FROM GOVERNESS TO COUNTESS is the first book in the MATCHES MADE IN SCANDAL SERIES, and I look forward to reading more. Set in England and St. Petersburg, Russia, it has two stories to be told and melds nicely. The stories take place in the early 1800’s.

When we first meet Allison, an herbalist, she is embroiled in a scandal made up of rumors that she did not fight against or state the facts even though a patient died. When she’s given a second chance to do what she loves by the woman known as The Procurer, she jumps at it.

The assignment takes her to Russia, where she becomes the governess to the late Duke’s children, who don’t immediately warm to her. Their uncle is their guardian but doesn’t relish the role since he’s an officer in the Russian army. There is immediate chemistry between Allison and Aleksei, even though they come from different backgrounds. He’s royalty, and she’s not anywhere close.

The descriptions of the children’s home, the grounds, the gardens, and the surrounding areas made me feel that I was there. There is a nice flow to the story. Allison seems to know what Aleksei is thinking before he does. I liked that we got to know the characters a little at a time. There are steamy moments along with the growing romance, and the story is filled with society’s protocols, herbal details, and emotion. The children and their dog are a nice addition to the story and add another layer. There is nice closure with the epilogue and a happily-ever-after.

Kaye is one of my go-to authors. I always enjoy her books and look forward to reading more of this series. I have others to add to my always growing TBR pile!

From Governess to Countess by Marguerite Kaye is the first book her Matches Made in Scandal series and, on paper, it's loaded with Wendy Catnip. There's a heroine hiding away, licking her wounds following a scandal; a hero bowing under the weight of obligation he thought he had dodged; the political shenanigan-laden backdrop that is Russian politics (seriously, it doesn't matter the time period - although this book is set post Napoleonic Wars); and what should have been a compelling mystery. And yet somehow, after a really intriguing set-up, it all falls strangely flat.

Allison Galbraith was raised by her grandmother and is a skilled herbalist. She had a thriving practice - until the death of a child and a doctor determined to protect his reputation and standing threw her under the proverbial bus. Being a woman, making her own way in the world, has meant Allison has had to scrap and fight for her livelihood and now the scandal rags are painting her as a Jezebel harlot of loose morals. So yes, she's hiding. Then a mysterious woman, only known as "The Procurer," knocks on her door with a business proposition. Her client has need of a skilled herbalist who can also pose as a governess to his brother's three orphaned children. Allison, hearing the voice of her chastising Scottish grandmother in her ear, takes the opportunity presented and runs with it.

She arrives in St. Petersburg to meet her new employer Count Aleksei Derevenko. Up until recently Aleksei was fighting Napolean, a military career something he could indulge given he's "the spare." Then he gets word that his older brother has died and a few short days later is followed in death by his wife. His two nieces and nephew are now orphans, and against all logic his brother has named him the children's guardian - a task Aleksei is completely unsuited for. Adding to his troubles, Aleksei is convinced his brother's death was no accident and he's not sure who he can trust in the gossipy hot-bed that is St. Petersburg society. He suspects his brother may have been poisoned and he needs an outsider with a good cover story to help him investigate. So he turns to The Procurer who in turn offers up Allison.

I loved the set-up of this story. The Procurer is so mysterious we never learn her name (she will get her own romance down the road!) and she's this intriguing cross between Regency-era concierge and "fixer." She doesn't get her hands dirty in this story - she's the one who makes the introductions, pairing up two people who can mutually benefit each other. It's really a clever idea for a series.

However after the intriguing set-up things start to bog down. Kaye falls a bit in love with her setting, which is understandable, but it all tends to slow down the pacing of the story. The simplest way to put it would be it lacks urgency. As romance readers we're well versed in gossipy London drawing rooms and snide comments at balls - trust me when I saw it's child's play to the intrigue that surrounded the Russian Czarist court. And there's very little of that here. Outside of Allison and Aleksei attending a ball at the Winter Palace, most of this story takes place at Aleksei's palace with him taking off to talk to people and investigate while Allison reins in the kidlets and tackles the mystery of the possible poisoning. For a book set in St. Petersburg, it's a rather insular story with very little courtly shenanigans to spice up the proceedings.

And that's probably where my disappointment lies. Because while the mystery itself is fairly straight-forward I think the promise of St. Petersburg as a setting had me expecting something "more." More cloak and dagger. More "who can you trust?" More subterfuge. And, in the end, while the author writes the more realistic denouement, my desire to see high treason and political shenanigans is thwarted.

The romance itself is nice but never really elevates itself to high passion, but I did appreciate how the author paired up two people bowing under the weight of expectations and societal norms. I liked that the hero understood the heroine's drive and "calling" in her chosen profession and I liked how the heroine helps the hero find a little bit of himself. It isn't the most compelling romance Kaye's written, but it's...nice. Though I realize that sounds damning with faint praise.

In the end this was a pleasant if not entirely memorable read for me. The premise of the series is dynamite however, and the concept that a woman in the Regency era could fill the role that The Procurer does hits all of my sweet spots. This wasn't love at first sight, but I'll be reading the next book in the series.

Final Grade = C+

I enjoyed <b>From Governess to Countess</b>, book 2 in the <i>Matches Made in Scandal</i> series. I like the premise of the series - ladies who have fallen from grace for various reasons and given a second chance by The Procurer - but I've begun to doubt whether these women actually needed The Procurer to rescue them. They're uniformly strong-willed, intelligent and hard working & I want to believe they would have sorted themselves out on their own somehow. But I digress...because that's not the point of the series. Anyway, I'm not super fond of stories set in Russia because I've found authors tend to oversell the country in their stories, and perhaps I felt that way here too. Alexsei is a good man facing the challenge of raising his nieces and nephews and not a lot of preparation for the job. He does the right thing in hiring a governess - and I wish this was the focus of the novel. Instead, the fact that Allison is an herbalist, somehow convinces him she can get to the bottom of the suspicious death of his brother and sister-in-law. I thought this was a rather large leap in logic - and then, when the two of them meet and right away begin to flirt and tease, I wasn't quite certain where Ms. Kaye wanted this story to go. The principals are interesting, their romance is lovely (if a bit too fast tracked) and the mystery sub-plot adds a different dimension to this historical romance, but the novel tries to be too much and too many things, and though enjoyable, is a bit unsatisfying.

This gifted Scots author might as well call her works Matches made in Scotland, but this new series is titled Matches Made in Scandal and seems likely to be her most ambitious yet. Tales are planned for the great capitals of nineteenth century culture, from London to Vienna. The first is set in St. Petersburg, where our herbalist heroine treks from Hampstead with an offer of a post as governess. Indeed, her journey may take her FROM GOVERNESS TO COUNTESS.
Allison Galbraith has had her reputation tarnished. But nobody knows her in the glittering Russian city. Count Aleksi Derevenko needs a governess for his brother's three orphaned children, but he was expecting someone older and a good deal less pretty. He's a military man, who was too busy fighting Napoleon to wed. The previous governess, Madame Orlova, vanished abruptly, and Aleksi feels an obligation to find her. But the children's welfare comes first... not that they want a Scottish governess.
I was fascinated by the Winter Palace. With the war over, everyone feels able to dress in finery and entertain. And what a ball! As all the Royal Families of Europe were related, the Romanovs held court on a lavish scale and the Tsar Alexander had as many mistresses as he wished, including some from other countries. However, the times were famous -- or notorious -- for other reasons. As we learn, Aleksi suspects that an assassin is prowling the halls and gardens. The Count is staking his all on the herbalist being able to identify poisons.
I like that each of the characters is at odds with their own culture. The herbalist is barred from being a respected apothecary by the fact that she is female. The Count feels more at home in an army camp than a gilded reception room in a city built by serfs for vanity. Typically Allison is shown ministering to all levels of society with her healing skills. This enables us to build up a picture of the staff required to support opulent lifestyles.
Boats, barges, sleighs, and troikas are the modes of transport here, depending on the season. I really felt transported to St. Petersburg. Love draws the duo together swiftly, and loving is the same anywhere, with lavish settings and warm beds. This is an adult romance, between strong, passionate, mature people who have survived the worst that could happen and deserve happiness, just as all of Europe rejoices at the defeat of Bonaparte. Marguerite Kaye last captivated me with desert romances and now travels to a northerly setting full of splendor - and treachery. FROM GOVERNESS TO COUNTESS... well, it won't happen in two easy moves.

Whether it was my mood, or a super-busy two weeks, I slogged through the first in Kaye’s new series, From Governess to Countess. If I had to give you a baseline of my narrative immersion, it’d be: perked up to the premise, dragged my way through two-thirds and zipped through the last. Kaye’s novel is well-researched, with a fascinating and nicely developped setting, a lovely heroine and engaging secondary characters. The hero, on the other hand, is concocted out of bleached-out niceness and a copious dose of cluelessness.

I loved the premise: a mysterious “Procurer,” a woman, in 1815 London, seeks out disgraced women to offer them a task that may reestablish their finances and reputation. She is a “procurer” of second chances and her first mission is Miss Allison Galbraith, a Scottish herbalist, whose work has been derided by London’s medical establishment. The Procurer offers Allison a job, in St. Petersburg, as governess to the three orphaned children of Duke and Duchess Derevenko, presently in the care of their military-officer Uncle Aleksei, recently returned from defeating Napoleon.

Aleksei, however, has plans for his hired governess that have nothing to do with her paedagogical abilities. Allison’s governess position is the cover for the true purpose of her presence at the Derevenko Palace, her knowledge of herbs and, in particular, poisons. Kaye does a wonderful job of building the suspense that will tells us why Allison’s knowledge and foreigner’s neutrality and discretion are necessary to Aleksei. Thereafter, the mystery proceeds in fits, starts, and sputters, as Kaye tries to establish a growing relationship behind her hero and heroine, contend with Allison’s arrival in a strange culture, as well as her attempts to reach three grieving orphans, and describe the glories of early 19th century St. Petersburg. Despite so much going on, the narrative dragged in the first half.

Was it a case of it’s me, not you, vis-à-vis From Governess To Countess? Probably a little of both. Why did the narrative take so long to get off the ground? And why could I never fully be immersed in it? I think my problem lay with the hero and the reasons around which he and Allison couldn’t be together. While working to care for the children, solve a mystery, and run huge estates, Aleksei is a caring, gentle man who easily expresses his affection and attraction to Allison. As does she. They smoothly fall into a physical affair that is spicy, solicitous, attentive, and warm-hearted.

All well and good, it’s obvious they’re falling in love. Into this narrative, Kaye weaves some marvelous scenes: a droll one where Allison badly renders Scottish ballads, several boat rides along the Neva, and, my favourite, a wonderfully-rendered outing to a food market. The problem? Even though the war is over and his duty clearly with his nieces and nephew, this lovely man, Aleksei, cluelessly insists that he’s never envisioned a life with a family, or being married. He cares only for his freedom. Duh. He insists on the impossibility of being with Allison, his reasons vague, and even purchases her passage from St. Petersburg back to England. Allison, in turn, has always envisioned a life as a healer, but she manages to work her knowledge in the Derevenko Palace by opening a dispensary for the many servants Aleksei employs. She is more aware of her feelings and desires, though she indulges in some cross-class contradictory thoughts that were unconvincing. In the end, I greatly enjoyed the atmosphere and historical background to the novel, but never really warmed to Allison and Aleksei, together or apart, until the end. With Miss Austen, we deem Kaye’s From Governess to Countess “almost pretty,” Northanger Abbey.

Marguerite Kaye’s From Governess to Countess is published by Harlequin Books. It was released on March 1st and may be found at your preferred vendors. I received an e-ARC, from Harlequin, via Netgalley.

Sorry but I couldn't get into the book at all. I tried though, I'm so sorry for my ADD brain.

Hampstead - 1815

Hampstead with its clean air is a popular spa retreat. A woman known as The Procurer arrives in town looking for a Miss Allison Galbraith. Allison had once been a talented herbalist, but she is now shunned by society. This happened through no fault of her own. It was a man named Anthony Marchmont who make her his scapegoat. After listening to the requirements of the position offered by The Procurer, Allison accepts.

Packing her herb chest, she sails to the lovely city of St. Petersburg and is taken to the Derevenko Palace. The opulence of the palace is breathtaking. She meets Count Aleksei Derevenko. He is taken with her beauty and pleased that she will be the governess. It turns out her charges are the children of his brother, Michael, and wife, both of whom are deceased. Aleksei is the children’s guardian, but rather resents it because he is a soldier and that is the life he prefers. The children are Catiche, 13, Elena, 10, and Nikki, the heir, age 4.

As Allison settles in, Aleksei confides to her how his brother and sister-in-law died. With her knowledge of herbs, Allison is convinced that they had been poisoned. She is amazed at the extensive herb garden at the Palace.

Allison and Aleksei share quiet dinners and talks which leads them to an inevitable attraction. Allison knows that her future with be in Scotland when she returns home. For now, in addition to teaching the children, the begins treating the ailing servants with her herbs, thus helping them to heal.

But Aleksei will not rest until he finds out who killed his brother and sister-in-law. Can Allison help him? Can they just enjoy their time together knowing it is only for a short time?

This is a well-written novel about life in Russia. The descriptions depicted by the author are so well done as to make the reader feel like they are right in the middle of it gazing in awe. What an incredible imagination Ms. Kaye possesses.

Copy provided by the author and NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Marguerite Kaye’s research glimmers in a well-told, engrossing and tender story from her Matches Made in Scandal series, about a courtesan who’s never (really) been kissed seeking to leave behind a past she had no say over, and a man running from a (possibly) falsified betrothal. In From Courtesan to Convenient Wife, Ms. Kaye has crafted a lovely romance between two individuals who are not precisely your typical romantic pairing.

When The Procurer approaches Lady Sophia Acton’s abode, she has a specific mission in mind for the scandalous young lady.  The Procurer’s life’s work basically involves providing a second chance to women who have been wronged in some way; she offers temporary business contracts to the highly skilled yet friendless, and sets them to solving problems posed to her by her – usually very well-to-do - clients.  Since Lady Sophia recently suffered a spectacular social fall from grace that’s left her nearly impoverished, she doesn’t have many options left to her when the Procurer arrives on her doorstep.

The Procurer’s mission for her is simple: she must be willing to pose as the wife of the handsome and much-pursued wine merchant Jean-Luc Bauduin.  She will not be required to sleep with the client, but she must furnish her own complete loyalty to the man and act the part of his beloved in public and in front of his servants - and after her task is completed she will have enough money to restart her life in permanent comfort and see a full restoration of her own honor as the beloved wife of a respected man.  How can she resist?  Sophia has been hiding from the world ever since a disaster with her previous ‘employer’ resulted in his blackening her name, and anything is better than living an obscure life trickling down the social ladder and bitterly missing her lost family.

Jean-Luc has no idea that his new wife has a scandalous past as a courtesan. At this point all he wants is to be convincingly enough married to avoid the marriage suit of another.  Comtesse Juliette de Cressy has descended upon him with the claim that they were affianced as children and at the same time declares that Jean-Luc is the lost fourth son of the Duc de Montendre, spirited away from the aristocracy during the Terror to live among ordinary vintners.  Jean-Luc has no memory of this and, having lied about the existence of a previous wife, must now to live his fiction with Sophia at his side.  While the ersatz husband and wife set out together to prove that Juliette’s marriage contract is a falsehood, they must battle Juliette’s impassioned insistence that she’s in the right, the ever-expanding shadow of their pasts and a powerful undercurrent of attraction running between them.  Is the Procurer right, and are Jean-Luc and Sophia truly destined for one another?  Or will the weight of the past tear their fragile bond apart?

Sophia is a tender, incredibly sympathetic heroine, a lover of sunshine and art and culture and as snappy as a whip, with a certain trembling courage and a sad queasy sense of self-shame after a rough past.  I like her, make no bones about it – but on the other hand she is that special breed of woman exclusive to romance novels; an unwilling mistress who’s never been truly kissed nor enjoyed an orgasm.  My eternal question about courtesan romances is simple: what’s wrong with a heroine who frankly enjoyed her work and now wants to settle down?   It’s not controversial to say that you can be a ‘good girl’ and a woman who’s done sex work at the same time, but here the author ends up going to uncomfortable lengths to make Sophia bashful so the audience can code her as everything but a virgin in name.  Though I really did like her, she honestly would’ve read better as a seduced-and-abandoned spinster than a courtesan.

Jean-Luc is honorable, well-rounded and caring. I was amused by his food biases, natural for a gourmand (but you are WRONG about tea, sir!) and he genuinely cares for and is kind toward Sophia even when he realizes her life is complicated as his is.  I liked him too.

Here’s the novel’s largest boon: Sophia and Jean-Luc are frankly adorable and funny together.  There’s an entire scene early in the book that sets the pace of their relationship, in which they have a laughter-filled dinner while gently mocking the conventions of the situation they’re stuck in and it really endears the couple to the reader.  Things grow from there at a delicious pace, and aside from the non-kissed-courtesan plot device it’s easy to want to wish them well.

Kaye’s eye for detail is as sharp as her ability to translate history into engaging fiction, and her character’s voices are unique, crisp and intriguing.  The book focuses almost entirely on Sophia and Jean-Luc, but we do have some nice supporting characters.  Juliette is interesting in her own  right, as is her love interest, Jean-Luc’s timid lawyer Maxime, neither of whom become the villains of the piece. Instead the greatest conflict stems from the twin pasts Jean-Luc and Sophia must battle to attain a happy future.

From Courtesan to Convenient Wife is an emotionally urgent and tender romance that ultimately causes the reader to enjoy it in spite of its minor flaws.

Buy it at: Amazon/Barnes & Noble/iBooks/Kobo

I’ve been looking forward to Marguerite Kaye’s new, four-book Matches Made in Scandal series, as each story is set in a different European city. While I certainly don’t object to historical romances set in the UK, I am always keen to venture elsewhere, and was definitely enticed by the thought of reading romances set in some of the most fabulous cities in the world – St. Petersburg, Paris, Venice and, finally, London.

From Governess to Countess opens with renowned – and now disgraced – herbalist, Allison Galbraith receiving a visit from a mysterious woman known only as ‘The Procurer’. This character links the four books in the series, and has a reputation for helping women in need of redemption and a second chance. Allison, a forthright Scot, had acquired a reputation as London’s pre-eminent herbalist, the only option open to a woman with a vocation to help the sick at the time the book is set. But when we meet her, she has been ostracised and vilified in the scandal sheets by a pre-eminent society physician following an incident to which the reader is not made privy until later in the book, but which has obviously destroyed not only Allison’s reputation but her confidence, too.

The Procurer tells Allison that she has come to offer her the chance to rebuild her life and career. She has been charged with finding someone with Allison’s particular talents to fill the position of governess to the children of the recently deceased Duke and Duchess Derevenko, and, enthused at the idea of travel and of getting away from England for a time – and the hefty fee – Allison agrees.

Count Aleksei Derevenko is a military man through and through, and was somewhat exasperated when he learned his late brother, Michael, had changed his will shortly before his death and named Aleksei as guardian to his young children. He can’t understand why his brother made the change when his former choice, their cousin, Felix, would have done a much better job, given he is familiar with all the court customs and protocols it will be necessary for children of such illustrious lineage to learn as they grow up.

When the woman he has engaged as governess for Catiche, Elena and Nikki arrives, Aleksei is momentarily taken aback. His idea of a governess – and herbalist – is certainly not the voluptuous young red-head standing before him who stirs up all the desires and appetites he has had no opportunity to indulge for months. By the same token Allison had not expected her new employer to be a tall, striking military man with ice blue eyes and a mouth that puts her in mind of kissing.

Over a cup of zavarka (black tea), Aleksei explains to Allison that he requires her services as a governess for as long as it takes him to make alternative arrangements for the guardianship of his nieces and nephew. Their former governess, Anna Orlova – to whom they had all been very attached – disappeared without explanation just before his brother’s death, and Aleksei does not feel equipped to deal with them. He plans to spend some of his time trying to find Orlova and to bring her back if he can; in the meantime, he wants Allison to assume charge of them.

What Aleksei doesn’t tell Allison until a little later, however, is the reason he particularly wanted someone knowledgeable about herbs and their properties to fill the position. He strongly suspects his brother-in-law and sister were murdered, and wants Allison to ascertain if the symptoms they exhibited could have been produced by any of the herbs available in the palace gardens or elsewhere in St. Petersburg.

From Governess to Countess is therefore part romance and part mystery as Allison and Aleksei work together to discover the truth about his brother’s death, while at the same time exploring the attraction that has pulled them toward one another since their very first meeting. Neither of them wants anything permanent; Aleksei intends to return to the army and Allison to England, and both agree that their liaison must be of finite duration. Neither of them, however, has bargained on love.

Ms. Kaye develops the relationship between her two protagonists very well, and the easy friendship into which they fall is enjoyable to read and something a little out of the ordinary for the genre. They are intensely drawn to one another physically, but they connect on an emotional level, too, and their frequent exchanges are refreshingly honest. There is no drawn-out angst, even towards the end when it seems the time for parting has arrived, and I was very relieved at the lack of flimsy contrivance for the sake of injecting some unnecessary drama into the story. I liked the way that Allison uses her time in St. Petersburg to really think about what she wants to do with the rest of her life and work out how to pursue an independent future. Aleksei is an attractive hero who is obviously an alpha male, but without the arrogance that is so often associated with the type; he’s thoughtful, insightful and charming, with a strong sense of honour and a good sense of humour, and the way he comes to appreciate the importance of family and to realise that the children need his love and guidance is nicely done.

On the downside, however, I found myself rather more invested in the friendship and comradeship between Allison and Aleksei than in their romance, which is pretty much founded on insta-lust. The couple has undoubted sexual chemistry, but Allison’s eagerness to jump into bed with Aleksei at the first opportunity makes her seem far too modern in spite of the different social mores of St. Petersburg and her desire to take charge of her own life. There are a couple of places in the mystery part of the story where both protagonists jump to conclusions without foundation, and in one particular place, they make an assumption that comes so completely out of the blue – and is so obviously wrong – that I had to read it several times to make sure I’d read it correctly!

Marguerite Kaye is one of my go-to authors, and even when her books don’t work for me on every level, her stories are extremely well-written and researched, her characters are interesting, and she makes excellent use of whichever historical setting she has chosen. While From Governess to Countess wasn’t a resounding success, it’s nonetheless an enjoyable, low-angst read, and one that merits a recommendation in spite of the reservations I have expressed.

Grade: B-

It is refreshing to read a Regency era historical romance set in the opulence of Russia. Ms. Kaye gives us a true introduction to the architecture and vast wealth that was controlled by the aristocracy in that country. There is a mystery to solve, was the death of the Duke murder or natural causes? Can Allison help with the determination since she is an herbalist?
There is an attraction immediately between Allison and Aleksei but will their differing social stations prevent their romance.

I found this book fascinating because of the setting and a good read because of the mystery and romance.

Its a good read. I would consider it not one of her best but still a nice read. It flows well. I enjoyed the first part of the book the most as it seemed to have a faster pace and lots of intrigue. I was not so happy with the last part it seemed to slow down and be just okay. As a romance, it has passion as well as characters you will like. Perhaps the best I can say about the book it is a nice relaxing read. I was given this book in return for an honest review. Regards, Anna Swedenmom