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A review by rjordan19
A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes!
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine’s perspective
Should I read in order?
It’s not necessary for this one, but you’ll get a better background of the family and characters if you read book 1, A Reckless Match. Plus it’s delightful so I think you should read it!
Basic plot:
Scandalous and enticing Carys Davies is doing everything she can to avoid marriage. Long term rival families, she never lets go of an opportunity to bait proper Tristan Montgomery. And when he finds out her dark secret and they strike a bargain about lessons, things really heat up.
Give this a try if you want:
- Regency (didn’t see a year listed, but book 1 took place in 1815)
- Ex soldier hero (fought against the French for 2 years)
- Mid steam - 3 full scenes
- A bit of enemies to lovers feel (They don’t come off as true enemies but are long term rival family members so there’s lots of baiting banter)
- English hero, Welsh heroine
- Small part with heroine disguised as a lad
- Lessons – hero and heroine come to an agreement on lessons for Carys to decide what she’s missing on by not getting married
Ages:
- Hero is 27,
My thoughts:
With an opener like
While kicking and biting, love develops…
HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE IT??
I just really want to yell repeatedly “This book is f***ing perfection!” repeatedly for my review. Seriously. It’s so amazing. HOW does Kate Bateman keep getting better? I didn’t think it was possible after reading and loving so many of her novels. But not this takes the new spot as favorite.
Her characters have such heart and depth. I just fall into their entire world and want to stay there. They are bright and funny and wrap their way around your heart and don’t let go. You’ll cry for them. You’ll love them.
Carys is such a wonderful character. Hurt and betrayed early on in her society exposure, she has taken to acting outrageously to protect herself. But she has a heart of gold – the way she cares for her family and her rescue animals just made me melt. To see her with Tristan’s love is so beautiful.
Tristan is amazing. Steady, proper, he needs Carys to rile him up and mess up his perfectly tied cravat. He knows he has loved her but refused to admit it. This enemies to lovers is truly unrequited love at its core.
I adore books with lessons in them – Carys and Tristan strike a bargain to be enemies with benefits when Tristan realizes she was treated wrongly by her prior one night stand. And it gives them lots of reasons to be together and exploring each other and I just gobble that up.
This book was funny, the banter delightful, the steam and tension breathtaking. Bateman is officially an autobuy. So, so good.
A few other notes:
I LOVE when a hero loses it over a heroine. Love Love Love.
Tristan forced his shaking hands into his pockets and tried to calm his raging pulse.
Had he completely lost his mind?
This is so sweet
No, he did nothing to dampen her desires. If anything, he was the wind, fanning the flames. She’d read a quote like that recently, by a French writer. “Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great.”
He’s amazing
“I’m not...thin. Or willowy.” she warned, suddenly desperate to temper his expectations. He was looking at her as if she, too, were a goddess, and while she might have pretended to be Diana for the ball, she knew she was far from perfect.
“No,” he agreed huskily. “You’re not thin. Or willowy. You’re delicious. And I’m a starving man who wants to feast.”
He loves her so much!
She could have been seriously hurt. She could have been killed.
His stomach clenched. God, he couldn’t imagine a world without her in it. He would have fought that beast with his bare hands to protect her. He would have died for her.
It was that simple. And that complicated.
It’s fucking beautiful
Tristan’s jacket strained over the muscles in his back as he shoved Howe again. A couple of leather volumes thumped to the floor.
“Her name will never pass your lips!” he growled. “If I hear even a whisper that she’s not a virgin I’ll know exactly where the rumor came from. I will find you and hurt you, Howe. Extensively. Do you understand? There are worse things than death, you bastard. You’ll be praying for it when I get through with you.”
The absolute certainty in Tristan’s voice sent a shiver down Carys’s spine. She had no doubt that he would do exactly as he’d threatened.
Howe, it seemed was coming to the same conclusion. He blanched, his eyes wide.
Tristan leaned in even closer, so his lips were almost level with Howe’s ear. “And you’re wrong about her never finding a husband. She’s going to be my wife.”
Carys’s mouth dropped open in shock, but Tristan gave Howe another shove for emphasis.
“You hear that? I’m going to marry her, and I don’t care how many men she’s slept with. If anyone questions her virginity, I will swear on my mother’s grave that she came to our marriage untouched. It’ll be your word against mine. Who do you think they’ll believe?”
“You’d lie for her?” Howe spluttered, incredulous.
“I’d die for her,” Tristan said coldly. “And I’d kill for her too. Believe it.”
I didn’t think I could love him more!
“Any potential husband will expect you to be chaste.”
“Not every potential husband!” Tristan growled. “I don’t care if she’s slept with an entire cavalry regiment.”
Content Warnings:
- There’s a bit of a difficult sexual scene remembered in the beginning for the heroine – it’s not rape, but she clearly was taken advantage of by the man and then abandoned afterwards
- Animals in cages at a fair/mentions of animal abuse occurring other places/in the past
- Mentions of villain’s wife cheating on him
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
8% - remembered sex scene of the heroine where she was taken advantage of
28% - kiss
38% - kisses, breast play
52% - 🔥 oral for her against a rock
62% - 🔥 kisses, hand job for him, missionary sex
77% - kiss
82% - 🔥 thank god you’re alive sex, doggy style
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes!
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine’s perspective
Should I read in order?
It’s not necessary for this one, but you’ll get a better background of the family and characters if you read book 1, A Reckless Match. Plus it’s delightful so I think you should read it!
Basic plot:
Scandalous and enticing Carys Davies is doing everything she can to avoid marriage. Long term rival families, she never lets go of an opportunity to bait proper Tristan Montgomery. And when he finds out her dark secret and they strike a bargain about lessons, things really heat up.
Give this a try if you want:
- Regency (didn’t see a year listed, but book 1 took place in 1815)
- Ex soldier hero (fought against the French for 2 years)
- Mid steam - 3 full scenes
- A bit of enemies to lovers feel (They don’t come off as true enemies but are long term rival family members so there’s lots of baiting banter)
- English hero, Welsh heroine
- Small part with heroine disguised as a lad
- Lessons – hero and heroine come to an agreement on lessons for Carys to decide what she’s missing on by not getting married
Ages:
- Hero is 27,
My thoughts:
With an opener like
While kicking and biting, love develops…
HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE IT??
I just really want to yell repeatedly “This book is f***ing perfection!” repeatedly for my review. Seriously. It’s so amazing. HOW does Kate Bateman keep getting better? I didn’t think it was possible after reading and loving so many of her novels. But not this takes the new spot as favorite.
Her characters have such heart and depth. I just fall into their entire world and want to stay there. They are bright and funny and wrap their way around your heart and don’t let go. You’ll cry for them. You’ll love them.
Carys is such a wonderful character. Hurt and betrayed early on in her society exposure, she has taken to acting outrageously to protect herself. But she has a heart of gold – the way she cares for her family and her rescue animals just made me melt. To see her with Tristan’s love is so beautiful.
Tristan is amazing. Steady, proper, he needs Carys to rile him up and mess up his perfectly tied cravat. He knows he has loved her but refused to admit it. This enemies to lovers is truly unrequited love at its core.
I adore books with lessons in them – Carys and Tristan strike a bargain to be enemies with benefits when Tristan realizes she was treated wrongly by her prior one night stand. And it gives them lots of reasons to be together and exploring each other and I just gobble that up.
This book was funny, the banter delightful, the steam and tension breathtaking. Bateman is officially an autobuy. So, so good.
A few other notes:
I LOVE when a hero loses it over a heroine. Love Love Love.
Tristan forced his shaking hands into his pockets and tried to calm his raging pulse.
Had he completely lost his mind?
This is so sweet
No, he did nothing to dampen her desires. If anything, he was the wind, fanning the flames. She’d read a quote like that recently, by a French writer. “Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great.”
He’s amazing
“I’m not...thin. Or willowy.” she warned, suddenly desperate to temper his expectations. He was looking at her as if she, too, were a goddess, and while she might have pretended to be Diana for the ball, she knew she was far from perfect.
“No,” he agreed huskily. “You’re not thin. Or willowy. You’re delicious. And I’m a starving man who wants to feast.”
He loves her so much!
She could have been seriously hurt. She could have been killed.
His stomach clenched. God, he couldn’t imagine a world without her in it. He would have fought that beast with his bare hands to protect her. He would have died for her.
It was that simple. And that complicated.
It’s fucking beautiful
Tristan’s jacket strained over the muscles in his back as he shoved Howe again. A couple of leather volumes thumped to the floor.
“Her name will never pass your lips!” he growled. “If I hear even a whisper that she’s not a virgin I’ll know exactly where the rumor came from. I will find you and hurt you, Howe. Extensively. Do you understand? There are worse things than death, you bastard. You’ll be praying for it when I get through with you.”
The absolute certainty in Tristan’s voice sent a shiver down Carys’s spine. She had no doubt that he would do exactly as he’d threatened.
Howe, it seemed was coming to the same conclusion. He blanched, his eyes wide.
Tristan leaned in even closer, so his lips were almost level with Howe’s ear. “And you’re wrong about her never finding a husband. She’s going to be my wife.”
Carys’s mouth dropped open in shock, but Tristan gave Howe another shove for emphasis.
“You hear that? I’m going to marry her, and I don’t care how many men she’s slept with. If anyone questions her virginity, I will swear on my mother’s grave that she came to our marriage untouched. It’ll be your word against mine. Who do you think they’ll believe?”
“You’d lie for her?” Howe spluttered, incredulous.
“I’d die for her,” Tristan said coldly. “And I’d kill for her too. Believe it.”
I didn’t think I could love him more!
“Any potential husband will expect you to be chaste.”
“Not every potential husband!” Tristan growled. “I don’t care if she’s slept with an entire cavalry regiment.”
Content Warnings:
- There’s a bit of a difficult sexual scene remembered in the beginning for the heroine – it’s not rape, but she clearly was taken advantage of by the man and then abandoned afterwards
- Animals in cages at a fair/mentions of animal abuse occurring other places/in the past
- Mentions of villain’s wife cheating on him
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
8% - remembered sex scene of the heroine where she was taken advantage of
28% - kiss
38% - kisses, breast play
52% - 🔥 oral for her against a rock
62% - 🔥 kisses, hand job for him, missionary sex
77% - kiss
82% - 🔥 thank god you’re alive sex, doggy style