I personally give this book 3.75🌟 rounded to 4.

It has so many familiar things I love that I associate with Macleans writing. Those feels, the real emotions of the characters played out. The dialogue is always lovely. The emotional pull of the love scenes that are wonderfully descriptive in a way that makes you feel so much behind the characters actions.

However this book is definitely for me not a favorite of hers. It’s very slow moving. Verrrrrry. I did like it better than the first rule of Scoundrels, which I thought was super boring. But it takes a good 200 pages to get moving. You’ll wait over 250 pages for a kiss. I wish there were a few more scenes with even just a kiss. However I will say the first scene with them, they don’t even touch and it’s so unique and sexy.

I do understand the waiting is an integral part of our hero, Cross, background battle with himself and his past. We do not have a Virgin here but a celibate period that makes the fall to our heroine, Pippa, that much sweeter.

Cross, I did lightly love, but perhaps not as much as Pippa. I find I usually am all about the hero but he did not have quite as deep of a pull for me I would have liked. Pippa character was wonderful to me. She’s considered odd and is a unique character to read.

I’m not sure if it’s just because the last Sarah Maclean I read was Wicked and the Wallflower, but I felt these two books had very similar feels.

Still a wonderful love story. And I loved the little twist on the end where our heroine rescues our hero.

I just could not love this book. There were things I loved, but in between those passages I would go back to disliking it.

The first few chapters were really hard for me. I thought perhaps it was something with her writing style. I almost felt...outside the story, not being drawn in. It was weird and I know I’m not describing it correctly. But I’m glad I didn’t give up and I was able to get into it as the book went on.

This book was doing basically nothing for me until their first love scene. The characters felt so flat, I wasn’t feeling their connection, the tension to me was minimal. But then those first two love scenes happened and I was like....what...did I just read 😆 But in a good way. It was so descriptive and intense and just hot. It just surprised me.

From there the book did pick up a bit for me. Quite a few scenes I did really enjoy. Like when our heroine Anna is given the rose plants by Edward. When they take a carriage ride together and she explains what exactly happened behind their first secret meeting in London.

I did love Edwards small pox scars (I love a scarred hero), shame on the cover for implying only the right side of his face was scarred 🙄. I enjoyed him overall as a character, mainly in the second half of the book. I thought he was especially sweet when trying to convince Anna to marry him.

I hated his “temper”. It was talked about so much it was overdone and ridiculous. He never showed signs of a temper when he was helping his tenants or with his friends or even when defending his lady at a ball. But he throws and breaks multiple things just...because, mostly in the beginning half of the book. I hated that. He came off like a spaz. I also disliked the lacking amount of time you got to spend in his head. I also hated the chosen place in the book for him to pour his heart out about his past to Anna. I think that would have been better placed as a growing moment for the couple, not after a devastating relationship blow. Or perhaps done over time in the book to grow him as a character.

Anna...can’t say I loved her. I felt like her character was all over the place. She was sassy and feisty but pure and sweet then lustful...I just didn’t connect with her that well. She also licks her lips at least 6 times. Over the lip licking.

Also HATED that the little subplot with Felicity Clearwater was even in there. Dumb dumb dumb.

Giving up on page 193.

I thought I would really enjoy this book. As I read the first few chapters the plot sounded like it would be fun. The heroine, Rowena has been in love with the hero, Lachlan, ever since she could toddle after him. He has always been close with her brothers and brushed her off as an annoying sister. She has enough when she turns 18 and goes to have a season in London, returning for her brothers marriage and moved on from Lachlan.

I imagined Lachlan being a man that is happy Rowena has finally moved on when she returns. I pictured the story pulling him further and further away from that certainty as he looks at her through new eyes and falls in love with her. Expectations....*sigh*....

Instead, Rowena returns, over Lachlan. Lachlan pulls her aside to say that they will never marry and she needs to move on. She damages his pride by agreeing with everything he says instead of fawning over him. Lachlans gigantic cocky ego can’t handle this, and then he proceeds to bother, harass, and force himself upon her until she realizes she loves him. Well, I didn’t reach the point of her loving him but I’m assuming it happens. I stopped reading after they were intimate yet she agrees to marry someone else. 🙄

Honestly I have such a headache from this book. It’s the third in the series I think. I do get the feeling it might be helpful to read in order since so many characters are here and a few scenarios from the past are referenced. I don’t think it affects the story drastically though. I guess I’m maybe just wondering if I would have liked either of these characters if I got to know them a bit in the other books. (Which I don’t even know if they are in there. Has anyone read this series?) Because I don’t like these characters. Not even a bit.

Lachlan comes off as the classic teen movie arrogant football star, strutting around with a massive ego. He never wanted Rowena until she said no and then he wants her BAD. Why? Is that love? No, that’s gross. That’s a conquest. A game. A notch in the headboard of people you’ve won. He doesn’t see her for 3 months, then basically tells her to shove off. Then IMMEDIATELY, like the next day, starts harassing her, kissing her, demanding she allow him in her room to kiss her goodnight, sneaks around her brothers and risks their trust and friendship (they are his BEST FRIENDS and basically family) and takes her virginity in the most boring, eye gouging love scene I’ve ever read. Oh sorry, skimmed, with my eyes partially rolled in my head.

Rowena could have been a likable character. She slaps him during one kiss and I almost cheered. But then she allows it to continue while insisting he means nothing to her. But I just cannot forgive a love scene with someone then purposefully agree to basically marry someone else. That’s not a love scene, it was sex. And it sucked. And I’m done.

Amanda Quick was my first foray in the The HR world, the romance world in general. I found a black hard cover book with only the words ‘With This Ring’ for $0.25 when I was 13. It blew my mind and I quickly read through every book of hers I could get from the library.

As the years went by I definitely got burned out on her. I started to find her books predictable, her heroes and heroines almost mirror images of each other with only a different profession. I also felt the mystery started to take over the story and the romance was stuck in here and there where there was room. It didn’t feel primary to me. I have so many of her books and I told myself I would read through them again and decide if I wanted to keep any. This is my first one I’ve tried in quite a while.

Overall I did enjoy this book. I thought the first half was quite good with the hero and heroine meeting and going on midnight adventures together. The hero, Lucas, is looking for an heiress to save his inheritance. The heroine, Victoria, is said heiress and is extremely independent and has vowed never to marry. The first half of the book is filled with adventure, courting, and kisses. I didn’t like that a week of adventure and kisses were completely glossed over and instead remembered by the heroine during a few sentences of conversation.

The second half of the book takes a frustrating turn where honestly, to me. The heroine acts like an unlikable, spoiled brat. I did enjoy the hero through the whole book, but I have found I don’t get as close to Quicks hero’s on an emotional level.

There is a mystery in this book but it really was only taking up page space towards the end. Most of the book really is the characters being together and forming their relationship.

I gave this three stars but it probably could have been four if I didn’t dislike the heroine for much of the book.

Oh this book was AMAZING. I swear I liked it more than the first in the series (The Chief). However, when I reread The Chief I’ll probably say that’s my favorite. Be prepared for lots of favorites as I read this series 😂

Hawk captures Ellie to protect her from death when she is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Much of the book takes place on the aisle of Spoon.

McCarty does a wonderful job of, well, everything. The history is so intriguing and written in a way that is not boring or dry in any way. In fact, it always inspires endless research in me to know more about the places and people where she got her inspiration from. I love her author notes at the end of the book detailing the history and changes she made in dates and character.

She balances action with the relationship perfectly.

She writes damn steamy sex scenes. 😂

I will say I loved the heroine so much in this book. (This may be a reason I feel I enjoyed it more than The Chief, as I wasn’t as attached to that heroine) Their relationship forms without the burden of names. Well, true names. They honestly just fall in love with each other. And it’s wonderful to watch. In a time when marriages are arranged for power and identities are hidden to protect, plan, and spy for a war this is a treasure.

My only complaints are I felt the separation was a little long at the end, but I absolutely loved the ending.

Also there is a scene where Ellie is almost rescued by the English and I wish it was done from Hawks perspective. Being done from Ellie’s I felt rather sad about the whole thing, but from Hawks it would have been heart wrenching. Thinking of this though, a lot of the book is from Hawks perspective. And I really really love books that do that.

Tons of feels, I fell in love, my heart clenched, totally keeping this book to grope forever

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I’m calling this a DNF at 50%. I am not enjoying this story. The metaphors. The metaphors! Reading the metaphors are like having your eyes paper cut by bad metaphors 😆

“He felt strange, and his vision was distorted, as if as if he had swallowed a magical potion that narrowed his sight.” No I did not mistype the double as if.

“His men parted, and there she was, standing under the arched doorway like an angel descended from the heavens”

Honestly this just feels like a beginner book. It’s not horrendous, if you can get by some of the writing style but I’m just so not invested in the characters or the problems or the outcomes at all. It has great reviews and over 4 stars so maybe it’s just picky Becky striking again...

The plot is a highland Laird lays siege to the castle where our heroine (a recent widow) lives. There’s a lot of saying things but not showing them. I want to feel the tension between the two without reading “...and the tension flowing between them.”