This was a likeable, gentle romance between a self-made man and a lady of quality. It's a simple, uncomplicated and quite short book, with very little to keep the lovers apart except mainly their own silliness. I enjoyed reading it.

Mr. Clarke's Deepest Desire
Enterprising Scoundrels, Book 2
by Sophie Barnes Is A Tale Of One Rosamund Parker…Whose Father .. Earl of Stoneburrow' …Has Recently Died …And One Matthew Clarke…An Enterprising But Underfunded Locomotive Entrepreneur…Who Needs Funding Badly …But Not From Miss Rosamund Parker…Anyone But HER. Will They Ever Put Their Differences & The Past Behind Them…So All Their Dreams Can Come True?!? Read and See. Much Enjoyed and Highly Recommended. I Voluntarily Reviewed An Advanced Copy Of This Book.

Hit me right in the feels, I cried, I sighed… This book will always lay claim to my heart… Amazing! Four stars!

Sophie Barnes always write a good satisfying read which includes some interesting social aspect of the age in which she sets her story.
Here we see that aristocrats beginning to realise that living off the income from their lands was not enough, that needed outside money, and that this was going to come from investing in the new technology of the time or the new trades. Of course, in retrospect, some of these investments are ones that we would now frown upon, but others were those that enabled communication and food - eg railways - to move from one place to another - think of the strawberry lines that took Kent or Scottish strawberries to London in a few hours rather than days.

In this story we have the trope of enemy to lover, from the actions of parents and other family members which always leads to some interesting interactions and scenes or scenarios. and Sophie manages to write them engagingly and to allow her characters to interact in a seemingly realistic manner.
And the sins of the family were eventually righted. And all was well.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Lady Rosamund Parker's life is rocked when her father's will stipulates that she only has £500 to live on, until she marries and her dowry is available. No one is allowed to help her, not even her uncle, the new Earl of Stoneburrow. So she decides to invest in a promising engineering firm, but the owner, Matthew Clarke wants nothing from her. He was the hall boy once, and after the late Earl abused his mother, they were thrown out with nothing. However, Rosamund is not one to give up lightly, and when they are in company together at a house party, there's a growing attraction that the pair can't seem to fight any longer.

I enjoyed this one more than the first book, I think. Rosamund and Matthew's story was a believable one, and their connection and chemistry was clear to see. Neither of them went into their meetings wanting anything from each other, certainly not a relationship, but their initially grudging respect and admiration soon allowed them to let their feelings grow and blossom into something they needed to explore. A quick read, great for people who enjoy Regency romances.

This is a cute, quick and satisfying for those who need their post-Bridgerton fill! I would have loved more drawn out tension, but it is a very enjoyable enemies to lovers

I really enjoy Sophie Barnes books so I was excited to read this one. This one is pretty short and can be finished within a couple of hours. Rosamund Parker has recently lost her father and has inherited a small sum of money that she wants to invest in a locomotive company. She goes to meet Matthew Clarke the owner who instantly turns down her offer due to a deep hatred for her father due to past events.
Unfortunately they soon find themselves both on the same week long retreat to country in the company of likeminded engine enthusiasts and investors. Despite all the fighting they have an enemies to lover attraction.
I did enjoy this story but I didn't really understand the attraction between them mainly because its a short book so not much time to develop the chemistry. If you enjoy a enemies to lovers regency romance you will enjoy this one.
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Sophie Barnes for sending me this complimentary eARC copy.

I received a copy from both Netgalley and Booksprout; this is my honest review
TRIGGER ALERT: Taking advantage of a maid taken lightly by one lady of the house
-I would have liked more details about Matthew and Mr. Anderson's relationship, especially after the bombshell we learn at the end.
-I would have liked to learn more about Rosamund's ideas for the railroads and locomotives.
-I'm glad Rosamund saw through - finally - Westhaven as a complete opportunist, not at all as a knight or a puppy.
-Why didn't Rosamund questioned her uncle earlier in the story about her father????
-I was confused at to why Uncle Howard asked Matthew, and not Rosamund, about their exclusion from society; she would, in my opinion, pay for it most, since she's a peer (or was) and he's not.
-And then alas, we learn how much petty people were in those times about associations with those who lack a title.
-I liked Matthew possessiveness and the way he treated Rosamund, except at the end, when he gave too much, and she, not enough. I liked how their relationship started on a mistaken identity and that was funny.
-I still think the story was endearing and funny at times but wished it was more consistent from all participants.

This is a regency romance featuring Rosamund Parker and Matthew Clarke. Ms. Parker recently lost her father and has been tasked with finding a husband within a certain period of time before her money runs out. She decides to invest what was left to her and decides upon Mr. Clarke's company. Unfortunately for her, Mr. Clarke remembers Ms. Parker's late father and refuses her investment. Through the story, we learn his reasoning and watcher their budding romance. Will his past prevent their beautiful future?

I rated this a 4 star book because there was a bit lost in the story. Mr. Clarke had his reasons for not wanting to be in the company of the Parker family, but it would have been nice to discover the full truth earlier. I enjoyed that this was a relatively quick read (for me, this means it took well less than a week and more than one sitting) and the story wrapped up nicely at the end. I also was wanting more with their story and would love for the next book in the series to touch on how their relationship develops further.

Thank you to Sophie Barnes, NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this eBook,

Anything by Ms. Barnes is a must read for me, so I didn’t hesitate to pick up this latest addition to the Enterprising Scoundrels series. She has a great way of creating scenes and really pulling you into the characters’ world and bringing the story to life. This was no different. Matthew is a modern man, who is devoted to locomotive engines. He has worked hard to get where he is despite challenges he faced when he was younger. But he also holds a deep grudge against the Earl of Stoneburrow, who is the cause of all those difficulties he had to face. When the earl dies, his daughter Rosamund is intent on keeping her independence and decides to invest her inheritance in the locomotive business. Matthew needs the funding, but because of his past with Rosamund’s father, he is determined not to accept if from the family that ruined his life. But he can’t seem to escape Rosamund, and she seems to appear everywhere. He also can’t escape the fact of how strongly he is drawn to her. Rosamund doesn’t understand why he thwarts her at every turn and as frustrated and infuriated as she is with him, she can’t deny how attracted she is to him. The sparks that fly between them are strong and the back and forth banter between them was such a treat to read. Matthew has a hard lesson to learn that he can’t extend his grudge to everyone in the earls’ family. But will he learn that lesson before it is too late?
An absolutely delightful read that I’ve come to always expect from Ms. Barnes. She never disappoints and I can’t wait to continue the series!
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Another classic enemy to lover story. Although only Matthew is the one who sees Lady Rosamund Parker as a enemy. He holds a grudge against her deceased father and now the whole family is included for wrongs the man had done to his mother and him.
Rosamund idolized her father and can’t see how he could have wronged Matthew. The setting is during the modern Victorian times, the boom of the railway in the future and both have the same interest which brings they together. Also the attraction builds between the two, but Matthew needs to learn not to pass on one man wrongs to a innocent.
A fast paced story that easily can be read in a day. As always the writer doesn’t disappoint. Thank you NetGalley for this eARC. I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an Advance Reader Copy of this story. #NetGalley #MrClarkesDeepestDesire

This book had everything you could want in a tight package! Romance between different classes, house party shenanigans, revenge, working class hero and a fun STEM minded heroine!

After her father passes away, Rosamund discovers he’s left her a very modest dowry, instead of the fortune she anticipated. She decides to take her love of industry and invest to secure her own future instead of making a match right away. She finds Mr. Clarke and his locomotive business in the surprised when he rebuffs her intention to invest!

Matthew Clarke Has made his way up from his humble boot boy beginnings and there’s no rubbing our elbows with those he served. When the daughter of his former employer comes to him looking to invest, he takes his revenge by spurring her efforts but soon finds that questioning his desire for revenge against that of his heart!

This novella was a lot of fun and I loved seeing Matthew fight his desires and decide that love is stronger than hate.

This book can be read as a standalone.

Mr. Clarke’s Deepest Desire by Sophie Barnes is available today!

✨Thanks to Sophie Barnes for my eBook review copy from NetGalley.
👉Paperback version purchased by myself. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I didn’t realize it was a short story when I picked it up and I’m not generally a fan of short stories. Too much was packed into a short space and just didn’t feel plausible. I liked Rosamunde but I really didn’t like Mr Clarke and his nasty attitude. He flip flopped all over the place and his so called love for her felt forced.

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

Mr. Clarke’s Deepest Desires, the second book in the Enterprising Scoundrels series after Mr. Donahue’s Total Surrender (I sense a theme in the titles, don’t you?) is a delightfully frothy bit of Victorian romance with some dark notes in the background. And a whole heaping helping of insta-lust in the lush foreground.

A part of me wants to make some terrible puns about Rosamund Parker and her need to have her engines overhauled – or at least her ashes hauled, but that’s not where this story begins. In a perverse way it began way back when, when her late, lamented, dear old dad couldn’t resist forcing their housemaid to haul his – will she or nill she. And of course he fired her when she informed him that she was carrying the inevitable consequence of his actions.

Now he’s dead and buried, and the mourning period has just officially ended. The reading of his will has left his daughter in a bit of a fix of a different sort. As the daughter (and only child) of an Earl, she knew she would not inherit his title or the entailed estate. But she expected a bit more than 500 pounds. Not per annum, but in total. Along with a binding clause that her uncle, the new Earl, was not permitted to maintain or support her.

(If you’re curious, that’s just over $60,000 in today’s dollars. A more-than-decent one year’s salary, but not nearly enough for a relatively young woman to live off of for the rest of her life.)

Rosamund, who does want to marry, also wants to have enough time going about the selection process to ensure that she makes a choice that satisfies both her head and her heart. So, instead of rushing into anything or anyone she plans to invest most of her money and life off the income from her investment while she makes a considered choice.

It’s a sensible plan, which makes sense. Because Rosamund is a very sensible woman. Also a very intelligent one.

But her plans go up almost literally in smoke when she meets Matthew Clarke, the owner of A&C Locomotive. Because Rosamund and Matthew strike more sparks from each other than any one of his engines do when they screech their brakes. Not that either of them can manage much of anything except almost literally screeching at each other.

Matthew’s mother was the housemaid that Rosamund’s father forced into his bed and then out the door, leaving both mother and 12-year-old Matthew destitute. Matthew refuses to take Rosamund’s investment money – no matter how much he actually needs it. He’s still carrying that grudge – and is an absolute ass about it to Rosamund even though she has no clue what he’s so angry about.

After all, she was all of 10 at the time and it’s not exactly a subject that any father would raise with his own daughter – particularly not in the Victorian Era!

But Rosamund is determined to invest in the burgeoning railroad industry, and Matthew still does need investors. Which means that they keep meeting – and meeting – and meeting at various gatherings of industry executives and potential investors. The more often they run into each other, the more sparks that fly – no matter how little Rosamund wants to believe the truth about her beloved father.

The push-pull of their relationship, the way that they hate each other but still want each other desperately, is hot enough to fuel a locomotive or ten without the use of coal. All they need to do is give in – before they make a mistake that will haunt the rest of their lives.

Escape Rating B+: One of the things that I really enjoy about the Enterprising Scoundrels series is that the heroes all work for a living. Admittedly it’s work among the wealthy and powerful, and they’ve done well for themselves, but it’s still real work that gives them real purpose. This is a series where happiness is not just the province of the idle rich to the point where it openly questions whether the idle rich are all that happy.

Matthew Clarke is an especially delicious hero in this mold because he’s a self-made man who has not either lost the threads of his humanity or obtained his wealth outside the law. Both of which are not uncommon backgrounds for heroes of historical romances.

What made this book downright refreshing is that even the bounder who tries to interfere with the romance between Rose and Matthew is really after Rose for her prodigious intellect and genius ideas, while her truly delectable person is icing on the cake of her splendid brain and not the other way around.

But speaking of that bounder, he’s not really a villain – at least not in the bwahaha sense that often happens. He’s out for himself and he does take advantage of a situation, but he doesn’t make the situation and he’s just not evil. Selfish and self-centered, but not beyond human reason.

So I didn’t leave this book, as I did Mr. Donohue’s Total Surrender, with the feeling that there were too many characters who did not receive the desserts they had so richly earned. If there is a villain in this piece it’s Rosamund’s father, and he’s already having that discussion with his Maker when the story begins.

I do have to say that I found the blurb for the book a bit deceptive. This isn’t really a story of secret identities. Rosamund and Matthew know exactly who each other is. She doesn’t know that he and his mother were once in service to her family – at least not at the beginning – but his business success wipes out most of that stigma. They do end up on the wrong end of a lot of social opprobrium, but it’s as a result of their actions in the present and not some hidden secret in either of their pasts.

While I’m not personally satisfied with the amount of groveling Matthew does over that incident, he does manage to screw his courage to the sticking point and fix things before it’s too late – with a whole lot of professional assistance from his soon-to-be bride. Which makes for happy endings all around – as they certainly deserved.

I enjoyed this book. I think more than normal because the men in this book took the lady's intelligence seriously. He certainly was determined to get her back after the incident and gave a wonderful show. I am pretty sure this goes to a series but I am even now not sure. Having said that this seems to be a standalone but including characters from her other books. Thanks for reading my rambling.
I recieved a free copy so that I might tell you what I honestly think. Hope you enjoyed my review. Now go enjoy the book.

He has his reasons for his grudge....

I really liked Matthew Clarke, he whose mother and he were gravely wronged by Rosamund's father, an earl. She continues to think the very best of her deceased father, even though he cut her off with only $500 pounds and places her in a situation where she must marry, or invest. I did like that she chose to invest her money in locomotives. But didn't understand why she didn't ever question her father (who did her wrong, too).

Matthew is seething with emotions, a very unwanted attraction to Rosamund, doing what was best for his company and not wanting to touch a ha'penny from the earl (who done him wrong and did his mother seriously wrong, that guy was awful).
Recommend, because of Matthew.

I was given an early copy in exchange for an honest review. I can happily recommend Mr. Clark’s Deepest Desire. Sophie Barnes has written an historical novel with a strong female lead. She is a gifted writer. I always enjoy a novel that reads like pealing an onion. It was slow and methodically written, well paced. Thanks to #NetGalley, #Publisher, #SophieBarnes, #Mr.Clark’sDeepestDesire, for allowing me to review early. Perfect book to curl up and read.

Moments of truth________2.5

Mathew Parker is a modern Victorian man, a man devoted to locomotive engines. He’s also a man with a grudge. Lady Rosamund Parker is a thoroughly modern woman with an independent spirit whose interest in engines matches that of Matthews.
Her father, the Earl of Stoneburrow has died and his joint wills have placed constraints on her. Rosamund’s only way out is to marry or invest. Rosamund chooses the latter. Unfortunately the works of her choice, A&C Locomotives or rather Matthew, have refused her approaches regarding investment.
That’s how she finds herself at Earl of Westhaven’s country house party with men of like mind. It seems Rosamund’s scientific views on engines are quite insightful.
Matthew is there too. He confronts her with her father’s wrong doing towards his mother—the upstairs maid in her home years ago. A maid her father had dallied with and thrown out when things became difficult, when his mother became pregnant. Rosamund is unbelieving and indignant.
Despite his prejudices Matthew is annoyed by the attentions shown to Rosamund by the Earl.
I agree with people who ask the question, why didn't this seemingly intelligent woman not investigate the truth of Matthews claim?
The enemies to lover trope all devolves into lovers quite quickly. I found the characters flat and had little sympathy with them.
A rather confusing tale that’s not at all as well developed as most of Sophie Barnes works.

An Independently Published ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Having recently suffered the death of her father, Rosamund Parker faces an uncertain future. Intent on retaining her independence, she plans to invest her modest inheritance. Matthew Clarke needs funding for his locomotive business, but he'll not accept it from the Earl of Stoneburrow's daughter. As far as Matthew's concerned, he hates the entire family. Unfortunately, Lady Rosamund seems to pop up wherever he goes. Ignoring the fire she stirs in him becomes an increasing challenge.
A delightful novella of enemies to lovers at least on Matthew’s side. I loved both Rosamund & Matthew, the chemistry between them just grew & grew but apart from the physical attraction there was also a joining of minds. She’s an earl's daughter but has a love of science especially engines, Matthew runs an engineering company making locomotives. The reasons why Matthew hates the Parker family are gradually revealed but can he leave his feelings behind & move forward? An easy to read romance that had me engrossed from cover to cover
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

Will their common history tear them apart …

It is sure and certain they both began on the wrong foot. And when they meet again, things seem to pile up to antagonize them even more as they are not tempered people, unable to put things under the carpet but they need to express themselves.
Yet at the same time, they feel a pull like nothing they have ever felt for anyone else.
So much, they butt heads one minute and kiss in the next.
But with so much standing between them, can Clarke leaves to rest his past wound to open himself to a woman who is linked to it even if it is unknowingly from her side.
Matthew is a very ambivalent character, attracted to his nemesis’ daughter but determined to have nothing to do with her, even if it might cost him a much needed help. But the past still stands between him and the woman he is drawn to if she can forgive him, when he is a pushy jealous fellow.
Rosamund is just trying to find a way to sustain herself with what she has been left, but when she has been turned away for no understandable reason , she had to seek an alternative solution. So when she meets again the man who rejected her offer, she is unsettled and torn between her ire and her need to strangle or kiss him.

Their courtship is not a smooth one as doubts, fears and secrets estrange them, allowing Mathew’s past to tear them apart, and leaving him to find the right groveling gesture when he went too far.
4 stars

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 onscreen lovemaking scene.

I have been granted an advance copy by the author, here is my true and unbiased opinion.