A rom-com with crazy antics, laughter, sadness and romance. Minerva and Hugh made for a fun couple but the cast of secondary characters made this a fun read. One of the better ones I’ve read in a while.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins for the arc.

This book is delightful. It is full of humor and the characters are entertaining. The male and female protagonist have good chemistry and make the reader care about their story.

“Nice”—an insultingly insipid word—and “excellent” come to mind after reading this. I must say, after reading two rom-coms that didn’t quite work for me, I was a bit reluctant to start this one. It turned out this one was very different, very funny—with downright farcical situations at times—and a great panoply of characters, very well drawn. The writing is great, too, and the novel sometimes reads like a burlesque play—and having grown up with French playwrights such as Feydeau, Labiche, or Molière, or Oscar Wilde to take an English reference, that was a bonus for me.
I no doubt will follow Virginia Heath, as I see Never Fall for Your Fiancée is the first installment of a new series, and definitely check her previous works.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time getting into this one. It turned out to be…fine. I wasn’t mad I’d read it, but I probably wouldn’t seek this author out again.

When your mother, who happens to be thousands of miles away across an ocean, will not let up in her matchmaking schemes, what do you do? You make up a fake fiancée, of course! That is what Hugh Standish, the Earl of Fareham does. One named Minerva, at that. For two years, he has happily avoided the matchmaking mother, until he receives her letter that she is on her way back to England.

What are the chances that you actually meet a Minerva? Not highly likely, but Hugh does just that, in a not so luxurious part of London. He becomes her Knight in Shining Armor, saving her from a despicable customer, and offers her a sum of money to play the main role in his lie. The meddling best friend ropes an actress in to play the mother to three women, because Minerva cannot leave her sisters to fend for themselves, and hilarity ensues.

It was a raucous ride following the ins and outs of each tale spun and spun over until you wonder if even the main characters can keep up! There's intrigue and secrets that are revealed, so you are never left with a dull moment in Virginia Heath's romantic comedy.

A very fun read that will have you chuckling all day long just thinking about it! I highly recommend this and look forward to reading more of her works.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Never Fall for Your Fiancee was a lot of fun to read, I laughed out loud on several occasions. Hugh is an Earl, with a mother that is overly concerned about getting him married. She lives in America, so she is far enough away to not know what is going on. To get her to quit scheming, Hugh creates a fake fiancee, named Minerva, and spends the next 2 years creating reasons why they cannot get married, and why mom can't come meet Minerva. Until mom decides to come for a surprise visit, and Hugh has no way of stopping her. His answer to this problem is to pay someone to pretend to be his fiancee. There are so many mishaps, and Hugh continues to weave more and more complicated lies.

I hope that this will be a series, and we get to read the stories of some of the other characters. Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

Plot: Hugh’s mom wants nothing more than for him to marry the love of his life. But, she is a bit overbearing about it so when she moved to America, Hugh invented a fake fiancée named Minerva that he would write to his mom about. When Hugh’s mom is coming to visit, Hugh runs into a woman actually named Minerva and it seems like fate. He hires her to play his fiancée and Minerva, being truly desperate for funds to support herself and her sister, agrees.

This historical romance was a lot of fun! It didn’t stand out to me, but if you’re new to the genre this would be a fun one to start with.

One of my favorite parts of this novel was how much prep goes into the fake engagement. I often feel like in books the fake dating (etc.) has no prep work involved and the couple gets away with it for a while. Minerva and his sister’s get lessons and Minerva has to memorize a ton. Hugh even hires an actress to play the girls’ mother. It was a grand time.

I will say the last third of this novel dragged a bit for me and I would’ve liked everything to get wrapped up a bit quicker.

Never Fall for Your Fiancée was a delightful read. Witty, smart and fun. Virginia Heath always writes a diverting romance.

Rule number one when faking a relationship: never fall in love.

Never Fall for Your Fiancee is book #1 in the new Merriwell Sisters series but can be read as a standalone.

Hugh despaired of his mother's matchmaking and invented a fiancee to keep her out of his business.

When his mom decided to come all the way from America to meet his beloved, Hugh had no other option but to hire someone to impersonate her.

The plot was adorably absurd, and the characters were comic and entertaining, a trademark of Mrs. Heath.

My favorite character was the heroine's fake mother, a drunk diva to whom every audience was worthy of a spectacle.

Hugh was an emotional mess, but I could not help but like him.

The heroine, Minerva, was the sane counterpoint, always reasonable and lovely. At times, I thought she could have done better than Hugh, but they were adorable together, stronger because of their differences.

I'm looking forward to reading the story of Minerva's sisters and Hugh's friend Giles.

Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley for an honest review.

*This review will be posted on https://lureviewsbooks.com on 11/09/2021*

I cannot recall the last time I had so much fun reading a historical romance! Hugh may be considered a rake but the last thing he wants to do is hurt his mother's feelings as he dodges her attempts to manipulate him into marriage, So he creates a fiancée out of thin air thinking that if she believes him on his way to happily settled she will leave him in peace. It works for a little while until Hugh suddenly receives word that she is on her way and wants to meet his betrothed. Hugh does the only thing he can think to do and hires Minerva to pretend to be fiancee to appease his mother until they can break the engagement keeping everyone happy. If only it were that simple.

I found this a joy to read from start to finish. Funny and charming and filled with memorable characters I loved watching good hearted Hugh and strong and capable Minerva discover what was actually real and was fake during their time together.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a solid story using the 'fake fiancee' story line. We have Hugh, an earl, who has been putting off his mother about him getting married for years and he finally made up a fiancee. He is 32 and his mother is practically demanding grandchildren. He meets Minerva, who shares the name of his fake fiancee', when she is trying to collect fees for her services from a cheapskate. He helps her collect the funds, and offers her a position as fake fiancee over the Christmas holiday, when his mother is coming back to England. Minerva is the oldest of 3 girls who are all named after ancient Goddesses. She is 24 years old, her younger sisters are 22 and 17. They are all trying to provide for themselves as best they can, but they were the children of a gentleman and do not have many skills. She takes Hugh up on his offer and drags herself and her sisters to his estate.
I must say that I have seen this theme before and sometimes it is a direct fail. But not this book. It does tend to ramble because Hugh is certain his father was a rake and he is afraid to break any future wife's heart. He is in angst about this, but it tempered by the humorous entanglements he keeps getting himself into. This book deals with lots of character development and thank goodness Minerva is such a strong woman to put up with him. The only thing i was missing was that after reading this book while Hugh worked his way through his mistaken thoughts about his dad, when he realized what had happen, the story just ended. Bam. I really wanted a wedding and some closure. So while I highly recommend reading for content and style, I am only giving 4.5 stars. But definitely read this book.

I recently started getting into historical romance and this book is now one of my favorites. It had me trying to contain myself from laughing in the middle of class and smiling so hard my face hurt.

I thoroughly enjoyed binge reading this book. Not only is it witty but it’s enough of a trope that is written well for me to truly become obsessed with the relationship it builds throughout. I love the two main characters and the turmoil they are put through. Would recommend for any Bridgerton fans out there looking for a quick fun read!

Love fake dating? And historical romance? Then, you should read “Never Fall For at our Fiancée”!

Hugh had ‘invented’ a fiancée named Minerva to appease his matchmaking mama who lives abroad. Unfortunately for him, his mama is returning home which means he need to find his Minerva asap. And, what good luck High has! He find his Minerva when he goes to rescue a damsel in distress. Minerva Merriwell needs money and if she poses as Hugh’s fake fiancée, she’ll get a lot of it. This is how a fake engagement between Hugh and Minerva start and slowly blossom into love. But, can they ever fully trust each other?

It’s rare to find the fake dating/engagement trope in historical romances and this was done very well. I absolutely loved the exchanges between Hugh and his butler(or was it is his valet?), and also his family. The ending was satisfying and overall, i would definitely recommend you read this book!

This had everything I wanted in a regency RomCom:
👩🏼‍🤝‍👨🏻 Fake dating
🥳House party
😂Funny side characters and scenes
💪🏻Strong independent heroine
🦸🏻‍♂️A handsome misguided hero
❤️Trying their hardest not to fall in love
💃🏼🕺🏻A waltz scene
🐴Poor Marigold the horse 😂
💁🏻‍♀️ A well meaning mother 😅
👨🏼‍🦳A sassy butler
💋Sneaking kisses

This is a new author to me and it won’t be my last. Virginia’s writing sucked me into the book and I couldn’t put it down. It was fairly predictable but enjoyable. The characters had depth to them. Their personalities suited each other and made falling for each other really seamless.

Hugh decides the best way to get his mother off his back about marrying is too spin lies so big for 2 years to his mother he practically made a real person, named Minerva, and that they were engaged but one thing after another prolonged the wedding. His mother said it’s now time to get married and is on her way to visit. No one would have been able to pretend to be that person - plus that made up person was too perfect. Men 😂

Hugh believes hiring someone to pretend to be his fiancée is the best solution and then they’ll have an argument or she runs away. That way his mother never knew he lied to her and all will be set to rights. It’s destiny that he comes across a lady in distress and she’s named Minerva! 😂 You can already see there’s lots of things that can go wrong at this house party😂

Content: 1 intimate scene/open door

This book comes out in Nov. Thank you to the publisher St. Martin’s press and Net Galley for the e-arc copy. These are my own thoughts and opinions.

“So what’s it to be, my love? A wedding followed by a life of nonsense with all of these escaped lunatics or the blissful quiet of a life of delirious exile on a beach in Italy?”

Just how far is one handsome Earl willing to go to keep his matchmaking mother at bay? At least as far as hiring a fake fiancée to stay at his country estate when said meddling matriarch boards a ship for England. What {or who} could possibly knock down this precarious house of cards first? The absentee best friend? The drunk opera singer posing as his future mother-in-law? A disgruntled sister or two? You know what they say, best laid plans and all that… Excellent.

I admit, I was not totally prepared for this book and I think it was all the better for it. Hugh is a delightfully foolish man. I’m quite sure if he had thought this ludicrous, yet lucrative deal through one bit, he would have just come clean to his mother, but I am so glad he did not. I loved the pining between Minerva and Hugh, and all the hilarious hijinks of the side characters. This was a great novel to open up Virginia’s new series and I’m already looking forward to her future books.

Pub Date: November 9th, 2021
Trope: Fake Fiancé
Steam Level: ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥/5

Thank you to @VirginiaHeathWrites @StMartinsPress & @NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

“I am going to need the words, Minerva. The actual words.”

Thanks to Ms. Heath and St. Martin’s Press for making this e-arc available in advance of publication. This is a light and charming romance novel with some creative elements in the “pretend to be lovers and then fall in love” trope. There’s much humor as our hero and heroine, along with her cranky sisters and a tipsy actress who pretends to be their mother, dig themselves ever deeper into their ruse. Don’t spend too much time examining how any of these down-at-heel young women can pretend to be upper-class maidens worthy of an aristocratic marriage. Just enjoy the farcical banter and hijinks, and the quick acceptance from our hero’s family . . . which is heartwarming if certainly not true to what we’d expect of the time period. This is a fun read for your holiday season.

This is such a fun book. Hugh invents a fiancee to prevent his mother from matchmaking. But she calls his bluff by traveling to Hugh to meet his imaginary fiancee, Minerva. Just as Hugh despairs of what to do, he meets a woman who is actually named Minerva. Let the fake engagement begin!

I love the secondary characters, particularly her sister Diana (whose book I hope is the next in the series), his best friend Giles, and his mother and stepfather. The banter and tricks are such fun. And his butler Payne may be the best butler I have read about.

This book is such a comedy of errors. I previously tended to classify my romances as historical or rom-coms. This is very definitely both. I laughed and enjoyed myself so much.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this delightful historical romance. This book was hilarious at times , causing me to giggle, especially with the butler Payne and the actress. These two characters added so much humour, especially with the era it was set in, as a butler would never speak to the Lord of the Manor like that. The other characters were lovely although Vee was a bit of a whiner.

The author took this cast of flawed characters and developed a delightful romance that may have been predictable but was fun and easy to read. I didn’t want to put the book down and I must say I have never read a historical romance with humour like this. I look forward to reading the next book in this series. This is the perfect book to read on a trip or when you just need a reason to smile.

“Never Fall for Your Fiancee” is a first time read by Virginia Heath, new author to this reader. I thought this story was well-written and enjoyed the characters. Hugh Standish, Earl of Fareham and Minerva Merriwell pretends an engagement that would benefit both parties and one to keep Hugh’s mother at bay as she is on the hunt to find him a wife. This was a delightful historical rom-com that I totally enjoyed. I thought Hugh was charming person but one who didn’t think he was deserving of love. Then there is Minerva, who is eager to please and is selfless when she thinks of her sisters. As with any historical romances, I look forward to a bit of steamy in relationship building and although this one had a little over half, the chemistry made up for it. I do like tropes that involve “fake engagements/fake fiancees”. The humor and cast of characters made this book a sweet and delightful read. Recommend the read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin for this ARC for my fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.