Totally awesome, the first half of the book is flawless. I adored the first half, the interplay between Thorn Dautry and Lady Xenobia. The exchange of letters between them is wonderful. Two original characters is the basis for this dance. Thorn Dautry is the bastard son of the Duke of Villiers, who was claimed by the Duke after growing up as a mudlark on the river. Lady Xenobia is an orphan, who's carved out a career for herself as interior decorator par excellence.

I loved reading about Lady Xenobia's projects, it was pure fantasy to have as much money as possible to decorate these magnificent homes.

The second half falters a bit, their past joint traumas threaten their future happiness. But all's well that ends well.
( )

The Hero's piss poor communication and complete lack of awareness towards the end brought this one down a bit. Otherwise pretty enjoyable. I'll definitely read more from this author. ( )

This was fine. Just fine. I think my main problem was I didn't love the framing and I didn't like Thorn. As you probably know, it's hard to enjoy a romance book if you don't like the love interest.

The set up of this book is that Thorn wants to marry Lala because he decided it was time for him to get married and he hires India do help him fix up his country household so he can impress Lala's mother. I just didn't like this set up. It's not like Lala and Thorn are marrying for love or anything but I just didn't like that Thorn was actively planning on marrying someone else for a good portion of this book. There was also the introduction of Rose, who is a six year old orphan who speaks like a grandmother. I hate the overly-intelligent child character trope and it wasn't done well here. Not to mention the fact that Rose is adopted by Thorn made me want to throw the book across the room.

I thought India's character was fine. I liked that she had a career that she was really good at. I didn't love that she kind of fell into the trope of every single man falling in love with her but that was mostly not a huge part of the story. I really didn't like Thorn. I thought he was annoying, overly-arrogant, and too jealous for my sake. I really didn't like them together. I personally like some teasing and slightly meaner teasing but in this book that just never came together and I didn't believe the relationship. I also hated the parts of India lying to Thorn about being a virgin and I hated all the stuff surrounding the potential pregnancy.
This is especially frustrating because I loved all the stuff with Lala and the doctor. This showed me that James can write a romance that I would enjoy and this one just didn't work for me. I honestly wish this book was the Lala love story instead of this because I loved the few chapters with her at the end.

I think I will read other books I own by this author because I didn't hate this or anything, it just wasn't for me. I hope the next book I read by this author will be more up my alley. ( )

One of my favorite Eloisa James's novels yet. Funny, sweet, and oh so romantic. Some of the most endearing characters. This is one you will not want to miss. ( )

Charming and smart with a delightfully slow burn. This is not for the crowd that likes to hurl toward their furious shagging or their HEA. Also, I learned about the history of vulcanized rubber, so that was fun. ( )