I enjoyed this historical romance with all of the characters. The two main characters were Athena Townsbridge and Robert, Marquess of Darlington.

Athena Townsbridge broke up a wedding six years ago. The man that she humiliated has left and doesn't leave his estate for much. So when she finds out the his estate is close to there's she decides to go and see him.

Robert, Marquess of Darlington has a young woman visit him. When he see that she the one that humiliated him. He doesn't want anything to do with her.

This was a fun short story to read. It has action, drama , adventure within. It also had a few laughs and giggles.

I received a complimentary copy via Booksprout and Netgalley. This is my honest unbiased opinions.

Athena broke off the wedding with Robert,The Marquess 9f Darkington. Now six years later,after finding out that he lives close to where she is visiting, she decides to visit and try to get his forgiveness.
Robert,running his estate and trying not to feel bitter about the past,is suddenly faced with a very much grown up Athena.
I really enjoyed this book. It was such a great ending.

A heartwarming novella the was simply perfect.

Athena, at fourteen, had stopped a marriage between Robert, her brother's best friend, and the women her brother secretly loved. Humiliated, Robert left for his estate and did not reappear.

Robert devoted himself to making his estate liquid after his father's death and tried not to feel bitter about the past, but is still seemed to be something he could not forgive.

Six years later, Athena, now a grown woman, shows up at his estate to try to earn his forgiveness.
He cannot believe how beautiful she is now and it seems, fate may be stepping in to bring them together!

So sweet and romantic, I was so happy to see Robert and Athena's story and you will love it!

I loved this book so much! It's full of emotion ranging from hate to forgiveness to love. It's a journey that has to be made if the hero and heroine are to find happiness that has so long alluded them due to actions in the past.

Now that a lot of time has gone by our heroine has grown up and wants to make amends. Will our hero be receptive to her? Will they be able to get past the hurts of the past and move forward? You will have to read the story and find out for yourself.

Suffice it to say that the story has passion, humor, lovely characters and a very well-written story that is sure to satisfy you to your core.

Six years ago Athena broke up Robert, the Marquess of Darlington, wedding. Now she intends to find him and try to make amends after he fled in humiliation. This was a delight to read, friends to lovers with an estrangement period and snowed in together are sone of my favorite tropes.

This was a satisfying wrap up to this enjoyable series. Athena and Robert have a lot of chemistry. I liked that Robert understood that Athena needed to take the relationship slow and not feel rushed into accepting him.

An Unexpected Temptation (The Townsbridges #5). By Sophie Barnes. 2020. Sophie Barnes (ARC eBook)

Six years ago Robert Carlisle was humiliated at what was to have been his wedding. Since then he has become the Marquess of Darlington and has worked hard towards putting his family’s estate to rights. He has also remained out of society and away from his former best friend and his meddling little sister, Athena Townsbridge.

But now as a blizzard moves in, he is visited by Athena who wishes to make amends. With every intention to send her away, Robert finds the now-grown woman is not easily dismissed and where he expected hurt and resentment to spring forth, he is instead met with the chance to abet his loneliness with rekindled friendships, and maybe more.

An Unexpected Temptation sees the final Townsbridge find her love match. The Townsbridges novellas are sweet romances fit for afternoon escapes.

I loved this story! I loved the strength of the heroine, the angst! Just utter perfection! The banter between the hero and heroine was epic! Beautifully written and such wonderful wit!

I loved this novella so much. The banter and relationship between the two characters was so cute and heartwarming. I felt I could relate to Athena, which is something that doesn't normally happen in historical romance novels, much less novellas.

An Unexpected Temptation by Sophie Barnes is book 5 in The Townsbridges Series. This is the story of Robert Carlisle, Marquess of Darlington and Athena Townsbridge. I have read the previous books but felt this can be a standalone book. Athena when she was younger had stopped Robert from marrying to help her brother. Now in their present day she has meet up with Robert again. This time Robert is seeing her for more than the troubling young girl. Enjoyed their story.

An Unexpected Temptation is the fifth and final book in Sophie Barnes' Townsbridge series. Athena is the youngest of the Townsbridge siblings and she is seen as the unruly and wild one as everyone fears that no man can tame her. Six years ago she stood up on Robert Carlisle's wedding day and broke the wedding up by declaring her brother (Robert's best friend) in love with the bride. On a trip to the countryside she visits Robert in a bid to get his forgiveness but when a snow storm leaves her trapped at his house the sparks begin to fly.
This is a cute romance that I really enjoyed although I never believe how quickly these romances happen sometimes. Even though this is the fifth in the series it can easily be read as a standalone.
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Sophie Barnes for my complimentary eARC copy.

Six years ago, Athena stopped Robert's wedding because his fiancée was in love with her brother. She has never forgiven herself for hurting him even though she knows then he wouldn't have been happy in his marriage with his wife in love with someone else. When she see a chance to make amends, she sets out to make her apology. What she doesn't count on is getting caught in a winter storm and having to stay in Robert's home with him...

Robert had sent Athena away went she arrived at his home, but then the storm came and he was stuck with her. But this Athena was the the girl he remembered and he is soon starting to find himself drawn to her. Could this woman that that caused so much havoc in his life, be the person to bring joy back into it?

I really enjoyed Athena and Robert's story. I will say that I thought he was kind of an @$$ in When Love Leads To Scandal and I'm glad that Barnes was able to redeem him for me. I was also happy to see Athena all grown up and getting her HEA as I loved her in the previous books in the series.

I believe this is the last book in the series, so I'm excited to see what Barnes has in store for us next!

I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an advance reader copy of this story.

An Unexpected Temptation, by Sophie Barnes, is available at booksellers on 12-8-2020. Alas we've come to book 5 in The Townsbridges Romance series. It's going out with a bang. I loved the plot of forgiveness and how it can open you up to new experiences. A meddling teenager turns into a lovely young woman and turns the head of her older brothers former friend. Throw in being stranded together during a snowstorm and it's a perfect story of a shotgun wedding. Except these 2 are gladly sprinting to the alter after a few items are cleared up. A most enjoyable read.

#SophieBarnes #TheTownsbridgeRomance #AnUnexpectedTemptation #Netgalley #historicalromance #christmasromance

I received this ARC and found out it was #5 of a series - and the final book.

After devouring the 1st 4 books quickly, I jumped into this book to see how the series ended.

This book follows the story of Athena Townsbridge who decides to try to right something she did 6 years poor.

Robert Carlisle has been trying to move past the catastrophe Athena caused and is finally making headway. Then Athena re-enters his life, what could possibly happen??

Even though this was book 5, I feel like you could jump in and read any book in any order and still understand it.
Athena Townsbridge broke up a wedding between two people, so that her sister in law could marry her brother and have true love. But she has always felt bad for what happened to the jilted suitor, Robert Carlisle. She decides to go to him to apologize but the blizzard keeps her there and true love conquers all.

This is an historical novella which is book 5 in the series, but they can be read as standalones.
The first book covers the parents – the Townsbridges – and the series follows the family for 38 years until we reach the final book.
They are cosy stories, light and easy to read. In this final story we have a ‘hoyden’ who needs to make amends for a previous action and a blizzard that means she is snowed in for several days with the person she needs to apologise to. The inevitable happens of course.

An Unexpected Temptation was just that, unexpected and a great temptation to read all at once. Sophie Barnes gives us the last of the Townsbridge Children, and clearly saved the best for last.

Athena is a hoyden, in the most delightful way possible, full of curiosity and willing to speak her mind, which for her might not be as great as it is as for me the reader. First we find our future couple together when Athena at a precocious fourteen years old, stands up in church and proclaims exactly why the bride and groom should not get married. The groom in question is our hero Robert, and the bride in question is the woman that Athena's brother has fallen in love with.

Fast forward six years and we find that Athena is out in the marriage mart, not quite finding the final one and only her entire family has found over the course of this series, making her wonder what the rest of her life might look like. Thankfully she doesn't stay down for long, and decides the only possible way to salvage this, is to find Robert and apologize. Her faux pas has left a social stigma on the both of them, and she needs to make amends. Why not just show up at his home unannounced ahead of a huge snow storm?

Robert, after Athena helped create the second time out of two when his finance had left him. Since then, he's become something of a recluse shuttering in his home for the bulk of the time that has passed. So when the bane of his humiliation shows up on his doorstep, he wants nothing to do with the beautiful woman who has blossomed from the annoying child who helped him his demise.

Thankfully the snowstorm helps them out, creating a cozy setting for Robert to warm up and for Athena to show him a little of how she's aged and worked to be forgiven for her social suicide. I really liked seeing these two grow together, I was worried that Robert would work too hard at breaking the free natured Athena, but he settled in and realized what a true gem she was in the end.

A great read that can be done as a standalone, but the rest of the Townsbridges are also fun reads. While this wasn't my favorite of the bunch, it's definitely a really great read that I recommend.

My opinions are my own and freely given.

At the very beginning of The Townsbridges story, all the way back in When Love Leads to Scandal, there were Robert and Athena. And now, at the end of the saga, tying everything together along with, eventually, the proverbial knot, are Robert and Athena.

But where they began is a far and unpredictable cry from where they ended.

When they began, Athena was only 14 and Robert was a grown man of 24 as well as being her older brother Charles’ best friend. There was no hint of a romance there – and there shouldn’t have been.

Athena was much too young, and Robert was engaged to someone else. In fact, Robert was engaged to the woman who eventually married his best friend, Athena’s brother Charles. An event that could, nearly in its entirety, be laid at Athena’s door.

After all, Athena was that rare person who, when faced with the preacher asking if anyone could show just cause why those two, in this case Robert and his fiancé-on-the-absolute-verge-of-becoming-his-wife Bethany, should not be joined in holy matrimony, Athena spoke up and brought the entire house of polite cards down with a thud. Athena said out loud the thing that everyone else was too polite – or too afraid of starting a scandal – or too worried about hurting Robert’s feelings – to say. That her brother Charles and Bethany had fallen in love with each other.

Six years later Robert is a bit of a recluse. After all, his engagement to Bethany was the second time the man got left at the altar. Six years later Athena is 20 and about to be paraded around the “marriage mart” herself. But both of them are still paying, at least in the social sense, for Athena’s breach of etiquette and manners at the wedding that did not happen.

Everyone thinks that Athena is headstrong and in need of taming, but no one believes that they are up for the job. Certainly not her own family, as much as they love her.

Athena wants someone to love her for herself, personality warts and all, and fears that she will never find such a person. As she hasn’t exactly found that kind of acceptance in the bosom of her own family, her fears are quite real and have done a bit of a number on her self-confidence. Her family would say not nearly enough of a number, which says a lot about that relationship.

So Athena concocts a scheme to repair both her and Robert’s slightly tarnished reputations. She takes herself off to his country house, in secret, to beg his forgiveness for her behavior all those years ago. Not that she thinks she did anything wrong in revealing the truth, but at least conscious that the way she went about it had severe repercussions all around.

Like so many of Athena’s clever schemes, the best laid plans of mice and in this case women very much “gang aft a-gley.”

She gets snowbound with Robert. Who does not want to forgive her or even see her or speak with her, but cannot resist the pull between them. No matter where, or how deep into the surrounding snowdrifts, it might lead them both.

Escape Rating B: The Townsbridges are both a lovely family and a delightful collection of Regency romance novellas. This final entry in the series is a fitting conclusion to every single unconventional romance that has made up the series – and the family.

The Townsbridges marry for love. That was true for Margaret and George (their story is in Once Upon a Townsbridge Story) and it has been true for every single one of their children. But Athena is beginning to suspect it’s not going to happen for her as this conclusion to the series opens.

This is, particularly, Athena’s journey, and with her having opened the series in her unconventional way, it’s possible to see the whole thing as Athena’s journey – just that her brothers and sisters managed to find their own HEAs along the way of Athena growing up and growing into herself.

The hard part of this particular entry in the series is the relationship between Athena and her family, and between Athena and Robert, and the way those two things feed into each other. Because in order for Athena to grow up she has to learn where the lines are. And in order for her to be happy she has to find someone who will help her figure out that terrible lesson without suppressing the core spark of her personality.

And at first we wonder if Robert is remotely up for that job. Athena’s family seems to have abdicated all responsibility in the matter. So on the one hand we have a family that loves her, but from their perspective very much in spite of herself, and on the other hand a man who seems to want to control her or at least manage her – because of course he knows best.

It’s only as the story goes on a bit that the reader, or at least this reader, gets past the uncomfortable bits where Robert talks about Athena needing a “firm hand” – and didn’t that make me squirm – to the point where he’s expressing that he loves her exactly as she is, that her spirit is a big part of what he admires in her, and that what she needs to learn is how to move in society so that she doesn’t either offend or run roughshod over pretty much everyone pretty much all of the time. It’s a bit more subtle than how he sounded at the beginning.

That switch is the making of this story and a fitting end for a lovely series.

The last book in the series, ‘The Townsbridges’ follows Athena Townsbridge who broke up the weeding of Robert Carlisle to what would become her now sister-in-law. Having been humiliated, Robert fled the church, keeping a low profile ever since. Six years later, Athena decides that she must apologise, especially since she is staying at the property next to his. Yet when a blizzard sets in, Roberta realises that Athena is no longer the troublesome young girl but a tempting woman, who may be ‘The unexpected temptation’ that the title suggests.
An entertaining novella that sees friends who were then enemies, become romantically involved. Aside from the comments from Robert, that she needed a ‘firm hand’ which was probably appropriate language for the time, he was a character that appreciated her for her ‘wilful’ manner. Whilst he was quite harsh at the start, which is understandable given the circumstances, Robert was an engaging and likeable character. The chemistry between the pair was enjoyable and well detailed, all helping to bring to life the characters in this novella.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review,

Six years ago, fourteen-year-old Athena Townsbridge humiliated Robert Carlisle when she stopped his wedding and announced the bride and her brother were in love. Robert is now the Marquess of Darlington and living near her family’s estate. This means social contact may be unavoidable, so Athena decides to try to apologize and make amends for the pain she caused. Athena is and always has been a hoyden. She is the last person he wants to see, but here she is, in his parlor, unchaperoned. To make matters worse, a snowstorm strands her at his home. The visit is quite contentious at the start, but as they spend time together waiting for the storm to abate, Robert realizes that he likes Athena, a lot. What is he to do now? Has Fate thrown them together? How will he face her family?

An Unexpected Temptation is a quick, cute read with wonderful characters from the whole series. It is full of fun, surprises, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Athena and Robert’s story is the perfect finale for this wonderful series about a happy family. I enjoyed and recommend it.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.