I enjoyed this one, even though Roberta was infatuated with a rather unappealing man. Villiers was so obsessd with chess she didn't have a chance. I'm curious enough about some of the other characters that I'll pick up the next in the series.

Personally, when it comes to POV's I like only the hero and heroine, maybe a scene or two with someone else to explain something, but this was constantly changing. I didn't actually read the synopsis before reading because I previously read the first book in the spin off of this series and was like shit I'm going back to the start, so in the beginning I assumed Villers was the hero of this book and couldn't figure out why because he's a wanker, and I couldn't get over the number of times to mentioned they were RELATED... I mean sure, they're fourth cousins I wouldn't even say 'oh were cousins' they're just another person, but they kept calling each other cousin and stuff and it really weirded me out.

The slow burn up to that sex scene at like 80-83% had me so red in the face I had to stop reading, and then I realised it was 2am and finished the rest of it because I needed to know what happened before I could sleep, so now it's 3am and I'm glad I read it. Personally not a fan of the time period because of the wigs and powder, and the bloody mindset of the people (legit said Damon was a bad person because he was raising his bastard child and didn't send him to the country to be raised by someone else. Lol. And everyone's views on children in this killed me. Even Roberta got on my nerves about it. She was legit disgusted by everything he did until she started boning his dad. Personally I thought he was adorable, but I guess it's the times. I wish there had have been a moment that was more 'oh I love this kid too' but there wasn't which made me sad but with how everyone talks about kids in this it also kind of made sense because they really just seem to hate kids lol

Not a standard historical. There multiple romantic relationships being developed here, and while Roberta and Damon get their HEA, the other ones don't all resolve.

Definitely a series where the primary relationship will change focus each book, but the secondary relationships will keep being developed across multiple books. It's an intriguing way of doing a series.

3.5 stars

Liked it more by the end, will continue the series.

Roberta is the sheltered daughter of an overemotional lower nobility in Regency England. Her distant cousin, Duchess Jemma, has just returned from France to look after her politically ambitious estranged husband. Roberta wants to avoid becoming an old maid and beseeches her cousin to help her find a man.

A romance with some blush-worthy scenes, this was out of my usual comfort zone for books. It was a light read and a perhaps a good beach read. I didn't enjoy it particularly because the characters were so annoying! Roberta was so naive and foolish. I am not particularly certain I understood her even by the end. The other characters were just sort of frustrating and took away from the pleasure of reading the book.

After reading other reviews that complained of the third person, multi-character book, I felt compelled to disagree. It takes a bit of getting used to since most HF stories are told in first person, I found it refreshing and enjoyed being immersed in several characters’ lives simultaneously, especially since they each had their own appeal. I’m looking forward to reading more books in this series.

This book was a mess. Just... All over the place.