Where the Stars Meet the Sea by Heidi Kimball

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Romance, Clean Romance, Historical Romance
Content: Clean

 

A broken man. A fiery young woman. Neither one's heart will come away unscathed.

Juliet Graham fervently counts the days until her twenty-first birthday, when she can claim the inheritance that will grant her the freedom she has always craved and the guardianship of her younger brother. Until then, she is trapped under her aunt Agnes’s domineering will. When forced to accompany the family to a house party at Shaldorn Castle, Juliet’s only objective is to keep to herself. That is, until a chance encounter with a boorish stranger stirs up an unexpected whirlwind of emotions in her. Thrown off-balance, Juliet does the unthinkable: loses her temper and insults the man—who turns out to be her unwilling host, the Duke of Halstead. Fully expecting to be sent away, Juliet is surprised when the brusque and callous duke instead takes an interest in her.

Drawn to the duke in unguarded moments, Juliet finds herself more and more intrigued by the man who shuns Society’s rules as completely as she does, and over the next few weeks, their unlikely friendship deepens into a connection neither expected.

But even as Juliet comes to recognize her true feelings, her scheming aunt issues an ultimatum that threatens the future she was just beginning to hope for. Juliet must choose: either break the promise she made to herself years ago, or lose the man who has captured her heart and soul.

 

This is a regency romance that doesn't feel like most of the regency romances I've read. It felt like it could have been in just about any setting. I think I missed having some of the details that I usually enjoy in regencies. The cover, which I think is gorgeous, gives the book a bit of a gothic type feel, but the writing doesn't really. 

The story started out really good. The characters Juliet and Halstead were interesting and their slow burn romance made for a compelling read. I really love that type of romance, and the way the book lingered on the characters getting to know each other was perfect. But at one point pretty late in the book Juliet behaves very stupidly. Without spoiling anything here I'm just going to say that he's a duke with lots of power, she could have used that to her advantage. But instead there is needless drama. I still recommend it though because everything else about the book was really good.