Heat Index: 5.5/10.

Vibes: ballroom historical, snarky sniping, SCANDALOUS EARRINGS, and head over heels heroes who don't want to admit it

Prudence Thorne isn't happy with the rakish Duke of Montford, Jasper Vincent. Not because he's done her wrong personally--but because he won a sum from her father at cards, so massive that Prue is now forced to look for a husband to save them from ruin. A boring, staid husband. In an attempt to avoid her fate, she tries blackmailing Jasper--but when it backfires, there's the added complication of his grandfather deciding that she's EXACTLY the woman the duke needs. And pushing them inexorably towards a marriage they say they don't want.

Anna Bradley is good at writing chemistry, and you definitely feel the spark between Prue and Jasper from the start. They can't help getting their little digs in, even as their attraction to each other is very apparent. She doesn't reinvent the wheel here; it's kind of a classic ballroom historical, all about the snarking and the virgin-heroine-ing and the marriage-of-convenience-ing. However, the humor (I found several elements of this one QUITE funny) and Jasper falling pathetically in love made it entertaining, even if it didn't quite blow me away. It's definitely one for the traditional historical romance girlies.

--As I said above, a high point for me was the humor in this one. Jasper happens to have a pair of earrings he just secured from his former mistress (and I did like that he was an actual rake who'd kept actual mistresses, even if I wasn't in love with how this particular mistress was presented) which is what Prue gets a hold of for her blackmail scheme. And those earrings. Are not... normal earrings. They are earrings which teach Prue a thing or two, unintentionally. Visually.

Which leads to one of my favorite moments in this book, which is "Prue learns about things further while talking to her friend, the heroine of the previous book, who Is A Woman Now". I really wish that we had more historicals in which heroines learn about ~the marriage bed~ from previous heroines. It reminds you that, oh yeah, that last romance happened, and everyone is still AT IT. Plus, it's just a nice, authentic friendship beat for the girls.

--The physical comedy in general is really good here. Prue shoots Jasper by accident (and like, the location she shoots him in is probably one of the better locations to be shot in from a health perspective, but THE SHAME!!!). In general, you get the sense that Jasper is kind of a disaster, and he's just sort of fumbling his way through love while growing both increasingly besotted and increasingly infuriated with with her.

--I'm actually surprisingly fond of an "older person meddles in the love lives of the younger people" thing in certain historicals, and I don't think I realized this until I read this book...? Jasper's grandfather is right, and he knows he's right, and though I honestly wasn't 100% sure about how he had the clout to force Jasper to marry Prue, it worked. It's fine.

--That does lead to my critique of this one, though. The fluff and the chemistry and the romance is all good, but the plot kind of lacks? There isn't a lot of one, and that's FINE, but when you do have elements like the grandfather forcing the marriage, or Prue getting confused about her wedding night in a way that has actual ramifications... I just kind of feel like they weren't solidly tracked? Like, it sort of seemed thrown together, which is not how I felt about the previous book in the series.

However, I still had fun and I still very much want to read the next installment. So it doesn't derail the read, but it does keep it from being as strong as it could have been. I kind of felt like Prue and Jasper just sort of stumbled into love, versus falling in a way that I as the reader could track.

There are 2-3 sex scenes in this book, depending on how you define them (for me, it was three). I could have used one more, or more DETAIL in general. The first one in particular felt weirdly bare, as we get this pretty delightful lead up to the wedding night from Jasper's perspective. And he actually has a lot of anxiety about it, and it's charming, and I just wanted more follow-through after that.

This is a sweet romcom, which I do think could've hit harder, but was nevertheless pleasing. I think it will work very well for the Bridgerton crowd.

Thanks to Netgalley and Zebra for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.