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Max can't believe he's in line for a dukedom. He didn't know what to expect when summoned to Carlyle Castle, but he has found out he must prove himself a worthy gentleman or his new allowance could be cut off. He sets off to create a respectable life for himself and find a meek wife. He sets his sights on the Tates, who own a pottery business.

Samuel Tate's pottery business has been in the family for generations. Unfortunately for him, he only has 2 daughters and no son to pass on the business. Bianca sees no problem with this, as she can manage it just as well as her father does. Her father is over the moon when the perfect gentleman from London, Max, shows interest in his mild mannered daughter Cathy. Cathy's heart belongs to someone else though and switches places with her sister the morning of the wedding.

This book is enemies to lovers done right. The heroine is very much against her marriage to Max and is quite snarky to him in the beginning. While this hasn't been my favorite trope lately, I adored Max's quips back to her. He took all of her hostility in stride and turned it around into funny interactions that left Bianca flustered. Also, the heroine turns her behavior around by halfway through the book, so it wasn't dislike until they magically loved each other. She fights her dislike and it lessens over time with Max's charm until she finds she's actually liking him.

The steam in this book is fairly mild. A few quick kisses and a few full scenes towards the end. My favorite was a naughty scene in the middle of Vauxhall gardens. But nothing extremely explicit or crazy language used, for those who avoid that stuff.

Max is so much a beta hero. He is so caring about Bianca and her family. He is wonderful. I really enjoyed him. He was very much a gentleman to Bianca even with her spitting venom at him in the beginning. He has a pleasant personality. He's not a grumpy brooder. But he does have a secret. And while secrets aren't my favorite thing in romance novels, this one didn't play out the way I expected it to, and I was happy with the way it worked out.

Bianca is a very independent and opinionated heroine. Once she gets over her dislike of Max she is quite sweet though. Sometimes those feisty heroines can annoy me a bit but I didn't find that with her.

The thing that dropped the rating for me a lot was this book felt soooo slow. While I really did like the aspect of the pottery business – it was different and interesting and the way it was described I was really able to picture the pieces made – I just kept waiting for something to happen. I felt like a lot of what I had read by 50% could have been described in 20%. But there are so many sweet little scenes in this book. And it was clever. The banter and their interactions were rather funny sometimes. Overall a very pleasant read. There also was a short novella about Bianca's maid and Max's valet at the end of the book that was rather cute.

Thank you netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions are my own.

Spoilers about my favorite parts
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Spoiler

I adored how Max always turned Bianca's antagonistic comments around on her in the beginning. Like when he comes up to her and she sniffs at him and says she just caught a chill. He offers her his jacket because she has him all 'hot and flustered'. He was just so clever and adorable with managing her dislike, I loved his reactions.

I also LOVED that he was displaying his calves to entice her. That had me laughing.

My favorite though was when she asked him about how he was always at the breakfast table before she was. He admits that he would listen for her maid to open her door and it would squeak and he would rush out of bed as fast as he could to get downstairs before her. Bianca kept getting up earlier and earlier until she was getting up when it was still dark out and every time he would be sitting at the breakfast table. It was just too cute.