Seven Minutes in Heaven

I don't usually read romance novels, but I decided that I was going to take time off over the holidays and reading a romance novel was certainly something that wasn't cooking-related.

Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James is set in the early 1800s, with all of the formality of that era.

Mrs. Snowe, the heroine of the novel, runs an agency for governesses, and she runs it with a very firm hand. When she sends a governess to take care of the children of a local nobleman and he fires the governess ... Mrs. Snowe is not pleased.

She believes her governesses are pretty much infallible, in the sense that she picks the right ones for the families. But when she meets Ward Reeve and his children, she realizes that the children need a different sort of governess than she had chosen.

At the same time, Mrs. Snowe and Ward Reeve have a bit of a flirtation. Because of course this is a romance novel, and romance needs to happen. Mrs. Snowe is a widow and is also a woman who owns and runs a business, which is very unusual. And that complicates things.

Despite the complications, the flirtation leads to much more. Of course. And of course, there's the back and forth. Will it work? Won't it?

Yes, there's a bit of a formula to romance novels, but that's sort of the fun of them, isn't it?

Ahhhh, romance.

It was a fun read. I don't think I'll be reading nothing but romance novels in the future, but it certainly was a fun flirtation with the genre.

I received an advance copy at no cost to me. The book goes on sale on January 31, 2017.