**Will post link to my library journal review when live

I jumped into this series without any prior knowledge, and I was a bit lost. There are a lot of characters, a lot of step-siblings, and many a mystery arc that is not solved from those books or in this one. And honestly, the mystery plot was kind of a snore to me (but I don't like those generally).

If the relationship between Thorn (the Duke) and Olivia had been more of a focus, I could have ignored all of the mystery stuff and some of the chemistry stuff that I could just hear JenReadsRomance yelling FOSSILS about (Olivia is a chemist asked to determine if a character was murdered with arsenic using her skills). However, Thorn and Olivia's quick meet in the beginning when she takes him to a private room so she can use her chemistry skills to remove a wine stain from his waistcoat leading to getting caught and her rejecting his proposal did not make me believe they would, after many years, be immediately attracted to each other again. Also Olivia remains only kissed by Thorn and a virgin for all these years. Thorn is real handsy with Olivia and honestly Duke needed to just let her do her thing sometimes.

Not for me, I'm sure plenty of others will enjoy. Do read the others in the series tho.