A Worthington Wedding (Here Come the Grooms Book 1)
by Ella Quinn
A 3 star review
Publisher : Zebra Books (November 26, 2024)
Publication date : November 26, 2024
Print length : 331 pages
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you to NetGalley, Zebra Books, and Ella Quinn. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
In 2016 the Worthington family made their debut in Three Weeks to Wed. There have been many standalone books featuring siblings and various relatives since then. All are standalone stories, but it's been nice to have a thread running through each one allowing me to keep up with previous characters' lives. If you haven't read any of the others, I don't think it'll be a problem, jump in where you are. This book features Charlie Carpenter, Earl of Stanwood, it's finally his time.
I can tell you this much without giving away anything that the blurb hasn't covered. The plot starts out with Charlie being a hero and entering a card game to win a property that the miscreant Lord Ognon bet which happened to have his dependents living in it. Raised right Charlie can't let people be turned out of their home because Ognon can't play cards worth a darn. Charlie is a true Regency romantic hero gentleman at this point, I like him. He stops by the estate intending to sign it over to whoever lives there to find out it wasn't Ognon's in the first place. This is how we meet his love interest Oriana Ognon, the owner of the estate. She's independent, plucky, responsible and the estate is in very good shape. He's intrigued from first meeting, but she takes a dislike to him. A gentleman courts a lady he's interested in but it's hard when she wants nothing to do with him. It's cute how hard he tries to prove he's worthy.
About 2/3 of the way through the book Charlie changed. He went from gentleman to just a man. Once they kissed he was all about getting her alone, not a little like most romances but all the time. I felt the story took a backseat and I began to dislike him. Things like he knows she's exhausted so he makes love to her slowly and then lets her sleep. Huh, not very nice. He smirks, he tries to arrange Oriana sleeping in his room even though his family, including children, are there. Not well done of him. Sneaking around is to be expected but blatant disregard for reputation was too far for me. Everything works out in the end, there's a HEA, but I never thought of him the same again.
