One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny

Pages: 384 

Publisher: Mills and Boon 

Released: 19th of January 2023 

A love story worth fighting for…

Oxfordshire 1360

When Penn and Raff meet in Hartswood Forest the only truth they know of each other is a brief moonlit kiss they had shared previously. But Penn is escaping a life of cruelty, and an arranged marriage to a woman he has never seen. Raff is tracking the elusive missing groom of his sister to restore his family’s honour. Neither are looking for a travelling companion. Yet both men find themselves drawn to each other in ways neither imagined.

Unaware of their true identities they venture north together through Hartswood Forest. And, as their bond deepens, their fates become irrevocably entwined. But, with one escaping a life of duty and one tracking a fugitive, continued concealment threatens everything they know and trust in each other. So when secrets are finally revealed, and the consequences of their relationship become clear, both must decide what they will risk for the man they love.

(Contains: Huddling for warmth, Identity porn, Training montages, “Run away with me” (and actually doing it), Violence against partridges and other wildfowl) 

What I Have to Say 

This book was in a word boring. It was slow, there was a lot of travel and apart from a couple of sex scenes towards the middle, there was not much to break the tedium until the last hundred pages. Maybe if I'd been more invested in the relationship, it would have been better, but I just wasn't interested in the occasional lingering touch or longing stare. I wanted them to get on with it and get together already. 

Half of the plot was the characters worrying about their false identities being found out and the other half was them worrying that the other didn't feel the same way. It was frustrating because both of them were thinking exactly the same thing and if they'd just talked to one another then they would have managed to get together a lot sooner. 

It wasn't until the last hundred pages or so that the plot picked up and they finally had some real conflict to deal with. And I will admit that from that point it was a lot more interesting! It really highlighted Penn's cleverness and skill with words and showed off the character a lot better than the rest of the book. 

Honestly, I think this would have been better if I'd read the first couple of chapters and then skipped a couple of pages until the end, 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Mills and Boon for providing me with this copy for review.