Overall: 3.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋 (she’s explicit but also a touch flowery in her prose in this one)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: A bit
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and heroine
Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: Yes, it’s not labeled but the last chapter is 2 weeks later.
Format: voluntarily read an advanced reader copy through NetGalley in e-book form that I’ve let languish on unread on my kindle for years...

Should I read in order?
This is book 4 of Midnight Secrets series, but I found it decent as a stand alone. Perhaps there’s some character depth added for these characters in the prior books of the series – let me know if that’s so :)

Basic plot:
Jonathan is attempting to jump through all the hoops of his father’s will to get his inheritance when he meets Lady Caroline Nicholson...

Give this a try if you want:
- London and country setting
- light touch of age gap (older hero) – it’s not drastic for HR (10 years) but it’s commented on
- house party!
- slowish burn
- bit of a mystery
- masquerade
- low to medium steam – 2 full scenes

Ages:
- Hero is 32, heroine is 22

First line:
William Cromford, Earl of Lindsey, was laughing in his grave.

My thoughts:
There was so, so much I really loved about this book. So many of my favorite plot devices, tropes, and feels. But, ultimately this book didn’t go quite as far with as I wanted and I just wanted a bit more from it. It just didn’t feel totally complete by the ending for me.

Jonathan is still under his cold father’s thumb from the grave as he tries to fulfill the requirements of his inheritance. He has not thoughts of marriage or commitment until he meets Caroline – I really loved being in his head so much and watching him fall for her. Caroline I really enjoyed too. She’s cautious of Jonathan because she knows he’s a rake and shes interested in marriage.

The thing I loved most about this book was the sweetness of it. It had a lot of scenes that melted my heart with little things I love – dancing together, little touches, clandestine meetings, all wrapped in the uncertainty of a blossoming attraction. Even though there were some mystery elements going on, I felt like they still spent a decent amount of time together (though, I wanted longer discussions between them. It seemed they would meet for short bursts of time for most of the book). There is a strong theme of the hero just finding the heroine utterly precious – he thinks it all the time and treats her as though she’s precious (though that includes the classic ‘shes too good for me’ distancing himself). And I just ADORED that.

I think in the latter half I started feeling like we were having the same interactions with Jonathan and Caroline and I wanted things to progress either faster, or something different to happen between them. This book had some great potential to me and I’m definitely eager to try more from Bryant because I think I will find one that I really love.

Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts:

She hadn’t look up yet, seemingly focused on the ruby pinned through his cravat, though her chin angled at a taunting slant he found tempting. He’d like to take a bite of that chin.
---
Her cheeks bloomed with a soft rose color that somehow caused him to feel overheated. She was far too tempting to be flittering about a social event without a gentleman on her arm. Where was her father or brother? Precious treasures need always be protected, or they could be stolen without thought.
---
More.
It was a litany in his brain demanding attention, but Lindsey forced himself to ignore it, the lady in his arms too innocent, far too precious. Unfortunately, it was replaced by a word much more lethal.
Mine.
---
He knew it was wrong.
She was a young idealistic debutante in want of a staid husband and secure future, and he had nothing to offer on either account.
But it was only a kiss.
One kiss in the dark.
One kiss.
Just one.
---
“Caroline,” he murmured against her mouth, and deepened the kiss with matched sensual pressure as he cupped her breast. He held her that way, his palm against her heartbeat, and she trembled beneath his caress. “You’re so very precious.”
---
He shifted, lowering her gently so she aligned with the purfled pillows at her back, and then leaned in without breaking the hold of her eyes, sharp with curiosity and wondrous just the same.
He was done for.
Rubbish.
A besotted fool.
---
“What are we?”
Silence answered her question, the definition of their relationship still mutable. He wanted her. That much he knew. Despite their age difference. Despite his impending financial crisis and conditions of inheritance. Or her health concerns. Despite it all, he knew one thing with certainty.
“We are...inevitable.”
---
“I can’t marry you, but I have no regrets. I will always remember you. You are my first -”
“I am your last.” He pulled forward, his words vehement as his mouth claimed hers. “I am your only.”
 

Content warnings:

- Heroine was hurt from a horse accident and may not be able to have children.
- Some brief scenes of fox hunting
- Remembrances of an abusive father
- Mention of blackmail, art forgery

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

No but they are committed (not married)

 
4% - hero kisses and touches another woman (he’s doing purposefully to get something he wants, he doesn’t have feelings for her) while the heroine watches
24% - kiss
38% - kiss
56% - kiss
68% - kiss
71% - kisses, fingering for her
86% - kisses, her on top
100% - implied scene