All's Fair in Love and War - Review

All's Fair in Love and War (Miss Prentice's Protegees, # 1)

By: Virginia Heath

Expected Publication: May 28, 2024 by St. Martin's Griffin

384 pages

Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction

( Goodreads | Amazon )

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Goodreads description--A new Regency romp of a series, about governess who believes in cultivating joy in her charges, clashes with the children's uncle who hired her, only to find herself falling in love.

When the flighty older sister of former naval captain, Henry Kincaid, decides on a whim to accompany her explorer husband on an expedition to Egypt, he finds himself unwittingly left in the lurch with her three unruly children and her giant, mad dog. With no clue how to manage the little rascals, a busy career at the Admiralty that requires all of his attention, and no idea when his sister is coming back, Harry has to hire an emergency governess to ensure that everything in his ordered house continues to run shipshape. In desperation, he goes to Miss Prentice’s School for Girls prepared to pay whatever it takes to get a governess quick sharp to bring order to the chaos.

Thanks to her miserable, strict upbringing, fledgling governess Georgina Rowe does not subscribe to the ethos that children should be seen and not heard. She believes childhood should be everything that hers wasn’t, filled with laughter, adventure, and discovery. Thankfully, the three Pendleton children she has been tasked with looking after are already delightfully bohemian and instantly embrace her unconventional educational ethos. Their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle, however, is another matter entirely…

Georgina's parents died when she was young. Her father died first in a carriage accident, and her mother died several years later from smallpox. Before her mother died, she remarried a Colonel. Georgina's stepfather took care of her until she was sixteen and sent to Miss Prentice's school to learn how to be a governess. Georgina has chaffed against rules and regulations and has a difficult time biting her tongue. She might have been practiced at doing so, having lived most of her formidable years with the Colonel. But she can't seem to keep quiet during interviews and thus far hasn't landed a job yet despite thirty-three interviews. She's desperate. 

Harry grew up in a chaotic house. His parents loved him, but his grandfather was an Admiral in the navy and took Harry under his wing. The rules and structure of the navy seemed to suit Harry well. And he followed his grandfather's path from then on. His sister, Flora followed after their parents, and she now lives a much more free lifestyle. So free that Flora and her husband leave on a trip to Egypt without their children without even discussing the particulars of it with Harry. Doesn't seem too odd until you factor in that they plan to leave their children under Harry's care. Given Harry's background managing men in the navy, I find it odd that the children could manipulate him so easily, but I suppose emotions often blind us. And I'm 100% sure my own children emotionally manipulate me as well. 

Harry freaks out because he has no time to watch his nieces and nephew, and he doesn't know what to do with them. So he goes to Miss Prentice to find a temporary governess. Being desperate himself, he takes Georgie on without a second thought. Only Georgie isn't really following what he expects a governess to do. The description makes it seem that these two are constantly bickering over the way the children are taught, but truthfully, that takes very little of the plot of this book. Harry is drawn to Georgie physically from early on. He knows he must maintain his distance. Georgie doesn't even like Harry at first. So this isn't an instalove story. Her feelings soften and change over time.

I do have to say that this is the fourth book I've read by Virginia Heath. I found it to be completely predictable given the other books I've read by her. It seems she might have a pattern. But I would have preferred some unpredictability. Surprise me dagnabit! However, 'twas not to be. 

The predictability played a big role in my enjoyment of this book. It was exactly as I was expecting. And sometimes a book meeting your expectations is a wonderful thing. In this case, I was left wanting (not in a good way). Harry and Georgie were likable. I found a few things in their characters to be odd, considering the backgrounds of both. But humans aren't robots and just because we expect a certain outcome doesn't mean we always get it. So maybe those things could be explained away. I will say that Virginia Heath is good at getting me to feel invested in the characters, so I do want to keep reading her future books to see how the secondary characters' stories play out. But at this point, I expect those to be a little predictable, too. All's Fair in Love and War gets 3.5 Stars. Have you read All's Fair in Love and War? What did you think? Let me know!