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This is the first in a new series by Anna Bradley, whom I LOVE. I think she's my favorite writer. I just adore her descriptions and her tensions and her love scenes and kisses are so hot and poetic at the same time...sigh.

Anyway. This book had a different feel than the others by her I have tried. This book has way more plot going on, more danger, more mystery/crime solving and less on the romance. This makes me very sad. Very, very sad. The romance in this book is SO GOOD. But I do think it was secondary to building the entire case and main problem taking place in the story. Some of you may prefer this. I'm hoping her future books amp up the romance in this series because she does it so so well.

In this story, our heroine Sophia became an orphan at a young age. Her story is quite heartbreaking. She was rescued by Lady Clifford and schooled at the Clifford Charity School for Wayward Girls. A school where more goes on than it seems behind the closed doors. Sophia has spent her life in the shadows. She's very agile, invisible in the London night, and ready and eager to stalk those that must be stalked and brought to justice. She's a tiny thing, and prefers wearing trousers to get around, especially since she's developed a love for traveling on rooftops.

Tristan was a bow street runner. Was, because he has now had to take on the responsibility of the earldom and is now Lord Gray. But it's very hard to leave his past career behind when he suddenly spies someone on his neighbors roof lying in wait. Tristan still isn't over the gruesome murder of his colleague and fellow bow street runner. He refuses to return to his country estate until justice is served. But when he meets Sophia, she challenges everything that he thinks he knows about justice.

This book is not particularly steamy. It has a few kisses, then 1-2 full open door scenes around 80%. She does write explicitly, but they aren't especially long in this book. I find her love scenes and kisses filled with feelings. I adore them. Though in this book I was desperately wishing for more. More balance with the love and crime solving. A bit more tension.

Give this book a try if you like:
-a splash of enemies to lovers. There's a bit of time in the beginning when they are feeling each other out and they definitely aren't friends.
-Some type of crime/murder mystery to solve. This one is the main plot in the book and some of it might surprise you as you get to the conclusion.
-A bit of action. There's plenty of running through the London night, some attacks, stalking
-class differences – hero is an earl and heroine is born in the gutter of seven dials
-a non virgin heroine. Yes, I know, the title. I was pretty disappointed. But Sophia has had one lover but she's not vastly experienced.
-Heroine disguised as a man – she regularly runs around in trousers and Tristan actually believes she's a boy when he first meets her.
-A bit of darkness with a crime to be solved, multiple murders taking place/talked about, and a corrupt justice system being experienced

So, I liked a lot of this story. I was interested in the solving of the murders and the look into the justice system. However, I have also been feeling really depressed about things going on in current events and I didn't love it all in my face during my 'escape time'. But Bradley did it wonderfully and I was still interested in everything going on and wondering what was going to happen. I wanted more romance, more of them focused on each other instead of the crimes that were paramount here. I was also sad that Sophia wasn't a virgin, the title made me expect it, but as I read I also understood about her group of swooning virgins and that it didn't mean they themselves were virgins. I just prefer that, I'm sure others won't care about it. The action was fast paced and wonderfully written and I was super engaged and waiting on my toes for what would happen.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions about the book are my own.