Brynna Stilwell

*This review contains spoilers*

Summary of the book, copied from the back cover:

“Emmeline and William Pershing have enjoyed a perfectly convenient marriage for eight years. Their relationship is a seamless blend of their talents and goals. They’ve settled into separate, well-ordered lives beneath the same roof, and are content to stay that way—or so Emmeline thinks. And if William has secretly longed for a bit more from the woman he adores, he’s managed to be content with her supreme skills as a hostess and planner, which has helped him advance his career.

Then when Emmeline’s grandfather, the reclusive Duke of Welshire, summons them both for his birthday celebration and demands they bring their two little angelic children, William is stunned to discover that his very proper wife invented not one, but two heirs to fulfill the agreement for living at Winnover. But surely if Emmeline and William team up and borrow two cherubs to call their own, what could go wrong? Enter George, age 8, and Rose, 5—the two most unruly orphans in Britain.

As the insanity unfolds, their careful, professional arrangement takes some surprisingly intimate turns as well. Perhaps it takes a bit of madness to create the perfect happily ever after.”

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a regency era romance novel, and reminded me a lot of Bridgerton. After some research, I learned that the author of Something in the Heir and the author of Bridgerton actually wrote a book together, so the similarities make a lot of sense.

The book is told from a third-person limited perspective, which wasn’t very clear in the beginning. It wasn’t until a portion of a chapter was written from one of the children’s perspectives that I realized the POV. Once I realized, it was a lot easier to keep track of, and was actually really interesting. I’ve read books that change perspectives per chapter, but I’d never seen it done this way before, where it isn’t explicitly stated whose perspective you’re currently reading.

I felt like the entire plot was very predictable, and the book left me wanting more. I would have loved to see more of a romance between Emmeline and William, but a lot of the details were left out or implied. There were a few intense moments between them. However, in one chapter, they kissed for the first time in nearly 8 years, and the next, they were sharing a bed again. A book doesn’t need to be explicit to show the progression of that relationship. I would’ve liked to see a conversation between them where they confessed their feelings. The scene where they finally said “I love you” was extremely underwhelming.

It was also very obvious that both the adults and children wanted to become a true family, and the excuse for it was repeated so much that it seemed like the author was trying to convince us that it was an actual problem. It was very obvious that they would end up adopting the children in the end, just for the end to happen so abruptly that it diminished the issue entirely. Everything was solved in the last chapter and the epilogue, that the whole plot felt useless. I would’ve liked to see the new family navigate the new family dynamics, and how they handled the news with friends and family. I would have loved a scene between Emmeline and Hannah about her engagement to Bennet. William’s family is only mentioned a few times, which I feel was also a missed opportunity.

The book was written in an interesting format, and the plot was fun. Overall, it left me wanting more, and not in a way that left me hoping for a sequel.