A Lady's Gift for Seduction by Jess Michaels

I loved this short story!! Our hero, Henry, is wallflower. He has spectacles. He has a hobby that everyone in his family and social sphere seem to disapprove of. The heroine, Evangeline, has a take charge, be in control personality. She thinks she can manage the hero when she realizes she can use a relationship with him, but she quickly finds herself out of her depth. Really really enjoyed this story. It had enough conflict, tension, in depth character development to make me happy. And the steam! Definitely will be checking out more Jess Michaels. I believe this was my first story by her. My only complaint was the heroine was not easy to love and annoyed me a bit, especially towards the end. But it was nice seeing the more stereotypical roles reversed in the relationship.

A Lady's Gift for Scandal by Elizabeth Essex

As much as I enjoyed the first story of this duet, I think this one is my favorite. Tamsin thinks she can get what she wants out of life if she can just be 'lightly ruined'. She strikes a friendship with Evangeline and gets introduced to simple Simon. I adored Simon. I thought his character was just so different. If you love a man who lets the woman lead the way and is a true gentleman about consent, I think you will like this story as well. He's so much a gentleman. I loved watching them fall in love. It was so accidental and perfect. I did feel the heroine took it a little far with her poor mother at the end. I actually felt really bad for her mom in this story with the way she acted. Tamsin came off as rather self absorbed.

Overall I was extremely impressed with these two short stories. I will definitely be checking out more by these authors, as this was my first taste of both.

4.5 stars rounded to 5

I was able to receive an ARC copy complimentary from netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.