an utterly lovely debut historical romance novel by an author to watch. the emotional beats were absolutely exquisite, but I do think this was overly long in plot. A minor quibble in an otherwise sexy and steamy historical romance that delivers huge emotional impact.

For me, I struggle with plots about children being threatened to be removed from their mother or parents, so that kept me from fully sinking into the romance as I always had that niggling worry in the back of my brain even though I FULLY KNEW it would all be okay (I made a reader friend spoil me). Simply not a b preferred plot. That said, watching a rake absolutely fall and turn into a full dad mode was super great and fun. Nate is the star of this show, and I do wish Cora had a bit more character development beyond worried mother of two and simp for Nate.

All said, I will definitely be back for me as the author writes them.