Nate, our MMC, is a rake of the highest order. He is a drunken, gambling fool who spends his days sleeping and his nights in an assortment of beds. And then we have our recently widowed FMC, Cora, who is desperately trying to come up with a way to keep custody of her two young children. Of course Nate owes her a favor so we are in a fake engagement situation quite quickly. While Nate and Cora are pretending to be in love of course they actually fall in love. Nate is THE sweetest man with Cora’s kids, and also he is so good to her. Like the best. 🥹

I looooooved Nate and Cora’s relationship, BUT the main plot of this book, in which Cora worked to gain custody of HER OWN children was STRESSY AF. It’s romance and there is an HEA but I couldn’t help but think about all of the women during this time who didn’t get to keep custody of their own kids because English laws at the time were straight trash. Cora’s dead husband’s sister and her husband are the worst, like seriously awful, and they made me super mad. I could have done with less of them, alas, so could Cora.

👍🏻Recommended! This is a slow-burn, steamy delight of a romance with a stressy side plot and extremely hateable villains. On KU!