I adored this book! Raff and Penn's interactions were everything. The different inns, the bedroll situations, and the pining. This was so well done. I am not the hugest fan of historical romances anymore but this made me want to read so many more especially from this author.

REVIEW: One Night in Hartswood

Penn is arranged to be married to someone he doesn’t know. He also has a lot of conflict with his family. He decides to go to the forest to think about things and comes across Raf. Neither knows who the other person is, but what leads to a passionate kiss bonds them together. Little does he know that he was betrothed to Raf’s sister. This pushes Penn over the edge to run away from his marriage. Raf and Penn run into each other again in the woods and decide to help each other out. With both of them hiding their true identities, will this budding relationship blow up on them?

One Night in Hartswood is a historical queer romance. While the historical elements may not be accurate, I didn’t care because I was invested in Penn and Raf. I loved that the story was in a dual POV. As readers, we know how they both feel, even though they don’t know about one another. Also, as an audiobook, each character had a different narrator, and they both did a great job adding personality to their voices. Penn and Raf get to know each other well during their travels, which helps them grow their relationship. They have such great chemistry together. You could feel the tension through regular interactions with one another. One Night in Hartswood is an excellent balance of being sweet and spicy. This story gives lots of slow burns and forced proximately tropes (staying warm outside with shared body heat, of course!)

The only thing that made it hard to read at times was that there were some parts where it felt like not much was happening. I get that most of this book is about them traveling, but I think some could have been more happening or scaled back.

I absolutely adore One Night in Hartswood. The characters alone made me keep coming back to read more. I’m excited to read more of this series.

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper 360 | Mills & Boon, for the free advanced copy for my honest review!

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Kind of a weird mix between a "romance" and a quest story. Too much time focused on the political machinations

Cute and light read. Raff and Penn were both enjoyable characters. Soft and low-angst read for historical lovers!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this novel, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have a confession to make. I got an ARC of this last year and just finally got around to reading it. I feel terrible, but I suppose at least this review will be out in time for the second books release. Something else I have to confess: I waited so long that I listened to the audiobook, which was excellent. Third confession: since I listened to the audiobook, and it has an interview with the author at the end, I ended up appreciating this book more for what it was rather than what I thought it was supposed to be.

I enjoy a good historical romance every once in awhile, but usually have a hard time with a historical queer romance just because history has been generally unkind to queer people, at least in the western world. I sort of assumed that this would be no different as this is set in Oxford in 1360 and it was and it wasn’t. I had seen numerous reviews bashing on this book for its historical inaccuracies and lack of mentioning the plague, however, after listening to the author’s interview at the end, she explains that it is more alternative history. She wanted to occupy a DnD-esque space, but didn’t want to write fantasy/magical elements so it became historical fiction. So, yes, this is a historical romance, but the emphasis here is on the romance not the history. This isn’t Outlander or many other history heavy romances. This is just fun and joy. If you’re looking for a romance that takes this period of history more seriously… I don’t have one to recommend to you. Sorry.

All right, with that disclaimer out of the way, I ended up quite enjoying this. I thought that Raff and Penn were cute. Sure, they fall in love basically right away, but their romance built on lies/misunderstandings basically blows up in their face. I mean, you could see that conflict coming from a mile away. Generally, though, this is a journey book. They face the perils of the road and grow closer as they travel. However, this isn’t a high stakes novel, but I wouldn’t call it cozy either.

The main reason I would call it cozy is because of the abuse that Penn suffers at the hands of his father. The worst of it is done before the start of the book, but he’s still and abusive prick. Abuse is always a hard topic to read about and discuss in books, especially a romance book, but I think that it was generally handled well. For me, it is hard to understand why a parent would abuse a child and that didn’t really change over the course of this book. But I appreciated that Raff straight up challenged Penn’s long held beliefs that the abuse was his fault.

Overall, I would recommend this for people looking for an M/M romance in a Dnd like setting, but minus the magic and elves. They’re going on a journey, there is a lot of lying, and some pining. Also a new use for sword oil. However, as I am not a gay man, please take my review with a grain of salt. It’s cute. It’s not life changing. I didn’t think too deeply about the historical aspects of it and it was a way to pass the time. Also, it’s open door, so if that bothers you, go elsewhere. I don’t know if I will read the next book in the series. I don’t think I’m in love with the author’s writing style or the characters that are focused in the second book enough to do that, but I might come back for the third book because of Ash. I love that grump.

2.5 stars rounded up.

A very mediocre take on a medieval or whatever historical gay romance. At least, I think it was medieval. The time period was difficult to pin down as it was not very well researched. The romance was uninteresting, the characters were boring, and the writing was only OK. There are better historical gay romances out there for sure.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mills & Boon for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One Night in Hartsford, a historical romance and the first book that I’ve read by Emma Denny is a quick-paced read packed with action and drama.

Raff and Penn are sweet together, and I love that they find a home together with Raff’s loving family.

Much earlier period than I usually read, so my opinions may be less valuable. I didn't get much sense of the time or the place or even the characters.

One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny had well-developed characters and a plot that was engaging. This book was a great read. I highly recommend!

**Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the e-ARC. All opinions expressed are voluntary and my own.**

Emma Denny's debut is charming and romantic. This historical romance was refreshing, sweet, and funny -- I can't wait to read the sequel.

Really cute historical fiction piece! I really enjoyed the setting and story as well as the characters. It felt well thought out and the plot flow was nice! I would recommend this to many historical fiction/achillean fiction lovers.

Giving this 3 stars because I legitimately just got too busy to really enjoy this book and ended up DNFing. It was a great premise and others I know and trust enjoyed it.

A lovely, sweet story as the two main characters find themselves on a medieval road trip. The pacing of this story was wonderful for the characters' journeys of self-discovery and I loved that the setting played its own role in their story!

You don’t see as many medieval romance books, especially not queer romance, but this made me want more. Especially the moving description of healing from abuse.

This is for all the historical MM lovers! I love the trope of running away and finding love in unexpected places.

I could not put this book down! I was sucked in so quick and had to make myself stop so I wouldn't finish it too quickly.

Extremely quaint, and tender hearted. The book was such a lovely experience that it ended far before I was willing to let go of the characters. I'd pay good money to return to this little world and see them, as well as the side characters, yet again.

I think I wanted to like One Night in Hartswood more than I actually did…and god did I try. Unfortunately, I just found myself kind of bored through most of the first 2/3rds of the book. It wasn’t bad by any means…just not really what I was expecting or wanting this story to be.

I found the characters extremely charming and I grew to love both Penn and Raf immensely. I desperately wanted them to be together and to find a way to make it through their tribulations. I also really liked Ash and Cecily as side characters, but I wish we got to learn more about them. All around, I felt like the characters fell a little flat - even when they were doing horrible things, they didn’t hold the weight that I expected them to.

This would have been excellent with another pass through with an editor. Over half of the book is of Penn and Raf traveling through the forest…making camps and sparring. A few chapters of that would have been fine, but it dragged on entirely too long and I just kept wishing it were over.

Once it picked up around the 70% mark, I was completely hooked. I found all of the tension with the climax of the story exhilarating and I wish there had been more of that and less of the meandering paths. Penn’s father was truly atrocious and I enjoyed seeing the strategy behind Penn’s decisions.

Overall, this was very cute, but not very substantial and I found myself constantly wanting more.

I enjoyed many aspects of this historical queer romance, but I found certain things took me out of the story and just annoyed me- the long dragged out mistaken identity, the sudden change in some of the character's reactions and personality at the end. The way that Penn's father is suddenly not that big of a deal or tyrant at the end was a bit lackluster.

That said, I appreciated the way trauma was depicted and how that is navigated in a relationship. I enjoyed reading a queer historical romance in a time period that isn't written in as often as the Victorian.

I recently started reading more books with lgbtq+ rep, and I’ve loved them!

This one was no different. Such a cute, fun and entertaining book.

I’ll continue to read more books with the rep, and I’m excited!

I loved it so much, please read it!