Friendly widow is rescued from becoming the most dangerous game by the duke who's been lightly stalking her. 

Like the ninja turtle, Raphael is here to bring the angst. Iris... has forgotten she cracked a challenging cypher in like 4 hours in the last book. She still has moments, but god damn, lady. You nailed it all last book- spotting and solving mysteries from jump- and this one couldn't seem to solve any mysteries.

This one is dark. I don't think I'd recommend it. The prose is tough- trauma isn't just presented, it's belabored. Stressful vibe is stressful.

2 POV, "biokids baby fever" vs "childfree 4eva" couple, characters around 30, spicy, 1740s England, TRAUMA-TRAUMA-TRAUMA.

This feels like some of the ideas from Duke of Sin (Montgomery's book) didn't fit his character and got smashed together here. Pretty early in this novel it feels like the real hero of the story is indeed our favorite blonde blackmailer from two books ago and his [Duke of Sin]

casually stabbing Raph's dad until he died- then continuing to stab neerdowell bystanders.

Maiden Lane - the only series characters we see are from the last book. None are from St. Giles (which is wild- a major plot point is

about avoiding having biokids

and there's usually a whole ass orphanage in play.) None are recurring, though

Alf

is mentioned. You get a lot more Lords of Chaos stuff, which is fine, but heavy on the [content warning]

murder and child abuse

which absolutely sucks and- stylistically- is very heavy handed.

Sex scenes - Has some of Hoyt's more creative sex scenes, but the overarching plot and intracouple angst makes it challenging to be amped. The intimacy is hard to get excited about when the parade of terribles is around every corner.