This book had potential, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous book in the series. I don't know if it was because it was a novella, but I didn't feel like I got invested enough in the characters to care about their HEA...

Overall, I liked the book, as it was a quick and fairly light read. The couple, Elspeth and Hammish, were likable and a good match for one another. Elspeth was raised by her elderly spinster aunts, the Murray sisters. She went to spend time with another aunt, Augusta, at which time she met Hammish. Hammish was the third son of an earl.

The romance happened so fast that it felt somewhat forced. Of course, there was some angst but the situation was nicely resolved. When Elspeth engaged in intimacies with Hammish, she demonstrated behavior that was in complete opposition with the manner in which the pious aunts had raised her. It was hard to believe, as she surely knew the consequences of such licentious behavior. However, the aunts' reaction to her activities was disheartening. Were they truly good women or just bitter hypocrites? There was a satisfying HEA and a brief epilogue.

I have read other books by the author and will continue to do so. I would recommend the book to anyone who wished to indulge in a romantic read.

I thought the book was a fun read. I was able to read it in one setting. I thought the characters meshed well together. I read the original when it was in the boxed set.

A fast read. Hamish though a third son of an Earl wants to work in publishing and Elspeth who was brought up by her aunts away from society has a vivid imagination and wants to write books.

Thanks to netgalley

This series is one of my favorites!!! Can't wait for her new ones. Essex's Historical Romance is by far one of the best series I've read!

Elspeth Otis is left an old manuscript of her father's as an inheritance. She is encouraged to rewrite the story. The rewriting of the story causes her to meet people she had previously not known, lets her experience new things that a girl growing up with spinster aunts has never experienced. Where do these new experiences lead her?

Two people with very unfortunate relatives find a way to be together and untangle themselves from said relatives. A lovely novella that I was completely satisfied with.
Copy of book received from netgalley with thanks.

I read this before, it must have been in an anthology of stories. Liked it both times! The couple is delightful, he's the third son of an Earl, she's an innocent country girl, raised by spinster aunts, to also become a spinster.. the romance is sweet, though perhaps not true to the time. I enjoyed it anyway. Great story by an excellent author.

This is the story of Elspeth Otis! A women living in the countryside in Scotland with here two spinster aunts. She wants adventure and a life instead of resigning herself to life in the country. When a trunk arrives with her fathers belongings from her aunt in the city Elspeth takes a chance and leaves the world she knows for the unknown.

While I have enjoyed the rest of this series this book was disappointing for me. I never really like novellas because they have insta love stories in them that are not plausible. Especially with the time period I wish this story was longer and could develop at a more reasonable pace instead of her just meeting a man and instantly falling in love.

While a charming read. This story was not so captivating to me. It felt very surface and some of the characters I just could not bond with in my own thoughts. The story itself is charming and sometimes touching. A light read for a summer beach day. I was given this ARC in return for a honest review. Anna

Publisher's Description:
“If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village,

she must seek them abroad.” Jane Austen

Miss Otis regrets…

The entirely of Miss Elspeth Otis’s inheritance from her wastrel father is a battered old trunk with some scrawled-upon foolscap sheets. Nothing that could free her from a stifling life with her fusty maiden aunties in a musty old cottage in a misty corner of Scotland. Nothing that will give her the life she’s always dreamed of—a life full of kindness and kisses and love. Or will it?

Nothing…

Mr. Hamish Cathcart wants more than anything to avoid the hasty marriage to a brewer’s daughter his father, the earl, has arranged to revive his fortunes. Hamish’s only hope is his failing publishing company, whose only asset is a scandalously banned book by an infamous, but unfortunately deceased, author. But when a new novel written by the same man lands on Hamish’s doorstep, he’ll go to any length to secure it—any length but love.

My Thoughts:
I think I enjoyed this book as much or more than any other that I have read by Elizabeth Essex.
I openly cheered for this couple to find their way to each other. He was desearving a true love rather than the arranged marriage his father has in mind and she deserves so much more than a life of spinsterhood and loneliness that her maiden aunts have in mind.
I gave this sweetly written title 4.25 of 5 stars for storyline and characterization and a sensual rating of 3 of 5 flames. It is closer to being sweet than steamy.
I received a complimentary digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley to read. This in no way affected my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

A Fine Madness is book 1.5 in the Highlands Brides series. Elspeth Otis lives with her spinster aunts, her mother's sister. Her mother and her father have died and these aunts have raised Elspeth but, she has been isolated and ridiculed for being a bastard. On her birthday she receives a gift from her father's sister. The Aunts look down on this sister and have kept Elspeth from her. Elspeth decides this is her one chance to escape her life so the goes to visit this aunt. When she arrives at the aunt's home, she is welcomed and cared for in a way she has not known. She learns she is not a bastard and that she is intelligent and beautiful.

Elspeth is given a book that her father has partially written and she finishes the book. When she goes to the publisher, she meets Hamish Cathcart. He is partner at this publishing agency and is also the third son of an Earl. Hamish's father has decided it is time for Hamish to marry but that is not in his plans. When he meets Elspeth, he is drawn to her because she is unlike the other girls he has known. The two quickly fall in love. Things get complicated when Elspeth is called back to her aunt's home due to the illness of one of her aunts. Elspeth feels that she fits in there and not in Hamish's world. What Hamish does to get the woman he loves to return to the city with him is great.

The book is well written and has a good amount of steamy love scenes but not too much. It is a quick romantic read.

She's grown up with her maiden aunts after her father's death. She never even knew she had another aunt until the trunk arrived along with a letter. Once she knew, she went back on the carriage to meet this new aunt. It changes her world.

ERB Publishing and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can pick up a copy now.

Elspeth shows up with a small satchel containing her other clothes and goods. Her aunt looks for her luggage and is amazed she has so little. Soon Elspeth is going shopping and learning how to do her hair. She also finds that her father has written a book. Elspeth has her own stories, often with little animals in them, that she created while bored to death at her spinster aunt's house. Maybe she could write a book, too?

Her aunt is intelligent and has worldly knowledge. She slowly sets into play a way for Elspeth to make money and even acquire a husband. She sends Elspeth to the local publisher to ask about the book and republishing it. She's already spoken to Hamish about it so he was expecting her. What he didn't expect was how well she wrote or how attractive she seemed to him.

Her aunts had warned her about men like him. What they didn't tell her was how it felt to be kissed or held close...

This is a good romance read with a bit spice thrown in. It ends like you know it will but it took a creative way to get there. Here's a nice light read that will make you smile.

What a charming novella! When I began reading, I thought perhaps I read the description wrong and it was actually a full-length novel. Most novellas, in my experience, move a bit too quickly and lack the meat of the story most readers crave. It can feel cramped in such a short format, and this can lead to the reader feeling like the end isn't satisfying. That was not the case with this novella! Elizabeth Essex created an engaging, romantic story that could be read in one sitting and leave the reader content.

Miss Elspeth Otis longs for adventure away from her two elderly aunts who took her in as a young child. When a trunk arrives on her birthday from an aunt she didn't know she had, she seizes the opportunity to know a world outside her quiet country village. While in London, she learns that her father once wrote a scandalous book, popular until banned due to the vulgarities within it. Prompted to rewrite it for the masses, Elspeth joins forces with Mr. Hamish Cartcart, an earl's son who has dreams of excelling in the publishing industry. Their instant attraction is obvious, but can an illegitimate daughter of a notorious author be a suitable wife for the son of an earl?

I loved all of the characters in this book, even the aunts who were too stifling to the lovely Elspeth. Hamish and Elspeth were a great couple from the very beginning and both made me laugh many times. For a novella, I felt that it did a superb job of bonding the reader to the characters without trying to shove too much information into a short story. I would have loved to learn even more about Lady Ivers, as she was such a unique woman who gave Elspeth great encouragement and opportunities.

I look forward to reading more books by this author! She has a gift for storytelling and creating characters a reader can feel connected to.

A Fine Madness, by Elizabeth Essex, is a fast read. The likable hero and heroine are endowed with (mostly) distressingly *unlikable* family members, and their attempts to uncoil themselves from their family expectations, are the drivers of this plot.

This was a charming little story about Hamish Cathcart, the third son of an Earl and now his father has decided it’s time for him to marry and has given him an ultimatum he has 5 weeks to pick a bride or be cut off. Hamish’s one hope of not bowing to his father’s wishes is in his failing publishing company. Miss Elspeth Otis's inheritance from her wastrel father is a battered old trunk given to her by her two old aunts with some scrawled-upon foolscap sheets. Elspeth explores the contents and picks up where her father left off on the manuscript within. Hamish and Elspeth first meet they do not exactly hit it off, but after Hamish reads her manuscript he her and her manuscript as the means to make his venture a success and to escape the marriage noose his father is trying to trap him in. Their story is quite an entertaining novella and a delight to read.
I voluntarily reviewed an advanced readers' copy of this book from Net Galley and the publisher.

Elspith got two gifts for her birthday, a mop cap from her spinster aunts and a trunk from her father’s sister. The trunk and a visit to her aunt, Lady Ivers, change her life. During her visit she learns things about her father and her life that open up a new world for her – maybe. Lady Ivers has approached Hamish Cathcart, a clever investor, and asked him to invest in a publishing house and a book written by her brother (a less controversial version of the book). He is interested in the book, and when he meets Elspith, he is interested in her. Could that have been part of Lady Ivers’s plan? Will she be able to help Elspith find her happily ever after?

A Fine Madness is a quick happy tale. The story is well written, the characters are likeable, even the spinster aunts, and relatable, and the ending satisfying.

AH! Elspeth is a sweetheart! Hamish is a sort-of cad! One is a virginal writer of basically book porn and Hamish is nobleman-editor-book dude looking to gain back his investments with her porny works. Cute, fun, and the inevitability of romance between the two makes the book worthwhile to dive into.

Elspeth Otis has lived with her aunts in a small village for most of her life. She receives a chest and a letter from her father's sister living in Edinburgh and finds the spinster aunts have kept the previous letters from her over the years. She decided to go to see Aunt Augusta and learn more about her father. They decide to take the papers her father left and she would weave some books for the present time. In doing so she meets the 3rd son of a viscount who has decided to invest his money with the publisher who published her father's original work. They are attracted to each other. Will those books get published?

This was a charming little story about Hamish Cathcart, the third son of an earl and Rory's (from Mad for Love) half brother and Elspeth Otis, orphaned daughter of John Otis, infamous author of a banned book. This is the third book in the series, but it appears to run concurrently with Mad About the Marquess and I thought it tied the three books together nicely.

Hamish is in a bind, his father has decided that it is time for him to marry and has given him about 5 weeks to pick a bride or be cut off. Hamish has no desire to dance to his father's tune and is determined to find a way to make his own fortune. As luck would have it, opportunity knocks in the form of Lady Ivers - sister to John Otis. She suggests that Hamish revive and revamp her late brother's book and points him in the direction of the original publisher.

Elspeth is at home with her two aunts (her mother's sisters) celebrating her 24th birthday when she is surprised by a delivery from her aunt (Lady Ivers) from Edinburgh - since she has never had any contact with her father's family, she is shocked to find out that her aunts have kept the knowledge that Lady Ivers has sent her letters and gifts over the years from her. She makes a rash decision and leaves the cottage and travels to Edinburgh - much to the dismay and contempt of her aunts. Unsure of her welcome, Elspeth is delighted by the warm welcome she receives from Lady Ivers. Lady Ivers explains to Elspeth that the trunk that was delivered to her was actually her father's and encourages Elspeth to explore the contents and pick up where her father left off on the manuscript within. She then points in the direction of the original publisher of her father's book.

When Hamish and Elspeth first meet, it is definitely not love at first sight - but after Elspeth leaves and Hamish reads the book she has written - he is blown away and sees the means to make his venture a success and to escape the marriage noose his father is trying to trap him in.

Hamish and Elspeth meet again at Lady Ivers home and agree work together to publish the book. Hamish realizes that Elspeth is not the mouse he first thought and the more time he is with her, the more he wants her and not just for the book. Elspeth is also smitten by Hamish - but she has lead a small life and is sure that a worldly man like Hamish would never want a girl like her. When they meet at a ball and things become heated between them - Elspeth's upbringing resurfaces and she is ashamed of herself - so when Lady Ivers tells her one of her aunts is ill and asking for her - she bolts.

Hamish is not willing to let Elspeth walk away and sets out after her. Just as he convinces her that should be together - a misunderstanding sends Elspeth running again.

I really enjoyed this book - it is well written, has an interesting storyline, likeable characters, no real villains (unless you count the aunts as villains - which they kind of were), a couple of steamy-ish love scenes, a quickly resolved misunderstanding and a wonderful declaration scene.

This book could easily be read as a stand alone title - but it does tie the other two books into the series very nicely.