One Snowy Night with Lord Hauxton

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One Snowy Night with Lord Hauxton is the follow up to Laura Martin’s Her Best Friend, the Duke in which the hero and heroine of this title are featured.  In this book, Lord Hauxton and Henrietta Harvey find their HEA with each other.

Thomas, Lord Hauxton, has left London to visit Hailsham Hall, the estate of his friend, James.  James and his wife, Caroline are not currently in residence at their home but have invited Thomas to stay.  There, he hopes to gain some peace away from the season.

Henrietta flees London after an almighty row with her mother, following that lady’s discovery that Henrietta has been secretly exercising her artistic talents and her destruction of the painting into which she’s been pouring heart and soul for almost a year.  Even though the snow is starting to fall, Henrietta sets out on horseback for her cousin Caroline’s  home – Hailsham Hall.  Heartsick and exhausted, she makes her way to her usual room and wearily climbs into bed – shocking both herself and its occupant!  Henrietta is beyond mortified at her mistake and insists on finding another room, her embarrassment  only increased by the fact that she finds Thomas attractive.

In the morning, the two discover that they’re snowed in with no one around but the servants.  Henrietta and Thomas begin spending their days together, including taking Caroline’s dog for walks.  These walks almost always end in disaster, including a maid tripping on icy stairs and breaking her leg and the dog and Thomas nearly falling into a mostly frozen pond.

It doesn’t take long for Thomas and Henrietta to begin having feelings for each other.  However, Thomas has lost everyone he has ever loved; his parents, his wife and their child, and the young woman he had hoped would become his second wife.  Because of this, he has vowed to never remarry so he can’t be hurt again. Henrietta also wishes not to marry for fear a husband will force her to stop painting.  Before Thomas and Henrietta can sort everything out, James and Caroline return and the couple is forced back to reality after the idyllic holiday they had been sharing.

I will admit that this book was a bit of a slow start for me and I stopped reading it for a bit.  I am so glad I gave it another shot, though, because once it gets going, it turns into a great read and I found myself having trouble putting it down.  A lot happens.  A lot.  And I love stories where there is constantly something happening to and around the hero and heroine.

After reading Her Best Friend, the Duke I was really hoping that Hauxton would get his own book because I loved him in the scenes he was in.  He was the same sweet and rather quiet guy in his own story and that was great.  I liked seeing his emotional journey.

I liked Henrietta a lot more here than I did previously.  Some time has passed between the previous book and this one, and she is no longer the slightly immature young woman running off to paint in secret she was there.  I really enjoyed watching her grow up and come into her own.

Henrietta and Thomas are attracted to each other from the beginning, but there is no insta-lust. Their attraction blooms slowly throughout and is very believable.  What’s not to like about a nice, slow burn to the first kiss?

One Snowy Night with Lord Hauxton is a short and sweet romance featuring a hero afraid to love again and a heroine afraid to be controlled by a husband.  After a slow start, the plot evened out and I found myself needing to know what would happen next to this easy to root for couple.

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Reviewed by Jessica Grogan

Grade: B

Book Type: Historical Romance

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date: 16/11/20

Publication Date: 10/2020

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Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

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Elaine S
Elaine S
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11/17/2020 10:48 am

Just read about the book prior to this and this one sounds even better. I think it will go in the TBR queue. Appears to be in the trad Regency mould which I always enjoy.

Lisa Fernandes
Lisa Fernandes
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11/16/2020 11:42 am

This sounds like a fun one! HQN Historical has been getting better and better.