Special thanks to Zealous Quill Press for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

TL;DR: I’ve enjoyed quite a few of Darcy Burke’s books, most recently her Phoenix Club series. so I was looking forward to trying one of her stories from a different series. Sadly, I didn’t end up enjoying this at all. My biggest issue is that I didn’t feel the chemistry between Phin and Leah, and I found that there was too much “telling” and not nearly enough “showing”, which left the characters and romance feeling shallow. That said, I know I’m very much in the minority with my feelings if the other reviews and ratings are anything to go by, so I have no doubt that others could end up loving this more than I did!

I was intrigued by both Leah and Phin’s characters as they’re both good people who want to do right by others. For Leah, that means putting up with a passive-aggressive employer until her charge becomes betrothed and for Phin, that means keeping the bleak reality of the state of the botanical gardens hidden from everyone in the village. Leah wasn’t a difficult FMC to root for. After suffering horrible abuses by her mother at home, she left to become a companion to an elderly woman who was more like a mother to her than the one she grew up with. She’s sharp and has an admirable ability to put up with ridiculous peoples’ nonsense and keep her sanity. She has always harboured feelings for Phin, her childhood best friend, and even all these years later she still feels the same and hopes maybe, since he’s unmarried, something can happen between them. I wanted her to have a bit more pride when it came to Phin!

Phin is a horticulturist who finds it easier to manage plants than to manage his family estate, particularly the botanical gardens, which has steadily fallen into disrepair since his father died and emptied the coffers with his debts several years ago. I admired Phin’s attempts to keep his grandfather’s dreams alive but sadly, I didn’t connect with him at all. Both characters came across as fairly young (even though they were in their mid-20s), and his indecisiveness and desire to “have his cake and eat it too” was irritating. I didn’t believe that he suddenly “rediscovered” feelings for Leah after remembering that they shared a kiss 20 years ago(!), and while I get his desperation to marry for money to save the garden, the suddenness with which he goes from preparing to propose to one woman to then professing love and asking for Leah’s hand in marriage the next was a bit too unrealistic for me to suspend my disbelief. There is one on-page sex scene later on in the book and to be honest, I found it awkward and thought it read like a short sex ed scene instead of something that was sexy.

Ultimately, there’s a lot that happens on these pages and I felt maybe it was a case of too much all at once that made everything feel a little too shallow. This goes beyond the romance and can be said for the “conflict” between Leah and her employer and her mother as well. I guessed what the issue would be from the beginning but the total lack of tension didn’t do anything to help either because when everything was revealed it just felt a little anticlimactic. Overall, I’m sad that this wasn’t the book for me but I do think that others who enjoy a light, historical romance with earnest characters and a bit of steam may enjoy it more!

Have you read Romancing the Heiress or is it on your TBR?

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