This was a well-written, entertaining book. Lady Adeline Wivenly is in her first season, and has been warned to avoid Fredrick, Lord Littleton. She overhears another woman plotting to trick him into marriage, and she can't let him be taken advantage of that way. For his part, Lord Littleton is very attracted to Lady Adeline and wants the chance to change her mind about him. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more books by this author.

When can a girl be too loyal to a friend? That's one of the issues facing Lady Adeline Wivenly, who has been told by her friend, Lady Dorie, that Frederick, Lord Littleton, is a rake. After all, didn't Frits ( his nickname) nearly find himself married last season, skipping town without an explanation? Lady Dorie does not forgive easily — nor should she, since under the manners of the day, the charming lord behaved like a cad. However, you have to like a guy who won't marry the wrong girl, no matter the pressure. And who wants to be married and isn't determined to love and leave all the women he meets. No Frits just wants to marry the right woman, and nearly from the moment he sees Lady Adeline, he knows she is the one. Of course, she is not so easily persuadable -- she loves her friend, after all. The story of how Frits woos her — with the help of a lovable dog — is breezy, light and laden with love. This book is a relief from angsty tales and troubled heroes. Loving families, meddling (in the best way) mothers and two characters who understand that love is more than surface attraction. Scrumptious. (Advance copy, courtesy of NetGalley. Opinions mine.)

I enjoyed this fun read and felt it was a great way to kick-off this new series. I loved the sparks that flew between Frits and Adeline as his persistence warred with her equally fierce determination. The story is well written and the characters (both lead and secondary) are likable. I felt that this book was slow on occasion but I also understood that a lot of groundwork was being laid for future books in this series. In spite of that though, I truly thought this was a very good read. I could feel for Frits. He made a all too common mistake that is now causing him big problems. I admired Adeline's sense of loyalty and her strength of character. Together I thought these two made a great couple. I look forward to reading book two.

London - 1818

Frederick, Lord Littleton, also known as Frits, is off to go riding with his friend, Gavin, Viscount Turley, in the park. Last season, Frits was seeing Lady Dorie Calthrop, daughter of the Marquess of Huntington. As he got to know her better, he realized that they would never fit. Instead of simply telling her this, he fled back to Littlewood, his estate. Now, he must apologize to her. In doing so, Dorie has some friends with her. Lady Adeline Wiverly is a lovely young woman who catches Frits’s eye. She has also caught the eye of another handsome man, Crispin, the Earl of Angelesey.

Frits soon begins to see Adeline to take her riding and she also walks with his Great Dane dog and his groom. At soirees, he strives to dance with her, especially the supper dance so he and she can dine together.

Adeline is quite taken with Frits as he is with her but she can’t help but feel guilty about her friend, Dorie, which is silly. She needs to follow her own heart and not listen to someone else. Frits has apologized to Dorie for his bad behavior and that should put and end to it.

Frits does all he can to court Adeline and hopefully win her heart before Crispin can intervene.

What a busy book. So many things happening and so many characters which is something that I do not like about this author’s books. Every little conversation must be written which becomes boring because there are So.Many.Words. A good story that needed a lot of editing to make it more interesting. More is not always better.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

...a uconfounded eligible Lord!

I rather enjoyed this despite the fact that our heroine' Adeline drove me crazy with her definition of a rake which "Frederick, Lord Littleton—Frits to his mother and grandmother"—just didn't seem to be. (To my mind anyway.) Of course Lady Adeline Wivenly's views have been colored by a rather stern young woman Frits had been dazzled by last season. Someone he'd courted assiduously until he decided they were very different people. He'd wrongly fled back to his beloved country estate without explaining to Lady Dorcus Calthor--Dorie, the reasons why, or at least allowing her dissolve the relationship. (We first met Dorie in "The Marquis She'd Been Waiting For".)
I knew that scene at the lake was as familiar. Here it is seen from a different viewpoint. I really enjoyed the background inclusion of some of the people already met in "The Marriage Game" series, including some of the young women Adeline becomes fast friends with.)
Frits is not quite Freddy Standen from Heyer's "Cotillion", but like Freddy I find him a very loveable character. His courting or rather corralling of Adeline is quaint and rather funny. Frits has to prove to Adeline they're suited and their mutual interest in animals play a big part.
Of course there'a a real cad and rake who has arrived back from living on the continent and we readers just know he's despicable. Frits keeps trying to put his finger on what's wrong with this questionable, seemingly affable person, but never quite realizes what it is.
Anyway it's quite a convoluted plot with Frits turning up trumps, despite having to do some quick thinking and fancy leg work.
I loved those powerful mothers with their networks pulling strings and handing out advice behind the scenes.
A humorous regency romance that hides a wealth of information about the expectations of the day, English laws, law making, and family responsibilities.

A Kensington Books ARC via NetGalley

I found it hard to get into this story. The hero feels a bit one-dimensional and the plot is really slow. There are great historical details, but I was not able to get emotionally invested in the characters.

The main conflict gets resolved about 2/3 of the way through the novel, then they add a new subplot that is historically significant but feels like it comes out of nowhere.

Then the plot gets a bit crazypants.

On a weird note, most of the intimate scenes are of the antagonist and his lovers, which was unpleasant. Then there are moments the hero gets distracted by his lust, but very little passion between the hero and heroine together. This really isn’t like most historical romances that I read.

If you like more history than romance in your reading, this novel might be for you.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Net Galley in return for a fair review.

I enjoyed this book. It was a very sweet romance. Both the hero, Frits and the heroine, Adeline, were very likable.
What I liked about the book is that you saw the relationship develop between the two of them. It took a while for Adeline to trust Frits because In the prior season he had shown interest in her friend and then just disappeared..
What I didnt like was how twice in this story there were potential villains and they were dispersed with so quickly. I would have liked to see one or the other developed and perused. I didn't think the story fit right with the second villain.
But all in all a pleasant read.

What a sweet romance! Littleton had kind of courted Adeline’s friend the previous season causing her to not quite trust him. Nor did she want to be disloyal to her friend. So, Littleton had a tough battle from the beginning in getting Adeline to trust him. Add in another interested party, Anglesey, and Littleton had an even greater challenge. It was interesting how much Littleton was set on finding a wife. I don’t normally think of a romance as being the male who is on the hunt, but Littleton certainly was. And, he did not want to mess up as he had the previous season.

I loved his dog Maximus; he was adorable and a huge help in bringing these two together. Probably more of a help than their matchmaking mothers.

There were several ‘compromises’ that were thwarted on both sides of this couple. Not sure if it was that common during the time period, but it was a frequent occurrence in this book.

I loved this book and the male perspective. The only thing that did not really add to the story was the slave portion. Adeline and Littleton were already headed toward their HEA that this seemed to just be adding pages not really content. Even then, I still enjoyed this light hearted read.

This book was okay—not terrible, not great. I liked the two main characters a lot, and the machinations of their mothers were amusing. But there were too many side plots, with too much time devoted to them (especially Anglesey). That time would have been better spent developing the relationship between the two main characters.

It's Adeline's first season, and Frits is in town looking for a wife. He had a near miss the previous year when he was attracted to a lady, but then decided that they wouldn't suit and fled to the country instead of confronting the problem head on. Adeline and Frits are instantly attracted, but the progress of their romance is hampered because Adeline has become good friends with the girl Frits slighted. For a good portion of the book Adeline is trying not to fall in love with Frits, while Frits is trying to prove to her that she can trust him. There's also the problem of an unsuitable suitor and various strands of entrapment with a view to forcing a marriage. The romance problem is solved at about 80% of the way into the book and then there's a late developing sub plot involving Frits and Adeline rescuing an enslaved boy and his mother. (By this time slavery was illegal in Britain and as soon as a former slave set foot on British soil they were automatically free.) There's a brief moment of peril resolved in barely a paragraph, and the last 10% of the book is the wedding with an obligatory bout of pre-marital sex. I have read some of Ella Quinn's Worthington's books before and enjoyed them, however I had a few problems with the structure of this one. The late developing slavery portion of the plot didn't seem to chime well with the Regency romance plot, and maybe should have been either foreshadowed and developed much earlier, or abandoned entirely. It seemed tacked on to provide a bit of peril, but it was largely out of place, too little, too late.

Adalaide and Little work well together. A cute read.
There was a ball. Also almost ruination.
A bit steamy in places

Handsome, rakish, incorrigibly flirtatious Fredrick, Lord Littleton, is notorious or so Dorie says so Lady Adeline Wivenly resolves to keep him at arm’s length during her first Season until she overhears another woman’s plot to trick him into marriage. Even a rogue is undeserving of such deception, and Adeline feels obliged to warn him. In the past, Littleton’s charm nearly got him leg-shackled to the wrong woman. Now he’s positive he’s found the right one, for Adeline is everything he wants and needs in a wife. Her sense of justice is so strong she agrees to help him despite her mistrust.
This is the first in a new series but it does link with other series by the author & as I love the author’s books this added to my enjoyment to be able to reconnect with some earlier characters. A very good series starter, that flowed well & held my interest all the way through. The characters were well portrayed & had depth. I liked both Frits & Adeline & I loved how he fell hard & fast for Adeline but she did annoy me at times as she totally believed Dorie without finding out why Dorie hated Frits, even when everything told her Dorie was wrong. The road to their HEA made for an entertaining read as it certainly wasn't smooth. I look forward to the rest of the series
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

Ella Quinn writes a good slow burn. Frederick is back in town for the season hoping to not repeat his mistakes of the past year. He is determined to find a lady to marry but he knows he has issues he will have to overcome. Adeline is having her first season and wants things to go well. She knows that the things she loves might not be what gentlemen like to talk about. She wants to find someone she can love and hopes to do so this season. When these two first see each other there is a spark but there is a big obstacle in their way. Their courtship gets underway and is helped along by their mothers who think they would be a perfect match. The author builds the tension as two gentlemen vie for her hand and secrets are revealed. The characters are ones who we will root for as they embark on a journey to discovering that they are perfect for each other.

This is my fair and honest review, voluntarily given in my own words, for this ARC. Who knew it would be so difficult winning the woman you love? And when did the marriage mart become so complicated? And does she love my dog more than me? All of these questions and more will be revealed in this very good tale.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was a bit dismayed to see that Ella Quinn was starting a new series with The Most Eligible Lord in London, and not continuing with her Worthingtons series. But given that this, like the Worthingtons, is a spinoff of her flagship Marriage Game series, and she has even since added an installment to The Marriage Game since starting the Worthingtons, I don’t think the door is closed to her returning to them at some point. And there are some lovely cameos, as well as further fleshing out of some characters and a family that appeared in those previous works.

I like both of the leads, although I don’t know if they’re the most memorable Ella Quinn pairing I’ve read. I enjoyed seeing Littleton reckon with his rakish past and how it got him into trouble with a lady before, and atoning for that. And by introducing the unrepentant scoundrel Lord Anglesley to rival him for Adeline’s affections, it shows that in some cases, rakes do have the power for growth if they truly make the effort, while some others never change.

Adeline is kind of just…typical…I suppose? There’s nothing wrong with that…I like that she loves animals and has a sense of awareness to not be taken in by someone she thinks will hurt her. But there’s nothing that truly makes her stand out, and I just found her a little boring. And while there is an interesting conflict at first, it ultimately falls flat, with a lot of drama that ends anticlimactially.

However, Quinn continues to excel at including a sense of authenticity to her Regency world, in a way that also reflects some of the recent conversations of the past year or two in Romancelandia. She tackles the issue of slavery with sensitivity, and provided me with further context beyond the bare facts concerning both the abolition of the slave trade (1807) and the final abolition of slavery itself in the British West Indies (1833).

It’s very possible most of my gripes are just my “jaded by most historical romance” side coming out again, along with my fond memories for some of her earlier Worthington books, as some other early readers seem to enjoy it. If you’re love Ella Quinn’s other books, or enjoy historical romance with a good grasp of the Regency period, I recommend picking this up.

***3 STARS***

This was a DNF for me. I could barely make it through 20%. Why? Because the hero Fredrick/Frits was just too much....too sweet and too soft. Nothing roguish or rakish about him at all. I mean come on he tells his friend that he is being chaperoned by his mother for the Season because of the “scandal” he created the previous year. The scandal was yawn...absolutely nothing. And your mama is chaperoning you?

I read romance for the stories but I like a strong hero. That is just my preference. I realize that not all can be alphas and I will take a beta but not a pansy. Sorry to be so harsh but this is my pet peeve especially when you put that the hero is a rake/rogue in the synopsis.

The author writes well and I will try to read her again. This just was not my cup of tea.

This was an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Frederick, Baron Littleton, Frits to his friends, is well known, wealthy, handsome, titled, and therefore touted as the catch of the season. He made a grievous error last season that nearly saw him wed to a woman he realized was totally wrong for him. This season he's trying again to find the right wife and thinks he's succeeded in Lady Adeline Wivenly. Too bad she is also friends with the lady he made an enemy of last season.

Lady Adeline Wivenly is determined to keep Frits at bay, despite the attraction she feels for him, out of a sense of loyalty to her friend. Frits is equally determined to show her he's no rake and that he's serious about wanting a wife, as long as it's her.

This was a bit boring for me to be honest. I can understand loyalty to one's friends of course, but I just found Adeline to be judgmental, naive, and rather ditzy. This story turned out to be an agonizingly slow burn and the amount of times Adeline questioned Frits' intentions had me questioning her intelligence. There were quite a few supporting characters as well and at times they were tough to keep straight. I never did find much plot; most of the narrative is bogged down in minutiae that did nothing to advance the story and moments of increased action and subplot that were added near the end just felt random and disjointed to me. I also never quite understood why Frits was so taken with Adeline and felt they were unevenly matched and rather flat for much of the book and this never really changed to me. Much of the book felt like added fluff for me, especially the chapters from the point of view of Adeline's other potential suitor. This is a simple plot that could've really worked as I don't think a ton of angst is needed to make a good book, but this one just wasn't really romantic to me and fell flat on the chemistry and steam. Overall, this just didn't work for me and was rather a slog to get through. I'm not sure if I'll continue the series.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm sad to say I didn't enjoy this book. The writing was good. I just couldn't connect with the characters. They seemed to have an instant love attraction which I didn't like with these characters. I also felt like there wasn't anything really happening. There just wasn't enough to keep my interest in reading so I was constantly picking it up and putting it back down.

ahhhh another great book by Ella. I have a been a fan for a while and it seems that everytime I sit down with a historical fiction romance book I end up having a happy heart and it happened with this one too. we meet Fritz who has decided he is going to marry and be happy about it different than the men from his family, however things do not go as planned and when he meets and pursues and his supposed to marry someone he feels is the one, he panics and flees,. Now he is back again not sure of the reception he would receive from the ton and he ends up seeing someone that he is sure is for him however she is his last mistakes friend. Adline has just arrived in London for her first season and makes four great friends Dorie, Adeline, Miss Featheron and Miss Stern, they will protect one another from rogues and Adeline is aware of rakes and rogues since her brother is famous for being one. This handsome man captures her eye but he ends up being the man who broke her friend Dorie's heart last season so she is going to clear away. Does it work-well grab a copy and Enjoy!

<b>SORRY, NOT MY CUP OF HR TEA</b>

I was so excited for this book when I got the ARC from Netgalley - however, it didn't take me long to be disillusioned by it. One problem after the other popped up and ruined the experience for me.

<b>👎 WHAT I DISLIKED 👎</b>

<u>Plot</u>: This was really more a matter of a lack of plot. I couldn't find the plot at all. The story moved in circles - it repeated itself, the same things happened over and over and over again. It got boring real fast.

<u>Mid-story</u>: Even though this was the first in a series I felt like I landed smack down in the middle of a story - it was so confusing!

<u>Supporting characters</u>: There were simply too many! I couldn't keep them straight... Maybe that also had something to do with the fact that I was so not into the story in the first place...

<u>Main characters</u>: Frits and Adeline were flat, boring non-entities that did nothing to salvage this story for me. Sorry, just not a fan. Of any of it.