I held off reading this for months - renewing my Libby loan over... and over... and over... because The Rakess was SO STRESSY and I wasn't sure when I would be in the right headspace for another installment in this series. And then this was... sweet? And actually pretty low angst? With a golden retriever MMC who is just an absolute goner for the FMC from page one? This wasn't at all what I expected after the asylum break-outs, protests, kidnappings, etc. etc. in book one, and I was grateful for the reprieve. 

Peckham tries to pack a lot into a single book, and to be honest, I really felt like the Duke-undoing-the-dukedom storyline was a little too on the nose and over-simplified to be very memorable. I wish that Rafe's secret identity was actually a point of tension, or perhaps that his double life was less an info-dump at the start and more a gradual discovery? It was underwhelming. I did, however, really enjoy the dual timeline on the romance and felt the push-and-pull between these characters was well-balanced. This is a decent age gap (16 years, and she's 18 in the initial timeline - 38 in the current timeline), but the FMC's clear desire, agency and experience makes it feel far less ick than it may have otherwise. These two are both polyamorous and explicitly discuss their desires for an open relationship, and the HEA ultimately felt really true to how they love and what they want from the relationships in their lives. I enjoyed this (and I LOVE seeing a bi MMC in a historical romance!).