Lady Delilah has an epic one night stand with a mystery man who turns out to be the Duke engaged to her former daughter in law! GASP, scandal!

I was hooked in with this premise, but ultimately was not won over by the romance.

The overall arc, going from epic night of love making, to discovering both Elliot and Leela are connected by the young woman Elliot intends to marry, and fighting their pants feelings for each other never made me feel like they actually got to know each other or were actually in love, not lust.

Elliot didn't earn his HEA with Leela, and ultimately I was not thrilled with the way some of the other plot points played out, and I found myself skimming to get to the end.

CW: cheating (depends on how you view it), attempted sexual assault on page, racism, vomit, pregnancy

The rest of this review is spoilery

Spoiler

Leela is a biracial heroine, and this is an "own-voices" author. I cannot comment on the rep, but the way Elliot thinks about Leela's looks were often in juxtaposition to his feelings about Victoria's looks (a described pale English rose). Victoria is also very young, and I liked her relationship with Leela, but I did not like that it was suddenly okay for Elliot to take Leela as his mistress because Victoria eloped with his title-less friend. Leela's ex-step-son (they are the same age) also attempts to force himself on Leela to make her his mistress and black mail her so he can keep lands/a house left to her by his father and her now dead husband. She cuts his cheek open to make him have a scar, then sits and has tea with him? The incident is kind of brushed off as a "one-off." Leela is also self-described as barren throughout the story, she and Elliot take no precaution during sex, and Elliot needing an heir is something "he gives up" so they can be together. Then the epilogue comes and she's had his baby. I'm tired of this plot point.

Thus, I enjoyed learning about Leela's character but I did not enjoy the romance.

I received an ARC from the publisher for review, and checked out a copy from the library.