I didn’t enjoy this as much as I was hoping I would. I loved the setting in Cornwall but I found the plot to be very slow and very hard to believe. The female main character is shy but she is also often unkind, especially to her husband. We get a backstory for Jane that explains why she has a difficult type interacting with others but it doesn’t really explain why she is cold to Penvale even after she gets to know him better. We also don’t really get to see Penvale falling in love with Jane; we’re just told that he had fallen in love with her. There was very much a tell, don’t show aspect to this book.

Unfortunately, the characters and the plot weren’t working for me. I am sure this book will find many fans especially those who love a regency romance.

Another fantastic novel from Martha Waters! I will read anything she writes! I love how this novel took a little more of a gothic, Jane Eyre tone, and Waters still made it light-hearted yet deep with her witty writing.

Thank you so much to netgalley and Atria books for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. I just felt bored and I didn't like the characters enough to enjoy this book. I thought the book had a cute premise and cover, but it wasn't working for me.

I haven't read any other books in the series so I am not sure if that played a role in my opinion of this one.

I hope others love this book but it just was not for me.

i liked this one! it was on par with my satisfaction for the previous 3 books, but still lower than Marry & Meddle since Emily is just too endearing for me not to love. Penvale and Jane were enticing enough MCs and the setup was very fun. I guessed the mechanics of the haunting pretty early on but the reveal was still entertaining. my biggest gripe is that damned third act breakup. i loathe the miscommunication trope being misused and this felt like the poster child for improper use of a lack of communication. solid 3⭐️ all in all

To Swoon and to Spar is the first book I have read by this author. I was not prepared for this level of humor. I think I highlighted half of the book because the banter was so funny. Even the internal monologues made me laugh, a rare occurence. Even though I hadn't read the previous books, I was not confused, but now I am going to have to go back and read them just for fun. I enjoyed the plot and the characters, and I had a hard time putting this down.

Thank you to Netgally, the publishers, and Martha Waters

When I requested this book I was unaware that it was apart of a series, one that requires you to read the previous books for this one to make sense. I am unable to read all the previous books along with this one before the publish date. Therefore, I will rate this a fair 3/5 stars and will adjust the rating and review when I am able to read all the books in the series along with this one.

This was the perfect continuation of the series! The tropes fit well, and Martha has a way of engaging the reader and making her regency reads feel like a breath of fresh, “semi modern” air. It was fun to finally get Penvale’s story, one most of the fans have been waiting for - myself included. I give this four stars only because at times the plot seemed to drag and my attention wandered.

I honestly feel like Martha Waters writes regency romances that reflect exactly how I would act if I was thrown back in time.
I love how Jane is a strong female who knows what she wants. What she wants is to control her own home and life which was not a common occurrence back then.
Martha waters is definitely an auto read for me!

this was an arc i got last year from netgalley and i honestly was ridiculously excited for penvale’s story mostly to see diana and her smart jabs. this was a bit better than i expected to be honest.
also THEY LOVE EACHOTHER MY GOODNESS. easy to get through,beloved characters (belfry’s BACK) and beautiful writing. had so much fun reading this and i am going to try to read the new one too so that i can finish the whole series.

Marriage of convenience is one of my favorite tropes. I loved watching Jane and Penvale go from not knowing each other at all, to becoming friends and finally falling in love. This book is book #4 in The Regency Vows. This book gets the award for some of the best side characters. That's pretty impressive, since I haven't read the other books in the series yet. Imagine how much I will like them once I've actually read their books!
Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.

The forth book 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗩𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 by Martha Waters is a delightful and fun read, and I read it in just a few hours. A haunted house that not really haunted , and arranged marriage, lots of banter and good friends

I adore Martha Waters' Regency Vows series so much and still think she is severely underrated. Unfortunately, I didn't love Penvale and Jane's story. It was enjoyable enough but I just didn't fall for their romance like I have the previous 3 couples.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I came to this book after having read the last in a series of stand-alone books where the characters from previous books show up. The other was so good that I couldn’t resist getting another one.

Jane is the FMC and she is shy, grumpy, and wanting to be in charge of her own life and her own household. Unfortunately , that is not realistic for many women of her time. So when she sees and opportunity to get what she wants she seizes it. This comes in the form of a long thought out and thorough charade in order to have the men running for the hills.

Penvale is viscount without his ancestral seat, his home. He will do anything to get his hands back on it after it was sold when his parents unexpectedly passed away. This included marrying a perfect stranger in order to seal the deal. Even if he has to deal with a woman talking to him scornfully and turning everything he says in the negative. Sadly for him he finds himself drawn to her biting responses.

This is a book of loneliness and heartache turning into a beautiful happily ever after, if only one has the courage to run toward it.

If you couldn’t tell, I loved this book. Jane got on my nerves several times with her surliness but I was able to move past it easily since she clearly had been alone a long time and not in polite society since she was a child. The shy, introvert who protects herself with ice was very believable. I couldn’t help rooting for her to finally come out of her shell and find her people.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for allowing me to read this copy of To Swoon and to Spar. All opinions are solely mine.

I had not read the first 3 books of this series. Enjoyed this enough to go back and read the rest of them!

A delightfuly entertaining book.loved the banter and dynamic between the characters! A fun read that had me in stitches.Also, one of my fave tropes, ,arranged marriaged and it was executed nicely.Loved both hero and the heroine and their prickly personality. My favourite in the series! I will always recommend this author!

*thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

A super sweet rivals to lovers tale! If you are into Bridgerton or Royals along with a bit of romance, be sure to check this one out!

From a gothic romp setting to a neurodiverse heroine to a marriage of convenience that works on a million levels, this book did a great job of highlighting a hero who has mostly kept to the background of the previous books in the series. I really appreciated the way that these two ding dongs learned to hear and communicate with each other in a soft and beautiful love that grew tenderly and naturally.

This story is told in third person and follows Penvale and Jane. This is the fourth book in The Regency Vows series and I found it a little boring, which surprised me since it had a lot of elements that really appeal to me including a more mature couple for the time, a shy heroine who prefers the country and books to socializing, a marriage of convenience and ghosts in a Cornwall estate.

However, I was rather disappointed in the format. It jumps through time a lot and just when I thought I was getting interested in the relationship between Penvale and Jane it would jump again, making me feel like I was missing crucial moments in the relationship development although I loved the spectacles moments. I also found the ghostly shenanigans perpetrated by Jane or her cohorts to be rather misguided or premature with Penvale, though they were probably fun and appropriate with her guardian, and while I love a “one bed” scenario this one didn’t make sense to me in its continuation.

Just when I was starting to enjoy the relationship, there was a last-minute misunderstanding and the couple separated instigating the final grand gesture. I did think that they were a good match from the small observations and moments that they spent together, but overall I was disappointed.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for a copy provided for an honest review.

This was another fan regency romance that I think will appeal to fans of the genre. It reads a lot like the other Waters' books so if you liked those, you'll likely be a fan of this one as well.

Despite the fact that throughout the series, Penvale hasn’t really done much for me, this might be my favorite of the series. Probably because I’m a sucker for enemies to lovers. But also, you don’t get a lot of fun Regency romance set in Cornwall. You never expect the fourth in a series to be this great. The whole series is really fun, but I loved this one especially. All of the books in this series are clearly inspired by Austen and this one evokes Northanger Abbey with its Gothic vibes steeped in comedy. This book is really wonderful and I cannot wait for the next one!