Meet Gareth, newly promoted baronet, and Joss, overworked smuggler (feels a lot more like a management position than you might think) and the skulduggery and shenanigans they get mixed up in. Also contains beetles.
This is how KJ Charles described her latest book. And I could not say it better, so that’s borrowed. Gareth has a several nights stand with an charming but anonymous man in London. But Gareth ends it poorly and regrets it but resigns himself to the fact that they’ll never meet again. Imagine his surprise when, on the death of his father who hadn’t contacted Gareth in over 20 years, and the inheritance of his estate in Kent, he runs into that same charming and now less anonymous man living practically next door. To make matters worse, Joss Doomsday, as Gareth now knows his name, is the head of a group of local smugglers who are decidedly on the other side of the law from an upstanding baronet which Gareth now finds himself to be.
When Gareth becomes tangled up in a smuggling trial he finds himself in direct opposition to both Joss and the rest of his neighbors. To complicate matters further, Gareth now has a half sister he’d never heard of and he’s having to face up to the fact that his father was even less of a good person than Gareth had hoped. His late father seems to have been caught up in the worst kind of smuggling and now he’s inherited enemies who are threatening him and his new family and the only person in the world who can help him is Joss Doomsday.
This romance was very well developed. Joss and Gareth both have feelings about one another, but their places in the world seem uniquely designed to scuttle any budding romance before it even has a chance to kindle. I love the trope of the rougeish dashing outlaw doing mostly good paired up with the uncertain, fumbling, less worldly upperclass lord and it’s done well in this book. One complaint I often have with that trope is the power balance. I hate when the lord person holds too much power over the lower class person, KJ Charles managed that really deftly here. Joss is the head of the local crime family, which gives him power over the area while Gareth has the money and title. It worked! You could technically call this enemies to lovers, but it was more like lovers who got all screwed up and were stuck on opposing sides and then worked through both their own personal issues and the issues of the situation they were in. Great dialog, and I loved the witty repartee they had with one another. Add in daring rescues and “I’ll protect you!” and mutual affection and fun and this was a very enjoyable read. I’m very much looking forward to the next book coming in September 2023.