For readers seeking a finish-in-one-sitting romance,  Love and Liberty is a short, enjoyable page-turner with a late 1860s setting and a relatable heroine whose comfortable life takes a sudden turn when her father decides to marry her off. Dad is a confectionary tycoon with social ambitions. The suitor is the Viscount Craventhorp, a sadistic bully willing to marry ‘beneath him’ for money.

The reluctant bride is Annabel Leonard, an avid reader of novels and an independent spirit. Her mother died in childbed. Alas, her stepmother is straight out of Cinderella, and no ally when Annabel confides that she was physically bullied by Craventhorp the first time they met. Annabel explains why she can’t marry the vicious viscount, but her parents will hear none of it. Forced to take desperate measures, she concocts a story of running away to marry for love, and decamps to Canterbury with the help of her loyal maid Stella and Stella’s nephew Nate Trawler.

Posing as a widow, Mrs. Anne Crawford, Annabel revels in her new liberty, and the proximity of the (fictional) Canterbury Ladies’ College sparks thoughts of a future of broader horizons. Women’s higher education is a theme of the story. Author Aviva Orr slips in references to Emily Davies, the real-life educator who became mistress of Girton College, and to the political efforts to make schooling available for all children.

After a fairly long set-up,  Annabel meets Henry, Lord Hudsyn about a quarter of the way into the story. He is in Canterbury staying with one-time rake and “Byronic novelist” Jack Bastin and his wife Ottilie,  MCs from Book 2 in this series. The couple have plucked Henry from an angst-driven life of dissolution. Being devoted to Ottilie (a cousin who is probably his half-sister), Henry can’t bear to be lowered in her estimation, so he gets with the self-improvement program and soon finds himself volunteered to help out at the ladies’ college run by Jack’s older sister Violet.

Henry is a well characterized, engaging hero whose instant attraction to Annabel is revealed through his viewpoint. Unfortunately for him, she convinces herself that he is a spy on her father’s payroll. This contrivance leans heavily on suspension of disbelief: if Annabel’s whereabouts and new identity were known to her controlling father, why send a spy when he could simply show up and drag her back to town to marry the vicious viscount?

Logic aside, the developing romance is believable and hooked me in. Annabel encounters Henry at a class at the college. His presence makes her uneasy, but he duly lays her fears to rest and (implausibly for the prevailing period etiquette) they are instantly on first-name terms and the romance kicks off.

In keeping with the series theme “Love and Literature,” Ms. Orr begins each chapter with a pertinent quote from a novel or poem, a touch I enjoyed. Literary references run through the story, along with dashes of commentary in the MC’s viewpoints. For their ‘first date’ Annabel and Henry attend a performance of Othello. Interesting choice. I wished the author had balanced the focus on the play and its subtext with visual images of how Annabel and Henry looked going out together, and a focus on the chemistry between them. Readers familiar with Victorian social mores might wonder what Annabel chose to wear: luxury clothing from her life in London or was it a gown she sewed in keeping with her ‘recently widowed’ persona? Her invented husband supposedly died just over a year ago, so she need not appear in full mourning black. It seems odd that she goes out to the theater with a man who is not a family member, without any concern over appearances.

In the aftermath of the play, Henry and Annabel draw closer, sealing their attraction with a first kiss. Henry ponders whether ‘Mrs. Anne Crawford’ is Annabel Leonard, based upon a brief drunken recollection of her from London. Mutual misunderstandings impede their developing romance. Through some surprises and dramatic twists, they discover who their real friends are. Henry is framed for a murder in a far-fetched plot development that drives the remainder of the book. A trial in the House of Lords occupies the final chapters. While this is interesting and well-researched, I was disappointed that Henry and Annabel were apart throughout the unfolding drama. Their separation made the HEA seem abrupt and less romantic than ideal.

Love and Liberty is the first romance I’ve read by Aviva Orr. Book 3 in its series, it’s a standalone and I did not feel I’d missed any crucial plot elements by not reading the prequels. It’s not the most slickly written book, but the story has emotional integrity and some fresh elements that lift it above the read-one-read-’em-all yarns proliferating in the Regency/Victorian lane these days. It earns a 3 from me. The Regency Chronicle team looks forward to seeing more from this promising author!

Our thanks to the author, Dragonblade Publishing, and NetGalley for providing an advance copy.  Cover image courtesy of Dragonblade © 2023.  Review by Pam Baker © 2023 The Regency Chronicle.