Review: An Uncommon Courtship by Kristi Ann Hunter

A Must for Christian Regency Romance Fans!

Lord Trent Hawthorne has just got married … a forced marriage of honour to Lady Abigail Bell, daughter of one of the most irritating women he knows. Being forced into marriage to salvage Abigail’s reputation isn’t how he’d planned on marrying, but it’s a done deed and he has to make the best of it. But he has no idea how to be a husband.

And Abigail has no idea how to be a wife. All she knows is that she doesn’t want to be the kind of wife (or mother) her mother is. After an awkward first week of marriage, Trent decides they need to get to know each other before they can have a real marriage, so he decides he needs to court his wife. An uncommon courtship, to be sure.

An Uncommon Courtship has two awkward characters in an awkward situation, and Hunter tells their story with skill and wit. An Uncommon Courtship is Christian Regency Romance. It follows all the Regency Romance normal conventions, except that both Trent and Abigail are Christians, which gives the plot added depth.

Trent is a true gentleman. He’s been forced into this marriage, but is determined to get to know Abigail and turn it into a real marriage. He makes a lot of mistakes, but he’s always willing to fix them (once he actually realises he’s made a mistake. He is a male, so that sometimes takes a while).

Abigail also makes her share of mistakes, although she isn’t as good at fixing them. Not because she doesn’t want to, but more because she’s spent her life being dominated by her mother and doesn’t actually know how to deal with Trent—who is the complete opposite of her unprincipled mother. Mother is a piece of work, and it’s good to see both Abigail and Trent learn how to deal with her.

This is Kristi Ann Hunter’s fourth book in this series, and it’s as good as the previous stories (and has the advantage of being able to be read as a standalone novel—Trent and Abigail dominate the first part of the novel, while the characters from the earlier stories are reintroduced in the second half).

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Kristi Ann Hunter at her website

Clash of the Titles: August 2016

Hot! Hot! Hot! Vote for your Fave!

Scroll through these FOUR new releases and cast your vote for the one you'd pick up first to read.

I know it's hard!

Fight for Liberty by Theresa Linden Prompted by the inner voice that has guided her for years, Liberty is compelled to bring the freedom she now possesses to others suppressed by the all-controlling government. While unsure of how to carry out this mission, she is willing to risk all to accomplish it.
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An Elegant Facade by Krisit Ann Hunter Lady Georgina Hawthorne has worked tirelessly to seal her place as the Incomparable for her debut season; with money and business connections, but without impeccable bloodlines, Colin McCrae is invited everywhere but accepted nowhere. As their paths continue to cross, they both must decide if the realization of their dreams is worth the sacrifices they must make.
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Defying Shadows by Ashley Townsend Sarah travels back to the twelfth century and discovers that a ghost from her past has returned to Serimone, intent on changing the future. Time is quickly running out to stop him, and her life is put on the line as she must decide between returning to the safety of her world, and entrusting her future with a hero of the past as they attempt to save history.

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One Thursday Morning by T.K. Chapin

Running not only for her own life, but that of her unborn baby, Serenah moves across the country to a little town outside of Spokane Washington called Newport. It's here she'll begin to build a new life and go by a different name in the hopes of staying hidden from her abusive husband John. 

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Review: An Elegant Facade by Kristi Ann Hunter

A Recommended Romance Read

I read Krisit Ann Hunter’s debut novel, A Noble Masquerade, last year, and it was one of the best debuts I’ve read in a long time. Hunter writes Christian Regency romance, and it’s excellent (well, apart from a couple of minor language issues that American authors always slip up on when writing English characters).

Her characters are intelligent and witty and charming and engaging, her heroes are also intelligent and more than sufficiently swoon-worthy (a word you can really only use in relation to historical romance set in England), her settings are excellent, her writing outstanding, and her Christian themes strong without being overbearing. In other words, close to perfect.

An Elegant Façade is an interesting sequel, in that it starts part-way through A Noble Masquerade rather than after the conclusion. It’s focusing on two different characters, so we get to see some of the same events through different eyes. I’m not altogether convinced this is a good idea, but Hunter pulled it off well.

Lady Georgina Hawthorne has a secret (a good start. All good characters have a secret). It’s not explicitly stated what her secret is, so I’ll leave you to work it out yourself rather than tell you and possibly spoil the story. Lady Georgina is about to launch in to her first London Season, and is determined to be an Incomparable and to make an outstanding match, to ensure her secret never catches up with her.

She sets her sights on the Duke of Marshington, who has recently returned to Town. What she doesn’t realise is that her sister, Lady Miranda, is in love with the Duke, and he with her (and if you’ve read A Noble Masquerade, you’ll know this.) This misunderstanding is the source of a lot of humour and talking at cross-purposes in the first part of the book—it’s amusing to read conversations knowing the subtext, and realizing Lady Georgina doesn’t.  It’s excellent writing.

The person Lady Georgina is least interested in is Mr Colin McCrae, a nobody who seems to have many influential friends including the Duke of Marshington and her own brothers.  Yet he finds himself intrigued by the lady in white, both annoyed by her obvious intention to snare the Season’s most eligible bachelor, and captivated by the person he finds behind the elegant façade. Again, it’s excellent writing.

A Noble Masquerade was excellent, and now I’ve read An Elegant Façade I want to read both books again, back to back, to catch all the minor plot points I no doubt missed because there were so many levels to the writing. Recommended for all lovers of Christian Regency romance.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about author Kristi Ann Hunter at her website. 

Reading Challenge: A Noble Masquerade by Kristi Ann Hunter

A book based entirely on its cover

The cover is beautiful! And what’s even better: the rest of the book lived up to the promise. This is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. I think. I read it so quickly I might have to go back and read it again just to be sure …

A Noble Masquerade is Regency romance, my favourite historical period and one that is woefully underrepresented in Christian fiction. It’s also got a strong suspense plot, and it’s no secret romantic suspense is my favourite genre. The book is off to a good start …

Lady Miranda Hawthorne might titled and have been raised to be a lady, but she’s not a lady at heart. She has unladylike thoughts and sometimes does unladylike things, and she’s currently bemoaning her single state. For years, she’s been pouring her unladylike heart out to Marsh, her brother’s best friend since his school days. Not that she’s ever posted the letters. A single woman writing to a man is most unladylike.

But after one particularly stressful evening, in which Lady Miranda realises her shallow younger sister is going to eclipse her socially once she is “out”, Miranda finds herself in conversation with her brother’s new valet—his handsome new valet--and writing yet another letter to Marsh. Only the valet finds the letter and posts it, and a week later, Miranda gets a response from Marsh, the mysterious Duke of Marshington who no one has seen for nine long years. Oops.

Things soon get complicated as Miranda finds herself fighting an attraction to Marlow, completely the wrong man, and getting to know Marsh through his letters … and finding herself attracted to him as well. Then the suspense plot takes hold, and I don’t want to say anything more because that would be a spoiler. You’ll just have to read it for yourself to find out what happens.

There were times when it didn’t seem like A Noble Masquerade was the first novel in the series at all. It wasn’t as though I felt I was missing information, more that it felt like the characters had more history together than I was seeing on the page. When I checked Amazon, I found I was right: Kristi Ann Hunter also has a free prequel novella available, A Lady of Esteem. I obviously downloaded this immediately, and am planning to read it right after I finish this review ...

A Noble Masquerade will appeal to fans of historical romance, especially Regency romance. The writing is excellent, with plenty of plot twists and turns, quirky characters and plenty of humour, along the lines of general market author Julia Quinn. But it’s definitely Christian fiction, and the faith elements are handled especially well. Recommended.

Thanks to Bethany House and Litfuse for providing a free ebook for review.

This book contributes towards my 2015 Reading Challenge as a book based entirely on its cover.