Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
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 (and a bit from side characters from book 1, Griff and Julia)
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: Immediately
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes
Format: voluntarily read an advanced reader copy in e-book form from the author
Why I chose this book: I was asked by Siniscalchi to read an advanced reader copy and I said yes because I’ve really loved her prior books!
Mains: This is a M/F relationship between a cishet hero and heroine

Should I read in order?
It may be best in order – they are stand alone romances but the character flow of the series is there. And this heroine was engaged to the hero from book 1 and the mains from books 1 and 2 attend a house gathering together with their children so the background will make that more enjoyable. And there is an intimate scene between Anne and Pedro (the mains from book 2) so that might feel random to you if you don’t know their story.

Basic plot:
Beth proposes to Boyd to align their families and save her family’s finances and Boyd uses it as an opportunity to exact revenge against how her father treated him years ago.

Give this a try if you want:
- Portugal setting
- 1876 (King Luis I timeline in Portugal)
- bargain vibes – the hero invites the heroine to partake in three challenges to see if they will be suitable as business and marriage partners
- hero keeps trinkets/souvenirs from the heroine (like ribbons, handkerchiefs, etc)
- he’ll blindfold you and feed you wine
- holiday romance
- close proximity – he invites her to a house party of sorts with his family
- she plays the cello for him...naked
- there’s an element of revenge here – the hero and the heroine’s father have a history
- shorter novel
- higher steam – 3 full scenes between the mains plus a scene from the couple from book 2

Ages:
- I didn’t catch either of them.

First line:
“Highlanders have a disagreeable habit of tossing a woman over their shoulders and carrying her off to their caves.”

My thoughts:
Oh I loved the set up of this one. A Scottish hero, bent on revenge, set in Portugal with a proposed marriage of convenience...I was eating this UP from the get go.

Though, maybe ¼ of the way in, I did get annoyed with Boyd a bit. While I loved his playful side, and I loved him taking souvenirs from Beth, I felt some of the things he said/did were just coming off as childish. I did feel like he overcame that. I also wasn’t a big fan of so much secondary character page time, but that’s just me. If you love seeing prior characters in the story, you will enjoy that more. Something I really don’t like is sex scenes between side characters and we get one of those too. (As much as I loved Anne and Pedro, I am always ready for the new, current couple of the book.

But! But! This book grabbed my emotions about ¾ of the way through. I was loving their longing for each other and felt so hard their fear of moving forward. It really gripped me and so I boosted my rating. I adored the angsty all is lost moments for them both.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: 5
Average rating: 4.8
Favorite book: This one! (The Taste of Light is close though)

Quotes

Ohhh I love thoughts like this

Instead, peeking from beneath the velvet skirts emerged the daintiest pair of shoes he had ever seen.
Boyd could swear the crushed river pebbles sighed, finally tread upon by footwear worthy of the king’s ransom they must have cost.
Exquisite ankles followed.
---
“A winemaker’s wife calls her husband by his name.”
“I’m not a winemaker’s wife. Propriety-”
“You have my tongue in your mouth, Beth. Fuck propriety. Say my name.”
---
Beth’s eyes widened at the intensity in his voice. A drawing-room groom would never look at his bride with such heat.
She lifted her fingers to her lips. The kiss they had shared – unbridled, electric – had little place in the drawing-room courtship. Well...Perhaps a drawing-room courtship was not so sublime after all.
Grinning, she took a hasty step back, giving him a polite nod. “Thank you, Mr. Sandeman. A lady knows when to heed well-meaning advice.” Without another word, she turned, hurrying toward the exit, her heels clicking against the floor.
“The name’s Boyd. And, Beth, lock your damn door, aye?”
---
“Lass, ye’ve got yerself tae blame.” He pillowed his face in his hand.
The mellow brogue was back, and only her corset prevented her from melting.
“Your serenade last night was loud enough tae wake the whole parish. Ye should be thankin’ me for shooing the swains away from yer door.”
The cello! How mortifying. Her mother would be positively ill if she knew a gentleman had caught her playing the indecent instrument.
“I...I wasn’t serenading anyone! A lady’s true charm lies in her grace, modesty, and quiet dignity.”
“If she wants tae put her man tae sleep, perhaps. But a winemaker’s grace?” He leaned closer, his voice dropping. “Is better belt in the bedchamber. And trust me, lass, she never needs to be quiet.”

Gah I am a fool for drooling over body parts like this

He reached for his cravat, his rugged fingers pulling it free with practiced ease.
Beth gasped, her gaze caught on the exposed skin of his neck. So that’s what a man’s throat looks like...unbuttoned, vulnerable.
---
“See you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? Have ye forgotten your challenge tonight?”
Her eyes widened. “The challenge? But...I thought...surely you wouldn’t -”
“Ye thought I’d spare ye because ye’ve had a wee bit too much wine?” His smile was playful, but there was an edge to it that made her pulse jump.
“Enter yer room, lass, and await me there.” His voice dropped to a low, rough purr, and the sound sent heat rushing through her.
“Wait for you?”
“Aye.” His grin widened, a roguish gleam lighting his eyes as he stepped back. “A gentleman might spare a tipsy lady...but lucky for ye, I’m not a gentleman.”
 

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex aspects, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:

Safe sex: 

  No 

How’s the consent? 

  Some of the kisses are dubious...but overall it’s consensual. The hero is a bit spontaneous and aggressive with his kisses but we are in the heroine’s POV a lot and know how she feels about him. 

Pregnancy/children in story? (Please note this is the best to my memory/note taking. If you see something I missed please feel free to message!) 

  There are some child side characters from the prior couples in the series, but overall children aren’t a focus for the mains. I would assume eventually they would happen (no discussion on child free HEA and unprotected sex is happening) but there are no children in the epilogue, which takes place a year or so after the end of the story 

36% - kiss
48% - kiss
54% - kiss
60% - sex between Pedro and Ann (the couple from The Taste of Light (book 2 in her Winemakers series)
64% - 🔥 oral for her

She played on, but the notes grew fractured.
He needed to taste her. His mouth moved up, taking her earlobe between his teeth, biting gently before letting his tongue glide over her cheek. He licked the freckles sprinkled over her shoulder and closed his lips over one or a hundred. Her fingers stumbled on the strings again, but she kept going, her body trembling beneath his.

77% - 🔥 bj for him (incomplete), her on top in a chair dry humping, doggy, then followed almost immediately by another scene

“I cannot be the gentleman you expect, Beth.”
She arched her back, her hips pressing into him. “I don’t want a gentleman. I want you just as you are.”
Her admission shattered what little restraint he had left. He laughed, the sound low and uneven, as he dragged his tongue along the curve of her neck. “Then heaven help ye, lass.”

95% - 🔥 epilogue sex, her on top, missionary (it’s a bit short?)
“I’ll show ye why. But only if ye’re a good lass and scream loud enough to scandalize every winemaker in the Douro Valley.”