Did not love this book!

I didn’t like Chase. So woe is me and acting like a martyr when it wasn’t needed. I didn’t feel the redemption in him throughout the book. I didn’t feel like his character depth was there. I felt like I didn’t even know he was when I finished.

I overall liked the girls but also wasn’t in love with the morbidness and constant fight back from them. I didn’t really get a good breakthrough/love/trust moment with the girls that I’ve come to expect/desire in mistreated/neglected ward situations

Overall liked the heroine but it was annoying how she just kept falling all over Chase then telling herself no. When she instigated the lessons it just made me roll my eyes. She was so worried about her livelihood and reputation, supposedly. I just felt like the tension wasn’t there enough to drive her to do that. Like she stated there was tension but I didn’t feel it that much.

Loved the first two kiss scenes though. I didn’t mind the sex scene, I actually kind of liked that that and the fact that Chase hadn’t had sex in forever, but I didn’t like that it was done at the very end of the book and then it just stays they did it twice more instead of actually giving us a love scene worth remembering.

The epilogue was awful.

My favorite parts were when Ashbury was in the scene, especially when he visited the house to tell Alex how horrible Chase was.

Verity Durant is a cook of legendary prowess. She's also known for her scandalous love life. Upon the death of her employer, Stuart Somerset comes to oversee Fairleigh Park.

I think you should give this book a try if you like
Cinderella-ish stories
Experienced heroines
Saga-like stories – this one spans 10 years!
Stories that jump between time (think Day of the Duchess by Sarah Maclean) to tell the history of the characters and what's going on in the present.
I loved the descriptions of food in this book. LOVED IT. I love to cook and eat, and find myself always interested in the food from the time period. The details, oh my mouth was watering. I wanted to sit at a table where Verity cooked.

But this book....was not my favorite. For a number of reasons. Personal things I prefer that usually make my enjoyment less were in play here. Personally, I don't like time jumps and this book goes back and forth between 10 years to give the couple's history. I don't like deceit and I felt it in this book. I prefer my heroines to be virgins, and especially disliked how close her former and current lovers were. There were other perspectives than the main characters. There was a side love story, although I do think in this case it actually wrapped in well together. I think that's all I can say without spoilers.

I will say the ending was wonderful. I'm not sure how that happened, as usually the book does NOT get better for me once I've reached this point, but I really did enjoy the ending. I encourage you to try it, I know I am quite picky. It has by no means put me off Sherry Thomas. I loved the first one I tried, The Luckiest Lady in London, so much I think I will read all of her work.

I give 2.5 rounded to 3

Serious spoilers ahead!!!!!
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Spoiler

I HATED that it took them some absurd amount of time to even talk to each other in 'present time'. Yes you get flashbacks but really 200 pages before they even talk? That super annoyed me. I hated her deceit. The fact that Verity knew exactly who he was when he she went to him after her fall out with his brother (HIS BROTHER! UGH!) and didn't say boo, then continued to hide herself and not say boo...the fact that it was 300 pages before he even knew she was the same person as 10 years ago...I didn't like the time jumping. I couldn't get into the present time, I couldn't get into the past. I kept waiting for something to happen in the present and the past wasn't pulling my emotions. I didn't like Verity. She was a survivor but I felt like she also used people and I just felt awful for Stuart. I felt like Stuart deserved better than what he got. I hated that Stuart was engaged and he cheated on her (not technically with intercourse but if you've read the book, come on, none of us would be okay with that happening). At least it was addressed and it was all 'okay' in the end. I didn't like the perspective switches to his betrothed, but that's just a personal thing for me. I prefer one couple in a story.

I read the next book in the series, Four Nights with the Duke, months ago and really loved it. Thorn and India were in it a bit and I was curious about their story.

Really, really enjoyed this book overall. I gave it 4 stars. It had a couple of things in it that I didn’t like, but it also had a lot that I just LOVED. I have read 9 books by Eloisa James and this is probably my third favorite (Four Nights with the Duke being my favorite and When Beauty Tamed the Beast being second)

Thorn is the bastard son of Villiers (a long time hero of James’ Desperate Duchesses series) and he needs a wife and wants to start a family. He purchases a large country home and hires India to make everything come together: redecorating the house, impressing the future mother in law, and securing his marriage. Villiers was in this book a decent amount, so if you love him you will get to see him again.

There were a lot of really sweet scenes between Thorn and India. I loved the letters they wrote each other. I loved one of their first true relationship growth scenes where they eat dinner together after India starts redecorating his house. I thought the tension at the beginning of the book was great.

I got frustrated with a few things:


Spoilers ahead!!!!!

I HATED that he had zero guilt over having a flirtation/affair with India while ‘basically’ engaged. Yes he hadn’t proposed yet but it was accepted by everyone that it would be happening.

I HATED that India lied about being a virgin. HATED IT!!! The fact that she didn’t confess and he didn’t realize, just speculated later...then the fact that she used it against him later in their argument...I did not like that.

I loved the fact that he dove into the river to collect her family’s lost jewels. I had a strong inkling he would do this from the first moment of foreshadowing. I guess I thought it would be done differently and was a little disappointed. I felt like it should have been presented as sweeter and more sacrificing than what I was.

Overall enjoyed it though!

I HATED this book. Hate. I could just write hate 5,000 times for this review and that would sum up how I felt.

I gave up after 208 pages.

The heroine has no redeemable qualities about her that I could find. Lying to the extreme, unlikable, mean, unloyal. Gross.

The hero was okay I guess he didn’t really have much to make me love or hate him but WHAT did he see in this psycho and WHY would he continue it?

I seriously couldn’t stomach this book at all.

Don’t care how it ends. I could not stand another second of it.

This book is 'okay' as a standalone. However it's definitely better read in order. Especially with books 1, 2, and 6. Carlton (the hero) is in many (all? I can't recall) of these books and it does build up his character. You'll get a much better view of the man and his past reading all of the others first.

When I read this series, I had no idea Carlton was going to have his own story. I think knowing that I would have paid a little more attention to him in the previous books haha! But I am so happy to see it. Carlton Morley is the Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard and he's one of the most ruthless criminal hunters in London. His past is heartbreaking and tied to other past characters in the series (try to read the whole series!!!) Even with all of his lawful power, he finds something missing in his life. He's taken to prowling the shadows of London during the midnight hours, becoming a law unto himself.

Pru (Prudence. I just can't with that name :/) is walking on air – engaged to an earl. She has no idea what her fiance is truly like – and what her dowry will be used for. With her freedom running out, she decides she deserves one night of passion and goes to visit the Stags of St. James.

I felt like Pru is not what I was expecting. She is more of a naive, sweet, soft spoken, innocent heroine. I didn't dislike her. And I felt like she could be perfect for Carlton. Carlton has such a broken past that Pru could be the perfect balm for.

Now, if I were to compare this book to most other books I read, it would come out on top. The sex is so hot. The violence I love is there. The determination to protect the heroine with everything he has. But when I compare this to other Kerrigan Byrne, I find it lacking. I was...bored...through a lot of the middle of this novel. Pru didn't really have the spunky personality I was expecting after the beginning of the book. She didn't really change. She always came off as a damsel in distress to me. Carlton was a bit of a disappointment for me too. I liked him. But I didn't love him. He seemed to need too much mental assistance to come to the right conclusions on things. Assistance came in the form of previous characters from the series. It was nice to see everyone again but it made Carlton seem like he was a weaker hero than the others. I could clearly see them standing alone, knowing their minds – what they wanted and how to get it. I didn't find that with Carlton. When I picture him alone, he comes off as lost. He doesn't know how to handle Pru. I was a bit disappointed in him a couple of times with his interactions with her and trying to figure out how to handle her.

Thanks netgalley for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own regarding this story.

I am going to recommend this series gets read in order. I think it would improve the story. I did read book 2, but not book 1. And in book 2 I was so overwhelmed with all the characters and who was who and what happened when. I didn't know what was review or what was new tidbits of character stories you were just getting to see...Anyway this one isn't as bad as I remember book 2 being. It's pretty easy to figure out who is who and what is going on. Still. A LOT of characters.

Sabrina meets Graeme while waiting for her newest suitor in Hyde Park. This initial meeting was embarrassing enough for her and she'd be happy to not see him again. But she does, repeatedly. Not only around London society, but even all the way in Scotland. These two each have a lot going on. Graeme being a spy and also not being able to stay away from her and wanting to protect her, and Sabrina with trying to keep King George happy and check on her ancestral home and solve the problems there. If you are intrigued/turned off by the fact that he is a spy, know that it doesn't take over a huge part of the book. It's similar to the usual amount of sleuthing a hero might do if they are trying to solve some sort of problem, mystery, or murder.

Give this book a try if you like
-Large, involved families. Many characters in the book, from previous stories, from future stories, it's a huge family that you are getting to know better with each story in the series.
-Multiple locations – this one starts in London then heads to Scotland
-You like some humor. I laughed out loud a few times in this book. Definitely enjoyed the laughs.
-A bit of banter – it's a bit like enemies to lovers, yet it's not. It's more like light annoyance and Graeme desperately tries to avoid Sabrina once he feels the attraction and so they snip back and forth at each other.
-Plenty to keep the plot busy – multiple different adventures and mysteries together

I want to say this is a light, fun, and humorous book, yet it did have some darker issues running through it. These are not in your face throughout the story though. One is mentioned as happening to another character in the story. But overall this feels on the lighter side. A bit of adventure, a bit of danger. It's not overly steamy but not clean. A few kisses and 1 full scene.

I did like this book more than book 2. But I only mildly liked it. I liked the heroine, yet she made a lot of choices that irritated me. But I just liked her personality so much I kept forgiving her haha. I liked Graeme but he didn't grip my heart. The character development was good, I think part of it was more I found the tension lacking a bit. And I think that was because they were always going somewhere, doing something, other people were there, Graeme was running from Sabrina because of his feelings, Sabrina was running from Graeme because she was about to make another bad decision...I just wanted them to be together a bit more, (even though they spent most of the book together, except 2 chapters they were separated) but I wanted them actually focused on each other. I wanted more feelings between them, more wanting.

Thanks netgalley for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions regarding this story are my own.

This was my first Heather Grothaus and I would definitely try her again. And this is shocking to me, because this story was basically sweet. That is so not my thing, yet I was really immersed in this story and found myself enjoying most of it. There is one very short sex scene at the very end of the book, about 98% and a few kisses prior to that. The book isn't extremely heavy on the romance, it's there, but it's more about the characters and the history of their clans.

This novel had so much that I normally dislike. Plenty of plot, mystery, action, some murder, flashbacks, BASICALLY NO SEX

I am so so happy I was allowed to read this book on netgalley. It seriously blew me away and I have a new author I am keeping a close eye on. When I finished this, I immediately bought the first book of the series and will be following her for other releases.

Alex, our hero, is a new duke. While his properties aren't making enough to maintain themselves and the dukedom is slowly going under and he knows he must marry and heiress, that's not his main concern. He's become obsessed with calling out frauds and his focus has landed on Evangeline who is a spiritualist and medium. She was brought to his attention from a photograph that haunts him.

Evie has worked her way up from the bottom of the London streets. She's a successful medium entertaining society, hardworking, but trapped in a life she doesn't love. When she meets Alex, he presents a wager. He can prove she's a fraud within one week. If not, he leaves her alone forever. If he's successful then she must publicly announce she's a fraud.

I adored the writing in this book. It just totally sucked me in. I thought the plot was pretty unique and I really couldn't predict what was going to happen. Or at least I thought I knew what would happen but it was totally different, especially the end.

I enjoyed both characters. I enjoyed the medium aspect to Evie's character but I think it could change depending on how you feel about that stuff. I thought Evie was really strong. But, Alex made this story for me. I loved Alex. So much. He's a cold, arrogant duke with some serious father issues. I know that doesn't sound unique, but I thought his character was really well done. I think that is my favorite hero type. The moment they crack for their heroine, the pain and worry they feel when they are in danger, the passion that burns beneath that utter contempt for the world. I loved it.

This book had a similar feel to me as some of Kerrigan Byrne books. It's a little dark, though not as dark as hers. There's plenty of language that people might find offensive, like the f*** word (used in a sexual context, not only in anger). It's not a light and fluffy romance. The sex can be rather raw and it's explicit and there's at least 3 scenes I believe. But I love all that stuff, so that brought up the rating for me.

There was a part towards the middle that I felt really dragged and I was starting to get a little bored. But overall I really enjoyed this story, the characters, the world that Julia Bennet created. Also the first book has me really intrigued. Alex's half sister is the heroine and she was locked in an insane asylum for 10 years. Can't wait to start that one soon.

Thanks netgalley for the ARC. These opinions and feelings are completely my own.

Super hard to rate this. Can I even give Georgette Heyer stars? I'm not sure I can. Is she a default 5 stars?

Anyway I finally did it. I tried a Heyer. And it was so different that what I thought it would be. Heyer's writing has females wearing breeches? It was glorious. Reading this, I can see the roots of historical romance. From this, I could name tens to hundreds of romances somehow calling from her work. It was fantastically funny, witty dialogue, the characters were great. She has a lot of dialogue though. I liked that, but at the same time there were parts that were discussed after the fact instead of you experiencing it. Yet the dialogue was so wonderful, you didn't really care. Being written in the 20's (crazy to think almost 100 years ago), it's definitely different. It was a little harder for me to get into really. I know it's just I'm so used to modern writing now. I struggled with it a bit but once I was into the plot and learning who Leonie was, it was better for me. The Duke of Avon is called Satanas, I would have liked to have more background of why he was called that. Still this is just me comparing a legend to what I like now.

I'm glad to have tried her but for me personally I don't think I could read a ton in a row. I would like to try another one perhaps in a few months. Plus I would miss my sex hahaha. Still it was a great novel even being 'clean'.