Crystal is ahead of her times in the ways she thinks. She is beautiful and fierce. Aaron is being hounded to marry by his father. When he meets the enigmatic Crystal he is instantly attracted and comes up with a plan. The story is fast paced and often funny. The racers are outspoken and fervent in their beliefs. It is a book filled with hope and joy. A great story with characters to love.

From the first chapter, it is quite obvious that Lord Aaron Lyle must marry, if the estate is to be saved. His father has nearly bankrupted the dukedom in trying to satisfy his young wife. However, Aaron finds the idea repulsive until he meets Lady Crystal Wilding. She is everything that he should not be interested in; a bluestocking who hates the idea of marriage and promotes the rights of women to be educated. Yet the more time that he spends with Crystal, the more he finds the notion of marriage becoming more favourable. Likewise, Crystal begins to realise that Aaron may not be as easy to relinquish.
Both Aaron and Crystal are interesting characters with both quite determined in their manner. Crystal whilst very educated is quite naïve about the world that she lives in. She fears no repercussions for her actions despite the insistence of her maid, yet towards the end, the reality of a future without Aaron, leads to a greater depth of maturity. Aaron whilst honourable, seemed less determined towards the end to rebel against his father, yet he showed that he wasn’t one to simply accept his fate. So, I must admit that I was perplexed by this disparity between actions and beliefs. Overall, this story made for an entertaining read with great dialogue between the main characters.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is a quick read, which I usually love, but in this case it felt rushed. I love the premise - out-spoken Highland lass with modern ideas but naive to the ways of the world - but it lacked depth. All of her experiences were breezes through. And the hero was almost a sexual predator with his unrelenting need to take her virginity. That obsession isn’t flattering. But I feel like the story had potential, so I’ll say 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 in hopes for book 2.

This is a great read about two people who feel the same way about how life had led them. For Lyle, he’s being forced to marry someone his father approves to become duke and have an heir. For Crystal, she really is nothing because she is a woman. She’s fighting to educate women and girls like the men are.

It’s just a fun back and forth between the two as he can’t stop thinking about her, and she is inspired by a man of wealth who understands her speeches.

Just a good book!!!

It's quite an entertaining story but somehow it fails to deliver what was promised in the blurb.
The heroine's ideas are very modern and her character is interesting but I think there not enough chemistry between the MCs and some more humour would have helped.
It was an entertaining read and I think it can be recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

2.8/5
The quick and dirty version of this review is this: it was okay.

Did I enjoy myself? Enough.

But the issue I have is that so many of the scenes felt half written. If the scene has someone giving a speech, shouldn’t there be an actual speech? Not just a few sentences interspersed? If someone is teaching a class, should there be a concurrent conversation with the other adult in the room while in front of the class? There just wasn’t a clear distinction about the main action and how all the conversation—mainly between our heroine and love interest—was happening, logistically. It felt rushed and confused. Also, the characters are constantly thinking about the other. No matter what our dashing lord is doing, he is basically hard and thinking about sex.( I’m surprised his *appendage* didn’t just fall off from the strain it must have endured! Priapism is no joke!) No matter how often our heroine is working, she is constantly thinking about how good, how handsome, how desirable the lord is. It was pretty insufferable in those scenes that actually attempted to make feminist commentary about conditions for women—the emphasis on “white slavery” however felt in poor taste, but this is a historical romance full of entitled white people. The thing that struck me throughout the whole of the book was that it felt like it was written NOT to share this story of lovers but to appeal to the audience who watches OUTLANDER. The only signals that these character were Scottish aside from place names were a select few word choices unmistakable to the whole fandom. Remove them and these people could be anyone, and most of the time it seemed that way.

I was primed to love this. I adore highland romances, regency romances, basically all strong British lord romances with underlying feminist messages. This however just did not live up to its own synopsis. It sounds good, but I was mostly disappointed. The upside is that it is very short. It’ll do in a pinch if you are dying to read about the slowest hot burning romance in historical times. But be warned, if you are one of those women who is all about not wanting marriage and gets annoyed when people say you’ll think differently when you are older, you will probably be very upset by the ending.

I requested an ARC of this book via Net Galley, and these opinions are my own.

What drew me to this book was the synopsis - Hero needs to marry to save the failing Dukedom, Heroine is a champion for women's rights, together they work for the betterment of all while falling in love. Upon reading, however, I feel like the story missed the mark a bit.

The characters were just...ok. Basically the way they were at the beginning is how they were throughout the book ; there was no real growth and I just didn't get that emotionally involved.

One item I feel should have been addressed was the Heroine's voyeurism. She freely admits to spying on servants and guests in her father's home while they were engaged in amorous activities, and pleasuring herself while watching. This is mentioned several times by the Heroine herself, but never brought up with anyone or even really discussed. I feel like its a missed opportunity for further plot development.

Overall, if you are looking for a quick read with decent characters and very little conflict, this is the book for you.

Wow! This was an incredible story, at first I thought it may be boring, but I was so wrong. The depth was fantastic and the emotions so real. The hero was pretty foolish, but men can be quite foolish when it comes to infatuation and passion. So in reality it was realistic.
I liked that the heroine, despite her insecurities, in the end stood up for herself.

I was amused from the very beginning where Lord Lyle and Lady Crystal meet right before she's set to give a talk. He insults her before realizing she's the speaker. Her speech further intrigues him. He's determined to get to know her better.
He has to get married. She has no plans of giving up her freedom.
These two had good chemistry on the page. I loved that Lady Crystal wasn't the typical lady of the times. She's not afraid to speak her mind.

This ARC provided by Entangled Publishing via NetGalley.

Here's the official blurb:
Lord Aaron Lyle has one hell of a choice: a bankrupt dukedom, or marriage to some simpering society miss so his spendthrift father can get his hands on her huge dowry. He won’t do it. He has a reputation to maintain, and besides, he’d rather run naked through the streets of London than marry anyone at all. Surely, there must be a third option.

Then Lady Crystal Wilding walks into his life, a bluestocking, full of subversive thoughts, who hates the notion of marriage even more than he does. He is intrigued...and suddenly he has an idea. He invites the totally unsuitable lady home on the pretext of presenting her as a possible match...but in truth, Aaron has something far more pleasurable in mind. For her part, Lady Crystal has her own reasons for going along with his harebrained scheme.

Imagine their shock when his highly proper family loves her and starts planning the wedding. Good lord. Now what?

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is a start of a new series. It was good until the end. I was highly disappointed. Aaron is an Lord whos father wants him to marry and he is rebelling. Crystal is a lady that wants to fight for women’s rights. Aaron decides she would make a good diversion and hopefully stops his father pushing. I liked the premise up until the end when crystal throws away every thing she said she wanted. It drove me crazy.

I enjoyed this book but I was expecting something more. This is the story of Crystal, an outspoken young lady whose goal in life is to see that women and girls receive an education. She meets Aaron, Lord Lyle, after one of her speeches extolling choice in choosing a marriage partner. Aaron is being forced to marry by his father so he invites Crystal to meet his family. Although it was a good book, it was anticlimactic. i would like to have seen more action in this book. Overall. i would recommend this book.

This book had such promise with it's description on the back cover. The hero is seeking a rich, young wife because his father wants more money. The heroine is a woman rights advocate who swears never to marry, but the family coffers are empty. The hero decides to take the heroine home to try to persuade his father that this is who he is courting. But it doesn't make sense. Why would you court a poor lady when you need a wealthy bride? Why drag her home to meet the family when she is causing dissention in society? The hero comes across as a lecher and the heroine comes across as a prim woman who advocates for women to feel desire. This book was such a jumbled mess. I was expecting quick and witty repartee and when the characters would have a conversation, a comment would be made and then a page and a half later a response was made that didn't even pertain to the previous comment. This book was such a s-l-o-w read. There was too much discussion of what the characters were feeling and too much back story that didn't pertain to what was going on. The heroine was having a conversation with her maid and there was a 3 page dissertation about how the maid was a distant relative. A dissertation that wasn't needed. I do not like stories where I have to dig through unnecessary discourse to find the story. I was so disappointed. I stopped trying to read about a third of the way home when the hero was still trying to get into the heroines oanties. I decided that these two people were never going to spark a partnership that would make sense. This was a DNF, did not finish. I couldn't waste any more of my time trying to figure out what the story was. I do not recommend this book to anyone. Zero stars.

I recieved a free copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to like this book because the characters started strong. Crystal speaks about the need to educate women of all classes especially the poor. She also in the heat of the moment argues that women also feel desire and that she does not want to marry and be under the control of a man like she was by her father. Aaron wants her as soon as she says that she feels desire but he also supports her in teaching the young girls who are weavers. However, there was no real conflict in the story. There was nothing keeping them apart. Without conflicts to overcome what is the point of a novel? 3 stars.

Will their chemistry be the end or the beginning of them ..

As my first read by Mrs Cathleen Ross, it was a fun quick one. With a very modern lady and the man who accepts her as she is.
Crystal is not a woman of her time, she is a progressiste born decades and decades too early. Her talk of education for everyone is great, as her will to help less fortunate.
After giving free rein to her desires is clearly seeking ruin, even if the other party is willing to protect her.
While she thinks she is very educated, she is also very naive of the world around her, but she wants to help. After I still think it is very careless to believe by having an affair with a peer, she could walk free unscathed.
I liked Aaron, he refuses to be a pawn in his father’s game, looking to make a difference for his clan and others. Still, he does not hesitate to seeking Crystal’s company, even ready to compromise her as he first wanted to sort her out of his system. So I didn’t know where to stand with him, a honorable man but with a dishonorable agenda, as whatever she tells, having an affair could be the end of her when he would not even be bothered about it.
It is a witty and entertaining read with some scorching scenes, but I would have liked the last third to be a bit more developed, to explore the white slave business, the fall of the villain threatening them, to see them in between his proposal and their weeding day...

4 stars for an interesting and entertaining first in a series, with some wits and compassionate even if flowed characters.

I was granted an advance copy by the publisher Entangled. I also preordered my own. Here is my true and unbiased opinion.

This was a very quick, mostly enjoyable read, with a heroine who really ticks all my boxes for period romance. I really enjoyed Lady Crystal's spirit - and everything she stood for (including the apprehension of marriage). Aaron is also quite a different character for his period, but I felt it fit his persona well. Their love story felt quite natural.

However, having said that, I felt the author tried to add a side plot in for some added drama which actually lessened the final impact of the book. It was very matter of fact and dealt with in so few pages, considering the subject, that it felt like an afterthought.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought I'd try this new author for me, but I wasn't a fan of this book. I didn't really feel the connection between Aaron and Crystal. The ideas that Crystal had for women seem very modern. Unfortunately, I only made it to the 50% mark before I lost interest in this couple.

Aaron is an open minded Lord. Crystal has views that a lot of men don't agree with. Seems like the perfect couple to me. Aaron just has to persuade Crystal and his father that they should marry.
I love how Aaron showed that he respects and honors Crystal over and over again.

This was a fun romance. I enjoyed the book although it was a little fluffy for me as far as the story went. The base romance plot was good but I wish there had been more. More intrigue, danger, something to set it apart from the average romance. Instead the story fell a little flat and a little too much like it was pushing for modern day feminism instead of the Mary Wollstonecraft variety of the day which would have been more appropriate. It wasn’t a bad story, but I wish it had more depth and variety to the plot and characters. Everything felt very one dimensional for my taste.