Okay so the writing in this is giving Tessa Dare. Truly. For a second I genuinely thought maybe this was Tessa Dare writing under a pen name. It’s has very much A Week to Be Wicked meets Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake nostalgia, and as someone who’s been in feeling like I’m missing something (I think it’s mary sue MMCs) from the newer historical romance lately, this brought me right back to the classic 2010s HR romcoms I fell in love with.

Plot-wise it’s pretty standard HR fare. Rake x wallflower, marriage of convenience, a kidnapping (Harriet get it girl), one bed at an inn on the way to Gretna, all the usual trope boxes. Nothing new. But the writing is so witty I read it in two sittings and could not put it down. Harriet’s whole thing of compiling a dictionary of bawdy slang was such a fun through line and I learned more vulgar 1816 vocabulary than I didn’t know I wanted to learn (the glossary at the end is a chef’s kiss touch).

I loved both Harriet and Alexander. The yearning was delicious and the banter was bantering. They both felt fully drawn in a way that made me root for them even when I was getting impatient with them.

My one real complaint is the length. At 448 pages this was entirely too long, and the pacing did drag at one point in the middle. There could have been some shaving down with the back and forth toward the end too. By that point I loved them both so it didn’t ruin anything for me, but I noticed. I also wish we got a proper epilogue.

Solid 4 stars. I’d still recommend this to anyone who wants a feel-good witty HR romcom, and I would read this author’s next book in a heartbeat.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando/Slowburn for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​