot series.  I am looking forward to the next book in this series and learning more about Olivia’s sisters.

·       I enjoyed the author’s note and am fascinated that Lyme Park (Pemberley in the 1995 adaptation) had no references to the film and that the author’s husband was a gardener there when he was young.  I don’t know why Lyme Park wouldn’t take advantage of being such a famous place in a movie and how fun that the author’s husband was a gardener there.

·       This was an interesting look at how hard it is to maintain and keep up a British great house or large estate.  It impacts the village when it is no longer an employer or tourist attraction.  I liked seeing the renovations of the estate through the story.

·       There were various themes in the story such as second chances, forgiveness, and moving on from the past.

·       The romance tropes were opposites attract, fake identity, and forced proximity.  I enjoy these tropes.

·       This was a cozy read that was perfect for this busy time of year.

Overall, Not Exactly Mr. Darcy by Carolyn Miller is a delightful and fun romance that is a modern-day Pride and Prejudice story. It was a very enjoyable and cozy read.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @carolynmillerauthor @barbourbooks @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. 

Midnight’s Budding Morrow by Carolyn Miller (Blog Tour and GIVEAWAY)

 

Do you consider yourself to be a “wallflower” or are you more the life of the party?

Midnight’s Budding Morrow is the second book in the Regency Wallflowers series.  I read and enjoyed the first book as well.  This book can be read as a standalone.

Sarah Drayton is invited by her friend Beatrice to visit her family estate, the run-down castle of Langley which is located by the sea.  Sarah hopes they do not run into Beatrice’s brother, James, who is a drunken rake that had forced a kiss on her at a dance.  Sarah finds things not happy at the castle as it fallen into disrepair and the servants don’t seem to be doing much work.  Beatrice is unhappy as she is in love with a man that her father does not approve.  Sarah soon finds herself in a marriage of convenience with the dreaded James.  Will Sarah be able to find happiness?

I enjoyed this novel.  I love marriage of convenience stories.  I really liked how this book delved into whether a person can really change or not.  James has what would now be PTSD from his service for the crown in the Napoleonic Wars.  He finds God and works through his demons while recovering and wants to start afresh with Sarah.  It’s hard to make true changes and start over with a spouse that you barely know. 

Sarah is an orphan and looking for family and a place to belong.  Old Mr. Langley enjoys her skills running a household, but neighbors look at Sarah more as a servant than the lady of the house.  Will she find her place in the household, neighborhood, and with her husband?

The novel has some slight Gothic elements.  Nothing scary, but it did have a treasure hunt, shut up rooms, a falling down castle, and the mysterious death of old Mrs. Langley years before.

Overall, Midnight’s Budding Morrow is an intriguing regency romance.

Book Source:  Review Copy from Kregel Publications as part of the Audra Jennings PR Book Tour.

About the series:

While most stories set in Regency England focus on the rich, the young, and the beautiful, award-winning author Carolyn Miller decided she wanted to give readers something different for a change. Her new Regency Wallflowers series follows the commoners, away from the hustle and bustle of 1810s London, out in the Lake District of England. She tells the stories of women who are slightly older and have few prospects for marriage, women who might be considered “wallflowers.”

Midnight’s Budding Morrow is the second book in the Regency Wallflowers series. The first book in the series is Dusk’s Darkest Shores.

 

About the book:

Can real love grow between a wallflower and an unrepentant rogue?

Sarah Drayton is eager to spend time with her best friend at her crumbling Northumberland castle estate. Matrimony is the last thing on her mind and the last thing she expects to be faced with on a holiday. Yet she finds herself being inveigled into a marriage of convenience with her friend's rakish brother.

When James Langley returns to his family's estate, he can't be bothered to pay attention to his responsibilities as the heir. War is raging and he wants only distraction, not serious tethers. But his roguish ways have backed him into a corner, and he has little choice but to obey his father's stunning decree: marry before returning to war, or else. Suddenly he finds himself wedded to a clever and capable woman he does not love.

Sarah craves love and a place to belong, neither of which James offered before returning to the battlefront. Now everyone around her thinks she married above her station, and they have no intention of rewarding her for such impertinence. It isn't until her husband returns from war seemingly changed that she begins to hope they may find real happiness. But can she trust that this rake has truly reformed?

When tragedy strikes, this pair must learn to trust God and his plans. Will they be destroyed . . . or will they discover that even in the darkest depths of night, the morning still holds hope?

 Click here to read an excerpt.

 

About the author:

Carolyn Miller is an inspirational romance author who lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children.

A longtime lover of romance, especially that of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer’s Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English literature and loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. She enjoys music, films, gardens, art, travel, and food.

Miller’s novels have won a number of RWA and ACFW contests. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Australasian Christian Writers.

Learn more about Carolyn at www.carolynmillerauthor.com, or find her on Facebook (Carolyn Miller Author), Instagram (@CarolynMillerAuthor), and Twitter (@CarolynMAuthor). 

GIVEAWAY:

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Dusk’s Darkest Shores by Carolyn Miller (Blog Tour Review and GIVEAWAY)

 

I LOVE Regency romance.  Even better are clean Regency romances.  I’m excited to discover a new to me Regency author, Carolyn Miller. 

Mary Bloomfield is firmly on the shelf.  She is a nice, but plain woman and is a wallflower at any party.  There is a lack of men with the Napoleonic Wars raging and she unfortunately has not found someone to love. Her life is nevertheless fulfilling as she helps her father, who is a doctor, as a nurse in their neighborhood in England’s Lake District. 

Mary finds herself caring her brother’s childhood friend, Adam Edgerton, after he returns from the Napoleonic Wars with a disease.  He struggles with how to continue on with his life with his newfound handicap.  He is depressed and frustrated, but with the help of caring Mary, will he be able to find a new path in life?

I greatly enjoyed this story.  I really cared for the characters.  I loved how caring Mary was, but to tell the truth, I really enjoyed her very annoying and selfish sister as well. I like that Mary was deeply rooted in her faith and used prayer to help those cases that were the hardest.    I also like that this book really looked at the struggles they both faced and how they worked through them with the power of their faith. 

There was also a sad side story about a young woman who is a victim of rape and is shamed by the village.  Her story really saddened me.  I liked that Mary had compassion for this young woman.

I loved the author’s note at the end of the novel explaining her research and her faith journey.  It was very interesting.

Favorite Quotes:

“Music and laughter swirled through the assembly room, a shiny, animated scene within a life-sized bauble.” – What a great first line!!

“Perhaps such was the nature of love, that one could be blind to the folly of the chosen object of affection.”

Overall, Dusk’s Darkest Shores was a great Regency romance that focused on the characters faith journey.  I enjoyed it.

Book Source:  Review copy from Kregel Publications for being a part of the Blog Tour.  Thank-you!

GIVEAWAY

Enter to win a fun prize pack inspired by the book and its English setting that includes:

- a copy of Dusk’s Darkest Shores
- a canvas bag to carry your latest reads
- a fun pair of Jane Austen socks
- Novel Teas’ English Breakfast tea
- “Drink tea, read books, and be happy” tea spoon
- “Let your faith be bigger than your fear” mug
- Black currant preserves from England
- Wax Lyrical candle from England

Enter the giveaway by using the following link:

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