Overall: 3.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖 
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋 
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔 
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞 
Sensuality: 💋💋💋 
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (There’s a number of scenes in the book but you could solidly count it as a 4 for sure. Might feel hotter to others. )
Humor: A bit 

Basic plot:
The clans Kennedy and Douglas have been bitter enemies for a number of years. Ultimately their clan antics lead the king to demand an arranged marriage for them to have peace. Lady Valentina, known as Flaming Tina, is betrothed to Lord Ramsey Douglas (Black Ram). I mean, could these nicknames get any better? Don’t worry, Tina’s hot for a good hard Ram.


Give this a try if you want:
- Crazy old school epic love story – content warning abound!
- Higher steam – large number of scenes here, not always between the hero and heroine but other random characters too. I will say I felt like a lot of the scenes were on the shorter end compared to some of her other work I’ve read
- Older hero (heroine is 17, hero is at least 30)
- Arranged marriage
- Enemies to lovers – the epitome of that trope!
- Hero loves first – the hero does chase the heroine and he admits his love for her long before she does
- Hero nurses heroine back to health
- You’re all right with a JERK hero. 5/5 jerk faces. Lol
- Rival family feel (Highlanders)
- Tudor time in Highlands (King James) – takes place around 1512


My thoughts:
Well, this story was crazy, like most of her others. And like the others, I really enjoyed parts of it and didn’t love others. 

This book took me forever to get into. It seemed such a slow start where the main characters were separated and everyone seemed to be talking and having page time including random sex scenes between characters (many who would pop up once and you wouldn’t even know who they were and then never see them again…)

BUT around 200 pages in it finally started happening and the focus switched to Ram and Tina and they took over the book. This is 100% an enemies to lovers story, with tons of content warnings, pushy jerk hero and feisty heroine that fights him every step of the way.

They are passionate and volatile and swing between love and hatred for much of the book. When things are good they are amazing and when they go bad they are at each other’s throats ready to kill each other. 

This book does have a touch of paranormal as there’s a, well it’s basically a secondary love story with ghosts. It’s one of the reasons the clans hate each other – there was a couple that was married to bind them and it ended in tragedy with grudges held and revenge wanted. No one thought having ghosts around the castle was strange. 

Still I enjoyed some of it when the couple was together. When they were being playful, opening up to each other. The hero was fond of using sweet nicknames for the heroine, which was totally unexpected to me. 

I do wish the book had ended about 100 pages earlier. It had the perfect ending feel, it could have felt complete. But it kept going bringing in some later unnecessary drama and time in the Tudor court. Personal preference, but I don't love real historical figures coming into the books like that, especially the monarchy. And you can see how much Henley was fascinated by them and did her research as she's included them in most of the books of hers I have read.

Will I try more of Henley? Yup. I think I’m addicted in some strange way. hahaha



Here’s a few random parts that I wanted to note from the book

There’s a lot of focus on fainting being a dead giveaway you were pregnant. The heroine wanted to faint while dancing but she couldn’t because people would think she was pregnant. Then later when she’s married, the feast of roasted pig makes her faint and the hero is pissed because she could be carrying someone else’s child. Just kind of weird??

When she bursts into tears during sex
<i>
Instantly he was contrite, cradling her. “Honeylamb, did I hurt ye?”
</i>

And when he gives her a huge orgasm with his mouth and she finally, finally, says his name “Ram” instead of “Douglas” (his surname) and he quickly captures it on her mouth in a kiss – love that!

There’s a scene where he tells her to marry him and she says no and he declares his love for her and she refuses him. He leaves and says “I am your destiny. When I come next, I’ll fetch the priest.”

Content Warnings:

heroine referred to as a “bitch” from her joking brother
Romany referenced as gypsies
Zara (Romany woman hero spends the night with) referred to as exotic
Animal cruelty – hero punches his horse with his fist to control it
Uses sex to get what he wants from Zara (information)
violence, including against a child (14 years old)
domestic violence between main characters (she slaps him, hits him with a riding crop, he kicks her down)
murder suicide talked about regarding the ghosts haunting the castle
boar attack with injuries and boar hunting/death
thoughts of abortion for side characters and later note that they followed through with it
extremely jealous hero
insensitivity to infertility – hero has never had bastards so he’s slightly worried he can’t have kids but he knows his heroine will give him children (like if you were just with the right woman it would work out!)
torture by prinking
poisoning
miscarriage, on page

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

Pg 25 – hero has fade to black sex with a romany girl (Zara) with a pierced clit
Pg 77 – almost sex between hero and Zara – some kisses, dry humping and 3 thrusts inside her then he takes her outside and begins again, some fingering, one thrust, then stops again, eventually he gives her an orgasm and leaves
Pg 144 – kiss between Tina and Patrick – Patrick then has a threesome with 2 other women
Pg 150 – sex scene between side characters Robert and Ava
Pg 201 – kiss between Tina and Ramsey
Pg 242 – first sex scene – she’s terrified, he comes in and mounts her and basically thinks its her fault she didn’t have a great time. Missionary, she’s a virgin, he thinks she’s experienced.
Pg 272 – kisses, playful banter, missionary sex
Pg 286 – kisses, breast play
Pg 290 – oral for her, followed by vague sex (brief, about a page)
Pg 300 – she bathes him, missionary (kind of short)
Pg 312 – sex, blowjob (it’s like a paragraph and not to completion), missionary
Pg 336 – her on top
Pg 348 – chinese pleasure balls used but taken out before orgasm, her on top of him on the swing
Pg 405 – dream sex
Pg 434 – heroine has sexual harassment from another man and then the king (Henry)
Pg 483 – kisses
Pg 492 – sex (short)

Euphemisms: 
long, hard manroot
letting down her love juices
dark side of paradise (orgasm)
mon
gates of paradise
titty/tits
marble shaft