Review: To Hold a Hidden Pearl by Fearne Hill

05 September of 2021 by ButtonsMom2003

To Hold a Hidden Pearl By Fearne Hill

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Tropes: Femme MC, aristocracy, British, coming out, doctors

Released: May 24, 2021

Publisher: NineStar Press

Series: Rossingley, Book 1

Length: 299 pages

Cover Design: Natasha Snow

Synopsis

Dr Jay Sorrentino is getting married in ten days’ time to the girl of his dreams, so what the hell is he doing in a gay London club with a stupidly handsome stranger? As if calling off the wedding and alienating his friends and family isn’t enough, Jay also has to contend with starting a new job at a new hospital. So the last thing he needs is for the bloke from the club to be his prickly supervisor.

Dr Lucien Avery is a difficult colleague. He’s also the unexpected and reluctant heir to the vast Rossingley estate. Reclusive and miserable, he hates most of his colleagues, people who eat packed lunches, and supervising junior doctors. That is, until the delectable Dr Sorrentino turns up on his doorstep.

A light-hearted M/M contemporary romance, Rossingley takes place in Southern England and is centred around a fictional country house and estate by the same name. The first in the series, it can be read as a standalone

CONTENT WARNING:
This book contains sexually explicit content, which may only be suitable for mature readers, homophobic language used by a side character; grieving for deceased family members; depiction of a terminal patient with severe burns and disfigurement; mild eating disorder; alcohol use..

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

I loved my first book by Fearne Hill!!

I am kicking myself that it took me so long to review this book. Around three months ago, Fearne Hill offered me a review copy. I was pretty busy at the time but still thought I’d read it by the end of June. Unfortunately, I’ve only just finished it before writing this review on September 5th.

I absolutely adored this book! It’s delightfully British, it has quirky characters and the combination of a medical setting and an Earl’s estate made it even more interesting to me. I read books by quite a few British authors so I was a little surprised when I came across words that I wanted to look up as I read. This is a compliment! I love reading books that challenge me in one way or another and adding to my non-US vocabulary is one of my favorite things.

What to say about the story? This book had me LOL’ing more times than I can count while at the same time tugging at my heart and being sad for the doctor who lost his whole family. Some of the passages were just too delightful to keep to myself so I read them out loud to my hubby who also got a chuckle out of them. I’m going to share a short excerpt here but you might really need to read it in context to fully appreciate why I found this funny. The story is told in alternating POVs and this snip is from a Lucien (Dr. Avery) chapter:

“It’s that bloody carbonara, Dr Avery,” Jay chortles as he sways over the bathtub. “It made you sick too. I’m going to have a pepperoni pizza next time. Shall we have the pepperoni pizza next time, Dr Avery?” Fuck that, would you like to eat my pepperoni, Dr Avery?”

While I wouldn’t consider this story a romcom – most of my laughter came near the beginning – it certainly has a good mix of serious stuff and witty banter. It got a bit more somber for me after the half-way point. Lucien has to deal with a former lover and Jay has to decide how he’s going to deal with the mess he left when he called off his wedding at nearly the last minute.

I certainly didn’t need to add another author to my list of favorites (it’s unreasonably long already) but if the next book in this series is even close to being as good as this one, Fearne Hill is going to land on that list.

Note: I had no way of knowing if the medical stuff in this this story was at all accurate but I found it extremely interesting. After reading the Acknowledgements at the back of the book I wasn’t surprised at all to learn that the author is a doctor.

♥♥♥♥♥

O Factor: Scorcher

Rossingley Series

♥ Amazon US ♥ Amazon CA ♥ Amazon UK ♥

About Author

Fearne Hill lives deep in the southern British countryside, a stone’s throw away from the private country estate providing her inspiration for Rossingley. She looks after varying numbers of hens, a few tortoises, and a beautiful cocker spaniel.

When she is not overseeing her small menagerie, she enjoys writing contemporary romantic fiction. And when she is not doing either of those things, she works as an anaesthesiologist.

Author Links