EARL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make yourself a match.

Arthur Shelton, Earl of Macklin, is known for his heavy hand in other people’s love lives—a widower himself, he’s helped many young men heal their broken hearts by finding true love. And when he realizes he’s ready to find love again, he heads to London to visit old friends—“and who knew what else might turn up?” But it’s not in a ballroom where he finds his match; instead, while walking down the street with a friend, he meets Teresa Alvarez de Granada and feels an instant attraction though he knows little about her—and she intends to keep it that way. Teresa, having escaped a difficult life in Spain, wants nothing to do with Arthur or any other man, especially a nobleman—she only wants to paint for the theater and enjoy her quiet apartment. But when several dancers at Teresa's theater go missing and Arthur offers to use his standing to help find them, the investigation brings the two closer together. Despite Teresa's attempts to keep Arthur at a distance, she finds herself starting to believe he really is the man he seems to be, but just as they start to connect, pieces of her past reappear and may keep them apart. The finale to Ashford’s The Way to a Lord’s Heart series will satisfy readers who have wondered about the mysterious nobleman from the previous entries. Ashford explores the ideas of privilege and nobility with the help of Lord Macklin as well as cameos from characters from earlier books, which is satisfying. Though there are awkward moments, particularly with Teresa’s inconsistent use of Spanish, the story is quite sweet despite some dark moments in the discovery of the missing dancers. As with earlier entries, Ashford’s greatest strength is in depicting moments of true connection in relationships, both friendly and romantic, and readers more interested in those moments than steamy love scenes will find much to enjoy here.

A sweet Regency romance with a healthy dose of mystery and resolution.