Overall: 3.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Yes, a bit
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine
Percentage which mains are first on page together:

8% (Chapter 2) 

Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: No
Format: read an e-book advanced reader copy from the author

Should I read in order?
This is Rollins historical debut!

Basic plot:
Henry desperately needs funds to support his sisters and mother after the passing of this father. With the opportunity to organize a library for a nice monetary amount, he finds himself in the company of Emma for a summer.

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency (1814)
- fantasy/magical world – empaths, telepaths, sorceries, mental shields
- left handed hero
- virgin mains
- heroine has some minor smallpox scarring
- emotionally strong hero (hero cries)
- light touch of heroine nurses hero back to health 

She mostly ignores him during this time but there are a few moments... 

- lower to mid steam – 2 full scenes

Ages:
- Heroine is 20, hero is 24

First line:
Henry Dawson squinted at the name on the placard outside the stately-looking three-story stone building.

My thoughts:
I was really eager to read a Regency romance that has some paranormal/fantasy aspects! I thought this sounded quite fun and different. Overall, there were some aspects I liked and a few things I wanted more of/different.

This one was a bit slow to me, but I did love that it was character driven romance. It took me awhile to get into the characters, especially the heroine. She’s a bit bristly (I have seen it compared to a bit of a reverse beauty and the beast) but I eventually enjoyed her as well.

The magical aspect in this novel is extremely light. There is some mention of charms used and one example of a spell used. The biggest paranormal part was the heroine being an empath and being able to feel the people’s emotions around her. I was really hoping more magic would be a bit more of a part of the story. 

Like when the horse hurts its leg. I was sad this was never addressed what happened to it as I was left worrying about it the rest of the book and also left wondering if they have charms that prevent you from getting pregnant why don’t they have better healing options??? 

I liked the main plot aspect that developed – the heroine wanting to know if she could even bear to be intimate with someone with her empath abilities and challenging the hero to help her figure this out. But the tension didn’t develop for me the way I wanted, maybe because they weren’t spending the most amount of time together the first half of the book.

I will admit my heart stuttered in the best way when he’s trying to convince her she’s beautiful and she doesn’t quite believe him and he lets his shields down so she could feel his emotions. Swoon! 

I think I would try this author again down the road and see what she comes out with. It was nice to have a bit of a change from traditional regency and the magic aspect.

Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts:

I started struggling with the heroine here quite a bit – she has put him at arm’s length the whole book so far and then when the injury happens I thought it would be an opportunity for them to get closer. Instead she ignores him mostly and then acts quite selfish complaining it’s troubled her too much.

What had happened to her guest? Had the fall from the horse damaged his brain, too? The change in his character really alarmed her. “Dr. Thomas said it would be better if you had some kind of employment.”
“Well, he’s certainly right about that,” Mr Dawson said. “It would be better if I had kept by job at the apothecary shop and never darkened your doorway. I was a fool to think this would work out well for me.” He looked down at his broken leg.
“It hasn’t worked out well for me, either,” Emma reminded him. “It is not as if I want a patient to tend, you know. We have had to go to a good deal of trouble to care for you.”
Leaving aside the issue of doctor’s bills and wages for the new valet, Mr Dawson’s injury had upset all her plans. Before the accident, she had thought Mr. Dawson would spend most of his time in the library, leaving her free to happily ignore him, except at mealtimes.


So, you are the one that suggested going out in the storm. You are the one that gave him the horse that shies when it thunders. He ends up breaking his leg and then you are the one inconvenienced by it all? Bleh. And the servant you had tending him was doing a horrible job and letting him burn up with fever so you are the one that suggested a valet to help and you are complaining about the cost when you are the one with the fortune? I want to like her but at this point in the book I don’t at all.
----
Towards the beginning of the book we have a scene where Henry and Mr. Ainsworth are having an after dinner drink.

He took a sip of his claret after all, wishing that it were port instead. He didn’t even like claret.


but then later in the book we see,

“I don’t care for drinking by myself. Have a drink with me?” Hentry would rather it had been cognac, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. And port was at least better than claret.

This is a minor thing but I was like, I thought he preferred port??? Why didn’t he wish it were cognac instead of port in the earlier scene? It might be some drinking social custom where only certain drinks are used during certain events but it caught my attention as a bit inconsistent.
---
okay, the whole proposal scene was quite funny and I enjoyed it!
 

Content warnings:

- Death of a parent remembered
- Injury of a horse possibly resulting in it being put down (it’s not stated)
- Horse riding accident resulting in a broken leg

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

They are both virgins and the heroine has a contraceptive charm. 

 
60% - kiss
65% - 🔥kiss, fingering for her, her on top (V loss for both)
91% - 🔥missionary (a bit short)