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One Night in Hartswood: As seen on TikTok! The Duchess of York Historical Book Club pick. The 2023 debut historical romance to warm your heart. For fans of Stephanie Garber, Freya Marske, TJ Klune

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Beyond the romance, the novel explores themes of trust, loyalty, and the choices we make for love. The characters' journeys are filled with twists and revelations, keeping readers engaged and invested in their outcomes. As secrets come to light, Raff and Penn must grapple with their feelings and make decisions that will shape their futures. it didn't have too much sex in my opinion, but the sex wasn't very well written, and neither was the rest of the book. the writing style felt like an over-used style in fanfiction (if you've read a lot of fanfiction, you will recognise it), the dialogue especially felt like reading a mediocre fanfic that uses way too many cliches. While One Night in Hartswood is a tale of love and romance, it also touches upon themes of family, honor, and sacrifice. The characters face difficult choices and must confront their own fears and prejudices. It left me reflecting on the lengths I would go for the one I love.

Since Penn goes by Penn, and he isn't dressed in his usual clothes as he sneaked out, and Raff as well isn't dressed expensively, they assume the other is a servant, and neither clears that up. We read a lot of historical romance, but not a ton of medievals, and definitely not a ton of queer medievals. In fact, we think this was our first trad-published LBGTQ+ medieval romance. It hits a lot of spots: One Night in Hartswood was the perfect heartwarming medieval queer romance I didn’t know I needed! If you enjoyed the Scottish Boy but wished it was more lighthearted and emotionally driven, this is the book for you. I was not rid of you,’ he spoke quietly --- ‘I have not been rid of you since that first evening in Hartswood Forest.One Night in Hartswood was gentle, tender, heartwarming, and desperate. I honestly haven’t read much medieval romance before, but I love the tone this set by starting in Hartswood, the King’s forest. Raff and Penn encounter one another in the middle of the night, total strangers, and take the risk to trust one another with a secret that could get them killed, even if they won’t trust themselves with their true identities. I found this book to be a really charming dose of historical queer romance. Both Penn and Raff had distinct voices, and I enjoyed them as a couple. I had no trouble falling into the world and following the romance, which started off strong. Penn, who I feel had more depth than Raff, was an intriguing character. There was a lot of trauma that he was struggling to deal with, and I loved the moments where he opened up to Raff. The side characters are also great, especially Ash and Lily - Raff's siblings. They are supportive and encouraging throughout and the sibling banter / rivalry is evident. Despite the appeal of this premise - medieval queers! Forest adventures! Mistaken identity shenanigans! - the style and delivery of the story didn’t work for me at all. Although Raff is 26 years old, and Penn is also in his 20s, both of the POVs read as much, much younger. The tone of the narration, the extent of their understanding, is more like mid-late teens. It’s also pretty bland. Other than the fact that Penn and Rafe are both feeling trapped by their privilege, and some very basic physical descriptions, I didn’t get much sense of them as individuals. That made it hard to build rapport or investment in what might happen to them. I’m coming to find out that I really enjoy any kind of romance as long as it’s character-driven. I’ve tried historical romances in the past, even queer ones, and couldn’t jive. I know now it’s because I need the focus to be on the characters.

That was one niggle with this. Another is this really drew things out between these two, and the slow burn became almost too much. The steam was also very low in this. What we got was good, we did get two steamy scenes, one fully penetrative, but neither was as fully detailed as I would have liked and was kept to a lot of vagueness. Almost to the point of...what was the point of them at all, if you weren't really going to go into them?But optimism flagged only briefly, as I reminded myself that Freya Marske blurbed this. Freya Marske! With both Raff and Penn, their lies are found out by other people recognizing them, not because they owned up to their lies and just told each other. Though Penn in the beginning appears a bit helpless and wholly dependent on Raff but he really holds his own with his charisma and ability to spin a story, getting the pair out of trouble quite a few times! Set in 1360, Penn and Raff are two sons of Earls, one from the south and one from the north of Englan.

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