The Lost Letter

by Mimi Matthews

I’d heard A LOT about Mimi Matthews books from many of my writer friends, and when I saw a freebie go up, I decided to give her a try. I will say, I didn’t realize that she wasn’t specifically Christian Fiction, and she was pretty heavy on the “steamy” side of romance while still keeping a closed-door and never having anything occur between unmarried couples. While I’d still classify it as clean romance, it might be a little spicier than some are used to or willing to read. I had no problems with it, but felt I should warn others since it took me so off guard when I first read it. Also, there is some cussing.

This Regency romance had a bit of a Beauty and the Beast feel to it with the hero being a wounded war veteran turned recluse and she seeing past all of that. I enjoyed the conniving little sister who worked hard to get Sylvia to visit her brother and rescue him from the dangerous hold of depression. The miscommunication of the past between Sylvia and Sebastian took only a conversation to solve, but the wounds of the past made it believably difficult to accomplish. I really enjoyed how Miss Matthews brought everything into its right and happy conclusion.

I recommend this book for fans of Regency-era novels that are clean but contain scenes that aren’t as chaste as holding hands or pecks on the cheek. Fans of beauty and the beast type stories, second chance love, epistolary romances, and characters with strong internal struggles.


Genre: Historical Romance, Regency Romance

Plot Overview:

A Proud Beauty

When the tragic death of her gamester father leaves her destitute and alone, society beauty Sylvia Stafford finds work as a governess in a merchant’s household in Cheapside. Isolated from the fashionable acquaintance of her youth, she resigns herself to lonely spinsterhood…until a mysterious visitor convinces her to temporarily return to her former life–and her former love.

A Scarred Beast

Colonel Sebastian Conrad is no longer the dashing cavalry officer Sylvia once fell in love with. Badly scarred during the Sepoy Rebellion, he has withdrawn to his estate in rural Hertfordshire where he lives in near complete seclusion. Brooding and tormented, he cares nothing for the earldom he has inherited–and even less for the faithless beauty who rejected him three years before.

A Second Chance

A week together in the remote Victorian countryside is the last thing either of them ever wanted. But when fate intervenes to reunite them, will a beastly earl and an impoverished beauty finally find their happily-ever-after? Or are some fairy-tale endings simply not meant to be?

What I loved: How well the wounds were played out in each character’s individual story, and how they really drove character action.

Favorite Character and Why: I love how the sister did what she had to in order to get Sylvia to go to her brother and then convinced her to stay when things did not go as expected.

Who would like this? I recommend this book for fans of Regency-era novels that are clean, but contain scenes that aren’t as chaste as holding hands or pecks on the cheek. Fans of beauty and the beast type stories, second chance love, epistolary romances, and characters with strong internal struggles.

Rating and Why: Five stars. The writing was everything I was told to expect (except a little steamier) and very well done.

PURCHASE LINKS

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