Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖 (I got bored and had to tell myself to pick it back up repeatedly)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: A bit
Perspective: Third person from the hero and heroine and some minor side characters
When mains are first on page together:
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, but it’s about Godric St. John and from his perspective (the hero of the next book)
Format: listened to audiobook from the library (Hoopla)

Should I read in order?
Yes. This series builds with each book, with the Ghost of St. Giles being a character throughout as well as Winter having some page time in prior books.

Basic plot:
Winter lives a double life as the Ghost of St. Giles. His secret is in jeopardy after Isabel helps save the Ghost, but also becomes one of the orphanages benefactor...

Give this a try if you want:
- Georgian time period (1738)
- London setting
- class differences
- working class hero – he oversees an orphanage
- lessons for the hero on etiquette
- virgin hero
- intertwining series with plenty of character cross over and side characters
- higher steam - 5 full scenes (At least...I could have missed some since I waited like 2 months before writing my review)

Ages:
- I have notes that say ‘hero is not yet 30’ and ‘hero is 26’ so I have no idea if one of those was supposed to be the heroine but either way I would say they are both late 20s ish

First line:
The body in the road was the absolute cap to the day.

My thoughts:
I know so many of you loved this book and I am SO SAD I didn’t love it.

It didn’t work for me because I felt bored. I kept having to tell myself to pick it up. I didn’t really feel anything about anyone in this story. And I think there are a few reasons for this, just personal stuff with me and not the story.

First of all, I don’t think Ashford McNaab is the narrator for me. I have liked her but...I think she doesn’t get emotional enough for me? I’m not sure. But I think I will try reading the next book because I’m worried I’m starting to just have a ‘thing’ with her narration and I don’t want to risk it.

Secondly, this series does some things that I just don’t love as a romance reader. Most don’t care, but I really dislike getting a bunch of different perspectives other than the main couple. I want only focus on the mains, it’s just what I like. And this series isn’t really like that. It has stories starting all over for future books, it has POV in other characters that will be met later in the series. It keeps pulling me from the main couple and making my interest wane.

Thirdly, I was at the time of reading this, also well into Elisa Braden’s Rescued from Ruin series. Braden’s series also does a bit of the starting future books in a story and giving some other POVs in it so maybe I just needed to chose only one series at a time that does that or I start to get too twitchy.

I also think Hoyt’s books are just unnecessarily long. This is totally because I am in my grumpy, can’t focus, want short books phase and not her actual writing...but I can’t help but think how so much could have been cut with the same feelings within.

Also, I’m not the biggest fan of children being big parts in the story right now because I homeschool my kids and they are up my butt the entire day long and the last thing I want to read about is more kids. So taking place at an orphanage there’s a decent amount of child interaction.

Finally, I have been looking forward to this book for years and years and years. I thought he would be my favorite hero and it would be my favorite of the series and perhaps the expectations just did me in.

Perhaps I will pick it up again down the road and read it and see if my feelings change!

Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.

- mention of darker side of life in St. Giles – sex work, murder, starving children, child/human trafficking, child labor, gin abuse, child abuse
- heroine is barren and has miscarried multiple times
- feelings of infidelity – heroine was cheated on by her husband and is raising his bastard child
- attempted murder – villain tries to kill the hero
- gun usage without injury

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

No but they aren’t worried about pregnancy and the hero is a virgin 

 
Consent: 

I’d consider it implied – we are in both of their perspectives and we know they are interested in the acts 

 
There is a kiss somewhere prior to 56% but I didn’t note the percentage
56% - 🔥 blow job behind the curtains where the hero is hiding
60% - kisses in the carriage
64% - 🔥 breast play, fingering for her with the heroine teaching him, missionary
68% - 🔥 her on top
73% - 🔥 come inside me, missionary on the table then he lifts and holds her
82% - 🔥 fingering for her, doggy-ish style (with her flattened into the bed)
88% - kisses