This was a wonderful book. Truly a female empowerment novel in response to the male-dominated world.

Fantastic book and an intriguing change from the usual Regency aristocratic balls and house parties. This is the story of Psyché, a Black coffee shop owner from Jamaica, and Will, the Marquess of Huntercombe's private secretary. They meet when thrown together to help a young woman escape a forced marriage. Their immediate connection forms the basis for an unexpected relationship.

I loved Psyché. Born into slavery, she came to England at the age of eleven, brought by her white father. He died, and she was raised by her great-uncle, Viscount Staverton, along with her white cousin, Hetty. Though treated as a daughter by her great-uncle, Psyché's treatment by society and even some family members was decidedly unequal. By the time she was an adult, Psyché was determined to create her own place in the world. Her coffee shop, The Phoenix Rising, does precisely that. Flashbacks to Psyché's life, both in Jamaica and her early years in England, vividly illustrate the obstacles she faces and how she overcomes them.

I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Will and Psyché. From the moment they met, Will saw Psyché as a strong, independent, and kind woman. Their teamwork in helping young Catherine was outstanding. I laughed out loud at Will's interpretation of causing a "distraction" while Psyché hid Catherine and how it led to them spending even more time together. I loved the slow growth of their feelings, from friends to lovers. While the physical expression of those feelings was great, I especially enjoyed the look at their ordinary everyday interactions of washing dishes, talking, and just being together while involved in their own activities.

It isn't long before Will wants more, but convincing Psyché is an uphill battle. Though she knows marriage is different than being enslaved, Psyché's reluctance to give a man power over her freedom and independence is believable. I loved Will's patience and understanding as he works to prove she can trust him. His visit to Psyché's great-uncle was terrific and demonstrated how well both men knew her. There was a short rough patch when Will told Psyché why he is estranged from his family, but they talked it through like adults. I loved how everything came together for them at the end.

There was intense action at a few places in the book. In the beginning, hiding Catherine creates complications and danger for Psyché. There is an unexpected link between Catherine and Psyché that adds to Psyché's determination to keep the girl safe. When the Bow Street Runners get involved in the search, a complex plan is devised and successfully carried out. After a deeply moving scene where Psyché and Hetty reunite at their great-uncle's deathbed, Psyché faces her father's brother Lucian, who has always resented her. In a nail-biting turn of events, Lucian attempts to kidnap Psyché with the intent of sending her to Africa and back to slavery. He received quite a shock when Psyché resisted, and I loved seeing her take him down. Will's arrival was perfectly timed, and the icing on the cake. I liked the epilogue and its wrap-up of the events of the book.

I liked how Psyché's challenges because of her race were deftly woven throughout the book. From the little digs to the kidnapping attempt, each occurrence was believable. Psyché's flashbacks were especially vivid as they portrayed critical moments in her life. I enjoyed the author's note on her inspiration for Psyché's character.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin for access to this arc.

It didn’t take me long to realize that this book would be loosely based on the life of Dido Belle. But that was just the jumping off point to tell a story of an incredibly strong woman, forged by her life experiences, and a man who is maybe not quite her equal (because Psyche is awesome). Kudos that both MCs are not aristocrats and work for a living.

As the story opens, we see Psyche Winthrop-Abeni returning to her coffee shop (Using only non-slave produced sugar and coffee from the Dutch East Indies though the hero wryly thinks even this is problematic due to the practice of indenture.) in London. Yep, she’s a businesswoman who has carved out a life she controls, who owns her own place, and who has a cat. Soon though another young woman appeals to her for help. Kit is underaged and has been promised to a man Psyche despises (for good reasons). Kit’s own father urged the man to rape Kit before marriage in order to assure her submission and he, Lucius Winthrop, agreed. And yes he’s a relative of Psyche and this is only one of the many ways this man is a shit. Now Psyche is involved in what amounts to an heiress abduction for which there are serious penalties.

Unknown to her, Kit’s uncle sends a message to someone who might help – the Marquess of Huntercombe, hero of “His Convenient Marchioness.” Luckily Hunt employs a secretary who notices things and something about the letter snags Will Barclay’s attention. Soon the two of them are assisting Kit in her desperate attempt to evade Bow Street Runners tasked with returning her to her (piece of shit) father.

A brief aside here as I never quite understood why it was so important to Kit’s (POS) father for her to marry this (POS) man. As in, what was in it for him as upon her marriage, her fortune would have gone to (POS) Lucius. Perhaps this is explained in some way in the previous book? I also didn’t understand what drove Psyche’s sire to bring her to England beyond massive guilt.

This half of the book focused on Psyche and Will meeting and making the decision to work together to help this poor woman. Soon however, they were striking sparks of interest that led to some bedroom hotness as (Hallelujah) Psyche isn’t a virgin (her choice and arranged by her) and she owns her sexuality and pleasure. Will is a bit amazed but delighted as she is a marvelous bed partner and continues to impress him in everything she does.

He rightly realizes that she’s one damn impressive woman but one who also has horrible things in her background. Parts of the story are told with flashbacks that are wrenching and will break your heart. Twelve year old Psyche arrived in England from Jamaica with the father who was basically on his deathbed. But he got her to his Uncle in time to ensure that his fortune went to her instead of his loathsome (POS) brother – you guessed it – Lucius. That method of referring to the man who sired her is deliberate on Psyche’s part for very good reasons. These are hinted at throughout the book though not with the type of heavy hand and repetition that usually serves to annoy me before the details are (finally! thank God) revealed. And trust me, when Psyche finally tells someone this part of her life, the impact is gut wrenching.

Soon after Psyche reaches the great house where her Great Uncle lives and the father dies, she is alone in a strange country, among people she doesn’t know, and as she is biracial, that could easily have allowed for her to be sent back to slavery in Jamaica or to the hellhole of the slave markets in Freetown. Her Great-Uncle Theo (a prince among men) has already told her that there is no slavery in England but will these people be kind to her or not?

Once the situation that has brought them together is dealt with (and I think this will be further explored in the next book), Will and Psyche think about their relationship but Psyche has good reasons not to trust marriage or any promises made by a man trying to woo her and Will has something in his background that he’ll need to come clean about.

Thank goodness that there are no massive background info dumps here and that most things are shown rather than told. We know that Psyche’s coffee shop is thriving due to scenes of her adroitly managing it. Her employees are loyal and we’re shown why. She is fiercely independent because most of the high society in which she was raised will never accept her and she wants to control her destiny.

Psyche isn’t the only character struggling due to the color of her skin. One of her employees was dismissed because the white daughter of the house paid him too much interest. The experiences she had and the things she saw in Jamaica haunt her still in ways white Londoners can’t imagine such as when Kit must hide for hours in a dark cellar which reminds Psyche of slave punishments. Psyche makes sure that the products she uses in her store are not produced by slave labor. She also doesn’t look for long term love or marriage. Even accepted into her Great-Uncle’s household, she has faced a life of being thought an aberration – imagine!, she can speak French, or play the piano, or other things that white women of the ton are expected to be able to do – and hearing disparaging comments. Until Will, Psyche never thought to have someone interested in her not despite her skin color or even because of her skin color. Some people tried to overlook it but Will sees her humanity and her color – he doesn’t view her as a “miscolored white person.” He also doesn’t balk at the fact that her money and her business are tied up in a trust that no man can ever get his hands on.

Will does one thing that helps Psyche accept that he’s not going to try and coerce her or control her. It’s a major thing and the outcome helps steady her but the change in her thoughts on marriage are maybe a bit too quick given her life experiences. But then Will is a wonderful – perhaps almost too wonderful – character. He has to do some soul searching and come to terms with that something in his background. Still I was happy that there was someone who truly saw Psyche, accepted her unconditionally, and was willing to let her wear the riding boots in the bedroom – yes. B

I have no idea how to write this review, if I'm being honest. A Marriage for Equals was well-written, engaging, and had me anxious to know what would happen next the whole time. If I hadn't gone investigating to learn more about the author and discovered that she's white, I would have never questioned anything. I don't really know that it's my place to question anything, but I really struggle with the idea of a white person writing this story, based on real history, where Psyche is exposed to so much racism.

That said, I think this is an incredibly important story to tell. In Rolls' afterword she talks about the real history that inspired it and I was definitely fascinated. I also really liked the writing here. The story Elizabeth Rolls told was really well done in such a short package and it was nice to see people related to the aristocracy, but not Lords/Ladies as the leads.

Essentially, Psyche was born into slavery in Jamaica and brought to England by her father, who dies and leaves her in the custody of her uncle, a Lord. Theo is great and good to her, better honestly than her father and Psyche eventually winds up leaving Theo's household to run her own coffee shop. There's a suspense element here too because Psyche agrees to shelter Kit, an heiress who has run away from her awful father. The suspense element is what brings Psyche and Will together and they are immediately attracted to one another. It's really sweet how they come together and I enjoyed their dynamic quite a lot. Will is a white man, maybe a second son? He's now living his life as the secretary for another Lord who is an abolitionist, unlike his own family who sucks.

All in all, complicated feelings here. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Thrown together protecting a young woman from a forced marriage., Will and Psyche embark on a passionate affair. When her uncle tries to sell Psyche back into slavery, can Will help protect her?

This is a dramatic, sometimes dark story of the trials faced by free Blacks in England during the Regency. Formerly enslaved, Psyche has no desire to enter into marriage, where she would legally become a man's property again. Will respects and understands her position, and works to prove that he's trustworthy. This intensely emotional journey is ultimately uplifting with a hard-won happy ending.

Even though this is not an ownvoices story, I (as a white woman) felt that the author handled the subject matter sensitively.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Harlequin Historicals continues to demonstrate that smaller packages contain not just good things, but sometimes, things that are great.

As a young girl, Psyché Winthrop-Abeni came to England from Jamaica with her biological father, a white man (her enslaved mother had died). She was raised alongside her white cousin as a daughter of the house by her great-uncle, but nevertheless was not received as an equal in society - or even in her own family. Psyché decided to forge her own path and became a successful independent businesswoman, owner of the coffee shop The Phoenix Rising.

Psyché is close friends with a neighboring shop owner. His aristocratic young niece Catherine is being forced into marriage and escaped to her uncle, but since his shop is the first place she’ll be sought, Psyché agrees to take Catherine in. But Bow Street is on the case, and kidnapping an heiress is a capital crime. It turns out that Catherine has also sent a letter begging for help to Lord Huntercombe. His secretary, Will Barclay, investigates on his employer’s behalf, arriving just in time to help Psyché hide Catherine. Will begins to form a bond with Psyché himself.

This book strikes a nice balance between action (for instance, a Bow Street search of the street where Psyché’s shop is) and quiet, character-driven scenes. Psyché’s bedside vigil with a dying older relative is gently moving. Once Will and Psyché become lovers, we see lovely, companionable sequences where they simply spend time together. Chemistry and the adrenaline and drama of courtship don’t always translate into a strong marriage, so I’m a sucker for books like this which show domestic happiness. I can envision Psyché and Will sitting contentedly above the shop, reading and chatting or washing dishes together, for decades to come.

Slavery and racist treatment of Psyché are central to this book. Most chapters include at least one microaggression, and there is a sequence describing the brutal abuse of an enslaved character. While the book directly confronts and includes Regency racism and the transatlantic slave trade on the page, it is not a ghoulish or voyeuristic horror story of Black misery. Psyché is a competent, successful businesswoman with close friends, from her employees to her relatives. She takes joy in loving and being loved, and Will adores her. I’ll note, however, that neither I nor the author are Black, and I can’t guarantee that this (or other race-related content in the book) will come across the same way to a Black reader.

I do have some concerns about Psyché’s reluctance to consider marriage. The best interpretation I can put on her commitment concern is that she knows that the status of a married woman is far different from being enslaved, but she has worked so hard for the independence and freedom that she has, and the story of her parents is so traumatic and toxic, that she is deeply leery of jeopardizing anything by trusting a man with the powers he’d have as a husband. As for Will, he’s prepared to marry Psyché, but has delayed telling her the true story of his estrangement from his family. I appreciated that this misunderstanding was rationally discussed.

Some of the supporting cast appeared in previous books set in this universe - notably, the Lords at the Altar series - which I'm not familiar with, so I was confused by the references to them and their plots. The white characters polarize too tidily into moral extremes. It would have been more nuanced to see at least one character who seemed nice in other ways but didn’t, say, renounce West Indies sugar. The ending action sequence requires some suspension of disbelief, and I didn’t like a villainous threat to have Psyché transported and enslaved.

If you noticed any connections in this story, the author writes in her afterword about her inspiration, Dido Elizabeth Belle, and the extensive research she did into Belle’s life which shaped Psyché’s life and experience (Dido did, in fact, marry a white man of approximately Will’s social status). That’s not the only historical accuracy I was pleased to find: hooray for an author who understands how early-1800s pistols aimed (as in, they didn’t) and the perils of being shot by one (infection, more than bullets).

If you’re in the mood for an escapist romance, this won’t be it. But if you’re looking for something which celebrates and uplifts a woman who thrived in the face of discrimination and challenges, rewarding her with professional success and the great love of a kind man, you may enjoy this book as much as I did.

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I found the dynamic of this couple to be quite engaging. We love a woman who is able to take care of herself, and a man who is ok with her doing so. I really think that this one is well done, and will be picking up a physical copy of it soon!

E. Rolls, has, in fact, accustomed me to another type of regency novel, usually centered entirely on the aristocracy, but I must admit that I didn't mind this new version at all. Psychè and Will are two beautifully written characters and their story is definitely different from the usual topoi of the genre and not at all obvious.

E. Rolls, mi ha, in effetti, abituato ad un altro tipo di romanzo regency, di solito incentrato tutto sull'aristocrazia, ma devo ammettere che questa sua nuova versione non mi é dispiaciuta affatto. Psychè e Will sono due bei personaggi e la loro storia decisamente diversa dai soliti topoi del genere e non affatto scontata.

I received this book as a digital complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.