Apparently this book is being republished, as it was first published in 2014. I received an eArc from netgalley for an honest review. I have read several Ella Quinn books and remembered some of the characters and definitely plants read the other books in the series. Gervais, Earl of Huntley leaves England to visit his aunt in Venice because he is tired of being pursued by women wanting to marry him. The war with Napoleon is over and he can travel on the continent again.
I think I actually enjoyed the politics and travel in this book almost more than the story,but I will get to that.
There is a lot of stories in this short book. Huntley arrives in Venice and is met by his aunt's beautiful but aloof god daughter, who left England 5 years earlier. She meanwhile is being pursued by a Venetian nobleman who is obsessed with her. This necessitates an escape from Venice, so Huntly pretends to be betrothed to her as they set about across Italy to get to the Brenner Pass.
The journey was actually quite fascinating as they stopped at many Inns and the food of each district was discussed in detail.
There is a side story about the aunt which is quite interesting. She has been a widow for some time, but is actually only 37, and Caro, who we find out was raped at 16, is only 22. That is not really a spoiler as it becomes evident quite early and is a plot point.
Huntly is a wonderful hero and I look forward to seeing him turn up in other books in the series.
There is also a novella with characters from her Worthington series that was adorable. I now plan to read all in the series.

This book was basically talking about overcoming trauma which mostly brought up in historical romance novels. So, I didn't see any special thing from this book. This book was okay to me.

A historical romance with the hero and heroine having escaped what they thought was their individual plans in their life being thrust into the world of becoming a couple with reluctance.

What I loved about this book: all the different foods explored at each of the stops the hero and heroine made. I almost wished for a list of the recipes to try making myself. Seriously, how can you go wrong when the hero realizes how much the heroine loves chocolate and ensures that every meal that it is possible has chocolate to go with it?

What I wasn't so thrilled with: the heroine's godmother almost needed a book of her own. In fact, having the two stories as their own complete novels, where they could be overlapping and merging from both the heroine's and the godmother's views could have made the story infinitely more interesting versus my being left feeling that the author wasn't able to decide which of the two characters to actually write the focus upon.

I recognize that the author was attempting to help the heroine through her social stigma and trauma of sexual assault, and yet, with the bouncing back and forth between the heroine and the godmother, it seemed as the if the author was herself reluctant to tackle the discussion of sexual assault and the trauma healing that needed to happen. No matter if the hero has patience, and the heroine deeply desires him, it likely is going to take more than what happened between them to heal the trauma. So, this part of the book less than it could have been. What it felt like is that it actually minimizes the trauma especially when it is triggered again after so long of being repressed. Not to mention it was too easy for the rapist to have also been known and raped a girl that worked for our hero's family.

#DesiringLadyCaro #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately I did not enjoy this historical romance. Although the hero is eager to escape the marriage trap, he immediately becomes attracted to the heroine and begins to pursue her much to her dismay. I had hoped for more banter and sexual tension. This was barely a sizzle. The storyline was clichéd and the characters bland.

I enjoyed this historical romance with all of the characters. The two main characters were Lady Caroline Martindale and Gervais, the Earl of Huntley.

Lady Caroline Martindale has a haunted past that she fled England from. She been living with her grandmother's palazzo in Venice. She has a hard time being around gentleman. So when a man keep coming around her  she hope he will stop.


Gervais, the Earl of Huntley has came to stay at his grandmother home in Venice. While there he meet a lady that is also stay there. She is a lovely lady and when a man keep bothering her he wants to help.


This was a slow burn story. That had action and adventure throughout. It also has a few laughs and giggles. It also has another couple in the story to.

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

3 stars

Now here I have a delimna because I wasn't at all keen on the main book but enjoyed the free novella "I'll always love you" . In the main book: I know Caro was an innocent and had been visciously attacked but she was capricious, obstinate, and IMO vacillitated between coy and just plain annoying. The hero and her maid should have been given medals for putting up with her. I liked the aunt's story.

In comparison the Novella was delightful and easily would have been 4 stars.

So I would say don't bother with this story but grab the novella!

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

As a fan of the "enemies to lovers trope", the summary of this book caught my attention and I eagerly requested it. However, "Desiring Lady Caro" was not quite what I expected. Centered around Lady Caroline, a young woman who has run away from the evil advances of an unscrupulous man, this book did have some romantic elements. Gervais, Earl of Huntley, was a beast on the outside, but a teddy bear inside. I appreciated his patience and kindness towards Caroline.

Unfortunately, some of the language the author used (particularly in love scenes) was archaic and completely took me out of the moment. Also, the side story featuring Lady Horatia was not compelling to me in any way. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

A cute, sexy romance full of laughter and engaging characters with just enough action and adventure to keep you in the story. A really enjoyable story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I was so excited for this book but it was honestly so disappointing. I didn't care about the characters and I couldn't tell if it was due to sheer unlikability or lack of development but I could not find myself rooting for them. The concept of this book is what drew me into it and I wanted to like it so bad, especially since this is my first book by Ella Quinn. The plot itself did not flow well and when the random subplot was added in, it just made it harder to get through. Caro, our heroine, is someone I truly felt for but the resolve of her trauma and backstory was underwhelming and honestly, pretty frustrating. No matter how hard I tried, I could not like Huntley. So between my lack of interest in the characters and the clunkiness of the pacing, I would not recommend this book. Not to mention, the last 20% of this book was a very long excerpt of Ella Quinn's other book.

Overall, I was very underwhelmed by this book but I am willing to give Ella Quinn's books another shot. She clearly has great ideas but the execution fell painfully short.

Not sure if "alluring" is the word I would use to describe Lady Caro. Was looking for a headstrong heroine that would test and challenge Huntley but unfortunately the female protagonist of this book spent most of the time ill, weeping, or both. Almost the entire book took place on the run but the drama, tension, and excitement that should have come from that scenario was severely lacking.

I did appreciate the frank discussions of trauma and building trust that are often lacking in regency era romances --- Huntley is truly a catch for the patience and the protection he willingly gave Caro. But honestly spent most of the book wishing we got more of the godmother + her hunky sea captain instead of Caro + Huntley.

Well.......shoot. This was my first Ella Quinn novel and in the spirit of fairness I will absolutely try another in the future. Desiring Lady Caro was a miss for me; the writing struck me as very choppy and it was a barrier to me forming any real investment with any of the characters or the plot. Ms. Quinn has a fairly extensive library, so I'm not sure if this was a stylistic choice for her or a fairly good representation of her style in general? Like I said, I will absolutely give her another shot, just not with this book.

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC. My opinions are freely given.

Desiring Lady Caro
By Ella Quinn

Lady Caroline fled England and went to visit her godmother, widowed Lady Horatia, in Venice to escape her traumatic past and avoid looking to marry. Unfortunately things don’t go according to plan as Lord Huntley Lady Horatia’s nephew also comes to Venice to escape marriage. As there seems to be a bit of an attraction between the two Lady Caroline's manger is a bit frosty .

There is also the underlying tale of the Venetian Marquis who has an extreme obsession about Caroline and wants to marry her at any cost.

There is a second romance thrown in half way through that didn’t fit and made the book a bit disfunctional.

It was a quick short read more of a novella. I disliked 25%of the book as it was samples of other publications. Would much preferred a slightly longer book with more substance. I did enjoy the book but couldn’t really take it seriously.

A heroine named Caroline and a book set in Venice?! Sign me up!

This book is packed! I did not know what to expect but it was a cute read with a lot going on. If you like travel romances you should check this out!
Lord Huntley actually flees England to visit his aunt Horatia in Venice. What he never would have expected: meeting the beautiful but reserved Lady Caro, who resides there with her godmother. For the first time Huntley who has sworn off marriage finds himself protecting said Lady and keeps fighting for her trust and ultimately her heart.

A beautiful, emotional story about learning to trust again after trauma, well written characters (a little side romance which I loved!!) and an absolute cinnamon roll hero who understands the importance of chocolate! As a german native speaker I have to say I was impressed with her research on culinary and linguistics bits in this book. Loved it!

Thanks to netgalley for this ebook. All opinions are honest and my own.

Lady Caroline Martindale fled England for her godmother’s palazzo in Venice. Caro resorts to extreme measures to spurn the advances of a Venetian marquis. Gervais, Earl of Huntley, is determined not to marry. But his conviction falters when he sees Caro. What began as a hasty lie to save her from the marquis leads to something more. This is 4th in a series and I vaguely remember reading the first one but it’s not necessary to read them all.

This reads like a travelogue and the villain’s motivations were never adequately explained. Caro is a sexual assault survivor and this reads too close to “my new lover healed my trauma” for me. There were too many subplots and stupid miscommunications. Time spent with Horatia and John could have been spent making me care about Caro and Huntley.

Normally, I don’t comment on the percentage of the book that includes the story versus the back matter because all books have links, promo, and author info at the end. But this one stops at %72. More than a quarter of this file was sample chapters for other works.

I received an arc from NetGalley

This was a difficult book to really get captivated by, unfortunately. When first introduced, Caro was definitely not one of my favorite heroines, immediately being rude and prickly despite nothing in Huntley's behavior to indicate that she was in the right for doing so. While her history does explain that, it seems that once that backstory is revealed, Caro loses almost all of the backbone that she is first introduced with. This is especially frustrating when Huntley seems almost immediately obsessed with her, while also the villain is ridiculously obsessed with her.

The pacing is also extremely off. It's a slow start but the main story is between Caro, Huntley, and the Italian man who is obsessed with Caro, a pretty standard set up for a romance novel. But then midway through the book, we get an entire subplot romance with equal levels of confusing obsession from the main guy in that too. The instant love from his end comes from hearing about Horatia from her deceased husband and deciding that he is in love with her despite never meeting her, and she... finds him hot. That basically sums up the love story, and because it's a subplot, it really doesn't get much deeper than that.

I also didn't love that all of Caro's trauma seems to be solved by having sex with Huntley. What she went through is horrific and while years have passed and I did like Huntley showing her gradually that she could trust him, it just seemed like all her issues were solved by Huntley. This was especially uncomfortable because so much of Huntley inner narration seems to be about getting her into bed and only wanting her to trust him because he wants to sleep with her. Ultimately, while his actions are different, what was most uncomfortable was that his inner narration (along with the secondary love interest's) was all too similar to the villain of the book.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was given this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Folks, well, this was something. The beginning felt altogether rushed, there was an Italian marquess who was obsessed with the female MC and it's never explained why, but forces the MCs to race away and also get married? And also let me say that the logistics of a spicy scene I read *made no sense* It felt like a paragraph got moved? You can't do both things they were saying at once and I was unsure what was happening. I liked the widowed aunt's story and thrown in romance and would have rather had a whole book of her.

Thank you Netgalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was really excited to get approved for this book, as I've read the the other books by Ella Quinn and found them enjoyable. Desiring Lady Caro was equally as good.

I liked that the plot was different from other historical romances I've read. While an engagement to save someone is common, having someone else desiring the woman and plotting to take her because he feels entitled. This had some fun moments and also fun subplots as well with well developed supporting characters.

Fun read!

Meh this really missed the mark for me and I practically skimmed the whole book. I just couldn’t connect with either character and the writing was not for me.