A Convenient Fiction by Mimi Matthews: Review

I received a copy of Mimi Matthews’ A Con­ve­nient Fic­tion for review pur­pose. As always, this review reflects only my hon­est feel­ings on the book.

A Convenient Fiction
by Mimi Matthews

Pub­li­ca­tion Date: Octo­ber 22, 2019
Per­fect­ly Prop­er Press

Series: Parish Orphans of Devon, Book 3
Genre: His­tor­i­cal Romance

 

 

The mys­te­ri­ous Alex Archer returns to Eng­land in Book 3 of Mimi Matthews’ USA Today best­selling Parish Orphans of Devon series.

She Need­ed A Husband…

It’s been three years since Lau­ra Hayes’s father died, leav­ing her and her invalid broth­er to sub­sist on the income from the fam­i­ly’s fail­ing per­fume busi­ness. But time is swift­ly run­ning out. What she needs is a hus­band, and fast. A noble gen­tle­man who can res­cue them all from penury. When a mys­te­ri­ous stranger arrives in the vil­lage, he seems a per­fect can­di­date. But Alex Archer is no hero. In fact, he just might be the opposite.

He Want­ed a Fortune…

Alex has no tol­er­ance for sen­ti­ment. He’s returned to Eng­land for one rea­son only: to find a wealthy wife. A coun­try-bred heiress in Sur­rey seems the per­fect tar­get. But some­where between the vil­lage rail­way sta­tion and the manor house his mer­ce­nary plan begins to unrav­el. And it’s all the fault of Lau­ra Hayes–a lady as unsuit­able as she is enchanting.

From the beach­es of Mar­gate to the laven­der fields of Provence, a grudg­ing friend­ship slow­ly blos­soms into some­thing more. But when scan­dal threat­ens, can a man who has spent his entire life play­ing the vil­lain, final­ly become a hero? Or will the lure of easy rich­es once again out­weigh the demands of his heart?

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My Review

Before diving in…

I’d read & reviewed Mimi Matthews’ The Mat­ri­mo­ni­al Adver­tise­ment a while back, but missed the sec­ond in the Parish Orphans of Devon series, A Mod­est Inde­pen­dence.  Even so, I was incred­i­bly excit­ed to have the chance to review the third book in the series, A Con­ve­nient Fic­tion.

Hav­ing just fin­ished this nov­el, I do wish I’d read the sec­ond (and will have to try to get my hands on a copy to do just that!) or at least had made time to reread the first before div­ing in.  Because it’s been some time since I first read The Mat­ri­mo­ni­al Adver­tise­ment, I wished I’d had a more recent refresh­er to bring that famil­iar­i­ty more fresh­ly to mind. But, nev­er­the­less, A Con­ve­nient Fic­tion is a love­ly read and def­i­nite­ly works as a stand-alone nov­el, should you find your­self with a copy of this book and not the two prior.

With­out ques­tion, Mimi Matthews is a name to watch in his­tor­i­cal romance.  Between what I’ve read of her work myself and what I’ve heard from oth­ers (check out the oth­er stops in the A Con­ve­nient Fic­tion blog tour linked below!), there’s no doubt that read­ers love her books—myself included!

A Convenient Fiction

And, with that in mind, I can’t say I’m sur­prised by how much I enjoyed this nov­el.  It took me a bit longer than I’d hoped to read, but only because I dig­i­tal copies read much more slow­ly than print.  But even with the longer-than-aver­age read­ing time on my part, I feel like I’ve read this nov­el in one enthralled sit­ting.  Even when I wasn’t active­ly read­ing, this book was still on my mind.

I wasn’t par­tic­u­lar­ly fond of Alex at the novel’s start and, at first, I wasn’t sure of how I felt about Lau­ra either.  But as the pair learnt more about one anoth­er, I learned to love them, too.  Their romance quite lit­er­al­ly drew me in along the way.

Of course, part of the mas­tery of Matthews’ work is the world she builds up beyond that of the pri­ma­ry cou­ple.  Whether it’s the char­ac­ters we’ve met in ear­li­er por­tions of the series or the places we go along the way, I think this beau­ti­ful world with­in each book’s pages is my favourite part of a Mimi Matthews book, and what keeps me want­i­ng to read each one she’s writ­ten.  Henrietta’s wish­ing bridge is a par­tic­u­lar­ly stand­out exam­ple from just the first few chap­ters of this book!

A Con­ve­nient Fic­tion is a must-read for any fan of this series, of Mimi Matthews, or of the genre.  I’ll def­i­nite­ly be reread­ing from the start (and fill­ing myself in on book two!) as soon as I can, and I can’t wait to see what’s next from this bril­liant author!

Praise for the Parish Orphans of Devon series

“For this impres­sive Vic­to­ri­an romance, Matthews crafts a tale that sparkles with chem­istry and impress­es with strong char­ac­ter devel­op­ment… an excel­lent series launch that will appeal to fans of Loret­ta Chase and Stephanie Lau­rens.” ‑Pub­lish­ers Week­ly (The Mat­ri­mo­ni­al Advertisement)

“Matthews has a knack for cre­at­ing slow-build­ing chem­istry and an intrigu­ing plot with a social his­to­ry twist.” ‑Library Jour­nal (The Mat­ri­mo­ni­al Advertisement)

“As always, Matthews’ atten­tion to his­tor­i­cal accu­ra­cy is impec­ca­ble.” ‑Kirkus Reviews (A Mod­est Independence)

“Mimi Matthews is an excep­tion­al sto­ry-teller.” ‑Pas­sages to the Past (The Mat­ri­mo­ni­al Advertisement)

“Matthews is a bright, shin­ing star in his­tor­i­cal romance…” ‑Austen­prose (A Mod­est Independence)

About the Author

USA Today best­selling author Mimi Matthews (A Vic­to­ri­an Lady’s Guide to Fash­ion and Beau­ty, The Mat­ri­mo­ni­al Adver­tise­ment) writes both his­tor­i­cal non-fic­tion and tra­di­tion­al his­tor­i­cal romances set in Vic­to­ri­an Eng­land. Her arti­cles on nine­teenth cen­tu­ry his­to­ry have been pub­lished on var­i­ous aca­d­e­m­ic and his­to­ry sites, includ­ing the Vic­to­ri­an Web and the Jour­nal of Vic­to­ri­an Cul­ture, and are also syn­di­cat­ed week­ly at BUST Mag­a­zine. In her oth­er life, Mimi is an attor­ney. She resides in Cal­i­for­nia with her fam­i­ly, which includes an Andalu­sian dres­sage horse, two Shel­ties, and two Siamese cats.

For more infor­ma­tion, please vis­it Mimi Matthews’ web­site and blog. You can also con­nect with her on Face­book, Twit­ter, Book­Bub, Pin­ter­est, Google+, and Goodreads.

Blog Tour Schedule

Tues­day, Octo­ber 22
Review at Court­ney Clark

Wednes­day, Octo­ber 23
Review at The Lit Bitch

Thurs­day, Octo­ber 24
Review at Gwen­da­lyn’s Books

Fri­day, Octo­ber 25
Review at Book­ish Rantings

Mon­day, Octo­ber 28
Review at Amy’s Booket List

Fri­day, Novem­ber 1
Fea­ture at View from the Birdhouse

Mon­day, Novem­ber 4
Review at Austen­prose

Wednes­day, Novem­ber 6
Review at Pas­sages to the Past

Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 9
Review at Robin Loves Reading

Mon­day, Novem­ber 11
Review at Lost_in_a_book_reviewer

Wednes­day, Novem­ber 13
Review at For the Sake of Good Taste

Fri­day, Novem­ber 15
Review at Cof­fee and Ink

Giveaway

Dur­ing the Blog Tour, we are giv­ing away a signed paper­back copy of A Con­ve­nient Fic­tion by Mimi Matthews! To enter, please use the Gleam form below.

Give­away Rules

– Give­away ends at 11:59 pm EST on Novem­ber 15th. You must be 18 or old­er to enter.
– Paper­back give­away is open to the US only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All give­away entrants agree to be hon­est and not cheat the sys­tems; any sus­pi­cion of fraud will be decid­ed upon by blog/site own­er and the spon­sor, and entrants may be dis­qual­i­fied at our discretion.
– The win­ner has 48 hours to claim prize or a new win­ner is chosen.

A Con­ve­nient Fiction