Review by Kayleigh
The Very Definition of Love is a fresh take on the rake and virgin regency romances we know and love.
Favourite Quote:
“No matter how she catalogued the pieces, there was something about the whole of Lord Alexander that made one want. Desperately. Something that made books – books! – fail to hold focus. He was a danger to her.”
Book Synopsis:
1816– Harriet Barrington may be on her fifth season with no marriage prospects, but she’s fine with that. It gives her more time to write her dictionary of modern slang. Words are her passion, especially the exciting, filthy ones men have kept hidden from women for far too long.
While researching late in the library during a party, Harriet accidentally finds herself in a compromising situation with notorious rake, Lord Alexander. To save her reputation and her younger sisters from ruin, Harriet has no choice but to slightly kidnap Alexander and strong arm him into an elopement. This arranged marriage has a very particular condition—it will be in name-only, leaving each of them to follow their own interests. For Harriet that’s her work, for Alexander, that’s women.
But soon Alexander’s rakish existence is not nearly as fun as spending time with Harriet, and Harriet’s beginning to worry about how much she actually likes her husband. Behind the closed doors of their respectable home, things become a little… complicated. After all, who better to teach her the very thorough meaning of these indecent words than the renowned lover, Lord Alexander Stirling?
Perhaps this marriage will teach them both a little more about that word they’ve been avoiding—love.
Review:
The Very Definition of Love smooshes Harriet, our kick-ass, smart, and resilient female main character, with Lord Alexander, a self-interested and handsome rake who really enjoys women, in chapter one. Their compromising situation happens really early on in the book and is actually the least interesting part of their story!
Harriet is such a nuanced character. Yes, she’s an innocent virgin who doesn’t know THINGS about sex and intimacy (which is how women were kept in this time period; sex ed was very limited), but Harriet is also curious. She is slowly building out a dictionary of sex slang through a correspondence with a professor whom she kind of has a thing for. She believes words have power, and she’s tired of having that power kept from her. She also lives with an abusive father whose cruelty she aims to protect her younger sisters from regardless of the outcomes to her.
When she and Lord Alexander are compromised, her older sister whisks her back home, and Alex goes to get drunk at his mistress’s place. Harriet then throws all sensibility to the wind and goes to visit him there, in the middle of the night. Harriet and the mistress, who’s a fabulous woman, concoct a plan that involves Harriet kidnapping Alexander and taking him to Gretna Green.
Of course, during the trip, which involves only one bed and Harriet’s innate curiosity, Alexander and Harriet agree to a marriage of convenience, allowing him to live his life. Harriet is terribly afraid that she’ll fall in love with him if they are intimate, so she determines to never sleep with him. Which he says is fine. Of course our silly man immediately falls in love with Harriet. And he now has to spend the rest of the book proving that she is the one he wants, and that he’s done with his womanizing ways. Add in family drama with both Harriet and Alexander, grovelling and for educational-purposes-only bedroom scenes, and this is a delightful romp. Harriet and Alexander both have family traumas they must work through to realize they deserve love and that they can’t always solve everyone’s problems for them. They truly bring out the best in each other, and I need more of this family immediately.
If you are craving the next fun and fierce Regency romance, then you need to read The Very Definition of Love.
Thank you to Slowburn for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
