Blog Tour Review: Love Matched (London Ladies Embroidery #3) by Laney Hatcher

Item: Love Matched
Rating: 4
Author: Lisa Mandina

Posted October 30, 2023 by Lisa Mandina in Blog Tour, Review / 5 Comments

Love Matched, an all-new charming opposites attract historical romance from Laney Hatcher, is available now in Kindle Unlimited!

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Blog Tour Review: Love Matched (London Ladies Embroidery #3) by Laney Hatcher

Love Matched by Laney Hatcher
Series: London Ladies Embroidery #3
Published by Smartypants Romance on October 19, 2023
Genres: Adult Historical Romance
Pages: 360
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
My Rating: four-stars

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Blurb:

There are three things you need to know about Lady Cassandra Fields:
1. Despite being beloved, this diamond of the first water has yet to land a husband.
2. Her bold personality and giving heart help fuel her charitable endeavors.
3. She’s looking for adventure–something beyond ballgowns, drawing rooms, and her ladylike skill with needle and thread.

Thus far, Cassandra’s abysmal luck has kept her from reaching her goals. With no husband and no household, she’s beginning to wonder if she has a future at all. A surprising encounter with a cunning thief brings more to light than Cassandra is prepared to handle. But the lady has never backed down from a challenge, and it seems this mystery man might have finally met his match.

When circumstances, once again, threaten Lady Cassandra’s dreams, she must decide if she’s willing to risk her careful plans for the thief who has stolen her heart.

‘Love Matched’, a Penny Reid Universe Reimagining, is a full-length historical romance, can be read as a standalone, and is book #3 in the London Ladies Embroidery series, Smartypants Romance Out of this World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

Grab your copy TODAY!

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/47q1yu8

Amazon UK: https://bit.ly/3QxFTtW

Amazon CA: https://bit.ly/3ON8uKt

Amazon AU: https://bit.ly/3QBPXCo

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3OZkRmG

Audible: https://bit.ly/3LgseUu

Excerpt

The fire was banked but my bedchamber was warm. I wandered in the relative darkness over to my dressing table and deposited my elaborate mask. Folding my shawl, I placed it on the cushioned seat before hearing a quiet tap on my balcony doors.

Something instinctual within told me who I would find. My heart accelerated with expectation rather than fear.

Moving cautiously, I went to the closed window overlooking the garden and down into the mews. I peered sidelong at the dark form standing just outside my exterior doors, on the second floor of my home.

Anticipation bloomed eager and hopeful, and I threw open the latch. Alexander stood sentry on the small balcony, his hair slightly tousled, expression guarded. His eyes dipped once again to my bodice, but returned admirably after just a moment.

“I was not ready to say good night,” he admitted, finally acknowledging his presence here in my home.

“Somehow I don’t imagine the lock would have posed a challenge for you.”

“I thought it better to ask permission rather than forgiveness.”

“That doesn’t sound like you at all,” I quipped.

He smiled, a weak and wounded thing. “Perhaps I am trying to be more respectable.”

I reached forward and tugged the lapels of his jacket. “I wish you wouldn’t.”

As we moved within, I felt him smile against my lips before he reached low around my thighs and hoisted me up. His boot lifted and he pushed the balcony door gently shut. Then we were shuffling, in the dark, toward my bed. Alexander didn’t bother turning down the coverlet. My back landed softly and he followed, lips still caressing mine.

His weight was a delicious press in the darkness. I felt both bound and safely ensconced. My legs were wide but the bunch of my skirts inhibited full contact between us. I felt his tongue ease forward and lick into my mouth, the heat and movements slow and seductive. One large hand still clutched my outer thigh while the other supported his upper body where he hovered above me.

I broke away from his mouth and squirmed in his arms, reaching for a candle and a match on my bedside table.

“Leave it,” he begged, voice rough and strained. “If I clearly see your face, your body, I’ll come to my senses and climb down your trellis, calling myself every kind of fool for forgetting my place.”

“Your place,” I said, “is right here. With me.”

My Review

I really adore how this author has taken the world of Penny Reid’s Knitting in the City series and made it into historical romance reimaginings. It is always so much fun to match up the characters with the books in the original series and see just how the author will make the stories fit into the time period she is using. I did love this romance in the original books, because I loved that Alex was a younger guy, and he was just so different than expected.

And even though Alex is more street-wise in some ways in this book, he still has a bit of that air of innocence to him, with how he was brought up and the way the author makes it finally okay for him and Cassandra to be together in the end. I enjoyed Cassandra’s parents, even if I don’t necessarily remember much of her family being in the original. But I do like her friend that she had the marriage pact with, and how he had to do that with the way things were in that time period.

This was a great addition to this series, and I can’t wait to see how the author does the next book in the series. I’m very excited to see our Winston sister’s incarnation for this series get her HEA and how the author will weave the original story into this world. And it makes me wonder if the author will do a spin-off of the Winston Brothers in this world as well! And of course there is Fiona, whose book/story wasn’t my favorite in the original series, but with how she fits into this world, I’ll definitely be intrigued to see how that is written.

About the Author

Laney Hatcher is a firm believer that there is a spreadsheet for every occasion and pie is always the answer. She is an author of stories that have a past, in a language of love that’s universal. Often too practical for her own good, Laney enjoys her life in the southern United States with her husband, children, and incredibly entitled cat.