Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes, great banter!
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and heroine
When mains are first on page together: Almost immediately – Chapter 1
Cliffhanger: No this ends on a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes. The last chapter is 6 months later
Format: voluntarily read an advanced reader copy from the author in e-book form

Should I read in order?
It’s not totally necessary but there’s some minor character cross over. The series is so unique and fun though!

Basic plot:
Henry agrees to escort Princess Isabel on a visit to Spain to diffuse political tensions.

Give this a try if you want:
- Luis I reign - 1872
- Lisbon, Portugal and Spain setting
- royalty – heroine is a princess
- scientist hero
- bathing machines at the beach!
- house party/vacation vibes
- class difference
- political intrigue/light mystery
- romantic and poetic prose
- strip trivia
- Rapunzel vibes
- protective hero (and maybe a bit of jealousy)
- hero falls first
- bodyguard vibes – the hero is roped into escorting the princess
- mid to higher steam – I counted 5 full scenes – some I combined together as they were very close and it is a longer novel (details at end of review). There is something a bit light about her scenes – more emotional than explicit.

Ages:
- Hero is 32, heroine is 22

First line:
The garden door was enchanted.

My thoughts:
I adore Siniscalchi’s writing!! She has such a beautiful writing style that just pulls me in and gives me all the feels. I find myself lost (in the best way) in her unique settings. Plots that are interesting and lead me on mini research sessions because I’m so curious. Characters that are so memorable and lively that I feel like I know them personally as they nestle in my heart. I find her stories carry a level of romance I don’t find every day.

Princess Isabel is someone I thought I wouldn’t like. She’s a bit prudish and very focused on morality. Her duty is to her brother, the king, and her country. She wields control with an iron fist over what little she dominates being a woman. But, I just loved her. I adored her slow realization that maybe she can open up, explore, embrace life, and stop suffocating herself. She’s such an honorable and strong female lead.

Henrique is the classic rake – a bit playful, teasing, always up for fun. But we get a depth here that really anchored my heart to him. I loved his emotional turmoil over knowing what he wants but shouldn’t have.

Something that shines through in this book is the research that goes into it. The Portugal and Spain backdrops are gorgeous. One scene I really appreciated were the bathing machines. I have only seen them mentioned a couple times in HR, but this scene I felt like I could actually feel how it was to experience one. (If you haven’t seen them before, look up pictures!)

I’ve read this whole series so far and each book is so special and unique. I think I’m still most attached to Pedro and Anne’s story (book 2) but this is a very close second. So much to love about this novel.

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

Isabel crossed her arms above her chest. “Careful. Words enlighten the spirit, while the senses can lead you astray.”
He came closer. “I’ve been allowing the senses to lead me astray for a long time now, but I would gladly give you the reins.”
---
His hand descended on her. Before the blow connected, he was flung backward. From the blur of shadows and limbs emerged Viscount Penafiel. Isabel staggered back from the melee. The viscount punched the drunkard’s face. His devil-may-care insolence slipped, exposing a swarthy stranger, his shirtsleeves doing a poor job of concealing menacing muscles.
All of a sudden, it seemed to her that Viscount Penafiel understood a thing or two about handling a crisis. His fists were quite...diplomatic. Perhaps she had been too hasty in condemning her brother’s choice.
The viscount’s white teeth flashed against his bronzed skin. “Your Highness, please lead the lady from here. The chat I’m about to have is inappropriate for women.”
---
“Today is your lucky day.” He made a flourish with his right hand and bowed. “I’m ready to squire my Dom Quixote to all her earthly desires.”
Isabel gasped. “I’m in no need of a Sancho Panza.”
He chuckled. “Not Sancho. I’ll be your handsome and more experienced knight.”
She scoffed. “You, a knight? More likely a knave-”
He shushed her with a finger on her lips. With a firm leash on herself, she restrained the urge to bite him. She glowered at him instead.
---
He opened his shirt and flung the dripping garment atop the porch. Isabel blinked, riveted by the expanse of bronzed skin and taut muscles. So this was a male chest. Had the temperature increased several degrees? Men swam bare-chested all the time, and she wore the most modest gown possible, but still... The moment felt too intimate. How could it not? The same water lapping her torso caressed his male nipples. Gasping, Isabel tore her gaze from his salacious body to his unrepentant grin. He winked and plunged headfirst. With fluid movements, he lifted his head above the surface, kicking his legs and pulling with his arms in perfect cadence, as if he alone listened to the ocean's music.
He flashed her a conceited smile.
“Come here.”
---
Reverently, Sophie touched Isabel’s cheek. “But she will always be my queen.”
She had become his queen as well.
---
“Rafaela was inside and willing, but I sent her away. She craves more passion from her marriage than the dutiful Canastra wants to provide...That night, she decided to-”
“Stick her tongue up your throat?” A sob escaped her chest, her eyes green pools of disdain and hurt. “Why didn’t you let her?”
He held her face. “Because after my tongue was inside you, it was ruined for every other taste.”
Isabel gasped, and the hand she barricaded against him became limp. Henrique meshed their lips.
---
“Impudent wench. You will steal all the credit?” He slapped her buttocks.
Isabel squealed. How dare you slap the royal rump, sir?”
 

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

- scenes of domestic violence against a side character and an attempted attack against the heroine
- disordered eating - there’s elements of withholding and restraint the heroine goes through – she believes refraining from the pleasures of life helps with morality (there is a scene where her corset and clothes are so tight to repress her curves and she hasn’t eaten that she faints)
- feelings of infidelity – the heroine opens the door and finds the hero kissing another woman (you find out she kissed him without consent and he didn’t want it)
- the hero does drug the heroine with ether to get her out of a dangerous situation and protect her
- I want to note a scene for those sensitive to consent – the hero takes the heroine to protect her and essentially locks her in a tower on his property. She initiates intimacy but part of it is to get the key to get out. We know from reading the story, she has feelings for the hero and it’s consensual but I think it could cross into dubious consent 

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

No 

 
Pg 135/405 (33%) - kiss
Pg 167/405 (41%) - kiss
Pg 201/404 (49%) - 🔥 kisses, fingering for her
Pg 242/404 (59%) - 🔥 kisses, oral on a bench outdoors
Pg 299/404 (74%) - kisses
Pg 314/404 (77%) - 🔥 kisses, missionary followed by another scene (doggy?)
Pg 329/404 (81%) - 🔥oral for her, cock touches, sex on a table (This is pretty close to the last scene so I decided to combine), followed directly by another time, followed not long after by another scene.
Pg 390/404 (96%) - 🔥her on top to missionary