A review by rjordan19
All About Genevieve by Shana Galen

mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖 (Sadly I was able to set this one down repeatedly for long periods of time and told myself to finish it)
Feels: 🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: A touch
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? slow to medium
When mains are first on page together: it takes a bit – it’s a good 11% or so until the mains are on page together (chapter 3)
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after and a conclusion to the series long mystery.
Epilogue: Yes, ten months later
Format: voluntarily read an e-book version through NetGalley

Should I read in order?
Ideally yes, if you care about the series mystery. The romance itself stands alone. But the end of the book has a resolution for the mystery and will be best in order.

Basic plot:
Rory is in desperate need of a governess, and lucky for him Genevieve and his daughter make a connection right away...

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency – book 1 takes place in 1814 and this one isn’t too much after it
- English countryside setting
- child in the story – the hero has a daughter he is trying to mend a relationship with
- you’re okay with loss being a big part of the story – the hero lost his wife and infant son before the book starts
- a touch of magic – the 3 books feature a curse that they are trying to break (the curse runs throughout the series and wraps up with this book)
- governess
- bit of a marriage of convenience
- hide and seek
- employer/employee relationship
- low to mid steam – 2 full scenes, a short one I didn’t count as a flame and plenty of kisses (though most is in the second half)

Ages:
- I think both mains are 30

First line:
Lord Emory Lumlee, youngest son of the Duke of Tralee, stood in the small, manicured graveyard behind the chapel at Lilacfall Abbey.

My thoughts:
This series has been pretty fun. I like the idea of the curse and the heroes working on undoing their curse and finding love on the way. But this one was my least favorite of the series.

If I can just be honest, the hero ruined this one for me. This whole series features heroes that have made mistakes and mend the bad karma coming their way in their books. But Rory….I wanted to love him but he was such an idiot and so frustrating I just never did.

He repeatedly makes these choices that are hurtful and cringy and you keep hoping he would get better. But even halfway through the book, the hero is threatening his child with ridiculous threats and when she goes missing doesn’t even think to call her name? I felt like his proposal was lackluster and left a lot to be desired. The way he acted once married, the same. And the ending? Well it didn’t salvage any kind of respect I might have started to have for him.

I loved the heroine and even the relationship with the hero’s child was fun in parts. But I felt like the child really took over the whole plot here and I’m not big on that in my romance generally so I was left wanting more from the mains.

I feel bad because I did enjoy parts of this series a lot, and I like Galen’s writing a lot. But this particular book I didn’t like the hero and I couldn’t enjoy the book because of him. I didn’t believe in their happily ever after and felt like the heroine deserved more by the end.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: 3
Average rating: 3.66 stars
Favorite book: My Fair Katie

Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.

- death of spouse and child with grief – including grief from child that doesn’t accept parental death
- some minor scenes of cursing and magic
- some mentions of feelings of infidelity between the hero and his dead wife – she’d been in love with another man
- a few scenes of missing child (none are too long and are resolved quickly)
- mention of heroine’s mother recovering from an extended illness
- some talk of heaven/God and death and attempting to get the daughter to accept the loss of her mother

Author content warnings? None


Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex aspects, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:
 
Safe sex: 
  No 
 
Hows the consent? 
  It’s good 
 
Pregnancy/children in story? (Please note this is the best to my memory/note taking. If you see something I missed please feel free to message!) 
  There is a child in the story (hero’s daughter) and the remembered death of another child (hero’s son). There is talk of having future children, dreams of future children of the couple – no precautions are taken during sex. 
 
38% - kiss
66% - 🔥 fingering/oral for her, missionary
71% - kisses then interrupted
74% - kisses
78% - 🔥kisses, fingering for her, doggy
88% - kisses, sex but it’s pretty vague and short