3.5

I’d been waiting for Jenny and David since they first started doing their merry dance around each other in the earlier books, and David did not disappoint. He’s my favorite kind of rake, the one who falls hard and early and then spends the whole book chasing his own wife around like he can’t believe his luck. He goes back to his old hedonist ways after their wedding night and it just…doesn’t feel right anymore. He’s in love and he knows it way before she’ll let herself believe it. Watching him court her, awkwardly, patiently, was the best part of this.

Which is why Jenny wore me down. She had a real reason to be guarded, I get it. But at a certain point David had proven himself over and over and she kept throwing the “you’re a rake, you’ll never be faithful” wall back up. I hit a moment where I genuinely thought “what more do you want from this sweet sexy man?” and lost patience with her. I get the fear of vulnerability arc, I just stopped buying it as a barrier once he’d earned his way past it five times.

I did love how focused this stayed on the two of them. No big external plot, just their feelings as the actual stakes, and St. George builds the intimacy through both the physical and the emotional. The no-kissing rule was a fun touch for raising the tension.

Still a solid one overall. David alone makes it worth it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.