A Practical Partnership by Lily George is a historical romance that was released in February 2016 by Harlequin's Love Inspired line. It is a sequel to The Nanny Arrangement, which is a sequel to A Rumored Engagement. The three novels cover the romances of the Siddons sisters, Nan, Becky, and Susannah. A Practical Partnership is Nan's story about her relationship with John Reed, a man with a roguish past. It is a tale about opposites who are attracted to each other.
Nan is now the sole proprietor of the millinery shop in Tansley that she had previously shared with her sisters before Susannah and Becky made advantageous marriages of their own. Nan has always seen herself as being the plainest and most sensible of the sisters, and has resigned herself to the life of a spinster. However, with the arrival of a new French milliner in town, Nan has been facing competition for business, and is left wondering how she will be able to continue operating her shop. She desperately wants to avoid being a financial burden to her sisters.
John Reed has been reluctantly running his family's estate now that his father has passed on. The whole idea of assuming these responsibilities is simply not fun or enjoyable to him. However, he is forcing himself to do his duty. In his eyes, this also means launching his sister, Jane, into her London season, even though Jane has no wish to have one. When he sees how comfortable Jane is with Nan, he makes an offer to Nan: come with the Reeds to create Jane's wardrobe. Nan doesn't really want to leave her shop, but can't stay in Tansley if she is to work on Jane's wardrobe. However, with dwindling orders for her shop, Nan agrees to take up John's offer, and leaves town so that she can begin working with Jane at the Reeds' estate, Grant Park.
While Nan is at Grant Park, she discovers the reason why Jane doesn't wish to have a London season, in addition to discovering that John has depths beyond that of a debauched, carefree bachelor. John teaches her to have a bit of fun instead of being serious all the time. Being with him encourages her to dream of greater things for her life.
John finds himself growing intrigued with a woman who isn't going out of her way to attract his attention. However, being at Grant Park forces him to look deeply into the reasons why he doesn't want to take on the responsibilities of running the estate and why he is at odds with the Lord. Spending time with Nan helps him to find faith again. However, he finds it difficult to reconcile his romantic attraction to Nan with his perceptions about the class of woman that duty requires for him to marry, and unfortunately, Nan doesn't measure up to those demands. In addition, a situation arises which leads John to feel betrayed by Nan, making it difficult for him to trust her. Will this practical partnership ever grow into a romantic one?
I found A Practical Partnership to be a safe and clean read. For a man who supposedly has spent much of his life before in the pursuit of pleasure, I didn't find John to be much of a rogue. The hints of the romantic attraction between the two leads are dropped fairly early in the book, but John and Nan don't get anywhere near to a kiss until close to the end of the book. As for his prankster reputation...well...it seemed to be on the tame side. He came off as a fairly respectable person who might joke around a bit here and there, using a jovial cover to mask the anger that he had deep inside.
I liked Nan. She is a sensible and practical person, who has a dash of stoicism. She needs to loosen up, and John is able to get her to do that. It would seem that the two of them are able to bring out the best in each other.
Even though A Practical Partnership is the third in a trilogy about the Siddons sisters, I think that it can be considered a stand alone novel, as it can be understood and enjoyed without needing to read the other books for more background information.
