This is the third book of the Scandalous Brides series. I would say this book would be okay as a standalone. It's probably a bit more enjoyable knowing the last book, but not necessary. The characters from the previous story, Camille and Keating, have quite a bit of page time, but you won't be lost or miss anything if you skip it. Sophia has a bit of page time as well as Adam in the previous book so you get to know their personalities a bit.

Sophia is our heroine and I did like her. I enjoyed her dialogue. She was quick, witty, optimistic and funny. Her life hasn't been the best. She's the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman and his maid and has never been allowed to forget it. Eventually, she came to find a place at the Tantalus Club. However, her father is done with dealing with the embarrassment and demands she leaves the club and marries a vicar. Sophia is invited to the Duke of Greaves holiday house party and she longs for once last chance for fun before she's married off and forgotten about.

Adam has a family problem that he finally must resolve. He has to marry by the age of 30 and sire an heir by 31 or all his unentailed property and wealth will go to his extremely unlikable viper of a sister and her son. Unfortunately the time has come, so he invites a hoard of eligible women to his Christmas house party.

So I think I liked the previous book in the series more than this. I still liked this one more than book one though. There's plenty to love about this book and so many adorable scenes. Yet something happened to not pull it together as strongly as it should have for me. It was low on feels and tension for me.

I think you will like this book if:
-you love a duke!
-you prefer an experienced heroine
-you loved those big house parties (I do!)
-forced proximity
-a bit of humor, lower on angst
-sex scenes but nothing overdone or super explicit

There was something about this book that had almost a contemporary feel for me. The hero referenced a naked pillow fight as a joke. Was that a thing back then? Probably. But it just brought to mind little teenagers with braces for me. They jump into sex pretty fast, some of the dialogue felt a little modern, there's condoms. None of these things bother me but just added up together in this book I think it just wasn't grabbing me like I wanted it to.

Still enjoyable! I have the final book in the series to read, but I'll probably wait a few weeks before picking it up.

Star rating: 3 1/2 round to 4
Number of books read by this author (including this one): 4 and 1 novella