Thomas Sharpe has been looking for a wife for two years - and not just any wife.  He must marry well to support his family after his father lost their fortune in a bad investment.  Lady Jane Capel has been <i>off</i> the marriage mart for two years after her fiancé broke off their engagement.  Now she's living with her half-brother, already a scandal, but she wants more.  Thomas and Jane strike up an agreement: Thomas will show Jane the wilder things of the world, and Jane will find him his perfect wife.  Obviously, they fall in love.

This book is... fine?  I think it's trying to make A Statement about patriarchy and the way women of the ton were sometimes sort of sold off to the richest contender, but it doesn't really make it all the way there.  It's a tenuous premise.  Neither Thomas nor Jane is well-off, which is the "will they won't they" here, and the solutions to this issue are several Hail Marys that Frampton throws very late in the game.  One of them is something that definitely should have been explored earlier, and the other is simply too convenient.

Stylistically, this not my favorite author.  I think the writing is a little unrefined, and she repeatedly does this thing where "Character X completes a task.  Completes a task.  Completes a task." that I think is meant to provide a sense of immediacy or propulsion to a scene, but it reads more like stuttering, incomplete sentences.  It's nitpicky of me to point out and I don't think it's universally bothersome, but I know at some point I'll wonder why I don't love this author, so here it is for me in writing.

Listen, I will say this, though: I see your carriage sex, and I raise you one over-the-clothes heavy petting orgasm in a hot air balloon.  That alone would have made me pick up the book.  Let me know if it does the same for you.

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!