This is a wonderful book. Mara and Ambrose Southwick or the most sizzling hot couple when they come together. I love the name Ambrose by the way, but for the remainder of this review he will be go by the same of Southwick. I was very much entertained by the steamy moments in the story. The often time reflections moments was also great for the book. I will say that the flashbacks were a bit much for the book and the reader. Perhaps cut back on a few. I would have like to read more to where Mara challenged Southwick more rather than Southwick. Kitty was great! She was way too much, but she was awesome. Until next time my fellow readers. Read on!

Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋 (I really loved Eaton’s scenes here – I liked the language used for the foreplay but it got light for anything after)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 (I would have loved them a bit longer!)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes, a bit
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and heroine and some minor details from a maid
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? medium to fast
When mains are first on page together: Takes a little bit, but the book is shorter so it doesn’t feel quite as long, 20% (chapter 3)
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, several weeks later
Format: read an e-book copy through kindle unlimited

Should I read in order?
This is the first in Eaton’s Ladies of Seduction series.

Basic plot:
Mara decides to take a lover, since her husband abandoned her in the country, and the rumors quickly swirl to her husband.

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency (1813)
- country house setting
- second chanceish/marriage in jeopardy
- emotionally strong hero (hero cries)
- heroine nurses hero back to health
- jealous hero
- lessons
- medium steam – 3 full scenes but they are a touch short
- this felt like a quick read to me – amazon has it at 179 pages

Ages:
- I didn’t see them mentioned

First line:
“Have you heard the news?” Lady Harmsworth asked in a hushed tone that was not very hushed at all.

My thoughts:
I ended up really enjoying this story!! Even though this is the year of second chance for me apparently 🤣 6 this month and 10 this year. But this one worked for me better for a few different reasons.

First, this one has a shorter page count so that helped me get into it. I didn’t feel bogged down in tons of memories. It does have flashbacks which usually drive me kinda nuts, but it was only a few scenes and it helped me feel like I was getting their complete story, which I always want in second chance to help salvage those relationship feels.

Second, I felt like their relationship was still ‘new’. They had barely started when they separated so I felt like I wasn’t missing a lot of that initial build up of tension.

I loved the plot of this one! I loved the interfering servants and the whole idea of our heroine taking a lover to show her husband that she is bored and won’t actually sit and wait around for him. I loved that the hero came back and pursued.

I did have a few minor issues. I do think his love happened too fast. Within a short page count and the separation and then when they come back it got steamy pretty quick – I felt like I needed a few more non intimate interactions and bonding moments between Mara and Ambrose to really feel their connection and that he was falling in love with her.

I was a bit confused because during the first intimate scene, it’s mentioned that is the heroine’s first orgasm. (37% ”What...what was that, Ambrose?” she breathed, half afraid to ask but too intrigued not to. “Your first orgasm, and I suppose I’ve myself to blame. Our wedding night was hardly the stuff of legend.”) But later in the book there’s a flashback to some foreplay on a bridge before they were married and it seemed like she orgasmed there too??(74% but this is a flashback to before they are married When the crescendo began to build for the fourth movement, Mara stiffened, her willowy frame going taut as a violin string. On a gasping cry that a bird enthusiast on the far end of the park confused for the call of a brown thrasher, she came at her own hand (which he was manipulating against her))

And I had a love/disappointment thing going with the steam. What I got I really did love. I loved the language, I loved the ‘good girls’ and hair grabs – but at the same time it felt so light and short and I was sad. I wanted the scenes to be longer and more developed because what I got, I really loved and thought it was really good. I just wanted MORE. Being a short book, I think they worked with it, overall though.

I think this is my first Jillian Eaton? I really had fun with her writing. I liked her humor and her characters and I’m really curious where this series will be going! I will definitely try to come back and read more when they come out.

Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts:Any mistakes/typos are my own

Anchoring a fist amidst her riotous mane of curls, he’d dragged her head back and deepened the kiss in a vain effort to sate the beast that was bucking within him, snarling for release. Given free rein, the beast would have taken Mara in the carriage, pushed her against the seat, and done indescribably wicked things to her. Things that would make her scream. Things that would make her pant. Things that would make her beg.
---
Just lay there and let him do what he wants, Kitty had advised in the days leading up to the wedding, and Mara had tried. She truly had. But it hadn’t worked. None of it. And in the end, Ambrose had left the bedchamber with a growl of dissatisfaction, and he hadn’t come back.
Ever.
But he was here now, along with his enormous...arousal.
---
“Do you like when I pet you?” he asked in a husky, vibrating whisper that made her toes curl. “Spread your thighs for me, Mara. Yes. Just like that. Good girl.”
---
Eyes glazed, heart pounding, cock hard as a damned iron pike, he fell to his knees and shoved her skirts up and over her knees. “Hold these,” he ordered, his voice muffled by the stocking he was in the midst of peeling off her slender calf...with his teeth.
---
Ambrose snorted. “Ashcroft is a stingy old miser. I’d be willing to bet a hundred pounds that’s glass, not crystal, and I…” His mouth hung open, no sound emeging as he watched a beam of light from a nearby window dance across the dusting of freckles on her nose. “I…”
I am falling in love with you.
I am in love with you.
I’ve been in love with you.
---
“Easy,” he whispered, trailing his mouth along the slender curve of her neck. “Let me touch you, Mara. Let me prepare you. Another finger. That’s a girl. My God.” His groan vibrated against the hollow behind her ear. “Your little quim is so fucking tight.”
 

Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.

- mention of bruises, beatings, brutality while children at home form heroine about her father
- toxic and abusive parenting from both hero and heroine’s family
- mention of miscarriages of a side character
- mention of killing of hero’s pet dog by hero’s father
- domestic abuse remembrances resulting in the heroine’s mother’s death
- scene of danger and injury where hero is attacked by wild dogs and sustains a leg injury

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

I don’t think it’s mentioned but I don’t believe so (They are married) 

 
Hows the consent? 

  It’s good/implied – there is a questionable kiss, but she is into it 

 
28% - kiss (flashback)
34% - 🔥 kiss, breast play, fingering for her
45% - heroine self pleasure but it’s a bit short, so I didn’t count it
48% - kiss (flashback)
52% - 🔥 kisses, clears the dining table of dishes and sets her on the table to give her oral and he masturbates
65% - kisses, fingering for her, missionary
75% - 🔥 fingering for her outdoors, hero comes in his pants (happens on bridge) (flashback)
91% - spooning sex but it’s a fever dream and quite short 

 

If you can move past some deceit, a toooooooooon of miscommunication, and two damaged people making poor decisions in their interactions, this series starter was a fun read. 

I definitely had a bunch of issues with this - mostly all with behavior and communication.

One of my biggest issues - I mostly liked Mara but come on, are you really going to jump into bed with your long estranged husband who never even consummated the marriage now that he’s back and acting drastically different than he did during the marriage? I would hope that Mara would have more self-respect, so I was aggravated and disappointed in how most of the connection between Mara and Ambrose after such a lengthy estrangement is in intimacy. Intimacy is highly important, but so is actual communication - this didn’t sit well with me. 

Issues aside, I did mostly enjoy this one, and plan on checking out more by the author. 

Thank you to Dragonblade Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC