Review: More Than A Stranger by Erin Knightley

Title: More Than a Stranger
Series: Sealed With a Kiss, #1
Author: Erin Knightley
Published: June 5, 2012
Pages: 336
Genre: Historical Romance
Source: Publisher (Signet Eclipse)
Rating: B-
Reviewed by: Ellie

Favorite quote: “Just imagine the kind of insults I could give you after we’ve known each other more than a day”

summary from Goodreads
When his family abandoned him at Eton, Benedict Hastings found an unexpected ally in his best friend’s sister. Her letters kept him going—until the day he had to leave everything behind. Years later, Benedict has seen his share of betrayal, but when treachery hits close to home, he turns to his old friend for safe haven….

After five torturous years on the marriage circuit, Lady Evelyn Moore is finally free to live her life as she wishes. So when her brother shows up with a dashing stranger, she finds herself torn between her dreams...and newfound desires. Despite his determination to keep Evie at a distance, Benedict cannot deny the attraction that began with a secret correspondence. Yet as they begin to discover one another, the dangers of Benedict’s world find them, threatening their lives, their love, and everything they thought they could never have…

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Ellie's thoughts:
Lady Evelyn Moore never thought that she would become best friends when she sent a letter to her brother’s new best friend at Eton at the age of eleven warning him off. After five years of correspondence and falling in love with Benedict Hastings, he abruptly cuts off all ties. Evie is devastated and has spent years putting all of her efforts into her family’s horses to mend her broken heart. Now a decade after they first started writing to each other they finally meet without Evie knowing his true identity and Hastings has even more secrets than Evie could have ever imagined.

Benedict Hastings went to Eton a very lonely and forgotten child but he made friends and struck up an unlikely friendship with his best friend’s sister. Five years after making the biggest mistake of his life by hurting Evie he finally meets her face to face but dangers of his job threaten not only her but her family. Hastings will do anything in his power to not hurt Evie again but his lies are catching up with him and it’s up to him to make things right with the woman who has stolen his heart.

More Than a Stranger is the first in the Sealed With a Kiss series from Erin Knightley and I think it was a great first book. I did at times find the plot predictable which had my mind wandering at times but i did like the banter between the main characters a lot. What I liked so much about this book is that the characters get to know each other over a period of ten years before finally meeting. I feel like this allows the romance between them to be very believable and had me rooting for them to have a happy ending.

Hastings is a great leading man but all of his lies really bothered me after a while. It seemed that he just dug hole after hole with everyone and it comes back to bite him and ruin everything. Evie was the main reason that I kept reading and enjoyed this book so much. She has a sharp tongue and a quick wit that I really enjoyed and I loved that she didn’t want to be a proper lady of the Ton. I am not usually a fan of historical romance novels, especially the heroines in them, but I did enjoyed this one and if it hadn’t been for Hastings and his lies I would have loved it.

I did enjoy this book and I am excited to read Richard, Hastings best friend and Evie’s brother, book next. I hope the female characters stay smart and strong and that Richard is as charming as he was in this story. I think that this has the potential to be a great historical romance series.