My review contains spoilers and they're mostly my thoughts...

Miss Milton Speaks Her Mind isn’t one of Carla Kelly’s best but it wasn’t bad either. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would because the first half of the story went over my head completely. The other half, of course, made the read worthwhile.

Miss Milton Speaks Her Mind is an older release by Ms. Kelly; a traditional (clean) regency at that. The story begins with Miss Milton AKA our h, Jane and her monologues. This book is mainly based on her POVs, though not first person. She’s the poor relation to a Marquess, Lord Denby. Orphaned at a young age, Jane had to go to the workhouse; an incident that had shaped her life so far. She had to grow up early, and ever since she’s been brought back as a charity case to Lord Denby’s household when her mother died, she’s been cruelly shown her place in the world many, many times. Though Lord Denby’s son Blair was nice to her, his sister, Lady Carruthers was another thing. She’s a mean, viciously entitled woman and a bully to boots. As a result, Jane has always been left in a place of neither a lady, nor a servant. More like a governess. If Lady Carruthers could, she’d be a servant of Denby House by now. However, Jane has persisted, maintaining a semblance of dignity so far.

Again, Carla Kelly moved me to tears. She is one of the two authors in historical romance that never fails to deliver wonderful stories.

Jane has been living as a slave in the house of her cousins. She takes care of Andrew since he was a baby. Both of them have been bullied by her Aunt for many years. Her neighbor, Mr. Butterworth, a mill owner, is a dear friend (from many years ago) but only now they get closer. He invites her to his country house to spend Christmas, and it is there were she realizes she loves this kind, big man.

The beginning of the book is a bit dull. Too gloomy, too sad. Jane's life as much as Andrew's life. Once Mr. Butterworth comes into scene, it gets lighter, but not entirely, since this is Carla Kelly. Her romances are sweet but melancholic. I love how Jane and Mr. Butterworth are such good friends. He was so nice to her I was moved by his generosity. When Jane and Andrew spend their holidays in his country house, in the company of his sister and nieces, the book is sweet and less gloomy. Finally Jane and Andrew are happy, after so many years.

When Jane finally trusts Mr. Butterworth with her terrible secret, my eyes were full of tears It was so sad! Just remembering it my eyes get teary again... Poor Jane, she deserved all happiness in the world.

The final confession, at the end of the book... I wasn't surprised, I was expecting it. Still, I am not a fan of it. It seems a bit OOC... I know Mr. Butterworth could not do more, but Andrew was his child! And what about that part where Mr. Butterworth comes back -after getting all the letters Jane wrote, letters that were not supposed to be delivered- He starts his speech by saying something along the "I am sorry I have mislead you"... Was he going to turn her down? I confess I almost died because I thought Jane was going to have her HEA with the "handyman". There were misleads such as Dale was a good, handsome, happy man, etc. And Mr. Butterworth almost turning her down. I mean, I just wanted Jane to have her HEA, no matter who the guy was, but since Mr. Butterworth did all these wonderful things to her... Not only Jane was "wrong" in thinking his feelings for her was love, I did as well... and to have that end with Dale (or Staton). Thankfully, it ends like it was supposed to end.

Just a sweet, touching and with a kind romance -the one where they are first friends, then lovers- that I was expecting. Jane's secret was "OMG WHY?" (with tissues at hand) while Mr. Butterworth's (can't say his name... it is just too awful) and Lord Denby was MEH (men!).

I saw the book number fifteen or sixteen of this series on NY times bestseller list and I got curious and went searching for book one. I restrained the one click instinct and instead found it on Scribd. I do not know what I think about this book to be honest. First of all for some reason I expected a cozy mystery. I am not even sure why - most likely I just made a stupid assumption. I am not sure what I got instead. Cozy drama? I guess so, because there was no mystery - there was a surprise twist or two at the end, but while there are not very nice people in this book, they do not commit murder and mayham (although they try for some kidnapping I guess).

Miss Julia is probably the main reason why I am not sure how I feel about this book. Yes, she is a charming lady who recently lost her husband and who can be very blunt. But as you can see from the blurb her husband was an ass and she stayed with him for forty four years and that kind of makes me doubt her intelligence. I mean, do not get me wrong, I get if she had her head in the clouds and was in love with him, but the way she described her marriage proposal, it is clear that she accepted out of practicality more than anything else.

I mean she is clearly shocked when another woman with her dead husband's kid shows up, so she did not expect her husband to cheat on her, but hell forty four years? No suspicions at all about anything?

And while she seems a kind woman overall, her sharp tongue notwithstanding, quite a few of her fellow churchgoers are just so not. And her pastor especially .

I doubt I will continue.

"We're here on a family holiday—and anyway I love 'you lot.' That wicked little Eliot makes me laugh, and your girlfriend's bottom is doing wonders for your father—do look, Clive, he's gone absolutely scarlet."

Is it bad that I felt that every character in this book deserved to be miserable? I really could not find a character in this book that I actually liked (not even Clive and Martha's daughter, Eliza). Even though I was annoyed by the characters in this book I couldn't help but want to read about them. I was hooked from the beginning of this book and couldn't wait to read about these people that I started to despise. This is a relatively short book (compared to some of the books that I normally read) and I just flew right through it.

What really stands out about this book is the quality of writing. Olivia Glazebrook may have created characters that I hated but she managed to keep me hooked in the story because of her writing. Glazebrook just makes it so easy to get lost in these characters' lives. Usually if I don't like the characters than I tend to not like the book but in this case Glazebrook's style of writing really saved the book for me.

The secret that Clive is trying to keep from Martha is not that difficult to guess (in fact you can probably guess it before you even start reading the book) but I still found myself really wanting to know exactly what had happened in the past. I just loved reading the passages from the past and getting to see how the characters had grown from then. I may have been able to guess the secret but I was still fascinated by the events that took place in the past.

I would recommend this book if you are looking for a really well written book and don't mind characters that can be annoying. I received this book from a Librarything Early Reviewers giveaway. The content of my review is not affected by that in any way.