The Imagined Attachment

The Bath Schoolmates, Book 1

By: Holli Jo Monroe

Narrated by: Grace Noble, Beau Thomas

She should be reconciling herself to spinsterhood, not falling for the baronet next door.

Miss Elaine Brooke has always spent more time daydreaming than actually living. With no fortune and no suitors, she is back from school and determined to face the reality of a quiet, lonely life. But an encounter with Daniel Ashburn, her childhood best friend and lifelong infatuation, sets her dreaming again. Soon she is imagining a very different life as Mrs. Ashburn.

Sir Phillip Ashburn has an estate to manage and a troublesome brother to marry off. He won't let a penniless neighbor ruin everything by turning Daniel's head. Intent on keeping Miss Brooke away from his brother, Phillip sets out to monopolize her time. Despite their disagreements, Phillip soon begins to wonder if she is more than a problem to be solved.

As Phillip starts to question all his assumptions, Elaine realizes he isn't quite what she imagined. Could she possibly have set her heart on the wrong Ashburn? Jane Austen meets Sabrina in this Regency Romance.

©2024 Holli Jo Monroe (P)2024 Brillig Press

A great book!

[4.5 stars]
I really enjoyed this book! It’s highly engaging with excellent character and relationship development. I docked it half a star because the ending became drawn out with excessive miscommunication and misinterpreted situations, but as a whole it was still most excellent.

The book starts with a tangle of relationships and affections. There’s a love triangle with Philip as the grumpy and awkward 4th wheel. His attempts to steer his daydreaming neighbor away from his flirtatious brother backfire on him, as he begins to develop his own feelings for her instead. Their relationship is very well written and realistically built.

I’m not one to appreciate miscommunication in romance novels, so I did start to get a little annoyed as one misinterpreted scenario was set up after another (the last 25% of the book is full of them)… But I was certainly invested enough at that point to push through, and I strongly recommend the book regardless.

Content:
There is no foul language, sex, or violence. The romance is limited to chaste kisses. The is no real mention of faith or God.

Just watch the Sabrina movie

The resetting of this beat for beat retelling doesn't add depth or interest to the characters. I believe it actually hinders it a bit, because it requires way more use of the miscommunication trope. It's a cute listen and by all means not bad or horrible. However in the end it just made me want to watch the original movie with Humphrey bogart and Audrey Hepburn.