"The night Godric St. John saw his wife for the first time since their marriage two years previously, she was aiming a pistol at his head."

I've come to expect great first sentences from the Maiden Lane series, so be careful opening one up "just to take a peek" because you won't be able to put it down once you start.

CW: on page violence, medical gore, child endangerment, complications of pregnancy (in past discussion of miscarriage, fears).

Margaret has decided to get pregnant, so must seduce Godric who she quickly married 2yrs ago after her true love was murdered by the Ghost, leaving her pregnant. She miscarried the day after the wedding and hasn't seen Godric since & he has a SECRET (he's the Ghost). She also wants to avenger her true love's death by finding the Ghost. DUN DUN DUN.

Godric is a salt & peppered and secretly jacked cinnamon roll who also lost his wife years ago to a devastating and long drawn out illness. He married Margaret because well, why not, and because her brother threatened to expose his secret identity. Margaret has been living with his family in the country since their wedding.

Now he's flabbergasted to have her, his sister, his stepmother, and all their people move into his shabby old estate house. And she wants a baby! Godric believes his heart will never feel again but it also seems to be having some strange palpitations around his wife. Who thinks he murdered her dead lover.

Such a delicious romance, with both Megs and Godric learning how to love again, that love can change and not be a betrayal of those who are no longer with us. I loved that Megs took matters into her own hands and made things happen, despite her sex and station. And lord Godric is h-o-t.

But, how in the heck do I keep reading romances with "get me pregnant but please no pleasure in the trying" this year? I think this is the third with that niche trope (see also Cecilia Grant's A Lady Awakened and Lorraine Heath).

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