Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: A bit
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine
Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: Yes, a few months later
Format: checked out audiobook on Hoopla

Should I read in order?
Ideally, yes. The characters are developed over the course of the series and the books flow together.

Basic plot:
Charlotte’s father says she must marry, and pays off the scoudnrel Benedict Chatham to wed her.

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency (1818)
- American heroine/English hero
- Tall, red haired heroine
- Arranged marriage -

Benedict gets 100,000 pounds if he spends 1 year of marriage in complete fidelity, complete sobriety, and live together for the entire year. He will get a second 100,000 pounds at the birth of first grandson. 

- one bed
- this might be a reach but a bit of reversed ugly duckling (hero is a different man than the beginning of the story)
- bit of an antihero from the prior books
- medium to higher steam – 4 full scenes

Ages:
- Heroine is 22, didn’t catch hero

My thoughts:
I really loved this one! Ever Yours Annabelle is still my favorite of series but this one is second for me.

I didn’t pay much attention to Chatham in the prior books – honestly he was so unlikeable I didn’t think he’d even get his own book. But I do love how Braden takes these characters and brings them up to snuff for the heroines.

I liked that they were together for the majority of the story. And I really loved getting out of London and Chatham’s recovery. It gave me a bit of West Ravenel vibes if you have read Lisa Kleypas (Devil’s Daughter specifically).

I ended up really loving both characters. Charlotte was easy to love. She was so strong and ready to do the best she could in the situation she was in. She doesn’t have the highest self esteem so I appreciated the seduction vibes between these two when Chatham tries to convince her she’s gorgeous and amazing.

I was mildly frustrated with Chatham and his inability to open up. Perhaps it’s just that in HR it’s overrun with heroes that can’t voice their feelings because they are so damaged and have never had anyone love them. But, in this story it was even more believable to me. And towards the end there’s a scene with Chatham in the street...and it wrecked my heart a tad.

Content warnings:

- Alcoholism and withdrawal
- Fire with injuries
- Toxic parents

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

No but they are married 

 
33% - kisses
52% - 🔥kisses, fingering for her, missionary (V loss for her, well endowed hero)
(I didn’t mark this percentage) – 🔥touches, kisses, fingering for her against a wall
65% - fingering for her that fades
74% - 🔥kisses, fingering for her, wall sex
97% - kisses
98% - 🔥epilogue sex where you walk in on a started missionary scene