Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: A touch
Perspective: Third person, mostly from the hero and heroine but also POV from a side character, Silence, who is the heroine of a future book
Percentage which mains are first on page together: Didn’t note it but almost immediately
Cliffhanger: No, ends with a Happily Ever After
Epilogue: The last chapter takes place 6 weeks in the future. The actual named epilogue is about Silence
Format: listened to audiobook from library (Hoopla)

“Shh.” He raised his head and licked lazily at a nipple, his breath caressing her wet skin as he whispered merely another torment. “Easy, sweetheart.”
He spoke as if she were a mare in need of gentling, and at any other time, she would have made him aware of his insult. But at this moment, she was entirely at his mercy.
“Griffin, please,” she whispered.
“Do you want me?” he asked.
“Yes.” She tossed her head restlessly. She’d explode if he didn’t give her release soon.
“Do you need me?” He kissed her nipple too gently.
“Please, please, please.”
“Do you love me?”


Should I read in order?
Probably, yes. There’s definitely some overarching plots and themes throughout the series, as well as future characters being developed (like Silence, who also has page time in book 1). The romance itself could be read as a standalone for a rebellious reader.

Basic plot:
Hero has the most unusual meeting of her future brother in law...

Give this a try if you want:
- Georgian romance (1737)
- daughter of a duke heroine and brother of a Marquess hero
- a touch of taboo/forbidden love – the heroine is engaged to the hero’s brother
- bearded (and hairy!) heroine’s
- dirty talking hero
- bit of an antihero –

he sleeps around with other peoples wives, runs a gin distillery and is involved in a war within St. Giles, and wants his brother’s fiance… 

- higher steam – 5 full scenes

Ages:
- heroine is 24, didn’t catch hero but would guess around 30?

My thoughts:
I am conflicted about this one! Some parts are still with me even though I finished this a week or two ago. And I think they will linger for much longer. But I also got frustrated with a few things.

I do struggle with one of the mains being ‘with’ or promised to another throughout the book. And in this one, the heroine’s engagement lasts almost the whole book and I was so ready for it to be over. There’s also something the fiance does that I don’t think was handled well enough – he barely apologized and it was forgiven when to me it’s almost unforgivable. He’s not glorified for it, but I felt like it needed to be addressed more.

But...I loved these characters. I didn’t want to love Griffin. He has a lot of issues. And he’s definitely not perfect lol. But damn, I just fell in love with him anyway. He just loved Hero so much. He wanted her so badly. The yearning he felt – to the point of tears – I just was swooning.

There’s something about a man basically begging his woman to love him while fucking her that just wrecked my heart. And I always want my heart wrecked.

One of my biggest complaints about this book is that Hoyt loves the word ‘penis’. Lol. It also felt a bit long to me. Like I was ready for it to be over before it was over. Not sure if it was the overarching themes of the side characters pushing their way in (I’m looking at you, Silence’s POV..) or their push and pull was just a bit too much for me. But either way, definitely eager to keep reading this series!

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

- gin making, abuse, and alcoholism referenced
- infidelity – heroine is engaged to the hero’s brother for the majority of the book and they are intimate plenty of times
- domestic violence without repercussions – the heroine’s fiance hits her, bruising her face, and calls her slurs and his only make up for it is barely an apology
- death, murder, threat of rape, scenes of mobs and violence, and explosions on page
- murder of parents mentioned
- infant death, child birth death, foster parenting
- maybe some light layers of dubious consent – hero pushes past what heroine is comfortable with sometimes

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

No. I think maybe the first time he blows it on her belly but subsequent times put her at a risk of pregnancy 

 
29% - kiss
42% - 🔥kisses, breast play in the carriage, cock touches for him, hand job
53% - hero masturbation (interrupted)
55% - 🔥kisses, oral for her, missionary
63% - 🔥kisses and wall/door sex with risk of being caught
70% - 🔥kisses, sex (missionary?)
81% - 🔥kisses, breast play, missionary, followed by another scene
implied blow job at the end of the book