Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Yes
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and the heroine
Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: Yes, 1 day later

Should I read in order?
This is Fleur’s first full length novel and the first in a new series titled Tales from Honeysuckle Street.

Basic plot:
Hamish and Iris are ripped apart as young adults after a horrible accident. They are reunited when Hamish returns to town to find a wife.

Give this a try if you want:
- Victorian time period (1875)
- second chance
- childhood friends to lovers
- bit of class difference – hero is an Earl, heroine is the adopted daughter of a businessman
- LGBT positive
- working heroine – she manages her father’s company and hopes to revitalize and grow it with a new idea
- masked event –

the hero brings the heroine to a club and gives her a mask to protect her identity 

- medium steam – I have it as 2 full scenes but they are pretty close together in the book

Ages:
- Heroine is 29, didn’t see hero but think he’s similar age, maybe slightly older

First line:
Iris knew where Hamish would be.

My thoughts:
I have been looking forward to Fleur’s first full length novel since I tried Hide and Seek. She has a writing style I really adore and her characters are rich and vibrant and tug on my heart.

I loved a lot about this one even though it’s second chance, my least favorite trope 😆 I think it’s a testament to Fleur’s writing that she made feel the tension and longing between Hamish and Iris, the uncertainty of that blossoming relationship. And I loved that there wasn’t a ton of animosity built up between them like I find in many second chance novels.

The side characters in this novel were delightful. I had such a love for the life Iris was given and my heart broke for her father. I adored seeing this unique family structure I don’t usually find in historical romance. Hamish’s Aunt Tilly was just the best. I am so in love with her sass and personality and independence. Please give her a story someday! I love her so much!

I did want a touch more from Hamish, especially towards the end – but I also liked that he was flawed and made mistakes and didn’t always make the best choices. I would have loved to have known a bit more about Iris’s business and maybe an epilogue a bit further into the future. (But as this is the first in a series, I’m hoping these characters will make future appearances.) I was really excited for the ‘make me a rake’ plot point with Hamish and wish that was a touch more developed, just because it was so much fun!

I loved that this was character focused and by the end I felt I knew them both well. Honeysuckle Street was a delightful adventure and I am excited for more from the series.




Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts:

”Come be wild again,” He teased as he swung the mask between them. “Like old times.”
When explaining vingt-et-un

“So the best combination is an ace and a court card?” she asked, her eyes still on the game.
“That’s right. And hearts rank highest.”
“Hearts?” She tilted her head slightly, her earlobe close enough to nibble.
“What could be worth more than a heart?” His reply was a breath, and for a moment, the sparkling excitement in her eyes flecked with an awkward vulnerability, and like the evening in her study, the urge to claim her lips infused him.

I love it when they love it loud

When it became too overwhelming, she had to shut her eyes to keep everything inside, and as the intensity began to swallow her, she stuffed the back of her hand against her mouth to quell the grunts she could no longer contain.
Hamish knocked her hand aside. “Louder.” He inhaled her with a kiss, before breaking free with a breathy gulp. “Roar, my wild girl,” he said, his forehead pressed against her. “Roar for me.”

 

Content warnings:

- Carriage accident resulting in multiple deaths
- Heartbreaking scenes of Alzheimers/dementia in a parent
- Themes of misogyny in regards to women running business
Author given content warnings: 

Includes strong language and sexy times. This novel also contains themes of homophobia and parental death 

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
3% - a vague and short sex scene
50% - kiss
60% - 🔥 kiss, fingering for her (leads to a bit of ‘dangerous feeling’ sex where there’s a police raid coming but they do it anyway), her on top (he pulls out)
69% - 🔥 oral/fingering for her leading to standing against a mantle, then her on top on the floor then him on top (he pulls out) followed shortly after by some brief mention of the rest of the night spent together