Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋 (I was a touch sad because some of the scenes I wanted were cut or kind of implied)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 (there’s kind of a mix and some are a bit longer)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥 (This might feel hotter to you, I didn’t count some partials and shorter scenes)
Humor: A bit
Perspective: third person from both the hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: Immediately
Cliffhanger: No, this ends on a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, maybe a bit less than a year later
Format: read an e-book version through kindle unlimited
Why I chose this book: okay FIRST of all I had to read it after that one reviewer one starred it and called the heroine a cum dumpster. 😆 And I’m so glad I did – please everyone send me all your cum dumpster heroines my way! Also, I have loved what I tried from the Curves and Cravats series and want to read them all. ALSO Mackenzie wrote To Marry a Devil which I loved and I want to read all her books!
Mains: This is a M/F relationship between a cishet hero and heroine

Should I read in order?
This is fine to pick up alone, but does have some character crossover from Mackenzie’s Finders Keepers series.

Basic plot:
George and Caroline collide together with passion, but need different things from life...or do they?

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency – 1815
- London setting
- widowed heroine
- light age gap – she’s older by 5 years
- Viscount hero
- sex positive heroine – she’s been a mistress to a number of men and enjoys her adventures
- curvy, full figured heroine
- hero is looking to marry and must be mindful of his reputation he’s crafted – heroine doesn’t have the best reputation being a widow that enjoys relations…
- jealous/possessive hero
- period positive!
- affair
- higher steam – at least 2 full scenes (maybe more if you’re generous) in a shorter novel
- shorter novel

Ages:
- hero is 30, heroine is 35

First line:
George Comerford wrapped his hand around the front of Caroline Spenser’s throat, the possessiveness of the gesture sending delicious heat through her body as he pushed her front against the library wall.

My thoughts:
Ohhhhh, I loved this novella so much. I just fell right into Mackenzie’s writing. It held the magic I found in To Marry the Devil (book 2 of this series) which I loooooooooved. I found myself feeling all swoony and sweet while reading and giddy and and taking notes for quotes.

I adored these characters. George is just a favorite for me. And I loved Caroline. Even though this one had elements that sometimes (many times) don’t really work the best for me – a relationship already started...elements of instalust – she made it work here in perfection.

My ONLY complaint about this one is that Mackenzie played with some dynamics and things I really loved and don’t see a lot of in HR – throat play, hair pulling, a sweet hero that is still dominant...and I wanted more details in those scenes (the ones that really hit those were the shorter scenes or the ones that kind of faded. I was HERE FOR IT! But this is just me being selfish and wanting more…

Reading this made me immediately want to dive into what I’ve missed from her (book 3 and the following novella – which the hero is featured here for a bit of page time).

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: 3
Average rating: 4.67 stars
Favorite book: To Marry the Devil

Quotes

And now, the temptation had escaped her too, replaced by a frustratingly handsome man who had pinned her against the wall and recited poetry in her ear as he sank into her.
At the thought, her stomach tightened.
Really, it was his fault that she had not found another lover; what other gentleman could live up to the erotic imagery that George Comerford had left behind like a flare of light against closed eyelids? He was a firework in the dark – no candle could compare.
---
He looked at her with an expression caught between respect and fear. “You are a holy terror.”
“Thank you.”
---
“I don’t like seeing you with other gentleman,” he said in a low, possessive voice. His teeth caught her lobe, not gently, and she bit her lip. “I especially don’t like watching them touch you.”
“You do not own me,” she said, tipping her chin back.
“No? But I want to.”
---
“I knew what I was doing,” she said, holding his gaze. “Or at least, I thought I did.”
His jaw was tight, the usual careless disarray of his hair now endearingly soft in contrast to the rigid anger on his face. “Don’t excuse him,” he said tightly. “Who is he?”
“You are not my defender, George.”
“I would be, if only you would let me. Who is he? Give me a name.”
 

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

- parental illness
- parental death remembered
- heroine has a bastard and let another family raise her
- mention of heroine’s prior marriage to a man 40 years her senior

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex aspects, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:

Safe sex: 

  I feel like it’s not specifically said? But I am assuming the heroine knows of ways to prevent pregnancy or she makes her men pull out? 

How’s the consent? 

  It’s good 

Pregnancy/children in story? 

  No pregnancy for the heroine, but she does have a child out of wedlock from when she got pregnant at 17. She gave the child up for adoption basically and pays for her way but doesn’t interact with her. 

1% - the start of a scene where he fucks her against a wall (it cuts)
15% - kisses
31% - 🔥 at the theater in a box with with risk of discovery – fingering for her and sex against the wall/door
“Look at me, Caro.”
She turned her gaze to his face, watching the hazy movement of pleasure across it.
“That’s right,” he crooned, his palm still over her mouth, her gasps and cries stifled. His breath was short, choppy. “Keep your eyes on me.”
49% - sex (missionary?) but it’s pretty short? (had some light throat play too I wanted MORE MORE MORE)
69% - 🔥 oral for her, bj for him
”I love seeing you like this,” he said, easing free. “Do it again.”
She obliged, taking him as deep as she could. On her knees before him, rubbing frantically, wanting to find completion before he did. As though sensing it was a competition, he gave a gritty laugh and loosened her hair from its pins, wrapping it around his fist as he moved her up and down.