1748 Obedient Lady Juliana Christianson, heiress, only child of the Earl of Hawksworth has married Godfrey, the second son of the Marquees of Urmston. After a horrendous wedding night she wakes up to discover her husband dead, stabbed and herself accused of his murder.
Sir Edmund Ashendon, criminal lawyer takes her case on. Juliana changes overnight from a 'pampered princess' to taking part in the investigation! But does the criminal known as The Raven have any involvement in the killing.
Overall an enjoyable enough story though not a complex mystery.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


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I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. The Wedding Night Affair is the first book in L.C. Sharp’s Georgian era historical mystery series Ash and Juliana. Juliana Uppingham was sold into marriage to cement her father's ambitions. Her new husband brutally raped her on their wedding night, and she awoke the next morning covered in his blood with few coherent memories of the previous night and not sure if she was the one that stabbed him in the heart. Baronet Sir Edmond Ashendon agrees to take her case, and together they work to solve the mystery before time runs out for Juliana. I enjoyed the progression of Juliana’s character from a shy doll to a strong woman and as well the romance that develops between Ash and Juliana. Publishing Date: May 11, 2021. #TheWeddingNightAffair #LCSharp #CarinaPress #HarlequinRomance #HistoricalRomance #HistoricalMystery #HistoricalRomanceSeries #HistoricalMysterySeries #bookstagram #bookstagrammer ( )

The Wedding Night Affair by L.C. Sharp
Ash & Juliana #1

Splendid story! I couldn’t put it down and can’t wait for the next book to appear!

What I liked:
* Juliana: strong, abused, accused of murder on her wedding night, a woman wronged so many times and yet I believe she may come out okay.
* Ash: brilliant, loves his family, lawyer, has a backstory and family issues nobody should have to face. I am hoping his life will come right as the series progresses.
* The setting, writing and plot
* That I was drawn in from page one and compelled to continue reading
* That it all seemed believable
* There was no sugar coating of horrible events and situations
* Ash’s understanding
* That good overcame evil…at least where it truly counted
* That there is so much potential for this series
* The supporting characters
* The dialogue and interactions all were pertinent and real
* The siblings of Ash and their backstories - hope to see more of them in the future
* All of it except…

What I didn’t like:
* What happened on Juliana’s wedding night
* The parents of both Ash and Juliana
* That we will have to wait for the next book

Did I enjoy this book? Definitely
Would I read more in this series? Without a doubt!

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars ( )

Lynne Connolly, writing as L.C. Sharp, has created a stellar historical mystery series. The writing is outstanding, period correct, and riveting. The mystery will confound you to the end and even then, it will leave you wondering what will happen next. The characters are so relatable, especially Juliana who grows exponentially during this tale. You will definitely be wanting more of them – to see where their relationship goes and to see how she finally manages to deal with the trauma inflicted upon her during her wedding night. Sorry, but we have to wait until August before we’ll get our next infusion of Ash and Juliana in The Sign of the Raven. I can hardly wait. This is definitely NOT a romance novel – it is most definitely a historical mystery that is accompanied by – but not overpowered by – a bit of a romance. For me personally, it strikes the perfect balance between the mystery and the romance.

Lady Juliana Christianson, the only child of the Earl of Hawksworth, has just married Lord Godfrey Uppingham, the second son of the Marquess of Urmston. The marriage was definitely a marriage of convenience – and not Juliana’s convenience at that. It is all due to her father working the system and bribing the crown in order for his title and bloodline to continue. Naïve, cosseted, protected from everyone and everything – no friends, not even a servant she could be close to – Juliana had absolutely no clue about the horror she was about to walk into. Everyone else knew – including her parents – but nobody cared as long as they got what they wanted out of the union. So, when Juliana awoke the next morning – in a pool of blood – with her new husband dead beside her, she didn’t mourn his loss at all. However, she knew she didn’t kill him. Who did? Why did they leave her alive? Everybody is accusing her, is she now headed toward the hangman’s noose?

Sir Edmund Ashendon (Ash) and his family have a sad, traumatic background with a scandal they are just now beginning to live down. They’ve distanced themselves from it, but it caused Ash to make a profound change in his life. He moved from the lucrative business of property law into criminal law. It is no surprise when Mr. Henry Fielding left word he wanted to see Ash because Ash was always looking for an interesting case and the case Mr. Fielding presented him was definitely that. Mr. Fielding gives Ash full authorization to act on his behalf and to bring the accused – a woman who stabbed her husband on their wedding night – to Bow Street for interrogation and arrest.

Nothing is ever as simple as it appears and this arrest certainly isn’t. With mobs in the street calling for Juliana’s blood, Ash must get her to a place of safety – and Bow Street might not even be that place. Oddly enough, as Ash interviews the young woman, he begins to believe that she might not have done it. If she didn’t do it, who did? Why didn’t she awake while her husband was being murdered? If he can figure out who actually did it, can he prove it?

There is a new criminal mastermind in London. Known as the Raven, he has great ambitions. He’s already very powerful and has begun combining all of the different gangs under one umbrella. Ash comes to believe that the Raven is somehow involved in Godfrey’s murder, but can find absolutely no clues to definitely show that is the case. As the case moves along, there is another murder. A witness is killed in Ash’s own garden. That is much too close to home.

The mystery is exciting, suspenseful, and well developed. When you add the dastardly machinations of Juliana’s parents and the manipulations of the Raven to the evidence in the murder, you have to wonder how Juliana will ever prove her innocence.

I adored Ash and Juliana. They made a marvelous working team – especially with Juliana’s keen observational skills. I really look forward to watching them work together in solving future cases – and in life itself. Juliana’s growth just in this one book was exceptional and I cannot wait to see where she goes from here. ( )

Murder refined!

An interesting combination of murder and an enforced marriage during Regency times. It’s 1796 and Heiress Lady Juliana Uppingham has been married off to a swine of a man. The morning after her wedding she wakes to her husband’s dead body beside her with his blood pooling around them both.
Sir Edmund Ashdowne, baronet, works out of Bow Street for the Fielding Brothers as a criminal lawyer. Juliana’s father the Earl of Hawksworth wants someone close to aristocracy to undertake the investigation. That’s Ashdowne. The plot charts its way through rather murky waters until the truth outs. It includes an underworld figure, the Raven, who’s working on binding various gangs together. The Fieldings see Raven as a major threat to the community and to the prevalence of law and order.
Ash is concerned with Justice. He doesn’t want Juliana’s elevated place in society to mitigate her being brought to answer for her actions—that is until he meets Juliana, and uncovers more about her life and her husband.
The story throws into relief the reality of children being coinage at many levels of society.
Violence and sexual abuse in marriage could be an unlocked for trigger for some readers.
It’s intriguing to see Juliana’s transformation from being the “white faced-marionette [she’s] depicted in caricatures as,” to becoming a person with her own voice.
A torrid tale of the pursuit of truth at odds with the clamouring of the mob. Indeed these scenes were chilling.
The Raven is in the background, a chilling undercurrent that rolls along, sometimes to the fore, always there. And the puzzle around Silence, Ash’s sister, is another beguiling story to be told, I’m sure.
An introductory treat to the pen of a new historical romance novelist
I’m looking forward to the next in the series.

A Harlequin - Carina Press ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.) ( )