From the blurb:

Smart, capable heiress Emmeline Pershing will do anything to keep her beloved home; and all it takes is an arranged marriage and a teeny white lie to fulfill her family’s silly inheritance rules! But now her little fib means that she and her completely unsuspecting husband are going to inherit big — and very messy! —trouble in this spicy, sexy delight from bestseller, Suzanne Enoch.

Emmeline and William Pershing have enjoyed a perfectly convenient marriage for eight years. Their relationship is a seamless blend of their talents and goals. They’ve settled into separate, well-ordered lives beneath the same roof, and are content to stay that way—or so Emmeline thinks. And if William has secretly longed for a bit more from the woman he adores, he’s managed to be content with her supreme skills as a hostess and planner, which has helped him advance his career.

Then when Emmeline’s grandfather, the reclusive Duke of Welshire, summons them both for his birthday celebration and demands they bring their two little angelic children, William is stunned to discover that his very proper wife invented not one, but two heirs to fulfill the agreement for living at Winnover. But surely if Emmeline and William team up and borrow two cherubs to call their own, what could go wrong? Enter George, age 8, and Rose, 5—the two most unruly orphans in Britain.

As the insanity unfolds, their careful, professional arrangement takes some surprisingly intimate turns as well. Perhaps it takes a bit of madness to create the perfect happily ever after.

Publisher: St.Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: September 20th, 2022
Purchase Link

My thoughts:

Positively delightful!My first book by Suzanne Enoch and, now that I've discovered her witty and entertaining writing style, it won't be the last.

The premise was hilarious- Emmeline has to get married as soon as possible in order to secure her place in her own house. The house is 'on the lease' from her grandfather the Duke of Welshire. Once it gets vacated, the first girl in her generation to get married secures the use it for five years and should she have a child in the following five years, she and her spouse can stay there for all their life. Emmie's horrible cousin just got engaged, so the news of her own parents leaving the house and moving to Bath comes as a bit of shock and a call to action. On the spur of the moment, Emmie proposes a marriage (of convenience) to her childhood friend Will Pershing, who (unbeknowst to her) has been harbouring tender feelings for her. Match, set, marriage! Winnover House is hers…for the time being.

Fast forward eight years and our fabulous protagonist finds herself in a new predicament. While her marriage to Will may be considered an exemplary partnership, the couple are childless, so Emmie might have been less than completely truthful when she informed her family that she has two sweet, but unfortunately very sickly children. Now the Duke is summoning all his close and distant relations to celebrate his birthday and would love to see Emmie and her family. Including the non-existent children. It turns out it isn't that easy to borrow two children for a few weeks and pass them as your own offspring...Still our enterprising protagonists succeed in finding two orphaned siblings George and Rose Fletcher. Now the destiny of Winnover House and the couple's reputation will depend on the feisty orphans' ability to pass for Flora and Malcolm Pershing. No pressure!

It is quite hard to classify this book- there's a lot of comedy for sure, but just a tiny bit of romance as Emmie and Will re-discover the joy of attraction to each other. The romance in this book is absolutely secondary to …everything else that is happening, above all, the children's shenanigans and Pershings gradually developing a better understanding of what being a parent or a guardian involves. I did want more romance or failing that more friendship/that elusive understanding that good couples have. At the beginning Emmie Pershing is totally oblivious to anything but her own socialite role. As the plot develops, this changes and she finally sees the light and her own very attractive and incredibly patient husband. To be fair to Emmie, she had a very cold and emotionless role-model of her own mother, so discovering that she herself might even want to be a parent is going to take some time…and some pages.

George and Rose are adorable: strong-willed, resourceful, independent and completely right for their age. Again there's a bit of repetition as both the children (especially George) and Pershings go through a change of heart and build up some kind of trust. Perhaps the book could have been shorter, especially had another character, important to the children, not been introduced, but boy, did he ratchet up some drama!

Of course, there's only one way in which this romcom could end, but this predictability comes from the internal plot logic and character development and I never say no to a HEA in my romance books.

Overall: more on the comedy side than romance, but also sweet (don't let that king-size bed on the cover mislead you), entertaining, and fun. Recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Griffin for the review coopy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

About the author:
A native and current resident of Southern California, SUZANNE ENOCH loves movies almost as much as she loves books, with a special place in her heart for anything Star Wars. She has written more than forty Regency novels and historical romances, which are regularly found on the New York Times bestseller list. When she is not busily working on her next book, Suzanne likes to contemplate interesting phenomena, like how the three guppies in her aquarium became 161 guppies in five months.

Thank you to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources for my place on this tour!

New Rules

Synopsis:

Kate Miller has it all; a glittering career, a wonderful home life and a promotion in the bag. She knows the rules for success, and nothing will stop her from getting to where she wants to be.

Ellie Stephens, on the other hand, can’t catch a break; she’s trapped in a vicious circle of dead-end jobs and red-flag relationships until she’s paired with Kate in their company’s brand-new mentoring scheme.

Ellie just can’t seem to get to grips with Kate’s ruthless recipe for success no matter how hard she tries, leaving her wondering if she’s the problem. Two new men in her life, affable-but-mysterious Freddie and Kate’s drop-dead gorgeous ex Liam try to help her muddle through and figure out how to get ahead.

Meanwhile, Kate’s perfect life is unravelling and where once everything she touched turned to gold, it’s suddenly falling apart. Her work nemesis is throwing obstacles in her way at every turn, her home life is in tatters and her first love is suddenly back in her life. Kate is more confused than ever;
is it time to break the rules?

Purchase Links

Amazon UK /  Amazon US

 My thoughts:

Kate Miller is a bit of a workaholic. She has a beautiful house, handsome husband, two wonderful children and a job where she has to prove herself every single day. Just because she is a woman. Lily Hayden perfectly captures the double standards all too familar to working women. Worrying that if you stay too long at home during your maternity leave, your clients will forget you and you will have to start winning them from the scratch. Do lots of overtime working hard to finish a project and people judge you for not being a good mother and wife.  Well, Kate is a fighter and she has a set of rules that have helped her to get on in life. Having said this, she might be losing sight of something very important - personal relationships.

Ellie Stephens is smart and creative, but perhaps a bit disorganised and lacking focus Kate has in abundance. She has an on and off-relationship with Josh who clearly doesn't respect her at all. at work, she is given a series of mindless tasks and completely overlooked otherwise.
When an important client would like to see how inclusive and socially responsible Kate and Ellie's company is, Kate and her Garth (her main competitor for an upcoming promotion) come up with a mentoring scheme for junior staff. While Garth has his pick of the brightest and most promising, Kate is stuck with Ellie.

I found both characters relatable. Yes, Kate comes across as very unlikeable and manipulative at times. Some of the things she said to Ellie and about Ellie were appalling. But then she goes through a personal crisis and realises how wrong her behaviour was. My heart was going to her when she was trying to juggle so many things and failing on all fronts, with nobody to turn to for help. Both protagonists go through a lot of development. Ellie understands she doesn't need to change herself or conform to other people's ideas to be liked or respected.

There are quite a few secondary characters (Kate's husband, Ellie's flatmates, an important client, Ellie's ex and her new love interest), but the writing is very focused and they all serve to reveal something about the protagonists and move the plot forward.

I also loved the story being set in London. One of Ellie's most important chance meetings happens on the Tube, while she is busy complaining about her train delay, praying she can still get to work on time.

The story kept my attention all way through and I found many parts of it very realistic. It is classified as chick-lit (the protagonist finds out more about herself, grows and eventually gets her Mr Right), but there are also some elements, mainly related to Kate's story, which take it beyond the classic parameters of the genre. At any rate, it is entertaining, easy to read and has a happy ending.

I really enjoyed New Rules and now will be looking forward to reading more books by Lily Hayden.

Thank you to Rachel and Lily Hayden for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Author Bio

Lily Hayden writes chick lit with a kick.

Modern day women want modern day heroines and Lily's characters want sizzling romance, rewarding careers and equal partnerships, but like all of us, they face many challenges and it isn't always easy.

A mother to four children, Lily graduated with a degree in Business in her hometown in South Wales and enjoyed a successful career in Financial Services before fulfilling a lifelong ambition to write books.

Her debut novel Butterflies, a heartwarming alternative to the traditional boy-meets-girl story, was released in 2018, reaching readers all over the world and she is the author of five books, including a Young Adult Dystopian novel Project Terra under the alias SJ Woods (because who doesn't love a bit of action and defeating bad guys every now and again).

Follow Lily on social media for the latest releases, promotions and occasional photos of her dogs.

Social Media Links
facebook  / twitter  /  instagram

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you read and enjoy the book!
If you would like to check what other bloggers thought of 'New Rules', you can see the full tour schedule here: