I love a good governess x employer historical romance and this hit the mark!

There was a bit of pride and prejudice vibes between Georgie and Harry as they both had preconceived notions about each other earlier on in their relationship. Georgie assumed Harry was an uptight military man who only cared for order and his career while Harry thought Georgie was chaos personified with no ability to control his wild nieces and nephew and was only in his life to cause disorder. But in the end, it was so nice to see them grow and learn about each other realizing how much they matched each other. Plus, the children and all the side characters were nice little additions to the story that made the read so entertaining.

Charming regency romance with a fun slow burn storyline. I enjoyed the character development and descriptive storytelling. Worth a read!

If you love regency era romances this one is for you!!
I enjoyed reading it but it was a bit slow placed for me. I kept wanting to skip pages to know what will happen next and that is not a good sign. Some readers might enjoy the pace but for me it got frustrating at points. Plus there was more description and background story then the actual dialogues I guess.

What a fun and sweet historical romance! I loved the plot and enjoyed all the of the characters. Thank you SMP and Netgalley for my copy.

This was a very cute slow burn romance with funny dogs and kids causing problems. I never read a book by Virginia Heath but I would again.

Slow burn? ✅
Recency Romance? ✅
Grumpy vs Sunshine? ✅

This was a really cute read! It was worth sticking through the slower parts. It's low angst, and open door but mild spice. Looking forward to what comes next!

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

All the characters were lovable in this story. The dogs and the kids cause lots of ruckus. Harry finds out the life he had thought he wanted and planned out was not what he wanted after all!

Cute regency romance with opposites attract with a strict naval officer having to suddenly care for his nieces and nephew and the governess he employs who has a hard time following rules. This was a fun read with a good amount of funny moments and both characters were likeable and well developed. It was definitely a slow burn which I think worked in this book. Giving this 3/3.5 stars and would recommend I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I love Virginia Heath's works. I was excited for a new series to start and this delightful slow burn did NOT disappoint. A Regency take on the Grumpy vs. Sunshine trope this book is extremely enjoyable and swoon worthy.

The plot was predictable but fun. I like both Georgie and Harry. And the dogs of course. There were lots of funny moments. This was teh first book I read by this author and I am planning to read more of her books.

As a fan of the author’s Merriwell Sisters series, I was always pleasantly surprised by this new series. We meet Georgie as a 16 year old, dropped off at a school for teaching young women how to be a governess and we meet some of her friends that I’m sure will be featured in future books.
Georgie is hired by an Admiral named Harry, who has his three nephews and nieces dropped off with no notice by his adventurous sister. Needing help immediately, Georgie is brought in to help even though her methods are a little more relaxed than Harry would prefer. As she wins over the kids’ trust, Harry finds himself vexed by the woman while also completely infatuated. As they realize their feelings for each other, they work through their conflicting dreams and find a path to happiness.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins for the arc.

Tropes: grumpy MMC/sunshine MFC; governess falls for her employer
Steam level: 2ish (open door sex scene is pretty mild)
Angst level: low
Start of a series

Although this started off rather slow start for me, I found myself charmed by the end. Georgie, the MFC, is a likable heroine whose stubbornness and outspokenness are balanced by intelligence and honestly. While the MMC, Henry (his nickname Harry is used through most of the book) seems stuffy and negative at first, he gradually shows a sweet, vulnerable side that's genuinely appealing. And while I'm not always into HR's that feature multiple kids and pets, the kids in this one are cute and non-obnoxious, and I absolutely loved the scenes between Harry, Norbert, and Cuthbert. It's hard not to be a sucker for a guy who's good with animals.

The plotline is predictable for the most part but well executed in the last third, with the baddie not exactly who you might expect. The romance is slow-burn. No OTT confrontations or language; everything is PG-rated. The central theme of not living someone else's life is nicely conveyed, but what makes this a solid 4 star book for me is the intelligent writing and the warmth of the humor.

Why not 5 stars? I mentioned the slow start. There is a glut of long-winded interior monolog-ing, particularly in the early chapters, which is honestly best skimmed through. I wish the author had edited out some of this and replaced it with more scenes where the MC's got to know each other. For all of Georgie's pondering her difficult past with her stepfather, for example, she and Harry never discuss how it's impacted her take on men and relationships; meanwhile, he gets a chance to explore what he really wants but on his own. Also, there are occasional lapses into purple prose.

Bottom line: I think this does ultimately do what it sets out to do. It's lighthearted, good-hearted escapism that's like a fluffy confection that you have to spend a bit of time getting into before you hit the best bits.

I read an advanced reader copy of this book and this is my voluntary review. Opinions are my own.

This book had really cute moments but overall I was just bored while reading it. It moved at a glacial pace and even still there was no real chemistry between the main characters. As someone who usually finishes a book in a day or two, the fact that this one took me almost a week says it all.

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

- I enjoyed reading this book. However, I didn’t love it, for a few reasons. First, it felt like there was a general lack of attention to historical realities, including those of class and the workers’ conditions. So many of my favorite historical romance books are radical and abolitionist and this was not that. It felt too ahistorical to even register, honestly. Second, I don’t feel like we got the character development arcs we (and Georgie and Harry) deserved. The last third of the book felt generally rushed and kind of unfinished? I think both main characters had deep-seated trauma that was kind of just pushed aside for a convenient, quick ending and I feel like we missed out on some of the good stuff. I will absolutely read more by Heath, because I loved her Merriwell Sisters series, but this one just wasn’t it for me!

All’s Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath was an interesting regency romance that I enjoyed.

When Henry Kincaid finds himself in need of a governess to educate and take care of his sister’s 3 children, he heads straight to Miss Prentice’s School for Girls to find someone for the job. Georgina Rowe happens to be available and ready to start immediately. Georgie and Henry have such a great connection and Georgie’s interactions with the children were so sweet and heartwarming as well.

I enjoyed this book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Georgie enjoys working with children. She is a hit with her new changes. Their uncle is another story. I liked this book.

Georgina (Georgie) Rowe is one of Miss Prentice's proteges, which means she should easily be able to obtain a governess position. However, her propensity for speaking her mind, especially about how best to educate and discipline children, does not go over well with prospective employers whose beliefs she is challenging, if not outright disparaging.

Captain Henry (Harry) Kincaid is an overworked naval officer currently seconded to the Admiralty where he was in charge of procurement, as well as fixing seemingly insurmountable problems -- the biggest of which is currently the much-delayed building of the HMS Boadicea. However, he is soon to be faced with an even bigger problem -- his flighty sister Flora and her husband have left on a trip to Egypt and deposited their children (Felix, Marianne, and Grace) and Felix's dog Norbert, with their uncle Harry, without informing him in advance or obtaining his consent. Harry adores his nephew and nieces but is not in a position to properly care for them for months. As a result, he desperately needs a governess, and that governess is going to be Georgie.

Georgie does not have particularly fond opinions of the military, having been dragged from barrack to barrack by her stepfather, an Army Colonel, who found Georgie more of a nuisance than anything else. So, she takes an immediate dislike to Captain Kincaid, with his two pocket watches, orderliness, and desire for discipline and decorum. Captain Kincaid, for his part, has serious doubts that Miss Rowe can be commanding and forceful enough to get his nephew and nieces to behave and to implement the structure and discipline that is woefully lacking due to their upbringing by two bohemian parents.

Georgie's new role as governess does not get off to the most auspicious start, as she cannot help but chafe at and resist the strictures that Harry wants to impose with regards to the children's education. Sitting at their desks and practicing their sums or their writing or listening to her lecture has its place, but Georgie believes children learn best when given the opportunity to explore the world around them and combine learning and play. This is certainly true for Felix, Marianne, and Grace, who are not used to sitting in a classroom, but whose unconventional upbringing has left them well versed in areas that interest them. Also, Harry has the unfortunate habit of turning up to check on the children and Georgie at the most inopportune times, when everything is falling apart.

As Georgie witnesses how Harry interacts with the children, and as Harry observes the improvements in the children's behavior and how much Georgie cares for them, their opinions of each other start to change. More significantly, feelings of a much more intimate nature start to develop, but there are multiple obstacles to pursuing their feelings, including Georgie's belief that her appearance, especially her wild red hair, is unappealing. Yet, the reason that Harry can so often be seen looking at her hair has nothing to do with distaste.

With very different personalities, considerable personal baggage for both of them, and three rambunctious children and their rambunctious dog, there are plenty of misunderstandings and missteps, and lots of hilarity. There are also plenty of sweet, tender moments, and eventually some rather intimate moments.

Virgina Heath’s newest series just might be my favorite by her! Anything that has a Sound of Music feel is always going to be my jam and this was no exception.

Georgie and Harry are delightful together in a delicious slowburn with a scene stealing dog and two free spirited children. Harry is so starchy and exacting (which is my favorite historical MMC trait) and he NEEDS Georgie to lighten him up a bit. The angst was perfectly done and Georgie’s backstory with her abusive stepfather was handled with such care. I especially love the moments with the kids. Kids can be hit or miss in romances for me, either feeling like adults in tiny bodies or like background furniture. But these kiddos were delightfully present and I adored them.

I do think at times the story lagged (there is such a thing as too slow of a burn) but I was so in love with everything else going on that it wasn’t as bothersome as it has been in other stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for an ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this start to a new series. Set in the Regency era, the book is about an orderly-type former naval officer, Henry, who cannot seem to handle the hustle and bustle of his sister's children and seeks help from a governess, Georgina, whose methods of "let children be children" conflict with Henry's. I always love an opposites attract storyline, and of course we have that here, but the author does as great job of not making that plotline formulaic. This was quite more slow than typical, which drew out all of those tensions and made for great anticipation and also a lot of room for the characters to discover things about themselves (I see myself in Henry a bit). I also really loved the dog!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3 Stars ⭐️

I am a fan of this author’s writing style. I thought I would love this story because it’s has a blue stocking/governess heroine and a stuffy former naval officer hero but it was missing something. The heroine has strong opinions on children’s education and discipline however she is trying to curb her tongue to land a job as a governess.
There is a lot of internal dialogue which slows the pace of the book. There are some witty scenes but the preconceived opinions of the protagonist which led to unnecessary miscommunication between them was distracting. Overall, this is a well written book.

Thank you to the publisher for providing the ARC.