One Night in Hartswood
by Emma Denny
Genres: Historical Fiction, RomancePages: 384
Series: The Barden Series #1
Rating:
Synopsis: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.
Emma Denny’s One Night in Hartswood was sadly just… okay. It’s ostensibly historical fiction, but it could equally have been fantasy; that part is really just set-dressing for a mildly forbidden love (in that Raff’s family are absolutely fine with and encourage).
The plot all goes fairly predictably, along with the miscommunication trope in the middle where they’re both hiding their real identity, and then gets infuriating because Raff comes clean and Penn doesn’t — despite knowing that Raff was totally okay with it all. There’s some heaped-on angst with Penn’s scars and Penn’s father’s absolutely bananapants idea to shoot Raff and then pretend he didn’t, but it’s always so obvious it’s going to work out that it lacked urgency (even with the meta-knowing that it’s going to work out of knowing that romance always does).
I didn’t feel like DNFing it, so there’s that for it, but overall it’s just… kinda meh, sadly. I won’t read more in the series.
Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)
