Beatrice Layton and Jack Beresford meet aboard ship while traveling from India to England. Bea is a governess whose outspoken ways have gotten her dismissed from various posts; now she’s working for an absolutely odious family so she can earn her passage home. Meanwhile, Jack is a colonel in the British army whose leg was wounded in action. As he impatiently waits for his injury to heal, he begins to acclimate to civilian life. Both he and Bea are restless enough to walk the ship’s deck at night, where their initial chance meeting leads to subsequent conversations and eventually a friendship of sorts.

When Jack interrupts Bea’s employer making unwelcome advances to her, he impulsively suggests a fake engagement. He thinks it will benefit them both: If Bea is known to be engaged, she won’t have to endure further harassment, while if Jack is betrothed, he’ll be safe from the matchmaking mama who has been pursuing him since India in hopes of trapping him into marriage. Bea reluctantly agrees to the scheme, with the understanding that their “engagement” will end once they land in England and that Jack will help her find a new governess position. But when Jack’s family meet him and Bea at the docks, their ruse must continue a little while longer.

For my money, Mimi Matthews is one of the best historical romance novelists writing today. She’s a strong writer, she knows her period (Victorian England), and she crafts compelling romances with plentiful sexual tension and chemistry, despite the absence of explicit sex scenes. I thoroughly enjoyed her Parish Orphans of Devon and Belles of London series, and I adored Rules for Ruin when I read it earlier this year. This book, however, is part of the Somerset Stories series, which in my view isn’t quite as compelling as her other works. Overall I’ve found the plots of these novels less interesting and the characters less complex than those of her other works—and that’s unfortunately true of The Governess and the Rogue as well.

Mostly, I just feel the conflict isn’t big enough to sustain a full-length novel—and at 251 print pages, according to Amazon, this one isn’t even particularly long. The only obstacle in Bea and Jack’s relationship is that they’re each uncertain of the other’s affection. But they still spend a lot of pleasant, conflict-free time together, and there’s never the slightest doubt in the reader’s mind that their fake engagement will eventually become a real one.

The other problem with this book is that it doesn’t stand particularly well on its own. You certainly could follow the plot without having read the previous Somerset Stories novels, but I wouldn’t recommend it; this is the final book in the series (for now, at least), and a good half of it is taken up with Jack’s relatives, whose romances were all told in the previous books. Diehard fans of the series may enjoy seeing their favorite characters return, ecstatically happy and with precocious children in tow. But while I did like the rest of the series and am glad those characters are happy, I found the big blissful family reunion a bit much. It felt like a cringeworthy epilogue, but stretched out to encompass half the book.

All that said, I honestly did have a nice time with this novel. It’s a pleasant read with absolutely no angst, and I continue to be a fan of Matthews’s writing style. I also appreciate her development of Jack’s character: When we meet him in previous books of the series, he’s impulsive and a bit of a wild child. Now he’s matured, and his time in the army has made him a bit more serious—but he’s still prone to impulsive decisions, as his fake proposal to Bea demonstrates. I’m glad Matthews retained the essence of his character while still allowing his life experiences to change him.
Overall, The Governess and the Rogue is a well-written historical romance that’s very light on drama—so light that some readers may find it boring. For those who enjoy books that are “no plot, just vibes,” however, I think this one might be a good option, especially for fans of historicals. But I personally prefer Matthews’s other series over this one.

reviewed by Christina Behe