Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡

(They jumped into it a bit fast for tension to build for me but there was some build up)

Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥 🔥+
Humor: Yes, a bit 

I mean, the heroine carves penises into the hero’s paintings on his yacht, which was hilarious 

Perspective: third person perspective from both the hero and heroine, alternating chapters
When mains are first on page together: Pretty soon in (5%)
Cliffhanger: No, it ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: No, but I think there will be a bonus epilogue available on Spark’s website! I think it’s 8 months later or so
Format: voluntarily read an advanced reader copy from the author in e-book form

Should I read in order?
I think you could – it’s not totally necessary but you’ll understand the family dynamics a bit more and there’s some character cross over.

Basic plot:
Kit and Annabelle have a past but each tells a different story of betrayal – when they reconnect after 16 years Kit is determined to get the truth from her.

Give this a try if you want:
- Interwar Years
- enemies to lovers
- huge hero/tiny heroine
- English heroine/Scottish hero
- second chance romance
- astronomy
- established mains (both are in their 30s)
- light off page epistolary
- LGBT positive 

features side characters is a positive light 

- emotionally strong hero (hero cries)
- high steam – 8 full scenes along with some kink elements

Ages:
- Hero is 37, heroine is 32

First line:
It was just her luck to miss her own bloody coming out ball.

My thoughts:
I ended up absolutely loving this novel! I would say I don’t even like second chance that much but this book made me love it. I got so many of my favorite romance things – I got all the firsts. The first meeting, The first kiss. And that made me feel their separation that much more keenly and long for a reconciliation.

What really grabbed me about this one was how angsty it was. How badly each of them were hurt and convinced they were right when they both had to give and admit faults. I thought their love was so strong and able to overcome some giant hurdles and I was rooting for them the entire time.

Once they come together again, I adored Kit’s dedication to the cause. His passion and love for Annabelle was so palpable and had me burning up inside. I adored Annabelle and her astounding strength with everything she has overcome.

Something that I also loved and was heartbroken over in this novel is how much time a side character is in it as a family member. If you read book 1, this won’t be a surprise, but I appreciated this part and it made the family feel that much more real to me.

I think this book flowed a lot better for me than book 1. (Book 1 had a bit of a busy plot for me, but that’s just a personal preference I have) I do wish some of the things had been just a bit more developed for our mains. 

I think Kit had his exploring and adventuring background and that was detailed – but I wanted a more about his recovery with alcoholism and his fear of death. Once he is with Annabelle, it diminishes greatly with Annabelle so I think some more time just spend noticing how he didn’t have these fears as much and the reason why would have made his recovery more complete for me. I also wanted a bit more depth for Annabelle – like her interest in the women’s social and political movement. It was so interested and such a big part of her early character, I would have loved for her to have continued something with it in the later parts of the book to give her a bit more depth.

Sparks is still a newer author, but with 3 books under her belt now (one being dark contemporary). I am really excited about her journey and can’t wait to see what else she comes out with. She’s quickly becoming my go to recommendation for steamy historical romance.


Endearments/Nicknames

Hero calls heroine little queen and mo chridhe.
Heroine calls the hero Sir Prig. 

Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts:Any mistakes/typos are my own

But the naive young lady in front of him was clearly only focused on one thing. “Your head between her legs?”
Kit’s frustration morphed into something else as they stared at each other, until the heat inside him bubbled to the surface. Lady Annabelle was no less affected, refusing to break their connection, even as her chest heaved.
She spoke first. “What...what exactly were you doing there?”
“Licking.” His tongue brushed over his lips involuntarily, his eyes raking her body. “Sucking,” he rasped. “Drinking.”
---
“When I touched myself last night, I closed my eyes and pretended it was you touching me.” Her hand pressed against his chest, meandering upwards. “I thought of your fingers, your face.” Lady Annabelle pulled his head down, until her lips were at his ear. “Your cock.”
That was it. Kit manhandled her backwards, pushing her up against the thick trunk of the oak tree sheltering them and grabbing her cheeks with both hands. “I thought of you too.”
---
“Mark my words, however, I will take it.”
“When?” she whispered, her words throaty with desire.
“when I can give you more than just a quick fuck,” he said against her lips in a brief kiss. When I can give you everything I have.
----
“The first time I call you Kit will be when I’m moaning your name in pleasure.”
---
“We’re leaving port?”
He nodded. “Sound travels over water,” he began, moving about the wheelhouse so competently that it was almost alluring. “I want to be far enough away that no one hears you scream.”
//
“Screams of pleasure – I would like to clarify.”
---
“Fuck, you’re beautiful.” His words were a whispered curse as he seized her lips, holding her face in his hands to keep her steady.
---
“My soul has been tethered to you for so long. If you were to leave this earth…”
---
Instead, he bowed his head until his lips landed over her heart. He savoured everything; the feel of her skin, the scent of her body – and the touch of her hands as they slid into his hair, holding him against her chest.
And then her gentle touch turned into a rough yank, tearing his face back up to eye level. “I despise you,” she hissed, her eyes flicking down to his lips as she sharply pulled on his hair once more.
Kit wasn’t proud of the lustful noise that left him. His cock hardened, trapped between the two of them. “You have no idea what I want to do to you when you talk like that.”
Her brow arched, but even she couldn’t hide that bite of her lip. “Tell me.”
“I want to hold you down and fuck those words right out of your mouth,” he smirked, running his thumb across her bottom lip. He bent down, until his own lips brushed against her ear. “Do you remember what my cock tastes like? Because I remember exactly what you taste like.”
Annabelle gasped, clutching him closer. “Go fuck yourself, Aylesbourne.”
The sound of his own name coming from her lips almost had him combusting there and then. “I’d rather fuck you.”
---
“That’s it. Come for me. Come for my cock. Soak me. Soak me while I worship you, because I never want to leave your cunt again. Because no matter what I do to you, what I reduce us to, it will never be enough. I’ll never have enough of you. Because this is a fucking privilege to have you like this. Because you’re my queen, Annabelle.”
---
“Never leave me again,” he pleaded against her skin, drawing her scent into his lungs before kissing a path up to her ear. “I’ll hunt you across the seven seas, if I must.”
---
Kit hoisted her into his arms, her shrieking giggle music to his ears. He spun her round, burying his face into her hair to conceal his relief. “I love you,” he swore hoarsely. He couldn’t get enough of her, holding her so tightly it was a wonder she could breathe. “I love you. More than anything. More than everything. You’re my heart, my soul, mo chridhe, mo bhanrigh.”
 

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

- remembrance of a horse accident with minor injuries
- difficult childbirth mentioned
- mention of death of parents by illness (Russian flu?)
- unplanned pregnancy
- mention of women dying during abortion procedures
- mention of heroine being jailed and imprisoned (off page, remembered)
- death of brother (this is revealed in book 1 if you read that)
- affairs – all parties are in agreement
- scenes of roughness in sex (that’s agreed upon – example – the heroine slaps the man she’s having an affair with and he gives it to her rough
- PTSD from an avalanche
- hero purposefully showcases the heroine in her affair by turning on the lights
- scenes of fighting and violence
- hero falls asleep with an ashtray on his bed and almost sets his bed on fire
- stillbirth remembered on page with details
- masochism/BDSM elements
- alcoholism and alcohol withdrawal on page

Author given content warnings: 

abortion, maternal death, infertility, pregnancy, childbirth, stillbirth, miscarriage, baby loss, alcoholism, avalanches, drug use, prostitution, physical violence, war, and mention of a deceased cat.

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

No 

and the first time results in unplanned pregnancy 

but the next penetration scene uses condoms

 
11% - kiss
14% - 🔥blow job to 69-ing, her on top (V loss for her), missionary
16% - implied more sex
21% - heroine is having an affair with a man (the wife of the man supports it) and they have outdoor sex against the bandstand pillars (You could count it as a flame, I stick with only counting the main couple of the story as flames)
23% - hero masturbates to watching the above scene, but it’s fairly short
36% - 🔥 BDSM – heroine slaps the hero and it turns him on, she ties the hero to the bed and blindfolds him, female dom, oral for her (her on top)
39% - 🔥 kisses, blow job (complete), breast play, fingering for her, heroine bound to the bed
45% - 🔥 hero takes her from behind while bent on the billiards table with some nipple roughness (rubbing on the cover)
50% - 🔥heroine blindfolded, nipple play, oral for her, light anal fingering, missionary
54% - 🔥 kisses, oral for her, she plays with herself then he denies her orgasm and brings her to a chaise lounge with some light primal play (running, grabbing, biting), tied to the column, orgasm denial, then oral for multiple orgasms
71% - 🔥 mention of trying anal dilators on Annabelle in the past, then Kit agrees to try them with her on himself as well. He has one with a handy for him and dilator usage. Oral for her
80% - 🔥missionary