Terrific book about two scarred and lonely people. Prudence's scars are mainly on the outside, while Dominic's are more emotional. It takes trying to help each other see the parallels in their own lives.

The story starts in Greece, where Dominic went after the disastrous end of his beloved army career. He spends his days swimming, gardening, and caring for his goats, with trips to the local taverna for coffee and companionship. On one of those trips, the taverna keeper gives him a London newspaper left behind by a tourist. One small notice in that paper changes his life, as he discovers his father and brother are dead, leaving him the new Earl of Bannatyne. Dominic has no interest in the title or anything else, but he can't ignore them either, returning to England. He intends to sell everything as quickly as possible and return to Greece. And then he meets Prudence.

Prudence lives in the old rectory with her scholar brother and runs his household. Badly scarred as a child, she only goes out in public wearing a hat and a veil and has given up all hope of love and a family of her own. Instead, she made do with renovating and modernizing her employer's home until he unexpectedly died. Since then, she has continued to care for the house. The arrival of a previously unknown younger brother comes as something of a shock.

I loved the first meeting between Prudence and Dominic. The encounter was quite ... revealing. Prudence, who knew nothing of Dominic's existence, thought he was a vagrant making free of an empty home. Her skepticism was understandable, and I enjoyed seeing her put him through his paces to prove his identity. Dominic doesn't know what to make of Prudence, a gently bred woman with great fire.

I enjoyed watching the relationship develop between Dominic and Prudence. After a rough beginning where both need to overcome some misconceptions, they form a deepening friendship. I loved how easily Dominic sees past Prudence's scar to the amazing woman she is. It was incredibly moving that he doesn't ignore it; he accepts that it's there and moves on. As their friendship grows, Dominic shares his family history and the story of his army career, which reveals him to be the brave and honorable man that he is.

As the time passes and their friendship develops into something more, Dominic becomes determined to show Prudence that her scars do not define her. I loved the things he did to make her happy, from a trip to the beach to the Exhibition in London. I ached for her when the Exhibition trip went so horribly wrong and loved Dominic's tender care of her. I also liked how Prudence worked to make Dominic see that he could do so much more to help people if he assumed his title and used his influence to help the poor that way, too.

I loved seeing them give in to the attraction that grew stronger the more time they spent together, leading to the admission of their love for each other. But while Dominic sees that Prudence is right about how he can do the most good, Prudence still can't get out of her own way to see that she and Dominic belong together. When she's with him, she believes anything is possible, but her fears and insecurities cause her to pull back. I was happy to see her finally consign "Poor Prudence" to the past and embrace a new future. The epilogue was fantastic.

I liked the secondary characters that helped round out the story. Prudence's brother Clement can seem oblivious at times, but he loves his sister and is very protective of her. I also enjoyed meeting her sister, Mercy, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage. She is the next book's heroine, and I can't wait to read it. Mercy also has a friend, Sarah, who plays a part in the latter half of this book, and has made a lasting impression on Clement. Hopefully, we'll see more of them in the next book also.

I loved the depth of historical detail in this book. Dominic's memories from the Crimean War add depth to the events that caused his discharge and his determination to help those affected. Sewage issues also played a significant role in the story, including Dominic's unique method of courting Prudence. ( )

Prudence Carstairs has lived her entire life behind a veil, thanks to a horrific childhood accident. She has confined herself to the village where she grew up, only venturing beyond her own home to visit Hawthorn Manor, the country estate of the local Earl. Said Earl is as much of a recluse as she is, and is happy to let her have run of the estate while he buries himself in his botanist studies. She sets about upgrading the grounds, installing the latest and greatest plumbing features and, in the Earl’s precious fernery, an ambitiously beautiful water feature. Prue’s great love is for water, plumbing, and the engineering that brings both together in new, groundbreaking ways.

All is well, until the Earl unexpectedly dies. Having no known heirs or even living family members, a notice is placed in The Times regarding the winding up of the title and property. Months later, this news reaches Dominic Caldwell in Greece, and suddenly he’s facing a past he’s long run away from – for *he* is the heir of the Earldom and estate.

Very reluctantly, he returns to England to see the inheritance that’s more or less been thrust upon him. He doesn’t expect to meet Frank, the ginger ring-tailed cat who has free run of the Manor, or Prudence, who’s been keeping up the grounds in caretaker fashion while the property is in limbo. The two humans meet when Dominic is trying to work the newfangled bath fixtures, and Prudence is afraid someone has broken into the house – it’s certainly one of the more unorthodox first meetings between a pairing I’ve seen!

Prue doesn’t believe Dominic’s story until he literally lays out all the paperwork, and then she’s afraid – not of him, but of losing the one refuge she has. Dominic assures her he has no designs on Hawthorn Manor, however: he’s here to rid himself of an inheritance he never asked for, as quickly and efficiently as possible, so that he can return to his smallholding in Greece and continue to live the life he’d carved out for himself.

These two are a matched set of prickly pears from the start. Prudence has had isolation forced upon her because of her physical scarring, which makes her unfit for ‘polite’ company, according to Society. Dominic’s solitude has been entirely self-imposed; he has retreated from life because his has been a hard one thus far. Their pasts come to light in drips and drabs as the story progresses, and each has the right to feel aggrieved by their treatment in life. Prue sees Dominic’s unwanted inheritance as a bounty instead of a burden, and works hard to change his mind about what he can do with his wealth and the power that comes with it. He has so much to offer the world, because of (not in spite of) his past, she argues, and here’s the chance to be the change he wants to see.

Dominic finds Prudence extraordinary. He sees her most prominent scar at their very first meeting but basically bypasses it, more interested in who she is as a person than what she looks like. Prudence struggles with this, because – aside from her family – her scars are what defines her to the outside world, and they have always been considered horrific and repulsive. To meet someone who has the opposite reaction confuses her – and intrigues her.

These two are equally matched when it comes to stubbornness, too. Dominic is extremely reluctant to take hold of the power he has inherited, and wants nothing more than to escape back to his solitary life in Greece. Prudence longs for a life beyond the solitude of her veil, but sees herself as a social pariah unable to enjoy what others take for granted.

Their growth over the course of the story feels uneven. Dominic feels, to me, the more developed character; his past is revealed first, and there is time for him to deal with the reverberations of it in the present. Prue’s past isn’t completely revealed until the penultimate chapter, and her turnaround feels very rushed by comparison. She holds onto her fears and dogged determination to see the world through Society’s eyes for an incredibly long time, and for basically no good reason. Dominic has shown her who he is, and she rejects him. Frankly, by the end of the book, I didn’t feel like she deserved him.

The romance felt very disjointed to me, perhaps because it happens so quickly. The book takes place over approximately 3 months total, and that includes several long periods of separation. For two characters who are complete strangers at the start, it was a little hard for me to buy their sudden and deep love for each other. Though the exile theme is beautifully woven into the narrative throughout, it didn’t help me to believe that these two could overcome all their baggage in such a short period of time and make the complete transformations they do by the end.

I am intrigued by Prudence’s sister, Mercy, who will be the heroine of the next novel in this duet. She is Prue’s exact opposite: a woman long renowned for her beauty, married to an extremely powerful man, who makes her desperately unhappy. There is a hint that something’s happened to him by the end of this book, which will obviously open the door for her to have a new romance in the next.

I adored of Frank, the Manor cat, though his cameos were far too few for my taste, especially by the end. I was less enamored of Lady Sarah, Mercy’s friend in London, who blew in and took over a couple of times, chewing the scenery like every brash, modern HR heroine that’s popular these days. It’s obvious she’s headed for a pairing with Clement Carstairs, Prue and Mercy’s historian-scholar brother, and I can only hope that if this is the secondary storyline in the next book, it’s kept to a minimum.

As always, it was a lot of fun to read the author’s notes about all of the research that went into this book. Plumbing is not my forte, but I salute Ms. Kaye for letting Prue have such an odd interest and letting her nerd out about it at multiple intervals. ( )