Lord Nicholas Monterris, the last remaining heir of a crumbling ducal house, must marry to save his family from complete decline. His father chooses Lady Leaf Serral, eldest daughter of his greatest rival, at which point Nic is sure it can’t get any worse. Until he learns the head negotiator is to be Dashiell sa Vare, an old flame he has neither forgiven nor forgotten, a man their rigid class structure forbids him to love.
Locked in the mouldering grandeur of Monterris Court (a house more haunting manifestation of dynastic ambition and ancestral guilt than home), the first dead body is troubling. The second, a warning that someone doesn’t want the contract to go ahead. But while Nic and his wife-to-be team up to banter their way through a secret murder investigation, it’s Dashiell he can’t stop thinking about. What would be worse? To love and have to let go, or to wholly deny the yearning of one’s heart forever?
“Too well did he know the feeling of love where no love ought to live.”
Rebecca Ide's The Gentleman and his Vowsmith is an achillean romantasy murder mystery with a lot of moving pieces that unfortunately don't work quite so well with each other. The plot, while simple, is all over the place, with the late addition of some twists and turns that don't make much sense. The worldbuilding is again very simple, and while the concept of the binding contracts and the illusion magic is intriguing, it's not developed enough.
On the other hand, the romance is sweet and mired with conflict new and old, and there's a delightful secondary character taking on much of the space and undertaking a compelling arc, a young woman possibly on the asexual spectrum.
The Gentleman and his Vowsmith is a nice romance.
✨ 3.5 stars
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