A Gentlewoman Scholar

Timeless Victorian Collection, Book 6

By: Sarah M. Eden, Michele Paige Holmes, Nancy Campbell Allen

Narrated by: Kim Bretton

Three women scholars. Three lives changed. And a dash of romance.

Blessing in Disguise by Sarah M. Eden
1858, Dublin

Fred Fitzsimmons will soon graduate Trinity College. With only a few weeks, he must continue safeguarding the enormous secret he’s been keeping throughout his time in Dublin: that he is actually Winnifred, a woman in disguise. The medical degree she is a breath away from claiming would allow her to save her beloved village. But having her secret revealed would land her in jail. So when Liam Rafferty, a fellow student with a reputation for unravelling even the most complicated of mysteries, grows suspicious of “Fred”, more lives than merely hers hang in the balance.

An Unexpected Education by Michele Paige Holmes
Nineteen-year-old Esther Sessions has survived the slums of Liverpool, and her abusive home, by holding onto a promise she made to her dying mother long ago - to keep reading. When a factory explosion frees her from her oppressive life and provides an opportunity to attend Bedford Women's College in London, Esther determines to succeed at school, knowing her education will ensure a future in which she might provide for herself and never be dependent upon any man. From the first moments of her arrival, Professor John Lind begins challenging her beliefs about everything from classical literature to algebra to - men. His kindness is something she has never encountered in a man before, and the generosity of his heart might just reach through the barriers surrounding Esther's.

Good Heir Hunting by Nancy Campbell Allen
Ellie Perkins has achieved her dream of establishing her own Kindergarten school to serve the needs of Liverpool's orphans. As a woman who has graduated from college and pursued a career, she has faced opposition and contention from all sides. Her first year is a success, however, and as she begins the second, she is caught by surprise when her newest hire marries and moves away, leaving a class of orphans without a teacher. Solicitor Graham Lucas, meanwhile, appears on her school doorstep, having narrowed a search for his employer's heir to one of the students in the now teacher-less class. Ellie sees a temporary fix to her problem that will benefit both her and the handsome solicitor. Graham will substitute the kindergarten class, while Ellie searches for a replacement. Unbeknownst to them all, however, is the lurking presence of a jealous relative who covets the young heir's position, and who will stop at nothing to take his place. Also at risk is Ellie's heart and hard-won career. Can she truly take a chance on a handsome substitute teacher bent on winning her love?

Timeless Victorian Collections:
Summer Holiday
a Grand Tour
the Orient Express
the Queen's Ball
a Note of Change
a Gentlewoman Scholar

Timeless Regency Collections:
Autumn Masquerade
A Midwinter Ball
Spring in Hyde Park
Summer House Party
A Country Christmas
A Season in London
Falling for A Duke
A Night in Grosvenor Square
Road to Gretna Green
Wedding Wagers
An Evening at Almack's
To Love a Governess
Widows of Somerset

A Gentlewoman Scholar is a Timeless Romance Anthology® book
Timeless Romance Anthology® is a registered trademark of Mirror Press, LLC.

©2021 Mirror Press (P)2021 Mirror Press

It’ll leave you cheering!

Hearing the stories of three women, triumphant with education as their weapon was awesome. It’s a mix of fun, romance, and women, being their own heroes, with the help of others. Another good one from some of my favorite authors.

A Wonderful Selection

These stories hit all the right notes that had me swooning and cheering! The selection of authors produced stories that felt complete for only being novellas. They were also very entertaining and fun with lovable characters. The narrator did each reading justice and kept me engaged with her inflection and voices. This one will be a keeper for me.

MORE OF THESE, PLEASE

THESE WRITERS ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITES! I really like hearing about real down to Earth people with real jobs and real life situations. Such a nice change from the usual lords and ladies parading through ballrooms.
Lovely narration too.

So good!

Lovely short stories brought alive by excellent narration. Kim Bretton is now my favorite narrator.

Another Amazing addition to the series!

Gentlewoman Scholar (5 stars)

Blessing in Disguise by Sarah M. Eden (5 stars)

I don’t usually enjoy stories where one of the people is lying to the other. But this one was so different! Winnifred has a whole village who have paid for her deception and who are counting on her. It really made a difference to me.

Liam is a good man torn by the things he has figured out about “Fred” and uncertain about what to do with his knowledge. How to be honest, but kind. I love that he went to his da to get advice.

Thank goodness for Liam’s da, who saves the day. Twice!

An excellent writer delivers again!

An Unexpected Education by Michelle Paige Holmes (5 stars)

A wonderfully strong and resilient heroine, Esther, stars in this romance. She is able to escape poverty because her mother taught her to read and because of a kind older gentlewoman.

John, our intrepid hero, has to fight his feelings for Esther because he is her professor of Literature. But he also has to fight her extreme prejudice against all men.

This was a wonderful novella and took its time to allow attitudes to slowly change and circumstances to develop that would bring our protagonists together.

There is one hugely unbelievable coincidence.

Also, I’d have liked a plan set into motion regarding Esther’s finishing her education and John’s employment. Those loose ends took away from the HEA for me.

But, all in all, I loved this story and it was very well-written!

Good Heir Hunting by Nancy Allen Campbell (5 stars)

Such a unique premise! A search among orphans to find the true heir to a Baronacy.

A beautiful, but resigned-to-her-fate-of-spinsterhood school owner and a lawyer turned spontaneous-kindergarten-teacher and their attraction and romance.

Truly enjoyable story by another of my favorite authors!

Narration: 5 stars

Kim Breton has a plethora of voices and accents at her disposal! She reads very well and her male voices sound male. She also does elderly voices quite convincingly! She’s a wonderful voice actress!

*poor, **ok, ***good, ****very good, *****something special

wonderful audiobook

three wonderful stories of strong women fighting for their rigth to learn in a difficult time and their right to find love as well. Great audiobook

Five Stars for A Gentlewoman Scholar

A Gentlewoman Scholar is Book 6 in the Timeless Victorian Romance Collection, and the first one recorded as an audiobook. These three, clean romances feature strong female characters who struggle with the prejudices felt by women during this era. I like how each story is unique and have the HEA’s that I always hope for with historical romances.

The narration by Kim Bretton is well done. She gives each character a distinctly different voice, and she is spot on with her British and Irish accents!

The narrator often makes or breaks an audiobook for me. Kim Bretton is now on my list of favorite narrators. You will not be disappointed!

I hope Books 1-5 in the Timeless Victorian Collection will be recorded into audiobooks. Perhaps with Kim Bretton ...

An exceptional collection

This is an anthology full of amazing, well written romances. Each story is unique and approaches love from a different viewpoint. These stories are clean reads and are very well edited.

I was given an advance copy of this book. My review was voluntary and my opinions were my own. I highly recommend this anthology to historical romance lovers. I'm looking forward to reading the next anthology in this series.

Blessing in Disguise
By Sarah M. Eden
Rating:  4.5 stars

The Crimean Wars has decimated the male population of Kennelow and the town needs a physician. How are they going to get one, when they only have women? Read about Fred, Winnie, and Liam. This is a sweet romance about perseverance, love, and problem solving.

An Unexpected Education
By Michele Paige Holmes
Rating:  5 stars

Esther is a woman who has been verbally and physically abused by her father and brother. It is hard for her to believe there are good men in this world.  If there are, how do you know?  Take a sweet journey of growth and romance with Esther and John. This author took me on a roller coaster ride of emotions within the pages of this story. I really connected with Esther.

Good Heir Hunting
By Nancy Campbell Allen
Rating:  5 stars

Graham is on a quest to find the grandson of Baron Francis. Baron Francis is like an Uncle to him, even though they are from different social classes. As Graham looks for the missing heir, he finds a remarkable woman, takes on an unexpected job, and encounters a mysterious stranger. Will Graham succeed in finding the Baron's heir?

Beautiful short stories

I am not going to lie... I wasn’t sure about this whole premise! BUT, Wowzers! All of them killed it! They were full of strong women who didn’t have any problem with good men or how to show up for those that needed them! Men included! I enjoyed the whole thing! They made me stop and look at myself and appreciate the things that I have done and that I deserve to be well-educated and appreciated! Way to go ladies!

Another great collection of Victorian romances

I love these collections!! I know I say that every time one of them comes out, but it's true. I get three stories--some by authors I love and some by authors that are new to me--all with the same theme, yet completely different from each other. This time it's about the educated "Bluestocking" ladies, the ones usually looked down upon by Society.

BLESSING IN DISGUISE by Sarah M. Eden--What a sweet story about Winnie and Liam who are both a few weeks away from final exams and graduation. Winnie has a secret and if it got out she'd not only let down her village, but she'd probably be sent to jail. Their journey to love is sweet and I love how Liam put aside his dream of working for a notable business in Dublin to be with Winnie. So sigh worthy. I love how the small village took care of Winnie and scraped together money to send her to school.

AN UNEXPECTED EDUCATION by Michele Paige Holmes--Esther grew up in a slum of Liverpool with an abusive father, and sickly mother, who secretly taught her to read telling her it would take her places. When she's the only one left in her family, she's taken in by her employer, Lady Parker, who sends her to a women's college in London. She develops feelings for her English professor Mr. John Lind, and he finds her intriguing, and a "daisy amongst a vase of roses". I loved how John showed Esther that he's not like the men she'd known up to that point in her life (her father, brother, landlord, factory owner). She can trust him with her feelings, he respects her and will be there when she needs it. I loved Lady Parker and how she showed so much kindness to Esther.

GOOD HEIR HUNTING by Nancy Campbell Allen--Graham Lucas is a solicitor and on an errand for Baron Francis, which takes him to a Kindergarten school run by Ellie Perkins. It's the start of a new school term and things are not going as she'd planned. Needing a teacher on short notice she asks Graham to help out which leads to some fun situations with the little ones. I loved how Graham finds out he has a talent for teaching four and five year olds. What a strong and determined woman Ellie had to be to start a kindergarten school for underprivileged at that time. The scenes with Graham and the children were fun and sweet, and I liked the romance that developed between Graham and Ellie.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories in this collection. The reader can choose to read one story at a time or the entire book, depending on how much time they have to read. These are all clean romances. I thought the narrator did a fantastic job with all the characters she had to deal with. I especially loved the children's voices on the last story.