I have made no secret about my love for home renovation shows. It’s all part of the wish fufillment genre of a home I’ll never be able to afford to own and to fix it up in a way I’ll never be able to afford to do.  (Unless I fall madly in love with a dude with a crumbling estate that needs someone to organize the renovation, in which case I AM READY FOR THAT TASK.)

(Just putting that out there, universe.)

Anyway, this book involves a massive renovation, a HERO that was won in a card game, awkwardness, and learning to love each other despite a most inauspicious beginning. Throw in some terrible parenting, and we got ourselves what could totally be a miniseries jointly produced by ITV and HGTV.

Victoria Carson is an American heiress who’s father has a staggeringly stupid amount of money. Her mother is a social climber of the most vulgar order, and Victoria has been raised to make polite conversation (she can do 30 minutes on the weather without breaking a sweat) and serve tea and marry a title.

Andrew, the Earl of Dunnley, is the heir apparent of the Duke of  Waring. He’s the second son, and he hates his terrible parents. Since he left home to go to school, he’s basically never been back home. He’s working as an archeologist in Italy, where he has a very pleasant time with his mistress and a search for the tomb of an Etruscan Queen. And then he gets a telegram demanding that he come home at once- it’s an emergency.

The emergency is that he must marry, because his father has lost all the family money, and his bride has been chosen by stint of Andrew’s father putting Andrew up as stake in a card game. His cardgame opponent: Victoria Carson’s father. When they meet, there are sparks and awkwardness, but both of them are not totally thrilled with the turn of events. Victoria is determined to make the best of it, find freedom from her vulgar, social-climbing parents, and have her own family. Andrew finds out that not only was he won in a card game…

Andrew does not take this well. At all. He drags Victoria (who he thinks was in on the whole thing) to the family estate, which is essentially a crumbling shell that no one has had the money or inclination to do any sort of repairs on in decades. He consummates the marriage, then leaves in the morning to go back to Italy, where he intends to stay now that he has access to money that will continue to fund his dig, and Victoria and her title grubbing ways can go hang.

Basically, he’s a huge d-bag.

Victoria wakes up the morning after her wedding to find that she’s been abandoned in this house that’s falling apart. There’s like, three servants, a lot of rats, and no cook. The tenants all want the land to be managed, and, as previously stated, all she has been taught to do is to pour tea and marry well. After she allots herself a day of determinedly feeling sorry for herself, she buckles down, has the housekeeper start hiring, finds a land agent, and also finds a cat for the house.

Victoria allows everyone the polite fiction that she checks with Andrew on every decision, and in fairness, she does- she writes him letters detailing what the situation is and what she intends to do and asks if he has any input. She also just does what she thinks is best because he NEVER writes back.  She has no idea why he stomped off, but someone has to take responsibility for the estate, and she can spend her money how she likes – and she would like to spend it on a new roof. And field irrigation. And plastering.

He only comes back once his father died, making him the Duke, and he freaks out over having feelings and shit so he runs again. So once he makes the decision that he wants her, he’s got a LOT of groveling to do. It helps that they are super sexually compatible, so he has that going for him.

I am a total sucker for renovations, and there’s letters, though no back and forth flirting through the mail, since Andrew is pouting and not there for flirting.

Having the trope of one of the mains be won in a card game isn’t anything new, but I haven’t read one where the HERO is the prize. That takes this trope and twists it in a fun way. Unlike a historical heroine who was won in a bet, Andrew has the social freedom to walk away and have a marriage in name only. And since the money is hers, she isn’t left penniless. She could have left the estate if she wanted, but would have had to share London with her terrible parents and his terrible parents and at least this way she gets to not deal with them. It has to be his active decision to try and fix things, too, so grovel it is.

The grovel was….okay. He starts in with a charm offensive and when she says “what I want is a baby” they agree that sex would be a good idea to make that happen, so there’s banging where he is wooing and she’s trying to not be wooed. But the grovel does not begin and end with the sex: he’s gotta demonstrate that he’s going to be there for her and his sisters, that he’s going to accept responsibility for his title, and that he’s not going to be an asshole anymore.  I never felt like, “geez, where did this come from” but she does turn around a bit too fast for comfort. But then the renovation portion of the book was SO GOOD.

Another thing I want to touch on is the title of the series- The Grantham Girls. All the heroines in this series are graduates of Lady Grantham’s finishing school, and COME ON, this is a Downton Abbey reference that’s so blatant you can’t miss it. I don’t mind references (and this isn’t as bad as a book we got pitched where the heroine’s name was Catherine Middleton) (really), but couch them a bit more. (Like there was one book I read a couple of years ago where two extremely minor characters were named Mr. Armitage and Lord Thornton. THAT was good — more of a wink and not a, “HEY DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE.” I’ll admit, I was almost not going to read this because of that, but I’m really happy I did.

Now someone give me an estate and a stupid amount of money to rehab it. It’ll be worth it, I promise.